Project Gutenberg's On the magnet, by William Gilbert of Colchester

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Title: On the magnet;
a new physiology, demonstrated by many arguments & experiments

Author: William Gilbert of Colchester

Release Date: September 26, 2010 [EBook #33810]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON THE MAGNET ***

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VVILLIAM GILBERT

OF COLCHESTER,

PHYSICIAN OF

LONDON.

ON THE MAGNET, MAGNETICK

BODIES ALSO, AND ON

the great magnet the earth; a new Physiology,

_demonstrated by many arguments_

& experiments.

[Illustration]

LONDON

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IMPRINTED AT THE CHISWICK PRESS ANNO

MCM.

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[Illustration]

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{ij} [Illustration]

PREFACE TO THE CANDID
READER, STUDIOUS OF
THE MAGNETICK
PHILOSOPHY.

Clearer proofs, in the discovery of secrets, and in the investigation of
the hidden causes of things, being afforded by trustworthy experiments and
by demonstrated arguments, than by the probable guesses and opinions of the
ordinary professors of philosophy: so, therefore, that the noble substance
of that great magnet, our common mother (the earth), hitherto quite
unknown, and the conspicuous and exalted powers of this our globe, may be
the better understood, we have proposed to begin with the common magnetick,
stony, and iron material, and with magnetical bodies, and with the nearer
parts of the earth which we can reach with our hands and perceive with our
senses; then to proceed with demonstrable magnetick experiments; and so
penetrate, for the first time, into the innermost parts of the earth. For
after we had, in order finally to learn the true substance of the globe,
seen and thoroughly examined many of those things which have been obtained
from mountain heights or ocean depths, or from the profoundest caverns and
from