Exaltation of the power of the Magnet.
One loadstone far surpasses another in power, since one draws iron of
almost its own weight, another can hardly stir some shreds. Whatever
things, whether animals or plants, are endowed with life need some sort of
nourishment, by which their strength not only persists but grows firmer and
more vigorous. But iron is not, as it seemed to Cardan and to Alexander
Aphrodiseus, attracted by the loadstone in order that it may feed on shreds
of it, nor does the loadstone take up vigour from iron filings as if by a
repast on victuals. Since Porta had doubts on this and resolved to test it,
he took a loadstone of ascertained weight, and buried it in iron filings of
not unknown weight; and when he had left it there for many months, he found
the stone of greater weight, the filings of less. But the difference was so
slender that he was even then doubtful as to the truth. What was done by
him does not convict the stone of voracity, nor does it show any nutrition;
for minute portions of the filings are easily scattered in handling. So
also a very fine dust is insensibly born on a loadstone in some very slight
quantity, by which something might have been added to the weight of the
loadstone but which is only a surface accretion and might even be wiped off
with no great difficulty. Some think that a weak and sluggish stone can
bring itself back into better condition, and that a very powerful one also
might present it with the highest powers. Do they acquire strength like
animals when {93} they eat and are sated? Is the medicine prepared by
addition or subtraction? Is there anything which can re-create this primary
form or bestow it anew? And, certes, nothing can do this which is not
magnetical. Magneticks can restore a certain soundness to magneticks (when
not incurable); some can even exalt them beyond their proper strength; but
when a body is at the height of perfection in its own nature, it is not
capable of being strengthened further. So that that imposture of
Paracelsus, who affirms that the force and virtue can be increased and
transmuted tenfold, turns out to be the more infamous. The method of
effecting this is as follows, viz., you make it semi-incandescent in a fire
of charcoal (that is, you heat it very hot), so that it does not become
red-hot, however, and immediately slake it, as much indeed as it can
imbibe, in oil of saffron of Mars, made from the best Carynthian steel. "In
this way you will be able so to strengthen a loadstone that it can draw a
nail out of a wall and accomplish many other like wonderful things, which
are not possible for a common loadstone." But a loadstone thus slaked in
oil not only does not gain power, but suffers also a certain loss of its
inborn strength. A loadstone is improved if polished and rubbed with steel.
Buried in filings of the best iron or of pure steel, not rusty, it
preserves its strength. Sometimes also a somewhat good and strong one gains
[Illustration] some strength when it is rubbed on the pole of another, on
the opposite part, and receives virtue. In all these experiments it is an
advantage to observe the pole of the earth, and to adjust according to
magnetick laws the stone which we wish to strengthen; which we shall set
forth below. A somewhat powerful and fairly large loadstone increases the
strength of a loadstone as it does of iron. A loadstone being placed over
the boreal pole of a loadstone, * {94} the boreal pole becomes stronger,
and an iron rod (like an arrow) sticks to the boreal pole A, but not at all
to the pole B. The pole A also, when it is at the top in a right line with
the axis of both loadstones joined in accordance with magnetick laws,
raises the rod to the perpendicular, which it cannot do if the large
loadstone be removed, on account of its own weaker strength. But as a small
iron globe, when placed above the pole of a terrella, raises the rod to the
* perpendicular, so, when placed at the side, the rod is not directed
towards the centre of the globe, but is raised obliquely and cleaves
anywhere, because the pole in a round piece of iron is always the point
which is joined most closely to the pole of the terrella and is not
constant as in a smaller terrella. The parts of the earth, as of all
magneticks, are in agreement and take delight in their mutual proximity; if
placed in the highest power, they do not harm their inferiors, nor slight
them; there is a mutual love among them all, a perennial good feeling. The
weaker loadstones are re-created by the more powerful, and the less
powerful cause no harm to the stronger. But a powerful one attracts and
turns a somewhat strong one more than it does an impotent one. Because a
strenuous one confers a stronger activity, and itself hastens, flies up to
the other, and solicits it more keenly; therefore there is a more certain
and a stronger co-action and cohærency.
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