rakleian. kai gar aute he lithos ou monon autous
tous daktulious agei tous siderous, alla kai dunamin entithesi tois
daktuliois, ost au dunasthai tautou touto poiein, hoper he lithos, allous
agein daktulious, host' enioth' hormathos makros panu siderion kai
daktulion ex allelon ertetai pasi de toutois ex ekeines tes lithou he
dunamis anertetai.] The idea is that as the loadstone in attracting an iron
ring will make it into a magnet, which can in turn act magnetically on
another ring, and this on yet another, so the inspiration of the Muse is
transferred to the poet, who in turn hands on the inspiration through the
reciter to the listener. After further expanding the same idea of the
transference of influence, