osition,
direction, and to unity. Wherefore in the case of such wonderful action and
such a stupendous implanted vigour (diverse from other natures) the opinion
of Thales of Miletus[159] was not very absurd, nor was it downright
madness, in the judgment of Scaliger, for him to grant the loadstone a
soul; for the loadstone is incited, directed, and orbitally moved by this
force, which is all in all, and, as will be made clear afterwards, all in
every part; and it seems to be very like a soul. For the power of moving
itself seems to point to a soul; and the supernal bodies, which are also
celestial, divine, as it were, are thought by some to be animated, because
they move with admirable order. If two loadstones be set one over against
the other, each in a boat, on the surface of water, they do not immediately
run together, but first they turn towards one another, or the lesser
conforms to the greater, by moving itself in a somewhat circular manner,
and at length, when they are disposed according to their nature, they run
together. In smelted iron which has not been excited by a magnet there is
no need for such an apparatus; since it has no verticity, excepting what is
adventitious and acquired, and that not stable and confirmed (as is the
case with loadstone, even if the iron has been smelted from the best
loadstone), on account of the confusion of the parts by fire when it flowed
as a liquid; it suddenly acquires polarity and natural aptitude by the
presence of the loadstone, by a powerful mutation, and by a conversion into
a perfect magnet, and by an absolute metamorphosis; and it flies to the
body of the magnet as if it were a real piece of loadstone. For a loadstone
has no power, nor can a perfect loadstone do anything which iron when
excited by loadstone cannot perform, even when it has not been touched but
only placed in its vicinity. For when first it is within the orbe of virtue
of the loadstone, though it may be some distance away, yet it is
immediately changed, and has a renovated form, formerly indeed dormant and
inert in body, now lively and strong, which will be clearly apparent in the
demonstrations of _Direction_. So the magnetick coition is a motion of the
loadstone and of the iron, not an action of one[160]; an [Greek:
entelecheia], of each, not [Greek: ergon]; a [Greek: sunentelecheia] or
conjoint action, rather than a sympathy. There is properly no such thing as
magnetick antipathy. For the flight and decl