e loadstone is by nature
and origin[102]** of iron, and it and magnetick iron are both one in kind.
Iron ore yields iron in furnaces; loadstone also pours forth iron in the
furnaces, but of a much more excellent sort, that which is called steel or
blade-edge; and the better sort of iron ore is a weak loadstone, the best
loadstone being a most excellent ore of iron, in which, as is to be shown
by us, the primary properties are grand and conspicuous. Weaker loadstone
or iron ore is that in which these properties are more obscure, feeble, and
are scarce perceptible to the senses.

* * * * *

CHAP. XVII.

That the globe of the earth is magnetick, & a magnet; &
_how in our hands the magnet stone has all the primary_
forces of the earth, while the earth by the
_same powers remains constant in a
fixed direction in the
universe._

Prior to bringing forward the causes of magnetical motions, & laying open
the proofs of things hidden for so many ages, & our experiments (the true
foundations of terrestrial philosophy), we have to establish & present to
the view of the learned our New & unheard of doctrine about the earth; and
this, when argued by us on the grounds of its probability, with subsequent
{40} experiments & proofs, will be as certainly assured as anything in
philosophy ever has been considered & confirmed by clever arguments or
mathematical proofs. The terrene mass, which together with the vasty ocean
produces the sphaerick figure & constitutes our globe, being of a firm &
constant substance, is not easily changed, does not wander about, &
fluctuate with uncertain motions, like the seas, & flowing waves: but holds
all its volume of moisture in certain beds & bounds, & as it were in
oft-met veins, that it may be the less diffused & dissipated at random. Yet
the solid magnitude of the earth prevails & reigns supreme in the nature of
our globe. Water, however, is attached to it, & as an appendage only, & a
flux emanating from it; whose force from the beginning is conjoined with
the earth through its smallest parts, and is innate in its substance. This
moisture the earth as it grows hot throws off freely when it is of the
greatest possible service in the generation of things. But the thews and
dominant stuff of the globe is that terrene body which far exceeds in
quantity all the volume of flowing streams and open waters (whatever vulgar
philosophers may dream of the magnitudes and propor