chap. iiii.

on magnetick force & form, what it is; and on the cause of the coition.

r elinquishing the opinions of others on the attraction of loadstone, we shall now show the reason of that coition and the translatory nature of that motion. since there are really two kinds of bodies, which seem to allure bodies with motions manifest to our senses, electricks and magneticks, the electricks produce the tendency by natural effluvia from humour; the magneticks by agencies due to form, or rather by the prime forces. this form is unique, and particular, not the formal cause of the peripateticks, or the specifick in mixtures, or the secondary form; not the propagator of generating bodies, but the form of the primary and chief spheres and of those parts of them which are homogeneous and not corrupted, a special entity and existence, which we may call a primary and radical and astral form; not the primary form of aristotle, but that unique form, which preserves and disposes its own proper sphere. there is one such in each several globe, in the sun, the moon, and the stars; one also in the earth, which is that true magnetick potency which we call the primary vigour. wherefore there is a magnetick nature peculiar to the earth and implanted in all its truer parts in a primary and astonishing manner; this is neither derived nor produced from the whole heaven by sympathy or influence or more occult qualities, nor from any particular star; for there is in the earth a magnetick vigour of its own, just as in the sun and moon there are forms of their own, and a small portion of the moon settles itself in moon-manner toward its termini and form; and a piece of the sun to the sun, just as a loadstone to the earth and to a second loadstone by inclining itself and alluring in accordance with its nature. we must consider therefore about the earth what magnetical bodies are, and what is a magnet; then also about the truer parts of it, which are magnetical, and how they are affected as a result of the coition. a body which is attracted by an electrick is not changed by it, but remains unshaken and unchanged, as it was before, nor does it excel any the more in virtue. a loadstone draws magnetical substances, which eagerly acquire power from its strength, not in their extremities only, but in their inward parts and their very marrow. for when a rod of iron is laid hold of, it is magnetically excited in the end by which it is laid hold of, and that force penetrates even to the other extremity, not through its surface only, but through the interior and all through the middle. electrical bodies have material and corporeal effluvia. is any such magnetical effluvium given off, whether corporeal or incorporeal? or is nothing at all given off that subsists? if it really has a body, that body must be thin and spiritual, since it is necessary that it should be able to enter into iron. or what sort of an exhalation is it that comes from lead, when quicksilver which is bright and fluid is bound together by the odour merely and vapour of the lead, and remains, as it were, a firm metal? but even gold, which is exceedingly solid and dense, is reduced to a powder by the thin vapour of lead. or, seeing that, as the quicksilver has entrance into gold, so the magnetical odour has entrance into the substance of the iron, how does it change it in its essential property, although no change is perceptible to our senses in the bodies themselves? for without ingression into the body, the body is not changed, as the chemists not incorrectly teach. but if indeed these things resulted from a material ingression, then if strong and dense and thick substances had been interposed between the bodies, or if magnetical substances had been inclosed in the centres of the most solid and the densest bodies, the iron particles would not have suffered anything from the loadstone. but none the less they strive to come together and are changed. therefore there is no such conception and origin of the magnetick powers; nor do the very minute portions of the stone exist, which have been wrongly imagined to exist by baptista porta, aggregated, as it were, into hairs, and arising from the rubbing of the stone which, sticking to the iron, constitute its strength. electrick effluvia are not only impeded by any dense matter, but also in like manner by flames, or if a small flame is near, they do not allure. but as iron is not hindered by any obstacle from receiving force or motion from a loadstone, so it will pass through the midst of flames to the body of the loadstone and adhære to the stone. let there be a flame or a candle near the stone; bring up a short piece of iron wire, and when it has come near, it will penetrate through the midst of the flames to the stone; and a versorium turns towards the loadstone nor more slowly nor less eagerly through the midst of flames than through open air. so flames interposed do not hinder the coition. but if the iron itself became heated by a great heat, it is demonstrable that it would not be attracted. bring a strongly ignited rod of iron near a magnetized versorium; the versorium remains steady and does not turn towards such iron; but it immediately turns towards it, so soon as it has lost somewhat of its heat. when a piece of iron has been touched by a loadstone, if it be placed in a hot fire until it is perfectly red hot and remain in the fire some considerable time, it will lose that magnetick strength it had acquired. even a loadstone itself through a longish stay in the fire, loses the powers of attracting implanted and innate in it, and any other magnetick powers. and although certain veins of loadstone exhale when burnt a dark vapour of a black colour, or of a sulphurous foul odour, yet that vapour was not the soul, or the cause of its attraction of iron (as porta thinks), nor do all loadstones whilst they are being baked or burnt smell of or exhale sulphur. it is acquired as a sort of inborn defect from a rather impure mine or matrix. nor does anything analogous penetrate into the iron from that material corporeal cause, since the iron conceives the power of attracting and verticity from the loadstone, even if glass or gold or any other stone be interposed. then also cast iron acquires the power of attracting iron, and verticity, from the verticity of the earth, as we shall afterwards plainly demonstrate in direction. but fire destroys the magnetick virtues in a