with his side and the other would shut them as fast when they were open Some cannot away to look upon a Cat a Mouse and such like but presently they swoon So many have the gift from heaven to heal the Kings-evil and divers other sores and that which hath troubled much many Surgeons and they could not heal it hath at length been healed only with spittle Again we must well consider what kinds of qualities are incident to what kinds of parties as commonly queans are impudent ruffians are luxurious theeves are fearful and such like passions as Writers everywhere mention Moreover some natural things have not only such properties in themselves but they are apt also to communicate them unto others A Harlot is not only impudent in her self but she also naturally infects therewith all that she touches and carries about her so that if a man do often behold himself in her glasse or put on her garments it will make him impudent and lecherous as she is The Load-stone doth not only draw to it self that iron which it touches but also all iron things neer it the same ring which the Load-stone draws to it self will draw many rings if they be neer so that it will be like a chain the vertue of the Load-stone passing out of one ring into another And the like may be observed in other things We must note also that the vertues of some things are seated in their whole substance of other things in some of their parts The Sea-Lamprey stayeth a Ship not principally with any one part but with her whole body And there be many like examples On the other side many things work by some of their parts as the Cockatrice and the Basilisk by their eyes likewise Pismires shun the wings of a Rere-mouse but her head and heart they do not shun so they shun the heart of an Houpe but neither the head nor yet the wings The like may be observed in other things CHAP. XIV Of those properties and vertues which things have while they live and of such as remain in things after death WE must consider that almost all those vertues which are found to be excellent in things while they are alive do quite perish in death and seldom are of any force afterward If the wolf espy us his eyes make us dumb the eyes of the Cockatrice and Basilisk will kill us forth-right the Sea-lamprey staies the course of a Ship the Struthio-camelus can digest iron but none of all the these being dead worketh ought for when they perish their vertues also perish with them Therfore it is a wise rule in natural Magick that if a man will work any thing by living creatures or by any of their parts or properties he must take the benefit of them while they be alive for if they die their vertue dies also For the soul saith Albertus is a chief help and strikes a great stroke in those qualities which are in living creatures so that they being alive are endued with many operative vertues which their death especially if it be natural that their humours are quite wasted takes from them as Physitians do much observe Draw out a frogs tongue take away from the Ray or Fork-fish his dart the eyes or stones out of any creatures head or any such operative things not after they are dead but while they are yet alive and throw them into the water again that if it be possible they may live still lest their vertue should decay but rather that by their living they might quicken those their natural properties and so you may work better thereby And thus we must do in all things else which I spare to speak of any further Sometimes yet the properties of things are operative yea and that more forcibly after death The Wolf is hurtful and odious to sheep after he is dead for if you cover a drum with a wolfs skin the sound of it will make sheep afraid when most other creatures will not be afraid nay sheep will make a heavy noise whereas it contrariwise causeth such clamorous creatures as hear it to hold their peace so if you cover it with a bears skin the sound thereof will make horses run away and if you make harp-strings of all their guts severally and put them together upon the instrument they will alwayes jar and never make any consort The beast Hyaena and the Panther are naturally at variance hence the skin of a dead Hyaena makes the Panther run away nay if you hang their severall skins one against the other the Panthers skin will lose the hairs So a Lions skin wasteth and eateth out the skins of other beasts and so doth the wolfes skin eat up the Lambs skin Likewise the feathers of other fowles being put among Eagles feathers do rot and consume of themselves The beast Florus it may be the Ass and the bird Aegithus are at such mortal enmity that when they are dead their blood cannot be mingled together The Pigeon loves the Kastrel so well that she loves the Dove-house much the better where a dead Kastrel is In like manner herbs and other simples retain many operative qualities even after they are dried up These things must be well considered by a Magiâ—ian lest peradventure he be deceived in their working CHAP. XV. That all Simples are to be gotten and used in their certain seasons SEeing all inferiours especially plants receive their vertue from the heavens therefore we must have a special care to take them in their due seasons for as heaven varies the constitutions of the year so doth it vary plants they being much nourished by the temperature of the Air and the time of the year as Theophrastus saith is all in all from them Whence that proverb was justly fetcht That it is the year and not the field which brings forth fruit Which may be understood two wayes either as the vulgar sort mean or after a more peculiar manner Concerning the vulgar understanding thereof Dioscorides shews that we must have a special care both to plant and to gather all things in their right seasons for they are operative onely as their reason is observed but otherwise of no force The time of gathering must be a calm and fair time If we gather them either too soon or too late they loose their best vertue Roots must be plucked up in the fall of the leaf for then they are fullest both of moisture and vertue their force hiding it self within them when their leaves fall which lasts long in them being at that season gathered Flowers must be gathered in the Spring because then they have most vertue and Leaves must be gathered in the Summer The like we must observe in other things Know also that some things lose their vertue quickly others keep it along time as experience and the rules of Physick teach us that some things may be kept many years others being long kept are good for nothing Whence it cometh that many
attracting of iron lest I should be tedious which I purpose not to be I think fit to pass over other mens opinions especially because they depend onely upon words and vain cavils that Philosophers cannot receive them and I shall set down my own founded upon some experiments yet I shall not pass by the opinion of Anaxagoras set down by Aristotle in his Book De Anima who by a similitude calls it a living stone and that therefore it draws iron and for some other peculiar forces which might be properly said to proceed from the soul as you shall see Epicurus would fain give a reason for it as Galen and Lucretius report For say they the Atoms that flew out of the iron and meet in the Loadstone in one figure so that they easily embrace one the other these therefore when they light upon both the concretes of the stone and iron and then flie back into the middle by the way they are turned between themselves and do withall draw the iron with them Galen inveighs against this for he cannot believe as he saith that the small atoms that flie from the stone can be complicated with the like atoms that come from the iron and that their embracing can draw such a heavy weight Moreover if you put another iron to that which hangs that will fasten also and another to that and so a third and fourth the atoms that result from the stone when they meet with the iron they flie back and are the cause that the iron hangs and it is not possible that those atoms should penetrate the iron through the empty pores should rebound unto the former atoms and embrace others whereas he saw five iron instruments hang one by the other And if the atoms be diffused straight forward through the iron why then do other iron nails stick fastned but on the sides for the vertue of it is spread every way Wherefore if a very little Loadstone should touch many small bodies of iron and these others and those others again and the Loadstone must fill them all that small stone would even be consumed into atoms But I think the Loadstone is a mixture of stone and iron as an iron stone or a stone of iron Yet do not think the stone is so changed into iron as to lose its own Nature nor that the iron is so drowned in the stone but it preserves it self and whilst one labours to get the victory of the other the attraction is made by the combat between them In that body there is more of the stone then of iron and therefore the iron that it may not be subdued by the stone desires the force and company of iron that being not able to resist alone it may be able by more help to defend it self For all creatures defend their being Wherefore that it may enjoy friendly help and not lose its own perfection it willingly draws iron to it or iron comes willingly to that The Loadstone draws not stones because it wants them not for there is stone enough in the body of it and if one Loadstone draw another it is not for the stone but for the iron that is in it What I said depends on these Arguments The pits of Loadstone are where the veins of iron are these are described by Galen and such as deal in Minerals and in the confines of them both of the stone and the iron they grow and the Loadstones are seen wherein there is more stone and others in which there is more iron In Germany a Loadstone is digged forth out of which they draw the best iron and the Loadstone whilst it lies in the filings of iron will get more strength and if it be smeered or neglected it will lose its forces I oft saw with great delight a Loadstone wrapt up in burning coles that sent forth a blue flame that smelt of brimstone and iron and that being dissipated it lost its quality of its soul that was gone namely its attractive vertue It is the stink of iron and brimstone as such who destroy iron by reducing it to a Calx or use other Chymical operations can easily try And I thought that the same soul put into another body must necessarily obtain the same faculty CHAP. III. That the Loadstone hath two opposite Poles the North and South and how they may be known BEcause the effects of the Loadstone are many and divers I shall begin to distinguish from the effects of it that the Readers may receive more benefit and direction The effects of the Loadstone are of the stone onely or of the iron touched with the stone or of them both the iron and the stone The simple effects of the stone are to draw the stone to respect the Poles of the world and such like also they are mixt and compounded We say therefore first that the stone hath two points that stand opposite one to the other be it in a great or small stone which we call the Poles one of them is directed to the North the other to the South For if the stone be at liberty and hangs that it may play without any impediments from its weight one part turns freely to the North and the contrary part to the South The way to try it is thus Take a little piece of Cork or Fennel gigant or some other light wood and make it like a Boat that it may serve to bear up the weight of the stone Put the stone into this vessel that it may be equi-distant from the bottom Put the Boat into a vessel full of water that it may move here and there and find no impediment let it so alone and the Boat will never rest until the point of the stone stand full North and the opposite point full South When the Boat stands still turn it about twice or thrice with your finger and so it will come again to rest and return to the same posture and this shall make you more certain of the North and South Poles of it There are many more ways to prove it for letting it hang equally as in the Mariners Compass for where it can move of it self freely it still directs to the same points and you may do the same if you hang it by a small thread Hence we may easily learn To know which Loadstone is the more perfect Which a man may easily do by the former trial and find out what Loadstone is void of vertue or most forcible For that Loadstone that doth soonest bring about the Boat to the points and having found the north Pole stands still is certainly the most forcible stone But that which slowly works and comes softly about to its place and stops oft is more weak and feeble Also we may be certified another way for that which can turn about the greater piece of wood or boat not slowly but quickly is the best stone And though there be more ways to try it yet let these suffice at present
a Loadstone of less vertue it will never lose any thing but continues immutable and being left at liberty in its boat it will turn voluntarily to its own pole and decline the contrary part And though we cannot find the cause of it yet it seems not against reason I say that in stones of the same kind the greater stones have the greatest forces and when one Loadstone iâ— rubbed against another it will leave certain hairs which are but the bruised small parts of the stone that stick like hairs and these are they that lend force to iron and other things to attract and to turn to the pole but if the stone that is rubbed and receives it be greater then those hairs it can never be that the greâ—ter vertue should be conquered by the less alwayes the stones being of the same kind since the hairs have as it were no proportion to the magnitude of it And as the hairs to the stones magnitude are insensible so it is impossible that they can wrest the force of it to the contrary pole CHAP. VIII That a Loadstone will draw a Loadstone and drive it from it I Shall speak of the other operation of it which is of its attracting and repelling This is both admirable and delightsome to behold with our eyes and to consider in our mind that the part of one Loadstone should so carefully search out another allure and attract it to enjoy its company and to foster it in its bosom and again another should be such an enemy to it that they are at mutual discord so that putting their contrary ends together the one will be so contrary to the other and hate as it were the force of it that it will turn the contrary way namely the North part of the one doth not indifferently draw any part of every other stone but a distinct and certain part nor doth it drive every part from it but that part it naturally abhors and cannot endure as being contrary unto it The North part of the one will draw the South part oâ— the other and drive away from it the North part of the same and the South part of this is not an enemy to the North part of the other but to the South part of it The same will appear better by an example Let there be two stones ACD and EBF in the first stone let A be the North pole and the point G the South in the stone EFB let the North part be H the South B I say if you put the South part G. of the stone CAD to the South part B of the stone EFB it will presently drive it from it and the same will happen if you put the North pole A to the North pole G Again if you shew the North point A to the South point H or the South point B to the North point A as being mutually agreed it will draw the part to it that is not against it The reason of it I know for since that the South part G had formerly been fast to the North part H when the parts are divided they alwayes seek to unite again to preserve the same body as Philosophers say But if the South point G had been fast with the South point B of another stone Bâ—flies off presently and departs from it or if you shew the North point A to the North point H the same will come to pass for they refuse one the other because they did not so stand in their Mine Here I shall confute the error of Pliny and of his followers who think that no other Loadstone hath this vertue but the stone of Ethiopia but it is common to all Loadstones Also it is a sign saith he of the Ethiopian stone because that will draw another whole Loadstone to it Also Cardanus falsly affirms that one Loadstone will not draw another but it will draw it because the iron is concealed in it that it had first drank in In brief the poles that are unlike will join together by reason of the similitude of their substance and likeness of inclination but the poles that are the same by a contrary inclination are at enmity that is the North point seeks the South point and the South the North point so shall the South and North points reject South and North points Yet we must tell you by the way that when we try the stones let them not be both great and vast stones that being hindered by their weights cannot perform their office but let one be great and the other small or both small that they may be mutually repulsed or drawn on The trial is easie if they be hanged by a thread or put into their boats or if they play equally balanced upon the needle CHAP. IX A sport of the Loadstone I Will not pass by a merry conceit of the Loadstone that I have oft-times made my friends sport with for the good of those that are curious in the search of the reasons of things How in a short time two kinds of sands mingled and said on a heap may be parted one from the other very suddenly for the standers by that cannot sound the reason of it will think it impossible The trick is this Pown a Loadstone into very fine sand and put some white sand or some other sand together with it and mingle them and make a heap of them for if you put a Loadstone to it either uncovered or covered with linen that the standers by may not know it presently the sand of the Loadstone as in league with it will run like small hairs joined together and will stick fast to the stone which you may brush off and lay aside then come again and what is behind will run to the stone till you have drawn it all out and it will cause no little wonder that when the Loadstone comes to the heap the sands that were mingled should be parted asunder But the more easily to powder the Loadstone do thus Put the Loadstone into an iron morter lay a blanket or some other soft thing upon it for it will thus yield to hand-strokes and presently crumble if not you must beat hard on the bottom of the morter and batter the pestle Also the same thing befals us in a certain sand that is brought to us out of an iron Mine from Porchys for it hath the colour and shining that iron hath and by the proximation of the Loadstone it is soon parted from the other to the admiration of those that are present It may be this experiment was made because the antients report that the Loadstone will draw iron sand oyle and all things CHAP. X. The greater the Loadstone is the greater is the force of it ANd you must know that the bigger Loadstone will cast forth its force at a farther distance and brandish it and attract the opposite Loadstone with more violence and draw it to it and that in the same sort of stone as if a Loadstone
