M: pp. 161, 162, 168, 335.

[Illustration: Figure 1.--WILLIAM GILBERT'S BOOK ON THE LOADSTONE,
TITLE PAGE OF THE FIRST EDITION, FROM A COPY IN THE LIBRARY OF
CONGRESS. (_Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress._)]

There is another sense in which it is possible to contend that
Gilbert's treatise introduced modern studies in these fields. He has
frequently been credited with the introduction of the inductive method
based upon stubborn facts, in contrast to the methods and content of
medieval Aristotelianism.[5] No science can be based upon faulty
observations and certainly much of _De magnete_ was devoted to the
destruction of the fantastic tales and occult sympathies of the
Romans, the medieval writers, and the Renaissance. However, let us
also remember that Gilbert added few novel empirical facts of a
fundamental nature to previous observations on the loadstone.
Gilbert's experimental work was in large part an expansion of Petrus
Peregrinus' _De magnete_ of 1269,[6] and a development of works like
Robert Norman's _The new attractive_,[7] in which the author discussed
how one could show experimentally the declination and inclination of a
magnetized needle, and like William Borough's _Discourse on the
variation of the compass or magnetized needle_,[8] in which the author
suggested the use of magnetic declination and inclination for
navigational purposes but felt too little was known about it. That
other sea-going nations had been considering using the properties of
the magnetic compass to solve their problems of navigation in the same
manner can be seen from Simon Stevin's _De havenvinding_.[9]

[5] For example, William Whewell, _History of the inductive
sciences_, ed. 3, New York, 1858, vol. 2, pp. 192 and 217;
Charles Singer, _A short history of science to the nineteenth
century_, Oxford, 1943, pp. 188 and 343; and A. R. Hall, _The
scientific revolution_, Boston, 1956, p. 185.

[6] _Petri Peregrini maricurtenis, de magnete, seu rota
perpetui motus, libellus_, a reprint of the 1558 Angsburg
edition in J. G. G. Hellmann, _Rara magnetica_, Berlin, 1898,
not paginated. A number of editions of Peregrinus, work, both
ascribed to him and plagiarized from him, appeared in the
16th century (see Heinz Balmer, _Beitraege zur Geschichte der
Erkenntnis des Erdmagnetismus_, Aarau, 1956, pp. 249-255).

[7] Hellmann, _ibid._, Robert Norman, _The newe attractive,
containyn