of Apollonia, Alexander Aphrodiseus, Democritus, and
others, conceived the magnet to draw at the iron without the iron in any
way contributing to that action. Saint Basil specially affirms that the
magnet is not drawn by iron. On the other hand, Albertus Magnus had
conceived the idea that the iron sought the magnet by a one-sided effort in
which the magnet took no part. Gilbert had the wit to discern that the
action was mutual, and to mark the new conception he adopted the new term,
and defined it as it stands in his glossary. It is "a concourse or
concordancy of both," and to emphasize his meaning he adds, "not as if
there were an [Greek: helktike dunamis] but a [Greek: sundrome]" not a
tractile power, but a running together. The adjective [Greek: helktike] is
obviously related to the verb [Greek: helko], I draw: but its meaning
puzzled the subsequent editors of the text, for in the two Stettin editions
of 1628 and 1633, the phrase appears in the respective forms of [Greek:
heletike dunamis] and [Greek: helkustike dunamis]. In Creech's English
version of Lucretius (edition of 1722, p. 72a, in the footnote) is the
commentary "Galen, disputing against Epicurus, uses the term [Greek:
helkein], which seems likewise too violent." It may be noted that the same
verb occurs in the passage from the _Io_ of Plato quoted below. The term
[Greek: sundrome] applied by Gilbert to explain his term _Coitio_ is used
by Diodorus for the mutual onset of two hostile forces.

A picturesque sentence from Sir Thomas Browne's _Pseudodoxia Epidemica_
(London, 1650, p. 51) sets the matter succinctly forth. "If in two skiffs
of cork, a Loadstone and Steel be placed within the orb of their
activities, the one doth not move the other standing still, but both hoist
sayle and steer unto each other; so that if the Loadstone attract, the
Steel hath also its attraction; for in this action the Alliency is
reciprocall, which jointly felt, they mutually approach and run into each
others arms." {4} The page and line references given in these notes are in
all cases first to the Latin edition of 1600, and secondly to the English
edition of 1900.

[2] PAGE 1, LINE 28. Page 1, line 28. _Plato in Ione._--The passage in the
_Io_ of Plato is in chap. v. Socrates addressing the poet Io tells him that
his facility in reciting Homer is not really an art: [Greek: theia de
dunamis, he se kinei hosper en tei lithoi, hen Euripides men Magnetin
onomasen, hoi de polloi He