stone, not because it takes away any parts specially attractive, but because the consuming force of the flame mars by the demolition of the material the form of the whole; as in the human body the primary faculties of the soul are not burnt, but the charred body remains without faculties. the iron indeed may remain after the burning is completed and is not changed into ash or slag; nevertheless (as cardan not inaptly says) burnt iron is not iron, but something placed outside its nature until it is reduced. for just as by the rigour of the surrounding air157 water is changed from its nature into ice; so iron, glowing in fire, is destroyed by the violent heat, and has its nature confused and perturbed; wherefore also it is not attracted by a loadstone, and even loses that power of attracting in whatever way acquired, and acquires another verticity when, being, as it were, born again, it is impregnated by a loadstone or the earth, or when its form is revived, not having been dead but confused, concerning which many things are manifest in the change of verticity. wherefore fracastorio158 does not confirm his opinion, that the iron is not altered; "for if it were altered," he says, "by the form of the loadstone, the form of the iron would have been spoiled." this alteration is not generation, but the restitution and reformation of a confused form. there is not therefore anything corporeal which comes from the loadstone or which enters the iron, or which is sent back from the iron when it is stimulated; but loadstone disposes loadstone by its primary form; iron, however, which is closely related to it, loadstone at the same time recalls to its conformate strength, and settles it; on account of which it rushes to the loadstone and eagerly conforms itself to it (the forces of each in harmony bringing them together). the coition also is not vague or confused, not a violent inclination of body to body, no rash and mad congruency; no violence is here applied to the bodies; there are no strifes or discords; but there is that concord (without which the universe would go to pieces), that analogy, namely, of the perfect and homogeneous parts of the spheres of the universe to the whole, and a mutual concurrency of the principal forces in them, tending to soundness, continuity, position, direction, and to unity. wherefore in the case of such wonderful action and such a stupendous implanted vigour (diverse from other natures) the opinion of thales of miletus159 was not very absurd, nor was it downright madness, in the judgment of scaliger, for him to grant the loadstone a soul; for the loadstone is incited, directed, and orbitally moved by this force, which is all in all, and, as will be made clear afterwards, all in every part; and it seems to be very like a soul. for the power of moving itself seems to point to a soul; and the supernal bodies, which are also celestial, divine, as it were, are thought by some to be animated, because they move with admirable order. if two loadstones be set one over against the other, each in a boat, on the surface of water, they do not immediately run together, but first they turn towards one another, or the lesser conforms to the greater, by moving itself in a somewhat circular manner, and at length, when they are disposed according to their nature, they run together. in smelted iron which has not been excited by a magnet there is no need for such an apparatus; since it has no verticity, excepting what is adventitious and acquired, and that not stable and confirmed (as is the case with loadstone, even if the iron has been smelted from the best loadstone), on account of the confusion of the parts by fire when it flowed as a liquid; it suddenly acquires polarity and natural aptitude by the presence of the loadstone, by a powerful mutation, and by a conversion into a perfect magnet, and by an absolute metamorphosis; and it flies to the body of the magnet as if it were a real piece of loadstone. for a loadstone has no power, nor can a perfect loadstone do anything which iron when excited by loadstone cannot perform, even when it has not been touched but only placed in its vicinity. for when first it is within the orbe of virtue of the loadstone, though it may be some distance away, yet it is immediately changed, and has a renovated form, formerly indeed dormant and inert in body, now lively and strong, which will be clearly apparent in the demonstrations of direction. so the magnetick coition is a motion of the loadstone and of the iron, not an action of one160; an ἐντελέχεια, of each, not ἔργον; a συνεντελέχεια or conjoint action, rather than a sympathy. there is properly no such thing as magnetick antipathy. for the flight and declination of the ends, or an entire turning about, is an action of each towards unity by the conjoint action and συνεντελέχεια of both. it has therefore newly put on the form, and on account of this being roused, it then, in order that it may more surely acquire it, rushes headlong on the loadstone, not with curves and turnings, as a loadstone to a loadstone. for since in a loadstone both verticity and the power disponent have existed through many ages, or from the very beginnings, have been inborn and confirmed, and also the special form of the terrestrial globe cannot easily be changed by another loadstone, as iron is changed; it happens from the constant nature of each, that one has not the sudden power over another of changing its verticity, but that they can only mutually come to agreement with each other. again, iron which has been excited by a loadstone, if that iron on account of obstacles should not be able to turn round immediately in accordance with its nature, as happens with a versorium, is laid hold of, when a loadstone approaches, on either side or at either end. because, just as it can implant, so it can suddenly change the polarity and turn about the formal energies to any part whatever. so variously can iron be transformed when its form is adventitious and has not yet been long resident in the metal. in the case of iron, on account of the fusion of the substance when magnetick ore or iron is smelted, the virtue of its primary form, distinct before, is now confused; but an entire loadstone placed near it again sets up its primal activity; its adjusted and arranged form joins its allied strength with the loadstone; and both mutually agree and are leagued together magnetically in all