liarities of the juices--truly a vain and useless
error--bring in the loadstone as witness as being a nature of great
authority and of conspicuous efficacy and a remarkable body. So in very
many cases there are some who, when they are pleading a cause and cannot
give a reason for it, bring in loadstone and amber as though they were
personified witnesses. But these men (apart from that common error) being
ignorant that the causes of magnetical motions are widely different from
the forces of amber, easily fall into error, and are themselves the more
deceived by their own cogitations. For in other bodies a conspicuous force
of attraction manifests itself otherwise than in loadstone; like as in
amber, concerning which some things must first be said, that it may appear
what is that attaching of bodies, and how it is different from and foreign
to the magnetical actions; those mortals being still ignorant, who think
that inclination to be an attraction, and compare it with the magnetick
coitions. The Greeks call it [Greek: elektron][108] because it attracts
straws to itself, when it is warmed by rubbing; then it is called [Greek:
harpax][109]; and [Greek: chrusophoron] from its golden colour. But the
Moors call it Carabe[110], because they are accustomed to offer the same in
sacrifices and in the worship of the Gods. For Carab signifies to offer in
Arabic; so Carabe, an offering: or seizing chaff, as Scaliger quotes from
Abohalis, out of the Arabic or Persian language. Some also call it Amber,
especially the Indian and Ethiopian amber, called in Latin _Succinum_, as
if it were a juice[111]. The Sudavienses or Sudini[112] call it _geniter_,
as though it were generated terrestrially. The errors of the ancients
concerning its nature and origin having been exploded, it is certain that
amber comes for the most part from the sea, and the rustics collect it on
the coast after the more violent storms, with nets and other tackle; as
among the Sudini of Prussia; and it is also found sometimes on the coast of
our own Britain. It seems, however, to be produced also in the soil and at
spots of some depth, like other bitumens; to be washed out by the waves of
the sea; and to become concreted more firmly from the nature and saltness
of the sea-water. For it was at first a soft and viscous material;
wherefore also it contains enclosed and entombed in pieces of it, shining
in eternal sepulchres, flies, grubs, gnats, ants; which have all flown or