primum movens immobile), cap. d,
p. 96.

[110] M: p. 94.

[111] M: p. 95.

It can be seen how this uniting action is effected if objects floating
on water are considered, for solids can be drawn to solids through the
medium of a fluid.[112] A wet body touching another wet body not only
attracts it, but moves it if the other body is small,[113] while wet
bodies on the surface of the water attract other wet bodies. A wet
object on the surface of the water seeks union with another wet object
when the surface of the water rises between both: at once, "like drops
of water, or bubbles on water, they come together."[114] On the other
hand, "a dry body does not move toward a wet, nor a wet to a dry, but
rather they seem to go away from one another."[115] Moreover, a dry
body does not move to the dry rim of the vessel while a wet one runs
to a wet rim.[116]

[112] M: p. 93.

[113] M: pp. 92, 93.

[114] M: p. 93.

[115] M: p. 94.

[116] M: p. 94.

By means of the properties of such a fluid, Gilbert could explain the
unordered coming-together that he called coacervation.[117] Different
bodies have different effluvia, and so one has coacervation of
different materials. Thus, in Gilbert's philosophy air was the earth's
effluvium and was responsible for the unordered motion of objects
towards the earth.[118]

[117] M: p. 97.

[118] M: p. 92 (see also p. 339). Although Gilbert does not
make it explicit, this would solve the medieval problem of
gravitation without resorting to a Ptolemaic universe. In
addition, since coacervation is electric, and electric forces
can be screened, it should have been possible to reduce the
downward motion of a body by screening!

The analogy between electric attraction and fluids is a most concrete
one, yet lying beneath this image is a hypothesis that is difficult to
fix into a mechanical system based upon contact forces. This is the
assumption that under the proper conditions bodies tend to move
together in order to participate in a more complete unity.[119] The
steps in electrical attraction were described as occurring on two
different levels of abstraction: first one has physical contact
through an effluvium or "spiritus" that connects the two objects
physically. Then, as a result of this contact, the objects somehow
sense[120] that a more intimate harmony is possible, and move
accordingly. Gilbert called the motion that f