their motions towards unity, and whether joined by bodily contact or adjusted within the orbe, they are one and the same. for when iron is smelted out of its own ore, or steel (the more noble kind of iron) out of its ore, that is, out of loadstone, the material is loosed by the force of the fire, and flows away, and iron as well as steel flow out from their dross and are separated from it; and the dross is either spoiled by the force of the fire and rendered useless, or is a kind of dregs of a certain imperfection and of mixture in the prominent parts of the earth. the material therefore is a purified one, in which the metallick parts, which are now mixed up by the melting, since those special forces of its form are confused and uncertain, by the approach of a loadstone are called back to life, as if to a kind of disponent form and integrity. the material is thus awakened and moves together into unity, the bond of the universe and the essential for its conservation. on this account and by the purging of the material into a cleaner body, the loadstone gives to the iron a greater force of attracting than there is in itself. for if iron dust or an iron nail be placed over a large loadstone, a piece of iron joined to it takes away the filings and nail from the loadstone and retains them so long as it is near the loadstone; wherefore iron attracts iron more than loadstone does, if it have been conformed by a loadstone and remains within the orbe of its communicated form. a piece of iron even, skilfully placed near the pole of a loadstone, lifts up more than the loadstone. therefore the material of its own ore is better, and by the force of fire steel and iron are re-purged; and they are again impregnated by the loadstone with its own forms; therefore they move towards it by a spontaneous approach as soon as they have entered within the orbe of the magnetick forces, because they were possessed by it before, connected and united with it in a perfect union; & they have immediately an absolute continuity within that orbe, & have been joined on account of their harmony, though their bodies may have been disjoined. for the iron is not taken possession of and allured by material effluvia, after the manner of electricks, but only by the immaterial action of its form or an incorporeal progression, which in a piece of iron as its subject acts and is conceived, as it were, in a continuous homogeneous body, and does not need more open ways. therefore (though the most solid substances be interposed) the iron is still moved and attracted, and by the presence of loadstone the iron moves and attracts the loadstone itself, and by mutual forces a concurrency is made towards unity, which is commonly called attraction of the iron. but those formal forces pass out and are united to one another by meeting together; a force also, when conceived in the iron, begins to flow out without delay. but julius scaliger, who by other examples contends that this theory is absurd, makes in his 344th exercise a great mistake. for the virtues of primary bodies are not to be compared with bodies formed from and mixed with them. he would now have been able (had he been still alive) to discern the nature of effused forms in the chapter on forms effused by spherical magneticks. but if iron is injured somewhat by rust, it is affected either only slightly or not at all by the stone. for the metal is spoiled when eaten away and deformed by external injuries or by lapse of time (just as has been said about the loadstone), and it loses its prime qualities which are conjoined to its form; or, being worn out by age, retains them in a languid and weak condition; indeed it cannot be properly re-formed, when it has been corrupted. but a powerful and fresh loadstone attracts sound and clean pieces of iron, and those pieces of iron (when they have conceived strength) have a powerful attraction for other iron wires and iron nails, not only one at a time, but even successively one behind another, three, four or five, end to end, sticking and hanging in order like a chain. the loadstone, however, would not attract the last one following in such a row, if there were no nails between. . a loadstone placed as at a

draws a nail or a bar b; similarly behind b it draws c; and after c, d. but the nails b and c being removed, the loadstone a, if it remain at the same distance, does not raise the nail d into the air. this occurs for this reason: because in the case of a continuous row of nails the presence of the loadstone a, besides its own powers, raises the magnetick natures of the iron works b and c, and makes them, as it were, forces auxiliary to itself. but b and c, like a continuous magnetical body, extend as far as d the forces by which d is taken and conformed, though they are weaker than those which c receives from b. and those iron nails indeed from that contact only, and from the presence of the loadstone even without contact, acquire powers which they retain in their own bodies, as will be demonstrated most clearly in the passage on direction. for not only whilst the stone is present does the iron assume these powers, and take them, as it were, vicariously from the stone, as themistius lays down in his 8th book on physicks161. the best iron, when it has been melted down (such is steel), is allured by a loadstone from a greater distance, is raised though of greater weight, is held more firmly, assumes stronger powers than the common and less expensive, because it is cast from a better ore or loadstone, imbued with better powers. but what is made from more impure ore turns out weaker and is moved more feebly. as to fracastorio's162 statement that he saw a piece of loadstone draw a loadstone by one of its faces, but not iron; by another face iron, but not loadstone; by another both; which he says is an indication that in one part there is more of the loadstone, in another more of the iron, in another both equally, whence arises that diversity of attraction; it is most incorrect and badly observed on the part of fracastorio, who did not know how to apply skilfully loadstone to loadstone. a loadstone draws iron and also a loadstone, if both are suitably arranged and free and unrestrained. that is removed more quickly from its position and place which is lighter; for the heavier bodies are in weight, the more they resist; but the lighter both moves itself to meet the heavier and is allured by the other.