nd substances, provided they have been prepared; as well as all clay,
grit[105], and some sorts of rocks, and, to speak more clearly, all the
more solid earth that is everywhere apparent; given that that earth be not
fouled with fatty and fluid corruptions; as mud, as mire, as accumulations
of putrid matter; nor deformate by the imperfections of sundry admixtures;
nor dripping with ooze, as marls; all are attracted by the loadstone, when
simply prepared by fire, and freed from their refuse humour; and as by the
loadstone so also by the earth herself they are drawn and controlled
magnetically, in a way different from all other bodies; and by that
inherent force settle themselves according to the orderly arrangement and
fabric of the universe and of the Earth, as will appear {44} later. Thus
every part of the earth which is removed from it exhibits by sure
experiments every impulse of the magnetick nature; by its various motions
it observes the globe of the earth and the principle common to both.

[Illustration]

* * * * *

{45} [Illustration]

BOOK SECOND.

_CHAP. I._

ON MAGNETICK
Motions.

Divers things concerning opinions about the magnet-stone, and its variety,
concerning its poles and its known faculties, concerning iron, concerning
the properties of iron, concerning a magnetick substance common to both of
these and to the earth itself, have been spoken briefly by us in the former
book. There remain the magnetical motions, and their fuller philosophy,
shown and demonstrated. These motions are incitements of homogeneal parts
either among themselves or toward the primary conformation of the whole
earth. Aristotle admits only two simple motions of his elements, from the
centre and toward the centre; of light ones upward, heavy ones downward; so
that in the earth there exists one motion only of all its parts towards the
centre of the world,--a rude and inert precipitation. But what of it is
light, and how wrongly it is inferred by the Peripateticks from the simple
motion of the elements, and also what is its heavy part, we will discuss
elsewhere. But now our inquiry must be into the causes of other motions,
depending on its true form, which we have plainly seen in our magnetick
bodies; and these we have seen to be present in the earth and in all its
homogenic parts also. We have noticed that they harmonize with the earth,
and are bound up with its forces. Five movements[106] or d