Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A key to physic, and the occult sciences / [E. Sibly]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
46/548 page 30
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A key to physic, and the occult sciences / [E. Sibly]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
![low, unlefs by their motion the iron be carried with them; To the iron follows and is moved toward ihe loadftone, except the iron be bigger than the loadftone ; for then the corpufcles which proceed from the loadftone are not fo many, nor by confequence fo powerful, as to draw the iron. The reafon the loadftone draws no other body but iron, is becaufe other bodies do not return the atoms, neither are their pores well fitted for thofe magnetic corpufcles. By the fame reafon it appears that the load- ftone does not approach to the iron, but the iron to the loaddone. It may be faid that hard and folid bodies, fuch as iron, cannot emit fuch a great number of corpuf- cles as other bodies, which, like the loaddone, are lefs folid and more porous. There may be a reafon given alfo why the loadftone, being rubbed with garlic or oil, does not fo eafily draw iron to it, which is, tbafthefe ftrange corpufcles, by their oilinefs, hinder the erniftion of the corpufcles out of the loaddone, and alfo their entrance into the pores of the iron, and thus break their eladic force. We may obferve many other effects of the loaddone : as for example, that iron put upon a table is moved by the virtue of this ftone placed under the table; for it is certain that the corpufcles of the loaddone which moves the iron penetrate through the vacuity or pores of the table, as if by fmall and invifible threads it had been tied to the loadftone. It is the fame thing if the table be of marble or glafs, provided it be not greafy nor too thick, which proves the porofity of bodies. Another cffeCl of the loadftone is feen in a needle, which, being touched by it, always turns towards the north pole; the reafon is, becaufe there are mountains of loadftones under the poles, difpeifing their attractive fpirits through the univerfe, fpirits which are entan- gled with thofe which adhere to the magnetical needle, whole force is leftened as the fpirits of it are diftipated; efpecially if the compafs be fet in a place where there are pieces of iron to which the fpirits Hick, and leave the needle, which had taken no greater quantity of them than what was requifite according to its capacity. But the mod wonderful property in this ftone is, that it draws iron on one fide, and rejeCts it on the other, fo that it appears in every loadftone that there are two poles of the world, the north pole attracts iron, the fouth pole repels it.; becaufe the fpirit of the north pole enters in at the pores of the iron, but the fouthern cannot, for it ftrikes againft the iron, and drives back too much its elaftic particles. This explication prefuppofes the being of fpirits and atoms, and their figures and motions, as alfo fmall occult vacuities, which are difperfed through all bodies. There are obferved to be many effeCis for which no reafon can be given, without the help of the word antipathy. We will inftance fome few : and, firit, of the bafi- ]ifk, who kills all whom he fees, which is by the antipathy fubfifting betwixt it and other animals; but this is rather done by the emiffion of certain venomous fpirits, which](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22015036_0046.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