go along with the part it agrees with or will go from that part it is contrary to by which Reason you may know that one hinders the other We may also by another Experiment be made more certain of the same thing If you draw one Loadstone with another and let it hang in the Air if to the place where they joyn you apply the contrary force of another Loadstone by this meeting with their Enemy both their forces will fail and faint and if the same be of a great force the stone that drew will let the other go and falls from it And also not without mirth and admiration you shall see a Chain of many pieces of Loadstones hanging together and if you apply the contrary side to the third or fourth stone the Chain is presently broken and the part falls off and will not hang fast but the other parts whither the force of it comes not will yet stick fast together in a Link unless you put the end of the contrary part to them CHAP. XV. How to know the Polar points in the Loadstone VVE may know by another and more certain way then that I set down before which are the vertical points in the Loadstone which turn to the North which to the South and especially that point that sends forth the attractive vertue will be discovered Thus That point that most vehemently draws unto it the South point of another stone and sticks fast to it that is the North point and that point the North part of another stone willingly joyns with is the South point The same also may be known by the driving off That point that drives off from it and refuseth the North part of the stone put against it is the North point and the 〈◊〉 point that drives from it the South point And he that would have the true pole more exactly demonstrated let him do thus Put a little bit of a Loadstone not much greater or lesser then a Millet-Seed to the Loadstone and if it presently draw it at a distance and when it is drawn it sticks fast and is hardly taken from it it is an Argument of the true end whence that force proceeds You may also draw about a little bit about that point to see if it will draw weakly or strongly and whether it will part from that place of it self or unwillingly Briefly That point that draws with most force and will hardly let loose what it hath attracted is the true point of attraction giving you to understand That the Pole sends its force to the Circumference I have known it so as from the Centre to the Circumference And as the light of a Candle is spread every way and enlightens the Chamber and the farther it is off from it the weaker it shines and at too great a distance is lost and the neerer it is the more cleerly it illuminates so the force flies forth at that point and the neerer it is the more forcibly it attracts and the further off the more faintly and if it be set too far off it vanisheth quite and doth nothing Wherefore for that we shall say of it and mark it for we shall call the length of its forces the compass of its vertues CHAP. XVI That the force of drawing and driving off can be hindred by no hindrance BUt this is above all wonder that you can never wonder so much as you should That the force of the stone for attraction and repelling can be included in no bounds can be hindered by nothing or held back but it will penetrate invisibly and will move and stir those stones that are sympathizing with it if they be put to it and will exercise its forces as if there were nothing between but this must be within the compass of its vertue for if you hang some Loadstone fitly upon a Table of wood stone or metal or lying equally balanced and you shall put your Loadstone under the Table and stir it there the vertue of it will pass from this body like a Spirit penetrating the solid Table and move the stone above it and stir it as it self is moved as this moves so moves that and when this rests that doth the same But if the Table be made of Loadstone or Iron the vertue is hindred and can do nothing we shall shew the reasons of it in their proper places Of so many strange miracles in Nature there is none more wonderful then this CHAP. XVII How to make an Army of Sand to fight before you ANd it is as pleasant as wonderful that I shewed to my Friends who beheld on a plain Table an Army of Sand divided into the Right and Left Wings fighting to the wonder of the Spectators and many that were ignorant of the business thought it was done by the help of the Devil I pouned a Loadstone into powder some very small some somthing gross and I made some of little bits that they might better represent Troops of Horse or Companies of Foot and so I set my Army here and there The Wings were on the Right and Left and the main Body was in the middle accompanied with Troops of Horse under a smooth Table I put a very principal Loadstone with my Hand When this was put there the Left Wing marched and on the Right Hand with another stone the Right Wing marched when they drew neer together and were more neer the Loadstone the Sands trembled and by degrees they seemed like those that take up their Spears and when the Loadstone was laid down they laid down their Spears as if they were ready to fight and did threaten to kill and slay and the better the Loadstone was the higher would these hairs stretch forth themselves and as I moved my Hands by little and little so the Army marched on and when the stones came neer to one the other they seemed to fight and run one within the other so the other Wings and Troops came on and shewed the form of a Battle and you might see them sometimes retreat sometimes march forward sometimes to conquer and sometimes to be conquered sometimes to lift up their Spears and lay them down again as the Loadstone was put neer to them or farther off and the more force there was to send forth every way But this is the greater wonder because what is done on a plain Board may be done hanging in the Air that you may see them like the Antipodes in Battel for stretching out a Paper or setting a Table aloft the Loadstones moved above the Table will do the same thing we speak of and shew it to the Spectator But if one that is ingenious do the business he will do more and greater Feats then we can write of CHAP. XVIII The Situation makes the Vertues of the Stone contrary IT cannot want wonder as it doth reason That the position should shew the Vertues contrary to all that we have said for the stone put above the Table will do
one thing and another thing if it be put under the Table for if you fit the stone by equally poising it to make it move freely or put it into a Boat and put a stone above it it will attract it or reject it as we said before but if you put it under the stone it will work contrarily for that part that drew above will drive off beneath and that will draw beneath that drove off above that is if you place the stone above and beneath in a perpendicular By which Experiments one may see cleerly That the situation will work contrary operations and change the forces of it by turns Wherefore in the operations of it you must chiefly mark the position if you put the Loastone above or beneath CHAP. XIX How the attractive force of the Loadstone may be weighed WE can also measure that attracting or expelling vertue of the Loadstone or poise it in a balance which will be of no small consequence in the following considerations and especially for a perpetual motion and to make Iron hang pendulous in the Air when the true and certain attractive Vertue is found our from the Circumference to the Centre The Art is this Put a piece of a Loadstone into a balance and in the other scale as much weight of some other matter that the scale may hang equal then we apply a piece of Iron lying on a Table that it may stick to the Loadstone that is in the scale and that they may stick fast by their friendly points you shall by degrees cast some sand into the other scale and that so long till the scale and iron part so by weighing the weight of the sand we have the Vertue of the Loadstone we sought to finde We may also put the iron into the scale and lay the Loadstone on the Table CHAP. XX. Of the mutual attraction and driving off of the Loadstone and of Iron NOw are we come to the other part of our Treaty wherein we discourse of the mutual union of Loadstones and of their differences one with the other the effects whereof are so known that they are in the mouths of all men nor will any man almost say that he knows them not The operation is this Because there is such a Natural concord and sympathy between the iron and the Loadstone as if they had made a League that when the Loadstone comes neer the iron the iron presently stirs and runs to meet it to be embraced by the Loadstone And that embraceth it so fast that with tossing of it up and down you can scarce part them And the Loadstone runs as fast to the iron and is as much in love with that and unity with it for neither of them will refuse to be drawn But the weaker still runs willingly to meet the other That you may believe this you shall try it thus Either hang them both by a thread or put them in boats or balance them on the needle Pliny speaking of this saith For what is more wonderful or wherein is Nature more wanton what is more sluggish than a cold stone yet Nature hath given this both sense and hands What is more powerful than hard iron yet it yields and submits for the Loadstone draws it and that matter that conquers all things runs after I know not what and as it comes neer it stops and lays fast hold and stays constantly to be embraced Lucretius seeking the cause of this effect How it should be that Loadstone Iron draws And Orpheus in his Verses relates that iron is drawn by the Loadstone as a Bride after the Bridegroom to be embraced and the iron is so desirous to joyn with it as her husband and is so sollicitous to meet the Loadstone when it is hindred by its weight yet it will stand an end as if it held up its hands to beg of the stone and flattering of it as if it were impatient that it cannot come at it by reason of its ponderosity and shews that it is not content with its condition but if it once kist the Loadstone as if the desire were satisfied it then is at rest and they are so mutually in love that if one cannot come at the other it will hang pendulous in the air Wherefore Albertus very ignorantly told Frederick the Emperour that a friend of his shew'd a Loadstone that did not attract iron but was attracted by it since the lighter of these two will stir when the heavier approaches neer it CHAP. XXI The Iron and Loadstone are in greater amity then the Loadstone is with the Loadstone THe exceeding love of the Iron with the Loadstone is greater and more effectual and far stronger then that of the Loadstone with the Loadstone and this is easily proved For lay on a Table pieces of iron and Loadstone of the same weight and let another Loadstone be brought neer when it comes to a fit distance the iron will presently stir and runs toward the Loadstone and embraceth it And it is proved better thus Let a Loadstone embrace a Loadstone and be set softly neer the iron when the force of its circumference comes to the iron the Loadstone will presently let fall the Loadstone and lay hold on the iron but let iron and that be joyned no Loadstone can ever take them asunder to stick there CHAP. XXII The Loadstone doth not draw on all parts but at certain points YEt we must not think that the Loadstone draws the iron with every part but at a set and certain point which is to be searched out with great reason care and diligence You shall find it thus either hang up the iron or balance it on a Table that it may presently leap to be embraced from them then carry your Loadstone round about it and when you see the iron tremble and run toward the Loadstone touching it that is the very point of attraction and the beams of its vertue are sent round about from that point wherefore the farther from that point the iron is the more faintly and weakly will it move for the more forcible vertue nests in the Centre as in its Throne CHAP. XXIII That the same Loadstone that draws doth on the contrary point drive off the iron THat no man might be deceived thinking the Loadstone that draws iron to be different from that stone that drives it off I tell him of it beforehand and I shall by experiments dissipate this cloud Pliny saith the Loadstone that draws iron to it is not the same with that which drives iron from it And again In the same Ethiopia there is a mountain that produceth the stone Theamedes that drives off iron and rejecteth it Pliny not knowing this erred exceedingly thinking that they were two stones that had these contrary operations whereas it is but one and the same stone that by sympathy and similitude draws the willing iron to it but with the opposite part by antipathy of Natures it drives it off And you
may be easily assured of this for let iron be balanced equally and let one end of the Loadstone draw it if you turn the other end to it it will fly back and turn to the contrary part these points run in a right line through the middle of the stone Yet observe this that the iron which is drawn by one point of the Loadstone or is within the compass of its vertue for a while obtains presently this vertue that what is drawn by the one end of it will be driven off by the other You shall know these differences of attraction more clearly by the following experiment CHAP. XXIV How iron will be made leap upon a Table no Loadstone being seen BY reason of this consent and discord of the Loadstone I use to make pretty sport to make my friends merry For casting the iron on the Table and not putting any Loadstone neer it that the spectators can see the iron will seem to move it self which is very pleasant to behold I do it thus divide a needle in the middle cast one half of it upon the Table but first rub the head of it with one end of the Loadstone Put your hand with the Loadstone privately under the Table and there where the head of the needle lyeth the Loadstone will stick and the needle will presently stand upright and standing so to the wonder of the beholders will walk over the Table and follow the motion of the hand that guides it when it hath gone thus a while presently turn the stone upside down and put the contrary part of the Loadstone to the needle and which is strange the needle will turn about and if it went on the head before it will now go on the point and draw your hand which way you will the needle will follow it and if you turn the stone three or four times putting sometimes the south point sometimes the north point of the stone to it the needle will turn as often and sometimes stand on the head sometimes on the point upright or walk so as you please and sometime it will go with that part it stood upon sometimes it will stand on the part it went I can present my friends with the same sight in a more strange manner for if you put the two pieces of a needle upon a paper or Table whereof one hath touched the north point the other the south point of the stone I can so place two stones that one of the needles shall go upon the head the other upon the point and sometimes one shall turn then both at once or they shall dance orderly and move when any musick is playd on And this is a pretty sight to shew your friends that cannot but admire it CHAP. XXV That the vertue of the Loadstone is sent through the pieces of Iron THat vertue that is imparted to the iron by the Loadstone doth not stay in the iron but is sent from one to another For if you draw a â—eel needle by the touch of the Loadstone and put another needle to the end of that needle that part will draw the needle and hold it hanging in the air and if you apply another needle to that it will do the same You may do this with as many needles as the force of the Loadstone can reach unto but when it grows faint the needle will let the other needle fall as not having strength enough to bear its weight And thus you may hang a great many needles in a chain in the air Plato knew this vertue for he speaks of it in Ione which stone not onely draws iron rings but infuseth vertue into the rings themselves that they can do the same and attract rings as the one doth whence sometimes you shall see a long concatenation of iron rings and all the vertue of them is attracted from that stone Lucretius knew it also A Stone there is that men admire much That makes rings hang in chains by touch Sometimes five or six links will be Fast joyn'd together and agree All this vertue from the Stone ariseth Such force it hath Pliny speaking of the same vertue saith Onely this matter receives strength from another stone and holds it a long time laying hold of another iron that sometimes you shall see a chain of rings which the ignorant vulgar call Live iron Galen You may see in the Loadstone that when it toucheth iron it will â—â—ick to it without any bands and if that was first touched touch another that will â—â—ick as the first doth and likewise a third to the second Augustine de civitate Dei speaking of this wonder said We know that the Loadstone will wonderfully draw iron which when I first saw I trembled at it exceedingly For I saw an iron-ring drawn by the stone that hung in the air by it that communicated the same force to others for another ring put to the first made that hang also and as the first ring hung by the stone so the second ring hung by the first ring In the same manner was there a third and fourth ring applied and fastned and so their rings hung together by the outsides not fastned inwardly like to a chain of rings Who would not admire at the vertue of this stone that was not onely within it but ran through so many rings that hung by it and held them fast with invisible bands But the greater the vertue of the Loadstone is the more rings it will hang up I have hang'd ten needles with a stone of a pound weight But he that would draw many needles let him rub the heads onely against the Loadstone and they will all hold the heads by their points CHAP. XXVI The Loadstone within the sphere of its vertue sends it forth without touching ANd the Loadstone doth not onely impart its vertue to the iron by touching it but which is wonderful within the compass of its vertue it will impart vertue to the iron if it be but present to draw another iron For if you put your Loadstone so neer to the iron that it may have it onely within the circumference of its vertue and you put another iron neer to that iron it will draw it to it and if another touch that which is drawn it will draw that also that you shall see a long chain of rings or needles hanging in the air But when they hang thus together if you â—emove the Loadstone a little farther off the last ring will fall and if yet you remove â— farther the next will fall until they all fall off whence it is clear that without touching it can impart its vertue to the iron CHAP. XXVII How the Loadstone can hang up iron in the air I Have a long time endeavoured much to make iron hang in the air and not touch the Loadstone nor yet tied beneath and now I think it almost impossible to be done Pliny saith it Dinocrates the Architect began to vault the Temple of Arsinoe with
Loadstone that therein her Image of iron might seem to hang in the air both he and Ptolomy died who commanded this to be made for his sister so that what he began he did not finish The Greeks say that in the Temple of Serapis that is vaulted at Alexandria there was a Load-stone set that held a statue of brass in the air for it had a piece of iron in the head of it But that is false that Mahomets chest hangs by the roof of the Temple Petrus Pellegrinus saith he shewed in another work how that might be done but that work is not to be found Why I think it extream hard I shall say afterwards But I say it may be done because I have now done it to hold it fast by an invisible band to hang in the air onely so that it be bound with a small thread beneath that it may not rise higher and then striving to catch hold of the stone above it will hang in the air and tremble and wag it self CHAP. XXVIII The forces of the Loadstone cannot be hindred by a wall or table coming between AS I said before of the Loadstone the vertue of that and iron can be hindred by no body coming between but it will do its office For whilst the Loadstone is moved under a Table of wood stone or any metal except iron the needle in the Mariners Compass will move above as if there were no body between them St. Augustine Lib. de civitate Dei knew this experiment But that is much more wonderful that I have heard that if one hold a Loadstone under a piece of silver and put a piece of iron above the silver as he moves his hand underneath that holds the stone so will the iron move above and the silver being in the middle and suffering nothing running so swiftly up and down that the stone was pull'd from the hand of the man and took hold of the iron CHAP. XXIX How a man of wood may row a little Boat and some other merry conceits THe fraud here is notable for women shall see a man of wood rowing a little boat well waxed in a large vessel full of water and they can counterfeit hereby as impostors do divination by water The fraud is thus began the vessel is filled with water a little ship of Wax is put into it or else of wood in the middle sits a little man of wood fastned through the middle with a hogs-bristle so equall balanced that with every light motion he may easily stir himself let him have oars in his hands and under his feet a piece of iron Let the Alphabet be made on the brim of the vessel round about wherefore a woman coming to enquire of some doubtful matter the little man of wood as if he would give a true answer will row to those letters that may signifie the answer for he that holds the Loadstone in his hand under the Table can draw the boat which way he will and so will answer by joyning these letters together Or put a boy of cork into a glass viol with a broad mouth that turns himself about the needle equally balanced and about the glass vessel make the Alphabet that the man turning round about may give answers But I made my friends wonder exceedingly to see A paper go up a wall and come down of it self For I glew'd a piece of iron on the backside of the paper and I gave it my friends to hold to the wall but behinde stood a boy with a Loadstone and the paper that was left there stood still my friend commanded it to go up two foot the boy that heard what was commanded moved the Loadstone against it to that place and the paper moved thither also and so downwards or side-ways they that knew not the reason were astonished at it But which exceeds all when he moved the Loadstone over his head by an arch of wood it drew the paper after it whereupon the paper hung over our heads and moved but all that saw it believed the Divel was the cause of it CHAP. XXX A Loadstone on a plate of iron will not stir iron WE said that there is nothing coming between can hinder the force of iron but iron onely so that if you lay a needle on a plate of iron and shall bring your Loadstone to it above or beneath it hath no vertue to attract it or do its office and the reason is easie For it stands by reason that if iron lye upon iron they are the same body as a part is of the whole and when the plate of iron or piece is bigger and too heavy for the Loadstone to draw it moves not So that if you put the filings of iron upon a plate of iron and with your hand underneath you carry the Loadstone the filings will not stir but stand still upon the plate Nor if iron or a Loadstone be upon a Table of iron will they come to the stone that is put to them but will lye as if they were asleep and void of all vertue or changed in their Natures Also if you put flat iron to a Load stone if on the other side iron be equally balanced it will not stir nor move to meet it as if all the force of the Loadstone were hindred by it Lucretius saith that it will happen so not when iron but brass is between them but I rather think he writ so by hear-say then by his sight if we understand his meaning Pieces of iron I have seen When onely brass was put between Them and the Loadstone to recoil Brass in the middle made this broil CHAP. XXXI The position of the Iron will change the forces VVHat the Loadstone can do the iron touched by the Loadstone will do the same I said that the Loadstone equally balanced by putting the south part of the Loadstone above it will draw the north part and the north part will drive off the north part but on the lower part the Nature being changed that which drew before drives off now and that which drove off draws to it The same I judge of iron touched with the Loadstone For iron in the Mariners Compass touched with the Loadstone that part of the Loadstone that draws and drives off in the upper part being put under expels what it drew before and draws what it expelled I would not omit that amongst its admirable properties the position should cause such alteration Whence we may conjecture that as the stone hath a pole-arctick and antarctick so it hath an east and west part and its upper and nether part as the heavens have and therefore it is reasonable that whereas the north and inferiour part from above drew the south and inferiour part of the iron now the position being changed the upper part of the stone will draw the nether part of the iron CHAP. XXXII That the iron rubbed with the northern point of the Loadstone will turn to the south and
with the south point to the north I Come to the third part that is to the iron touched with the Loadstone and they are all wonderful I say then that when we know the north point of the stone and we have rubbed one end of the iron with it if it be equally balanced or hung by a thread or lie freely in a boat it will turn of it self to the south And that stands with reason for the Loadstone imparts its force to the iron For it is the natural force of the Loadstone that being balanced equally it should turn its north point to the north and his south point to the south But when it is rubbed on the iron the upper part of the Loadstone is fastned to the iron but the lower part that is neer to it is free'd wherefore if you rub the iron with the north part which fastneth to the iron and toucheth its external superficies it will be northern that seems to to be southern and this south part will turn freely to the north But contrarily if you rub the south point against the iron the south point is fastned to the iron and the north point is let loose that turns to the north Wherefore Cardanus speaks false that the iron touched by the north point will turn to the north and that which was touched by the south point will turn south for we see the contrary Yet the iron must be touched with one point either the north or south point for if one part bend northward the other will tend southward by the use whereof so large seas are sail'd over that being the conductor Our Ancestors sailed by seeing the sun by day and the stars by night For in the middle of the sea as they wandred they could no otherwise see the coasts of the world But we cannot onely discover what coast we are in but we can avoid the rocks under the waters and in cloudy days and dark nights we can at all times know the poles of the world Flavâ—us saith an Italian found it out first whose name was Amalphus born in our Campania But he knew not the Mariners Card but stuck the needle in a reed or a piece of wood cross over and he put the needles into a vessel full of water that they might flote freely then carrying about the Loadstone the needles would follow it which being taken away as by a certain natural motion the points of the needles would turn to the north pole and having found that stand still Wherefore knowing the place before they steer'd their course thither Now the Mariners Compass is made and a needle touched with the Loadstone is so fitted to it that by discovering the pole by it all other parts of the heavens are known There is made a rundle with a Latin-navel upon a point of the same metal that it may run roundly freely Whereupon by the touching onely of one end the needle not alone partakes of the vertues of it but of the other end also whether it will or not For if you rub the needle with the north point of the stone presently that part will turn to the south and the opposite part to the north and one vertue cannot be imparted without the other So the needle touched by the south point of the stone will turn to the north and the other part to the south so that the part of the needle that is touch'd receives a contrary force from that the stone hath CHAP. XXXIII That iron touched by the Loadstone will impart that force to other iron IRon touched by the Loadstone by that touch receiveth the vertue of the Loadstone that it will do almost as much by attracting and effecting and turning it self to the pole So the iron hanging freely touched with the south point of the Loadstone will turn freely to the north if you apply the south part of the stone to the same it will turn to the south presently But if you touch another iron with the iron that was touched that will turn to the south and do but point at it with the said point of the iron it will turn to the north And this force is not onely sent into the second iron but to a third and fourth as the force of the Loadstone is For if it be a strong stone it will send its vertue through eight or ten needles CHAP. XXXIV The vertue received in the iron is weakned by one that is stronger YEt this I must tell you that the vertue received by the iron is not fixt and certain but is taken off by a stronger that takes it from it As an iron touched by a weak northern point of the Loadstone if you rub the same part of the iron with a south point of a stronger Loadstone it will vanish and that former force of turning it self to the south is taken away and it takes a southern vertue and will turn to the north without resistance But if the Loadstones be of equal force they are so astonished and blunted that they will neither receive both nor either CHAP. XXXV How in a stone the south or north point is discerned AMongst those ways I shewed before I shall set down this also and perchance this is the best how to know the true northern and southern points Let the Loadstone be turned round by the wheel of the Jewellers and polished Then make a slender iron as long as the axeltre of that round ball and lay that upon the stone for it will turn it self upon that line that points just north and south Mark the line upon the stone with some delible paint do the same on the otherside of the stone and where it rests upon the ball draw the same line do the same the third and fourth time upon the middle of it and where those lines cross one the other and meet those are the polar points We may also find it out thus Break a small needle and put the smallest piece upon the same ball and stir it for when it comes to the just northern point the needle will stand upright that will make standers by admire and will stand perpendicularly upon it and till it do rise thus be not weary of moving it up and down for when you have found it you will be glad of it CHAP. XXXVI How to rub the iron needle of the Mariners Compass I Know that some are troubled how to rub the needle in the Compass with the Loadstone that it may get force to turn it self to the north Pole It must be done thus When you have found the points in the stone as I said before strike the points lightly with a hammer and the plates will be full of stiff hairs upon which if you rub an iron needle it will presently get vertue to turn it self to the Poles Yet observe this that if you would have your needle turn to the north you must rub it on the south point but if to the south rub it with the
north part For when it is equally balanced it will turn to these points in the heavens But that it may do it more forcibly and do its office more exactly I shall lay down some rules fit to instruct you If you strike both ends of the stone with the hammer that hairs may appear on both parts that you touch the needle at both ends for so the needle will sooner do its office Moreover you must observe very carefully that when the iron rub'd against the Loadstone hath received these hairs that you touch it with no other iron or Loadstone but keep it far distant from them and lock it up in a box for by touching of others the iron will grow dull and lose its vertue that it will never point out the parts of heaven perfectly For the iron coming within the Compass of the vertue of another Loadstone will receive that as we said So the needle must be proportionable to the stone For from a little Loadstone a great iron will not receive much vertue nor shew the pole also a little piece of iron cannot receive much vertue for it consumes by the great force of the Loadstone Moreover the point that shews the pole must not be sharp but fâ—at a little that it may receive those vertues of the Loadstone exactly and hold them for in a very sharp point scarce any vertue will abide Iron the purer it is the better will it hold the vertue For it will hardly take upon foul and rusty iron wherefore Mariners make it of pure steel for steel is made of the best iron If you observe this iron once rubbed will hold the vertue a hundred years and will certainly without failing point exactly at the poles in the heavens for so long time CHAP. XXXVII Of the divers uses of Mariners Compasses ANd the needle touched doth not onely shew the poles for the Mariners use but almost it serves for infinite uses as all men know that it is dayly spoken of every where I shall speak of some of the chief The use of the Loadstone upon the needle is well known in Sun-dials for when the needle stands still over the line that is made from north to south we are so directed by it to know the hours by the shadow falling from the Gnomon Also those that work in Mines use the needle to find the veins of the metals which way they run for in caves under ground in that posture the needle stands that is touched with the Loadstone they know the veins of the metals run on that side of the heavens Also it doth serve very much for those that describe platforms of buildings cities countries whilst the situation of the corners are taken and described upon the paper We use it also in making passages for to bring water under ground in digging pits in making Mines and Trenches wherewith they use with great skill to blow up Forts Castles Rocks and Walls by putting Gunpowder into them and stopping all places of vent the Compass guides them how to go on Lastly how to level the discharging of Canon both by night and day it is of singular vertue and for many other uses too tedicus to relate here CHAP. XXXVIII How the Longitude of the world may be found out by help of the Loadstone I Will not omit that amongst the principal uses of the Loadstone by the help of it the Longitude of the world may be found out Which notable work hath employed the wits of the most knowing men It hath been observed a long time by our men that the needle touched with the Loadstone will not always rest upon the Meridian line but sometimes will decline nine degrees from it to the east nor will it hold the same posture in all places but in divers places it hath divers declinations But this errour seems to follow this order that the neerer it is to the east the more it will decline from the Meridian line toward the east and the neerer it comes to the west the point of the needle will decline the more to the west For finding the Meridian line as Ptolomy and other Geometricians teach how and setting up a point thereon that the steel needle may turn freely upon the top of it in Italy it declines toward the east nine degrees of which there is ninety in a quadrant of a circle as it is observed in Sun-dials that are brought out of Germany and it is so described Moreover many famous travellers report that amongst the Fortunate Islands one is called the Azores where the needle set in the Compass will rest directly upon the Meridian line without any variation at all Also they that sail to the west-Indies observe that the point of the needle will decline to the west Therefore laying down these for true Maxims we may easily know the longitude of the world for if we make a very great Compass about five foot diameter and divide the degrees and minutes into seconds and thirds c. and sailing under the Equator we do observe the chief motions of the Needle and the declinations of it and shall accommodate the same to the proportion of our Voyages we shall easily know the Longitude of the World beginning from the Fortunate Islands Whence both Longitude and Latitude in dark nights and the greatest Tempests may be certainly discovered Wherefore it is false that Cardanus saith That the Needle in the Compass declines from the Meridian Line because it inclines to the Pole Star in the little Bears Tail whereas the Needle declines nine Degrees and the Polar Inclination is not so much CHAP. XXXIX If the Mariners Needle stand still and the Loadstone move or contralily they will move contrary ways IF the Loadstone lie on the Table and you put the North point of the Mariners Needle to the South point of the stone and shall carry it round about by the right hand the Needle will draw to the left but moving the Box to the left hand the Needle will run to the right and it will go so far until it stand in the middle between those two opposite points The same will be seen in a Sun-Dial if that stand and the Loadstone be carried about for if you decline to the right hand the Needle will follow the same part and likewise if you turn to the left Hence it is apparent That the Needle in the Compass is drawn by the North-Pole for those that sail toward the East have it turned toward the East and so contrarily to the West it will move to the same point of the Heaven and if the Loadstone be turned about the Iron will turn about also as a pair of Compasses about the Centre CHAP. XL. The Loadstone imparts a contrary force to the Needle NOw I will speak of the Needle touched with the Loadstone and of the wonderful operations of it The first is That when the Iron is touched by the Northern point of the Loadstone and equally balanced
if you put that part to it from which it received its force it will not endure it but drives it from it and draws to it the contrary and opposite part namely the Southern part the reason whereof I set down before The same falls out if you touch the Needle with the South part of the Loadstone for if you presently put the same to it it will resist it and draw to it the North point Hence the parts that are alike are at enmity and rejected as Adversaries and the parts that are unlike do agree as Friends Whence it is apparent That the Loadstone imparts to the Iron a contrary force from what the end it self is and the Steel receives the force of that point of the Loadstone which it toucheth not And I prove it thus Take two Needles and put them in Boats or hang them by Threeds that being touched with the Loadstone they may move freely they are contrary one to the other and they will joyn in the parts that were touched with contrary ends of the Loadstone and will not endure the ends that are alike CHAP. XLI Two Needles touched by the Loadstone obtain contrary Forces I Will relate a strange thing yet not far from Reason If you touch two Needles with a Loadstone together and set them on the same point of it the other parts that hang on the Loadstone will abhor and flie one from the other and if you force them together with your hands so soon as you let them alone they will presently return to their postures and depart as far as they can from one another The reason is this That if two Needles stick fast to one Northern point of the Loadstone with their points you must imagine that they did receive a Southern vertue and because they are of the same similitude they will not endure one the other and because they are fastened to the Loadstone they cannot get off being compelled by a greater force but the opposite points of the Needle because they are both alike Northerly they must needs abhor one the other and when they are free one will part from the other And when they are so hanging on if you put to them the Southern part of another Loadstone they will presently let go their hold and go as far off as they can that sometimes they are pulled off from the Loadstone being forced by an invisible vapor CHAP. XLII That the force of the Iron that draws will drive off Iron by diversity of Situation THat as I said of the Loadstone alone is true of the Iron that is touched with it for if you put a Needle touched with a Loadstone by a Boat swimming in the Water or hanged by a Threed or turning on a point equally balanced if you put upon this a Needle touched with a Loadstone it will draw it and that part that attracted the Iron above will put underneath drive it away and the part that drives off above will draw to it put underneath where you may observe that the position will work contrary operations CHAP. XLIII The Needle touched by the Loadstone on one part doth not alwayes receive Vertue on both parts IF the Needle be touched at one end by the Loadstone it receives Vertue at that end and at the other end the contrary vertue But that must not be understood absolutely but of that Needle that is of a proportionable length for if it be too long the vertue will not come to the other end But would we know how far the vertue is come we must know how far reached the Circumference of the Vertue as I said Therefore if the Circumference of it be a foot the force will go a foot-long into the Needle If we would try this Touch a long Needle three foot long with a Loadstone at one end if it touch the Iron at the other end the Iron touched will not move from its place but if you touch it a foot or two long namely as far as the Circumference of the Loadstones Vertue will reach and then touch the Needle it will presently move and be drawn by it CHAP. XLIV The Needle touched in the middle by the Loadstone sends forth its Force at both ends IF the Needle be somewhat too long and we rub it with the stone in the middle of it the forces of the stones part are diffused to both ends of it but very obscurely for you shall not know which is the end but if you touch it something farther from the middle the neerer part will receive the forces of the part that touched it be it the Northerly or Southerly part CHAP. XLV An Iron Ring touched by a Loadstone will receive both Vertues BUt if we rub an Iron Ring on the one side with a Loadstone then the part that is touched will receive the vertue of the part of the Loadstone that touched it and the opposite part will receive the contrary and therefore the middle of the Iron Ring will be capable but of half the force of it as if it were straight But if we make a Pin round as a Ring and the part joynted together with a joynt be rubbed with a Loadstone and being rubbed be stretched straight again the ends shall receive the same vertue be it Northern or Southern But by degrees that force will grow feeble and in a short time become Northerly and the other Southerly or will receive more vertue then it first had may be when it was touched farther from the end But if you would that of these a Chain of Iron should hang in the Air so soon as one ring touched on one side with the Loadstone hath received force on the other side by it we may hang a Chain of Rings in the Air as we may of Loadstones so then if the Rings be laid in order upon a Table that they may one touch the other though they do not fasten put the Loadstone to them and not onely the first will be drawn but the next and the third that they will hang like links of Rings and not only will it be so if the Loadstone touch the first that the rest will follow but if the stone be but neer it will do the same without touching them CHAP. XLVI An Iron Plate touched in the middle will diffuse its forces to both ends WHat I said of a long Needle I say also of an Iron Bar for if you touch it in the middle the Beams of it are spread like the Beams of the Sun or light of a Candle from the Centre to the Circumference and extream parts But if we touch an Iron Morter being the force is feeble where it is touched about the superficies some vertue may be be perceived but it is very weak in the extream parts CHAP. XLVII How filings of Iron may receive force IF you wrap up filings of Iron in a paper as Druggists do like a Pyramis and put a Loadstone neer it all the filings together will receive
the same force as a long piece of Iron doth but if you stir the filings and put them into an open paper that force is lost and confounded and can do nothing as if it had never been touched by reason of so many different pieces CHAP. XLVIII Whether Garlick can hinder the vertues of the Loadstone NOw I shall pass on to other properties of the Loadstone and first whether the Loadstones attraction can be any ways hindred Plutarch saith That Garlick is at great enmity with the Loadstone and such antipathy and hatred there is between these insensible Creatures that if the Loadstone be smeered with Garlick it will drive away Iron from it Ptolomy confirms the same That the Loadstone will not draw Iron if it be anoynted with Garlick as Amber will no more draw straws and other light things to it if they be first steeped in Oyl It is a common Opinion amongst Sea-men That Onyons and Garlick are at odds with the Loadstone and Steers-men and such as tend the Mariners Card are forbid to eat Onyons or Garlick lest they make the Index of the Poles drunk But when I tried all these things I found them to be false for not onely breathing and belching upon the Loadstone after eating of Garlick did not stop its vertues but when it was all anoynted over with the juice of Garlick it did perform its office as well as if it had never been touched with it and I could observe almost not the least difference left I should seem to make void the endeavors of the Ancients And again When I enquired of Mariners whether it were so that they were forbid to eat Onyons and Garlick for that reason they said They were old Wives fables and things ridiculous and that Sea-men would sooner lose their lives then abstain from eating Onyons and Garlick CHAP. XLIX How a Loadstone astonished may be brought to it self again IF a Loadstone be drunk and do not its office not as we said by being breathed on by Garlick but rather by reason of some other parts of the Loadstone that had touched it so that the vertue of it is decayed and gone we shall restore it to its former vertue by covering it over with the filings of Iron many dayes until by the vapors or company of the Iron it can perform its office as it should CHAP. L. How to augment the Loadstones vertue THere are many learned men that have attempted to augment the Loadstones vertue and that divers wayes that having got more forces it might serve for very great uses Alexander Aphrodiseus in the beginning of his Problems enquires wherefore the Loadstone onely draws Iron and is fed or helped by the filings of Iron and the more it is fed the better it will be and therefore it is confirmed by Iron But when I would try that I took a Loadstone of a certain weight and I buried it in a heap of Iron-filings that I knew what they weighed and when I had left it there many months I found my stone to be heavier and the Iron-filings lighter but the difference was so small that in one pound I could finde no sensible declination the stone being great and the filings many so that I am doubtful of the truth Paracelsus being skilled in distillation tried to do it another way For saith he if any man shall quench often in Oyl of Iron a Loadstone red hot it will by degrees recover force and augment so much that it will easily pull a Nail forth that is fast in a Wall which conceit pleased me well and thereupon I made the stone red hot and quenched it often in Oyl of Iron but it was so far from getting more strength that it lost what it had and fearing I had not done it right I tried if often so I found the falsity of it and I warn others of it also For a Loadstone made red hot in the fire will lose all its vertue as I shall shew afterwards CHAP. LI. That the Loadstone may lose its vertue I Found out That this is the onely true way amongst many that are set down by Writers by heaping Fire-coals upon the Loadstone for once made red-hot it presently loseth all its vertue and a vapor flies from it that is blewish black or Brimstone-like smelling strong as Coals do and when that flame and vapor ceaseth to exhale if you take it out of the fire all the force of it is breathed forth and I always thought that that was the Soul of it and the cause of its attraction of iron whenas iron is made of Brimstone not perfect as I read in â—ebar and other Writers that treat of Metals which is the cause that it runs so swiftly to the Loadstone and desires so much to be imbraced by it and when that vapour is gone from the stone it loseth all its vertue and then it is but a dead carcass and it is in vain to endeavour to revive it CHAP. LII How the Iron touched with the Loadstone loseth its force THe same way the Loadstone doth the iron loseth its force also for though it have been excellently well touched by the Loadstone if you heart it red-hot in the fire it will lose its forces and the reason is because that part of the Loadstone that cleaves to the iron loseth its forces in the fire and therefore the iron deprived of that loseth the force also Wherefore in the Mariners Compass or in other uses when the iron is stupified by the touch of other things and hath not its due forces to free it from this imperfection we put it into the fire Hence we finde the error of many men who when they put the Needle into the Compass they first make it red-hot and then they rub it with the Loadstone supposing it will by that means take in the Loadstones vertue the more but they do not onely by contraries but they so make void the Loadstones vertues that it cannot do its office but that force is driven out of the iron by the fire and it is just as it was before it was touched with the Loadstone Wherefore as often as that force is driven away with the fire we may touch it again and give it the same force CHAP. LIII It is false That the Diamond doth hinder the Loadstones vertue VVE shewed that it was a false report that the Loadstone anoynted with Garlick loseth its vertues But it is more false that it loseth its vertue by the presence of the Diamond For say some there is so much discord between the qualities of the Loadstone and the Diamond and they are so hateful one against the other and secret enemies that if the Diamond be put to the Loadstone it presently faints and loseth all its forces Pliny The Loadstone so disagreeth with the Diamond that if Iron be laid by it it will not let the Loadstone draw it and if the Loadstone do attract it it will snatch it away again from it St. Augustine
I will say what I have read of the Loadstone How that if the Diamond be by it it will not draw iron and if it do when it comes neer the Diamond it will let it fall Marbodeus of the Loadstone All Loadstones by their vertue Iron draw But of the Diamond it stands in awe Taking the Iron from 't by Natures Law I tried this often and found it false and that there is no Truth in it But there are many Smatteres and ignorant Fellows that would fain reconcile the ancient Writers and excuse these lyes not seeing what damage they bring to the Common-wealth of Learning For the new Writers building on their ground thinking them true add to them and invent and draw other Experiments from them that are falser then the Principles they insisted on The blinde leads the blinde and both fall into the pit Truth must be searched loved and professed by all men nor must any mens authority old or new hold us from it But to return from whence those Reconcilers idleness drew me I took a piece of a Loadstone to try by it was hardly four Grains in weight I fastned the filings of iron very fast to it then I put the Diamond that was three or four times bigger then them both but that would not make the Loadstone forsake the iron then I took off the filings of iron from the Loadstone and set them at a just distance and it drew the filings to it though the Diamond were by I say this lest they should think I failed in the trial and to have taken a Loadstone of twenty or thirty pound weight and fastened an ounce of iron to it and then to have taken a very small Diamond and put it to them to make trial with CHAP. LIV. Goats blood doth not free the Loadstone from the inchantment of the Diamond I Said That from false Principles are drawn most false Conclusions Also I said That it is related that the juice of Garlick smeered on the Loadstone will take away its attraction of iron and That when the Diamond is by it will not draw iron or will let it fall But because say some Goats blood will break the Diamond if the Loadstone be anoynted with Goats blood it will recover Castianus in Geoponic Graec. The Loadstone draws iron to it and again drives it away from it if it be annointed with Garlick but that the force almost lost may be restored it must be washed in Goats blood Rhennius the Interpreter of Dionysius 'Gainst which nor fire nor steel ever won Goats blood if warm can break the Diamond Nor strokes o' th' Hammer can consume this Stone Which from the Loadstone doth the Iron take That it would still embrace it let alone Diamonds Loadstones vertues empty make Marbodeus of the same A Diamond is mighty hard a Stone That on the Anvil never can be broke Nor steel nor fire hurt it yet 't is known It crumbles in Goats blood if laid to soak Since therefore there is an Antipathy between the Diamond and the Loadstone and there is as great Antipathy between the Diamond and Goats blood as there is sympathy between Goats blood and the Loadstone We are from this Argument proceeded thus far that when the vertue of the Loadstone is grown dull either by the presence of the Diamond or stink of Garlick if it be washed in Goats blood it will then recover its former force and be made more strong but I have tried that all the reports are false For the Diamond is not so hard as men say it is for it will yield to steel and to a moderate fire nor doth it grow soft in Goats blood or Camels blood or Asses blood and our Jewellers count all these Relations false and ridiculous Nor is the vertue of the Loadstone being lost recovered by Goats blood I have said so much to let men see what false Conclusions are drawn from false Principles CHAP. LV. The Iron touched with a Diamond will turn to the North. BUt this is most true that I found out by chance when I made trial whether the Diamond had any forces to weaken the Loadstones vertue as I said for if you rub a steel-Needle on a Diamond and then put it into a Boat or thrust it through a reed or hang it up by a Threed it will presently turn to the North almost as well as if it had been touched with the Loadstone but something more faintly And what is worth noting the contrary part will turn the iron to the South and when I had tried this in many steel-Needles and put them all into the Water I found that they all stood equi-distant pointing to the North. And if they that write That the Loadstone is weakned by the presence of the Diamond had written thus â—â—ey had said more Truth for a Needle rubbed on a Diamond and stuck in a 〈◊〉 â—nd put into the water that it may turn freely being turned with your finger when it stands still it will turn North and point at it exactly CHAP. LVI The forces and remedies of the Loadstone OUr Ancestors invented many things by reason of this admirable attractive operation of the Loadstone and found out many remedies that are worth observing From this drawing quality that it allures iron to it and that they mutually attract the one the other they did attribute unto it an understanding of venerious actions and that they are one in love with the other nor will their mad love abate till they imbrace each one the other and when they turn their backs they hate one the other and drive one the other off and that they contain in them also the Principles of hatred Marbodeus This Stone doth reconcile the man and wife And her recal that from her husband goes If one would know her leads a whorish life Under her head when that she sleeps it shows For she that 's chast will presently imbrace Her husband whilst she sleepeth but a whore Falls out o' th' bed as thrown out with disgrace With stink o' th' Stone which shows this and much more And for this cause our Ancestors to signifie as much did oft-times engrave the picture of Venus upon the Loadstone Hence Claudian writes The Loadstone Venus oft-times represents I remember also that many of the Ancients reported That if a Loadstone were beat into powder and were strewed into burning Coles about the corners of the house that the smoke might flie up those that are in the house will presently run out for fear the house will fall and frighted with these phantasmes would run forsaking all their houses and thus Thieves may steal all their Goods Marbodeus If that a Thief can creep into a House That 's full of wealth and Treasure hath good store Let him on burning Coles before he rowse The people strew the Loadstone dust all ore That so the Smoke may at each corner rise And that will make the people wake and think The house will fall
may be generated of great courage and with divers rare properties Chap 6 Pretty little dogs to play with Chap 7 Amend the defects in dogs Chap 8 Divers kinds of Mules Chap 9 Mingle Sheep and Goats by generation Chap 10 Commixions whereby Beasts of divers kinds are generated Chap 11 Copulations of a man with divers kindes of Beasts Chap 12 Divers kindes of Birds generated by divers Birds coupling together Chap 13 Commixions of Hens with other birds Chap 14 Hawkes of divers properties generated Chap 15 Commixion of divers kind of Fishes Chap 16 New and strange Monsters Chap 17 Wayes to produce strange and monstrous births Chap 18 Wonderful force of imagination and how to produce party-coloured births Chap 19 Women to bring forth fair and beautiful children Chap 20 Either males or females to be generated Chap 21 Experiments practised upon divers living creatures Chap 22 The third Book Of the production of new Plants NEw kindes of Plants may be generated of putrefaction Chap 1 Plants changed one degenerating into the form of the other Chap 2 One fruit compounded of many Chap 3 A second means Chap 4 A third way Chap 5 Fruits made double the one contained within the other Chap 6 Strange fruits may be generated and made either better or worse Chap 7 Ripe fruits and flowers before their ordinary seasons Chap 8 Fruits and Flowers may be had at all times of the year Chap 9 Made late and backward Chap 10 Fruit to grow bigger then their ordinary kinds Chap 11 Fruit that shall have neither stone nor kernel Chap 12 Fruit produced without any rines or shels Chap 13 Colours such as are not incident to their kinde Chap 14 Colours of Flowers may be changed Chap 15 Fruits and Flowers may be changed to a better favour then ordinary Chap 16 Fruits to be sweeter and pleasenter for tast Chap 17 Fruits in growing may be made to resemble all figures and impressions whatsoever Chap 18 Fruits to be made more tender beautiful and goodly to the eye Chap 19 Divers kindes of Fruits and wines made medicinable Chap 20 Fruits and Vines planted that may yield greatest encrease Chap 21 The fourth Book The increasing of Houshold Stuffe FRuits long preserved on their trees Chap 1 Flowers preserved on their own stallks Chap 2 Fruit-safes or places to preserve fruits conveniently Chap 3 Time to be chosen for preserving such fruits as you lay instore for a great while Chap 4 Manner of gathering fruits and how to dress the stalk to prevent the original cause of their putrefaction Chap 5 Grounds fruits should grow in and be gathered which we lay up Chap 6 Fruits to be shut up close from the air Chap 7 The Ancients shut fruit close in certain vessels and put them in other vessels full of liquor Chap 8 Fruits drenched in honey to make them last for a long time Chap 9 Fruits may belong preserved in ordinary wine sodden wine new wine or else in wine Lees Chap 10 Fruits very well preserved in salt-water Chap 11 Things that may be preserved in Oyl and Lees of Oyl Chap 12 Apples long preserved in Sawdust with leaves chaff and straw Chap 13 Fruits mixed with many things for their preservation Chap 14 Things may be preserved from putrefaction Chap 15 Divers sorts of bread may be made Chap 16 Bread made of roots and fruits Chap 17 Ways to make bread of corn and pulse Chap 18 Bread increased in weight Chap 19 To endure long hunger and thirst Chap 20 Of what fruits wine may be made Chap 21 Vinegar to be made divers ways and of what Chap 22 Defects of wine managed and restored Chap 23 Oyl made of divers things Chap 24 Many sorts of thread may be provided Chap 25 Eggs hatched without a Hen Chap 26 The fifth Book Of changing Metals TO convert Tin into a more excellent Metal Chap 1 Lead into another Metal Chap 2 Brass into a more worthy Metal Chap 3 Iron into a worthier Metal Chap 4 Quick-silver its effects and operations Chap 5 Of Silver Chap 6 Operations necessary for use Chap 7 To make a Metal more weighty Chap 8 To part Metals without Aqua fortis Chap 9 To part Gold or Silver from other Metals with Aqua fortis Chap 10 The sixth Book Of counterfeiting precious Stones SAlts used in the composition of Gems Chap 1 How Fliut or Crystal is to be prepared and how Pastils are boiled Chap 2 The furnace and the parts thereof Chap 3 To make colours Chap 4 How Gems are coloured Chap 5 Gems otherwise made Chap 6 Tinctures of Brystal Chap 7 Making Smalt or Ennamel Chap 8 Smalt of a Rose colour Chap 9 Leaves of Metal to be put under Gems Chap 10 How to be polished Chap 11 Building a furnace for the colouring plates Chap 12 Rays coloured by a mixture of Metals Chap 13 The seventh Book Of the Wonders of the Load-stone IT s Name Kinde and Countrey Chap 1 Natural reason of its attraction Chap 2 The Load-stones opposite poles North South and how they may be known Chap 3 The Stones force sent by a right line from North to South through the length Chap 4 The polar line not stable but moveable Chap 5 The force of North and South vigorous in the points Chap 6 By the touching of other stones those points will not change there forces Chap 7 A Load-stone will draw a Load-stone and drive it from it Chap 8 A sport of the Load-stone Chap 9 The greater the Load stone the greater its force Chap 10 The force of this Stone will pass into other Stones Chap 11 In the Load-stone hairiness is contused Chap 12 The attractive part more violent then the part that drives off Chap 13 Contrary parts of the Stones contrary one to another Chap 14 To know the polar points in the Load-stone Chap 15 The force of drawing and driving off cannot be hindred Chap 16 Make an army of sand to fight Chap 17 Situation makes its vertnes contrary Chap 18 The attractive force of the load-stone may be weighed Chap 19 The Mutual attraction and driving off of the load-stone and of Iron Chap 20 Iron and the load-stone in greater amity then the load-stone is with the load stone Chap 21 The load-stone doth not draw on all parts but at certain points Chap 22 The same load-stone that draws doth on the contrary point drive off the Iron Chap 23 Iron to leap on a table no load-stone being seen Chap 24 The vertue of the load-stone is sent through the pieces of Iron Chap 25 The load-stone within the sphear of its vertue sends it forth without touching Chap 26 The load-stone can hang Iron in the air Chap 27 The forces of the load-stone cannot be hindred by a wall or table coming between Chap 28 A man of wood may row a boat with other conceits Chap 29 A load stone on a plate of Iron will not stirre Iron Chap 30 The Position of the Iron will change the forces
Chap 31 The Iron rubbed with the Northern point of the load-stone will turn to the south and with the south point to the north Chap 32 Iron touched with the load-stone will impart the force to other Iron Chap 33 The vertue received in the Iron is weakened by one that is stronger Chap 34 To discern in a Stone the South or North point Chap 35 To rub the Iron-needle of the Marriners compass Chap 36 The uses of Marriners Compasses Chap 37 The Longitude of the world may be found out by the help of the Load-stone Chap 38 If the Marriners Needle stand still and the Load-stone move or contrarily they will move contrary ways Chap 39 The Load-stone imparts a contrary form to the Needle Chap 40 Two Needles touching by the Load stone obtain contrary forces Chap 41 The force of the Iron that draws will drive off Iron by diversity of Situation Chap 42 The Needle touched by the Load-stone on one part doth not always receive vertue on both parts Chap 43 The Needle touched in the middle by the Load-stone sends forth its force at both ends Chap 44 An Iron Ring touched by a Load stone will receive both vertues Chap 45 An Iron plate touched in the middle will difits forces at both ends Chap 46 Filings Iron may receive force Chap 47 Whether Garlick can hinder the vertues of the Load-stone Chap 48 A Load-stone astonished may be brought to its self again Chap 49 To augment the Load-stones vertue Chap 50 That the Load-stone may lose its vertue Chap 51 How the Iron touched with the load stone loseth its force Chap 52 That the Diamond hindereth the load-stones vertue is false Chap 43 Goats blood doth not free the load-stone from the inchantment of the Diamond Chap 54 The Iron touched with a Diamond will turn to the North Chap 55 Forces and Remedies of the load-stone Chap 56 The eighth Book Of Physical Experiments MEdicines which cause sleep Chap 1 To make a man out of his senses for a day Chap 2 To cause several kinds of Dreames Chap 3 Excellent Remedies for the eyes Chap 4 To faâ—ten the teeth Chap 5 For other infirmities of mans body Chap 6 That a woman may conceive Chap 7 Remedies against the Pox Chap 8 Antidotes against Poyson Chap 9 the Plague Chap 10 Remedies for wounds and blows Chap 11 A secret medicine for wounds Chap 12 To counterfeit infirmities Chap 13 Of Fascination and preservatives against Inchantments Chap 14 The ninth Book Of Beautifying Women TO dye the hair Yellow or Gold-colour Chap 1 Red Chap Chap 2 Black Chap Chap 3 To make hairs part smooth Chap 4 How hair may grow again Chap 5 To take away sores and worms that spoil the hair Chap 6 To make hair curl Chap 7 To make the Eye-brows black Chap 8 To make the face white Chap 9 To make the face very clean to receive the colour Chap 10 To make the face very soft Chap 11 To make the face shine like silver Chap 12 To dissolve Talk for to beautifie women Chap 13 The preparation of sublimate Chap 14 How White-lead is prepared for the face Chap 15 The best Sopes for Women Chap 16 To make the face Rose-coloured Chap 17 Against redness of the face Chap 18 To make a Sun-burnt face white Chap 19 To take spâ—ts from the face Chap 20 To take off red Pimples Chap 21 To take letters from the face or elswhere Chap 22 To take away Warts Chap 23 To take wrinkles from the body Chap 24 Of Dentifrices Chap 25 To hinder the Brests from augmenting Chap 26 To make the hand white Chap 27 To correct the ill sent of the Arm-pits Chap 28 How the matrix over-widened in childe-birth may be made narrower Chap 29 Sports against women Chap 30 The tenth Book Of Distillation VVHat Distillation is how many sorts Chap 1 Extraction of Waters Chap 2 Extracting Aqua Vitae Chap 3 To distil with the heat of the Sun Chap 4 To draw Oyl by expression Chap 5 To extract Oyl with Water Chap 6 To separate Oyl from water Chap 7 To make an instrument to extract Oyl in a greater quantity and without danger of burning Chap 8 The description of a Descendatory Chap 9 To extract Oyl out of Gums Chap 10 To draw Oyl out of other things Chap 11 To extract Oyl by descent Chap 12 Extraction of Essences Chap 13 Magisteries what their extraction Chap 14 To extract tinctures Chap 15 To extract Salts Chap 16 Of Elixirs Chap 17 Of a Clissus how made Chap 18 To get Oyl out of Salts Chap 19 Of Aqua Fortis Chap 20 Of the separation of the Elements Chap 21 The eleventh Book Of Perfuming OF Perfuming waters Chap 1 To make sweet water by infusion Chap 2 To make sweet Oyls Chap 3 To extract Water and Oyl out of sweet Gums by infusion Chap 4 To perfume Skins Chap 5 To make sweet Powders Chap 6 To make sweet Compounds Chap 7 To make sweet perfumes Chap 8 To Adulterate Musk Chap 9 The twelfth Book Of Artificial Fires DIvers ways to procure fire Chap 1 The compositions for fire our Ancestors used Chap 2 Divers compositions of Gun-powder Chap 3 Pipes made to cast out fire Chap 4 To make fire-balls that are shot in Brass-guns Chap 5 Compositions with burning waters Chap 6 Balls made of Metals to cast forth fire and Iron wedges Chap 7 How in plain ground and under waters Mines may be presently digged Chap 8 Things good to extinguish fire Chap 9 Divers compositions for fire Chap 10 Fire-compositions for feastival days Chap 11 Experiments of fire Chap 12 How a Candle shall burn continually Chap 13 The thirteenth Book Of tempering Steel IRon by mixture may be hardened Chap 1 How Iron will wax soft Chap 2 The temper of Iron must be used upon soft Irons Chap 3 How for all mixtures Iron may be tempered most hard Chap 4 Liquors that will harden Iron Chap 5 The temper of a Tool shall cut a Porphyr Marble Stone Chap 6 To grave a Porphyr Marble without an Iron Tool Chap 7 How Iron by heating in the fire may be made tractable for works Chap 8 How Damask Knives may be made Chap 9 Polished Iron how preserved from rust Chap 10 The fourteenth Book Of Cookery HOw flesh may be made tender Chap 1 How flesh may grow tender by secret propriety Chap 2 How flesh may be made tender otherwise Chap 3 How Shell-creatures may grow more tender Chap 4 That living creatures may be made more fat and well tasted Chap 5 How the flesh of Animals is made sweeter Chap 6 How they are made too bitter to be eaten Chap 7 How Animals may be boiled rosted baked all at once Chap 8 Divers ways to dress Pullets Chap 9 How meats may be prepared in places where there is nothing to rost them with Chap 10 Divers confections of Wines Chap 11 To make men drunk and loath wine Chap 12 To drive Parasites from great mens Tables
we shall speak of the rest in other places CHAP. IV. The force of the stone is sent by a right line from North to South through the length of it BUt the two points we speak of are the end of the right line running through the middle of the stone from North to South if any man break the stone and break this line those ends of the division will presently be of another property and vertue and will be enemies one to the other which is a great wonder for these two points when they were joined together had the same force of turning to the pole but now being parted asunder one will turn to the North the other to the South keeping the same posture and position they had in the Mine where they were bred and the same happens in the least bits that are seen in the greatest load-stone For example let the rock of Load-stone be ABCD and let the line from North to South be AB if we shall cut the stone AB out of the rock the very line AB in the stone will represent the polar line from North to South But if we break the stone broad-wayes every little piece will keep its line Cut the stone AB broad-ways as CF there will be two stones ACD and EFB I say the stones cut through the line CD each of them will have its poles of the world In the stone AGD the North-pole will be A the South G. In the stone EFB the North will be H the South B and that is beyond all admiration that the points GH whilst the stone was but one were but one as being agreed together they had the same forces but when the stone is divided each part will hold its vertue and be quite contrary and at enmity for G alwayes turns to the South and H to the North and every bit will have its poles and if you fit the divided stones with boats A and H will turn to the North G and B to the South and the same will fall out if you divide AG and HB into many small pieces and if you afterwards join all these pieces together as they were their mutual discord of nature will be presently reconciled Wherefore Cardanus said false that the Load-stone draws where it hath but a thin cover and more in one part then another for it attracts onely from one certain point as it had its position before in the mines CHAP. V. That the polar line in the Loadstone is not stable but moveable BUt the like wonder of nature cannot but be admired amongst many that God hath made and therefore I would have no man ignorant thereof This polar line spoken of is not alwayes certain in the same place nor doth it stand alwayes firm but changes and takes the contrary positions but this is constant in it that it alwayes runs through the middle of the stone like a King that hath alwayes his Court or fort in the midst of his Country for consisting in the centre from whence the extream parts are as it were the circumference it can easily send its forces to all parts and defend it self But an example shall clear this Let the stone be AECF and let the line AC running through the length of it be the polar line we speak of wherein the force of it resides which runs from the North to the South-pole I say if you divide the stone in two pieces by the line AC that one piece may be AED the other BCF if they be taken asunder that the force of it doth not reside in the extream part of the line AD or BC but being divided in the middle the force is received in the middle of each stone and in the stone AED it will be GH and in BCF it will be IL which cannot be spoken without admiration that in a dead stone there should be a living vertue to move it self who is there unless he try it that will believe these things For as the line that stretcheth from North to South was in the prime so if you divide the stone into a thousand parts that force is sent into all those parts each of them holding its own line in the middle of it so if we shall divide the part AED into other parts and shall part the smallest of them what part soever is parted from its confines it will have that same lively force running long-ways through the middle of it and so it will be if you divide the stone into the smallest sand but the greater wonder is that if you joit all the parts together again as they were at first they will all have the same force united and that will retire into the middle of the stone CHAP. VI. That the force of North and South is vigorous in the points BUt what is more wonderful Though the force retreats to the middle of the stone yet it doth not send it self forth by the middle but by the extream parts of the stone and lies still in the middle as if it were asleep but it is awake in the end and there it comes forth But if a man break the stone he shall see it more perfectly I shall give an example for such that are curious to search out the vertue of the Load-stone Let the Load-stone be AB and A the North pole B the South I say that in AB the end of the stone the force is greater and in the middle of the line ILN it is more weak and drowsie unless there be any vertue unknown in the right and left side CD but the neerer it is to the North or South the more it augments but the farther off it is the more it faints Break the stone in C and G wherein there lay hid a vertue unperceived but it will appear when the stone is broken and shew its properties and one point will shew forth the North the other the South And if these things seem superfluous yet are they necessary as the grounds of what I must say CHAP. VII That by the touching of other stones those points will not change their forces ANd because I said that the Load-stone doth not always hold its forces equal but that one stone is more powerful in operation then another for some are faint and weak I shall put the first question whether by rubbing and touching the weaker stones with the stronger those forces will be changed or stay as they were as if a Load-stone is sluggish in pointing out the pole whether in a stronger stone rubbed with the North point upon the North point of the weaker can help it at all or if we shall rub the South point of the other on the North point of this whether the North point rubbed on will be gone and become the South point or continue in its former vertue Where we have not reason to direct us experience shall prove it For let a Loadstone be of what forces and properties it may be by rubbing it against
be a pound weight and another Loadstone be a good distance from it it will presently leap and meet the other that draws it If we cut off half that stone the force of it will decay and be dull as if it were dead and the vigor of it is taken away by the proportion of the part taken from it If any man will not believe it let a stone be fetcht for trial for a part being taken away part of the vertue is lost also join the part taken away as it was and the force will be restored and become more lively and will be as powerful as formerly that it will leap at a Loadstone that meets it at a great distance and presently embrace it This argument confirms it that the greater the stone is the greater force it hath even in the same sort of stones for I have seen divers Loadstones brought from divers parts of the world to have divers properties I saw at Rome a Loadstone weighed an Ounce that drew two Ounces of Iron and held it so fast as it drew that it could scarce be pulled from it I have seen others of forty Pound weight that were so feeble that they would scarce stir an Ounce But that I may the more oblige the curiosity of Students in this matter I shall teach in the following Chapters how the Vertue of the Stone may be tried and equally balanced CHAP. XI That the force of this Stone will pass into other Stones that sometimes you may see as it were a rope of Stones THe Stone with us is commended for another property for when it hath taken hold of another Stone it not only holds that fast but it sends into the Body of it an effluxion of its forces and that having got more forces draws another and gives it the like faculty the third made to partake of the same vertue draws others that are neer or far off and cast forth and brandisheth the same vertue and this draws another and so by a reciprocal ejaculation by the same force it is held by the same it holds others and from each of them to the other are their darts flying as it were endowed with the vertue of them and if you lift them up on high they seem to hang in links like a Chain that they will not easily be drawn one from the other that we must needs wonder exceedingly how that internal and invisible force can run from one to the other and pass through them and the more vertue it hath to the more it doth communicate it Yet I thought fit to forewarn you that you fail not in your trial that the Stones must stick the one to the other by the parts that agree and not by contrary parts for so would not one impart his vertues to another but by the meeting with an opposite part would be held back and cease from doing its Office namely that the North point of the one must stick to the South point of the other as I said and not contrarily for the South point applied to the South and the North point to the North point is contrary and the faculty will faint and decay at the presence of its Adversary Nor yet will we omit to remember those that are curious to try this that the Stones must successively be proportionable that the great one must draw a less and a little one must draw one less then it self for so they will hang the faster and not be so easily pulled asunder CHAP. XII That in the Loadstone that hairyness is contused HEnce comes that hairiness of little Hairs that we mentioned before that sticks so fast to the Stone that it can hardly be pulled off for when one is rubbed against the other or is beaten off with a light blow of the Hammer those small pieces being rubbed one against another do not fall to the Earth by their own weight but are held up by the force of the Stone and that one may stick fast to the other turning its friendly countenauce to it it can by no other means commodiously fasten to its sympathizing part nor be joyned with it but like a Hair or small Threed and if you rub one Stone long against another that heap of Sand will so augment that it will appear all hairy or like the down on a mans chin or as it were beset round with a heap of pricks Nor is this to be passed without admiration That if any man puts another Loadstone to it or neer it that is greater then iâ— and more powerful they will appear presently to turn about and to direct their friendly parts to the like parts in the Stone that is put neer them and to strive to come to it and if they cannot do it for want of strength they will fall to the ground CHAP. XIII The attractive part is more violent then the part that drives off WE must tell the Reader of another thing before-hand that having laid the foundation of what we shall say we may proceed to greater matters The part that attracts draws more vehemently and that which drives away doth it more faintly namely the part opposite to it for if the South part of the Stone stick to the North part of the other it will draw at greater distance and more force but contrarily if you turn the disagreeing parts together namely the South parts to the South and the North parts to the North parts the natural force is made dull and as though it were feeble and weak it loseth its force that it cannot so well perform its Office and if they be not very neer the force is stopped and can do very little If any man desires to try let him hang them up with threads or balance them on a pin or put them in Boats and he shall finde their readiness to draw and their feebleness and sluggishness to drive off from them CHAP. XIV The contrary parts of the Stones are contrary one to another THe parts we speak of if they be joyned friendly together they will as it were enter a league and help one the other and will gain more force and vertue But if they be contrary they are at such opposition by their Nature and such secret hatred there is between them that being put together by their disagreeing points as if their Adversary were present they will cease from all their attraction and lose all their force As if you have Loadstones in your hands that have the opposite parts united the North and South together if another stone be put to them neither of these stones will move or get the Victory for they neither draw to nor drive from especially if both their forces be equal But if one be stronger then another the stone that is put to it will move and stir and will either come forward or go backward But if you take up his contrary Companion he will either be drawn after or will flie from it willingly for it will either
and run out with great cries Then may he take away their Gold and chink The reason is Because the Loadstone is melancholick as you may conjecture by the colour of it the fumes whereof rising into the brain will cause those that are a sleep to have melancholick phantasms presented unto them and Coles will do the like The weight Davic with Serpents fat and juice of Metals given to one to drink will make him mad and make him run out of his House Country and Nation and this is doth by exaggeration of black Melancholy or it will make people lunatick and melancholick if they do but hold it in their mouths and by its drawing out of iron Physitians think it will help well to draw an Arrow-head out of ones body But we use the Loadstone in making Glass Pliny After Glass was found out as it is a very cunning invention men were not content to mingle Nitre but they began to add the Loadstone thereunto because it is supposed that it will attract the liquor of the Glass into it self and into iron also Hence it is that in making Glass we add a little piece of Loadstone to it for that singular vertue is confirmed by our times as well as former times it is thought so to attract into it self the liquor of the Glass as it draws iron to it and being attracted it purgeth it and from green or yellowish Glass it makes it white but the fire afterwards consumes the Loadstone Out of Agricola We read also That a Loadstone laid to ones head will take away all the pains Galen saith It hath purging faculties and therefore it is given to drink for the Dropsie and it will draw forth all the water in the Belly Lastly I shall not pass by the error of Hadrian concerning the Loadstone for he saith That the iron by its weight makes the Loadstone never the heavier For the Naturalists report That if a great Loadstone were weighed in a Scale and after that should draw iron to it it would be no heavier then it was when it was alone though they be both together so the weight of the iron is as it were consumed by the Loadstone and hindred by it from any effect or motion which I finde to be false It is like that jear in Aristophanes of a Clown that rid upon an Ass and carried his Coulter at his back that he might not load the Ass too much THE EIGHTH BOOK OF Natural Magick Of Physical Experiments THE PROEME I Intended to pass by these following Experiments in Physick because I have everywhere mentioned them in my History of Plants and we have not omitted any thing that was certain and secret in them that we knew unless iâ— be such things as could not be brought into that rank And though other things shall be described in my Book of Distillations yet that this place of Physick be not left empty I changed my opinion and have set down some of them here CHAP. I. Of Medicines which cause sleep THat we may in order set down those Experiments of which we intend to speak we will begin with those Diseases which happen in the Head and first with Sleep for Soporiferous Receits are very requisite to be placed amongst these Arcana and are of very great esteem amongst Physitians who by Sleep are wont to cheat their Patients of pain and not of less amongst Captains and Generals when they practice Stratagemes upon their Enemies Soporiferous Medicines do consist for the most part of cold and moist things Plutarch in Simpos saith That Sleep is caused by cold and therefore Dormitives have a cooling quality We will teach first how To cause Sleep with Mandrake Dioscorides saith That men will presently fall asleep in the very same posture wherein they drink Mandrake losing all their senses for three or four hours after and that Physitians do use it when they would burn or cut off a member And skilful men affirm That Mandrake growing by a Vine will transmit its Soporiferous quality into it so that those who drink the Wine that is made thereof shall more easily and readily fall asleep Here we will relate the pleasant stories of the Mandrake out of Authors of Stratagems Junius Frontinus reports That Hannibal being sent by the Charthagenians against some Rebels in Africa and knowing they were a Nation greedy of Wine mixed a great quantity of Mandrake with his Wines the quality of which is between poysonous and sleepy then beginning a light Skirmish he retired on purpose and in the middle of the Night counterfeited a flight leaving some Baggage in his Camp and all the infected Wine Now when those Barbarians had took his Camp and for joy had liberally tasted of that treacherous Wine he returned took and slew them all as they lay dead as it were before Polinaeus the same And Caesar sailing towards Nicomedia was taken about Malea by some Cilician Pirates and when they demanded a great Ransome for his Liberty he promised them double what they asked They arrived at Miletum the people came out of the Town to see them Caesar sent his Servant being a Milesian named Epicrates to those of the Town desiring them to lend him some money which they presently sent to him Epicrates according to Caesar's command brought the money and with it a sumpâ—uous Banquet a Water-pot full of Swords and Wine mixed with Mandrake Caesar paid to the Pirates the promised sum and set the Banquet before them who being exalted with their great Riches fell freely to it and drinking the infected Wine fell into a sleep Caesar commanded them to be killed sleeping and presently repaid the Milesians their own money Demosthenes intending to express those who are bitten as it were by a sleepy Dragon and are slothful and so deprived of sense that they cannot be awakened saith They seem like men who have drunk Mandrake Pliny affirmeth That smelling to the Leaves of it provoketh sleep For the same with Nightshade We may make the same of Nightshade which is also called Hypnoticon from the effect of it a Drachm of the Rinde drank in Wine causeth sleep but gently and kindely This later Age seemeth to have lost the knowledge of Solanum Manicon for in the very description of it Dioscorides seems to be mad But in my judgement as I have elsewhere said he describes two several Plants in that place Fuschius his Stramonium and the Herb commonly called Bell a Donna whose qualities are wonderfully dormitive for they infect Water without giving it either taste or sent so that the deceit cannot be discovered especially considering it must be given but in a very small quantity I prepared a Water of it and gave it to a Friend for certain uses who instead of a Drachm drank an Ounce and thereupon lay four days without meat or motion so that he was thought dead by all neither could he be awakened by any means till at last when the vapours were digested he arose
makes no ado but his savage fury ceaseth and his strength failes him Hence came that proverb Lupus in fabula the Wolf cometh in the nick which Plato speaks of in his Politicks The Wolf is afraid of the Urchin thence if we wash our mouth and throats with Urchines blood it will make our voice shrill though before it were hoarse and dull like a Wolves voice A Dog and a Wolfe are at great enmity and therefore a Wolves skin put upon any one that is bitten of a mad Dog asswageth the swelling of the humour An Hawk is a deadly enemy to Pigeons but they are defended by the Kastrel which the Hawk cannot abide either to hear or see and this the Pigeons know well enough for wheresoever the Kastrel remains there also will the Pigeon remain thinking themselves safe because of their protector Hence Columella saith That there is a kind of Hawks which the common-people call a Kastrel that builds her nest about houses that is very good to keep away hawks from a Pigeon-house If you take the Kastrels young ones and put them in divers earthen pots and cover the pots close plaister them round about and hang them up in sundry corners of a Pigeon-house the Pigeons will be so far in love with the place that they will never forsake it Hither belongeth that notable Disagreement that is betwixt Garlick and the Load-stone for being smeared about with Garlike it will not draw iron to it as Plutark hath noted and after him Ptolomaeus the Load-stone hath in it a poisonous vertue and Garlick is good against poison but if no man had written of the power of Garlick against the Load-stone yet we might conjecture it to be so because it is good against vipers and mad dogs and poisonous waters So likewise those living creatures that are enemies to poisonous things and swallow them up without danger may shew us that such poisons will cure the bitings and blows of those creatures The Hart and the Serpent are at continual enmity the Serpent as soon as he seeth the Hart gets him into his hole but the Hart draws him out again with the breath of his nostrils and devours him hence it is that the fat and the blood of Harts and the stones that grow in their eyes are ministred as fit remedies against the stinging and biting of serpents Likewise the breath of Elephants draws Serpents out of their dens and they fight with Dragons and therefore the members of Elephants burned drives away Serpents The Storks drive out of the Countreyes where they are Lyzards and sundry kinds of Serpents and other noisome things in the fields and the intrails of them all are good against the Storks The same is done also in Egypt by the bird Ibis That Indian Rat called Ichneumon doth harnsse himself with some of the Lote-tree and so fights against the Asp. The Lamprey fights with Serpents and with her biting kills the Basilisk which is the most poisonous serpent that is So also the crowing of a Cock affrights the Basilisk and he fights with Serpents to defend his hens and the broth of a Cock is a good remedy against the poison of serpents So the Snail and the Eagle The Stellion which is a beast like a Lyzard is an enemy to the Scorpions and therefore the oyle of him being putrified is good to anoint the place which is stricken by the Scorpion The Barbel eats up the Sea-hare and is good against the poison thereof A Swine eats up a Salamander without danger and is good against the poison thereof The Hawk is an enemy to the Chamaeleon and his dung drunken in wine is good against the poison of the Chamaeleon Likewise out of the Sympathies of plants we may gather some secret which is helpful against some kind of hurt The herb Corruda whereof Sperage comes is most fitly planted where Reed grows because they are of much likenesse and neernesse and both of them are inciters to lust The Vine and the Olive-tree do joy in each others company as Africanus writes both of them are very commodious for mens uses In like manner the Morehenne loves the Hart which is given to lust both of their members are inciters to venery The Goat and the Partridge love each other and both these are gooâ— for one and the same remedy So the fish Sargus and the Goat A Dog is most 〈◊〉 to a man and if you lay him to any diseased part of your body he takes away the disease to himself as Pliny reporteth CHAP. VIII That things receive their force and power from Heaven and from the Stars and that thereby many things are wrought I Suppose that no man doubts but that these inferiour things serve their superiours and that the generation and corruption of mutable things every one in his due course and order is over-ruled by the power of those heavenly Natures The Aegyptians who first proved and found out the effects of the heavens because they dwelt in the open Champion-fields where they had continually fair weather and there were no vapours sent up from the earth which might hinder their contemplation of heaven so that they might continually behold the Stars in their brightnesse did therefore wholly bestow themselves in the knowledge of heavenly influences and whereas others that were not so diligent as they stood amazed at the causes of things these men referred all to the heavens and the Stars that all things took their destiny from them and that the influence of heaven bare great sway in all generations and corruptions and thus observing the motions of the stars to and fro they wrought many wonderful things for this was their resolution that to certain hours and set times there were answerable certain aspects of superiour powers whereby all things were effected Ptolomy was of the same minde who reduced the heavenly influences to a certain order and thereby did prognoâ—â—icate many things and he thought the matter so clear that it need not much proof and moreover that the increase and decrease of all plants and all living creatures more or lesse did proceed from the power and stroke of the stars Aristotle finding that the highest motion was the cause and beginning of all things for if that should cease these must needs presently decay saith that it was necessity for this world to be placed very neer and close to the supâ—â—â—our motions that all power might be thence derived and he saw that all this force of inferiour things was caused from the Sun as he himself fitly shews The winding course of the Sun saith he in the oblique circle of the Zodiak causeth the generation and corruption of all transitory things and by his going to and fro distinguisheth times and seasons Plato saith that the circular motions of the heavens are the causes of fruitfulnesse and barrennesse The Sun is the Governour of time and the rule of life Hence Jâ—mâ—lichus following the doctrine of the Aegyptians saith that every
good thing cometh certainly from the power of the Sun and if we receive any good from any thing else yet the Sun must perfect and finish it Heraclitus calls the Sun the Fountain of heavenly light Orpheus calls it the light of life Plato calls it a heavenly Fire an everliving Creature a star that hath a Soul the greatest and the daily star and the natural Philosophers call it the very heart of heaven And Plotinus shews that in antient times the Sun was honoured in stead of God Neither yet is the Moon lesse powerful but what with her own force and what with the force of the Sun which she borrows she works much by reason of her neernesse to these inferiours Albumasar said That all things had their vertue from the Sun and the Moon and Hermes the learned said that the Sun and the Moon are the life of all things living The Moon is nighest to the Earth of all Planets she rules moist bodies and she hath such affinity with these inferiours that as well things that have souls as they that have none do feel in themselves her waxing and her waining The Seas and Flouds Rivers and Springs do rise and fall do run sometimes swifter sometimes flower as she rules them The surges of the Sea are tost to and fro by continual succession no other cause whereof the Antients could find but the Moon only neither is there any other apparent reason of the ebbing and flowing thereof Living creatures are much at her beck and receive from her great encrease for when she is at the full as Lucilius saith she feeds Oysters Crabs Shelfish and such like which her warm light doth temper kindly in the night season but when she is but the half or the quarter light then she withdraws her nourishment and they wastâ— In like manner Cucumbers Gourds Pompons and such like as have store of 〈◊〉 juice feel the state of the Moon for they wax as she doth and when she 〈◊〉 they waste as Athenaeus writes Likewise the very stems of plants do follow the state of the heavens witnesse the Husband-man who finds it by experience in his graffing and skilful Husbandmen have found the course and season of the year and the monethly race of the Moon so necessary for plants that they have supposed this knowledge to be one chief part of Husbandry So also when the Moon passeth through those signs of the Zodiak which are most peculiar to the earth if you then plant trees they will be strongly rooted in the earth if you plant them when she passeth through the signs of the Air then the tree so planted will be plentiful in branches and leaves and encreaseth more upward then downward But of all other the most pregnant sign hereof is found in the Pome-granate which will bring forth fruit just so many years as many daies as the Moon is old when you plant it And it is a report also that Garlick if it be set when the Moon is beneath the earth and be also plucked up at such a time it will lose its strong savour All cut and lopped Woods as Timber and Fewel are full of much moisture at the new of the Moon and by reason of that moisture they wax soft and so the worm eats them and they wither away And therefore Democritus counselleth and Vitruvius is also of the same minde to cut or lop trees in the waining of the Moon that being cut in season they may last long without rottennesse And that which is more as her age varies so her effects vary according to her age for in her first quarter she maketh hot and moist but especially moist from thence all moist things grow and receive their humidity in that time from that time to the full of the Moon she gives heat and moisture equally as may be seen in Trees and Minerals from that time to the half Moon decaying she is hot and moist but especially hot because she is fuller of light thence the fishes at that time commonly are wont to swim in the top of the water and that the Moon is in this age warm appears by this that it doth extend and enlarge moist bodies and thereby the moisture encreasing it causeth rottennesse and maketh them wither and wâ—â—te away But in her last quarter when she loseth all her light then she is meerly hot and the wises of Chaldea hold that this state of heaven is best of all other So they report that there is a Moon-herb having round twirled leaves of a blewish colour which is well acquainted with the age of the Moon for when the Moon waxeth this herb every day of her age brings forth a leaf and when she waineth the same herb loseth for every day a leaf These variable effects of the Moon we may see more at large and more usually in tame creatures and in plants where we have daily sight and experience thereof The Pismire that little creature hath a sense of the change of the Plantes for she worketh by night about the full of the Moon but she resteth all the space betwixt the old and the new Moon The inwards of mice answer the Moons proportion for they encrease with her and with her they also shrink away If we cut our hair or pair our nailes before the new Moon they will grow again but slowly if at or about the new Moon they will grow again quickly The eyes of Cats are also acquainted with the alterations of the Moon so that they are sometimes broader as the light is lesse and narrower when the light of the Moon is greater The Beetle marketh the ages and seasons of the Planets for he gathering dung out of the mixen rounds it up together and covereth it with earth for eight and twenty daies hiding it so long as the Moon goeth about the Zodiak and when the new Moon cometh he openeth that round ball of dirt and thence yields a young Beetle Onions alone of all other herbs which is most wonderful feels the changeable state of the Planets but quite contrary to their change frameth it self for when the Moon waineth the Onions encrease and when she waxeth they decay for which cause the Priests of Egypt would not eat Onions as Plutark writes in his fourth Commentary upon Hesiode That kinde of spurge which is called Helioscopium because it follows the Sun disposeth of her leaves as the Sun rules them for when the Sun riseth she openeth them as being desirous that the morning should see them rise and shutteth them when the Sun setteth as desiring to have her flower covered and concealed from the night So many other herbs follow the Sun as the herb Turn-sole 〈◊〉 when the Sun riseth she holds down her head all day long that the Sun may never so much as writhe any of her there is such love as it were betwixt them and she stoops still the same way which the Sun goeth so do the flowers of Succory and of Mallows
experiments prove false because that which we work by happily hath lost his vertue being kept too long But there are certain peculiar times to gather them in which the vulgar sort observeth not wherein the heavenly constellations bestow upon them some singular vertue proceeding from the most excellent nature and quality of the stars in which times if they be gathered they are exceedingly operative But there can be no set and just time assigned by reason of the divers situations of divers places in respect of the Sun for as the Sun-beams come neerer or further off so the earth fructifies sooner or later yet we will give some general observations Roots are to be gathered betwixt the old Moon and the new for then the moisture is fallen into the lower parts and that in the Evening for then the Sun hath driven in the moisture and by the stalk it is conveyed down into the root The time serves well to gather them when their wrinkles be filled out with moisture and they chap because they have so much juice as if they were about to break in pieces Leaves are then to be gathered as soon as they have opened themselves out of the sprigs and that in the morning about Sun-rising for then they are moister then in the evening the Suns heat having drunk up their moisture all day long Flowers are then to be gathered when they begin to seed while their juice is in them and before they wax limber Stalks are then to be gathered when the flower is withered for then especially are they profitable And seeds must be then gatherâ—d when they are so ripe that they are ready to fall There are some more peculiar observations Hot and slender herbs should be gathered when Mars and the Sun are Lords of the celestial houses moist herbs when the Moon is Lord but you must take heed that you gather them not in the falling houses thereof These things well observed in gathering plants will make them very profitable for Physical uses CHAP. XVI That the Countries and places where Simples grow are chiefly to be considered MAny are deceived in plants and metals and such like because they use them that come next hand never heeding the situation of the place where they grow But he that will work soundly must well consider both the aspect of the heavens and the proper nature and situation of the place for the place works diversly in the plants according to his own divers temperatures and sometimes causeth such an alteration in the vertues of them that many not onely young Magicians but good Physitians and Philosophers too have been deceived in searching them out Plato makes mention hereof God saith he hath furnished the places of the earth with divers vertues that they might have divers operations into plants and other things according to their kind And so Porphyry saith that the place is a principle of a generation as a father is Theophrastus would have Hemlock gathered and fetch'd from Susa because Thrasias was of opinion that there it might safely be taken and in other very cold places for whereas in Athens the juice of it is poison odious amongst the Athenians because it is given to kill men in common executions and Socrates there taking it died presently yet here it is taken without danger and beasts feed upon it The herb called Bears-foot that which grows on the Hill Oeta and Parnassus is very excellent but elsewhere of small force therefore Hippocrates when he would cure Democritus he caused it to be fetch'd from the Hills And in Achaia especially about Cabynia there is a kind of Vine as Theophrastus saith the wine whereof causeth untimely births and if the dogs eat the grapes they will bring forth abortives and yet in the taste neither the wine nor the grape differ from other wines and grapes He saith also that those Physicall drugs which grow in Euboea neer unto Aege are good but neer to Telethrium which is a shadowed and waterish place they are much worse and drier In Persia there grows a deadly tree whose apples are poison and present death therefore there it is used for a punishment but being brought over to the Kings into Egypt they become wholesome apples to eat and lose their harmfulnesse as Columella writes Dioscorides saith That the drugs which grow in steep places cold and dry and open to the winde are most forcible but they that grow in dark and waterish and calm places are lesse operative Wherefore if we find any difference in such things by reason of the places where they grow that they have not their right force we must seek them out there where the place gives them their due vertue CHAP. XVII Certain properties of Places and Fountains which are commodious for this work DIfference of places works much in the different effects of things For the place of the waters and also of the earth hath many miraculous vertues which a Magician must needs be well acquainted with for oft-times we see that some things are strangely operative onely by reason of the situation of the place the disposition of the Air and the force of the Sun as it cometh nearer or further off If one ground did not differ from another then we should have odoriferous reeds rushes grasse frankincense peper and myrth not only in Syria and Arabia but in all other Countries also Likewise many properties are derived out of Waters and Fountains which otherwise could not be made but that the waterish humor in the earth conveys his scent and such like properties into the root of that which there groweth and so nourisheth up that matter which springs out and causeth such fruit as savours of the place according to his own kind Zama is a City in Africa and Ismuc is a Town twenty miles from it and whereas all Africk besides is a great breeder of beasts especially of serpents about that Town there breed none at all nay if any be brought thither it dies and the earth of that place also killeth beasts whithersoever it is carried In the great Tarquine Lake of Italy are seen Trees some round some triangle as the wind moves them but none four-square In the Country beyond the River Po that part which is called Monsterax there is a kind of Corn called Siligo which being thrice sown makes good bread-corn Neer to Harpasum a Town of Asia there is a huge Rock which if you touch with one finger will move if with your whole body it will not move There are some places of the earth that are full of great fires as Aetna in Sicily the Hill Chimaera in Phaselis the fire whereof Ctesias writes will be kindled with water and quencht with earth And in the Country of Megalopolis and the fields about Arcia a coal falling on the earth sets it on fire So in Lycia the Hills Ephesti being touched with a Torch flame out insomuch that the stones and sands there do burn in the waters
within the earth that so the herb may not bud forth but all the nourishment may be converted to the head of the herb So may we make Onions to grow bigger as Theophrastus supposeth if we take away all the stalk that the whole force of the nourishment may descend downwards lest if it should be diffused the chief vertue thereof should spend it self upon the seeding Sotion saith that if a man plant Onions he must cut off both the tops and the tails thereof that so they may grow to a greater bigness then ordinary Palladius saith that if we desire to have great-headed Onions we must cut off all the blade that so the juyce may be forced down to the lower parts In like manner if we would have Garlick-heads greater then common we must take all the greenish substance thereof before it be bladed and turn it downward that so it may grow into the earth There is yet another Device whereby to make herbs and roots grow bigger then ordinary but yet I like not so well of it howsoever many ancient Writers have set it down and first How to make Leeks grow greater Columella hath prescribed this course you must take a great many Leek-seeds and binde them together in thin linen clouts and so cast them into the ground and they will yeeld large and great leeks Which thing Palladius also confirms by his authority in the very same words But both of them had it out of Theophrastus who putteth it for a general Rule That if a man sowe many seeds bound up together in a linen cloth it will cause both the root to be larger and the buds to be larger also and therefore in his time they were wont to sow Leeks Parsly and other herbs after the same manner for they are of more force when there be many seeds together all of them concurring into one nature Moreover it makes not a little to the enlarging of fruits to take the seeds which we would sow out of some certain part of the former fruit As for example we shall procure A Gourd of a greater or larger growth if we take the seed out of the middle of a Gourd and set it with the top downward This course Columella prescribes in his Hortulus Look saith he where the Gourd swells most and is of the largest compass thence even out of the middle thereof you must take your seed and that will yeeld you the largest fruit And this is experienced not in Gourds onely but also in all other fruits for the seeds which grow in the bowels or belly as it were of any fruit are commonly most perfect and yeeld most perfect fruit wheras the seeds that grow in the outward parts produce for the most part weak unperfect fruit Likewise the grains that are in the middle of the ear yeeld the best corn whereas both the highest and the lowest are not so perfect but because Gourds yeeld great increase therefore the experience hereof is more evidently in them then in any other Cucumbers will be of a great growth as the Quintiles say if the seeds be set with their heads downward or else if you set a vessel full of water under them in the ground that so the roots may be drenched therein for we have known them grow both sweeter and greater by this Device CHAP. XII How to produce fruit that shall not have any stone or kernel in it IT is a received thing in Philosophy especially amongst those that have set forth unto us the choicest and nicest points of Husbandry that if you take Quicksets or any branches that you would plant and get out the pith of them with some ear-picker or any like instrument made of bone they will yeeld fruit without any stone and without any kernel for it is the pith that both breedeth and nourisheth the substance of the kernel But the Arcadians are of a quite contrary opinion for say they every tree that hath any pith in it at all will live but if all the pith be taken out of it it will be so far from yeelding any stoneless fruit that it cannot chuse but die and be quite dried up The reason is because the pith is the moistest and most lively part of any tree or plant for the nourishment which the ground sends up into any plant is conveyed especially by the pith into all the other parts for Nature hath so ordained it that all the parts draw their nourishment as it were their soul and their breath thorow the marrow or pith of the stock as it were thorow a Squirt or Conduit-pipe Which may appear by experience seeing any bough or stalk so soon as the marrow is gone returns and crooks backward till it be quite dried up as the Ancients have shewed But I for my part must needs hold both against Theophrastus and against others also that have written of Husbandry both that trees may live after their marrow is taken from them and also that they will bring forth fruit having stones or kernels in them though there be no pith in the trees themselves as I have shewed more at large in my books of Husbandry Notwithstanding lest I should omit any thing belonging to this argument I have thought good here to set down the examples which those Ancients have delivered in writing that every man that lists may make trial hereof and haply some amongst the rest using greater diligence in the proof hereof then I did may finde better success herein then I have found There be many means whereby Plants may be deprived of kernels as namely by engraffing by taking out their pith by soiling with dung or by watering and by other Devices We will first begin as our wonted manner is with engraffing and will shew how to produce A Peach-apple without a stone Palladius saith he learned this new kinde of engraffing of a certain Spaniard which he saith also he had experienced in a Peach-tree Take a Willow-bough about the thickness of a mans arm but it must be very sound and two yards long at the least bore it thorow the middle and carry it where a young Peach-tree grows then strip off all the Peach-tree-sprigs all but the very top and draw it thorow the hole of the Willow-bough then stick both ends of the Willow into the ground that it may stand bending like a bowe and fill up the hole that you bored with dirt and moss bind them in with thongs About a year after when the Peach-tree and the Willow are incorporated into each other cut the plant beneath the joyning place and remove it and cover both the Willow-bough and the top of the plant also with earth and by this means you shall procure Peaches without stones But this must be done in moist and waterish places and besides the Willow must be relieved with continual watering that so the nature of the wood may be cherished as it delights in moisture and it may also minister abundant
for truth To make men seem like to Blackmores Take Ink but the best comes from Cutles mingle this with your Lamps and the flame will be black Anaxilaus is reported to have done this for oft-times by mingling Cutles Ink he made the standers by as black as Ethiopians Simeon Sethi saith That if any man shall dip a Wick in Cutles Ink and Verdigrease those that stand by will seem partly Brass-colour partly Black by reason of the mixture And we may imitate this in all colours for setting aside all other lights that might hinder it for else the other lights will spoil the sport and if you do it by day shut the windows lest the light come in there and destroy the delusion If the Lamp be green Glass and transparent that the rays coming through may be dyed by the colour of the medium which is of great consequence in this and green Coppras be mingled with the Oyl or what moysture it burns with and they be well ground together that the liquor may be green make your Cotten of some linnen of the same colour or bombast this being smeered with it must burn in that Lamp the light that is opposite against you will shew all faces of the beholders and other things to be green To make the face seem extream pale and lean This is easie pour into a large Glass very old Wine or Greek Wine and cast a handful of Salt into it set the Glass upon burning coles without flame lest the Glass should break it will presently boil put a Candle to it and light it then put out all other lights and it will make the faces of the standers by to be such that they will be one afraid of another The same falls out in shops where Bells and Metals are melted for they seem so strangely coloured in the dark that you would wonder at it their lips look pale wan and black and blew Also let Brimstone when it burns be set in the middle of the company and it will do the same more powerfully Anaxilaus the Philosopher was wont to work by such delusions For Brimstone put into a new cup and set on fire and carried about by the repercussion of it when it burns makes the company look pale and terrible That oft-times happened to me when at Naples I walked in the night in the Leucogean Mountains for the Brimstone burning of it self made me look so CHAP. X. Of some mechanical Experiments THere are some Experiments that are witty and not to be despised and are done by Simples without mixture which I thought not unfit to communicate to ingenuous Men and Artificers There is an Art called The flying Dragon or the Comet It is made thus Make a quadrangle of the small pieces of Reeds that the length may be to the breadth one and half inproportion put in two Diameters on the opposite parts or Angles where they cut one the other bind it with a small cord and of the same bigness let it be joyned with two others that proceed from the heads of the Engine Then cover it with paper or thin linnen that there be no burden to weigh upon it then from the top of a Tower or some high place send it out where the wind is equal and uniform not in to great winds lest they break the workmanship nor yet to small for if the wind be still it will not carry it up and the weak wind makes it less labour Let it not flye right forth but obliquely which is effected by a cord that comes from one end to the other and by the long tale which you shall make of cords of equal distance and papers tied unto them so being gently let forth it is to be guided by the Artificers hand who must not move it idly or sluggishly but forcibly so this flying Sayle flies into the air When it is raised a little for here the wind is broken by the windings of the houses you can hardly guide it or hold it with your hands Some place a Lanthorn upon it that it may shew like a Comet others put a Cracker of paper wherein Gun-power is roled and when it is in the air by the cord there is sent in a light match by a ring or some thing that will abide this presently flies to the Sayle and gives fire to the mouth of it and the Engine with a thundring noise flies into many parts and falls to the ground Others bind a Cat or Whelp and so they hear cries in the air Hence may an ingenuous Man take occasion to consider how to make a man flye by huge wings bound to his elbows and breast but he must from his childhood by degrees use to move them always in a higher place If any man think this a wonder let him consider what is reported that Archytas the Pythagorean did For many of the Noble Greeks and Favorinus the Philosopher the greatest searcher out of Antiquities have Written affirmatively that the frame of a Pigeon made in wood was formed by Archytas by some art and made to flie it was so balanced in the air by weights and moved by an aireal Spirit shut within it Soli Deo Gloria FINIS A TABLE containing the General Heads of NATURAL MAGICK The first Book Treating of wonderful things VVHat is meant by the name Magick Chap 1 The Nature of Magick Chap 2 Instruction of a Magitian what he ought to be Chap 3 Opinions of the Ancient Philosophers touching the causes of strange operations and first of the Elements Chap 4 Divers operations of Nature proceed from the essential forms of things Chap 5 Whence the form cometh of the Chain that Homer faigned and the Ring that Plato mentioneth Chap 6 Sympathy and Antipathy by them to finde the vertues of things Chap 7 From Heaven and the Stars things receive their force and thereby many things are wrought Chap 8 Attract the vertues of superior Bodies Chap 9 Knowledge of secrets dependeth upon the survey of the World Chap 10 Likeness of things sheweth their secret vertues Chap 11 Compound things by their likeness Chap 12 Particular creatures have particular gifts some in their whole body others in their parts Chap 13 Properties of things while they live and after death Chap 14 Simples to be gotten and used in their seasons Chap 15 Where they grow chiefly to be considered Chap 16 Properties of Places and Fountains commodious for this work Chap 17 Compounds work more forceably and how to compound and mix those simples which we would use in our mixtures Chap 18 Just weight of a mixture Chap 19 Prepare Simples Chap 20 The second Book Of the generation of Animals PUtrefaction and of a strange manner of producing living creatures Chap 1 Earthy Creatures generated of putrefaction Chap 2 Birds which are generated of the putrefaction of Plants Chap 3 Fishes which are generated of putrefaction Chap 4 New kinds of living creatures may be generated by copulation of divers beasts Chap 5 Dogs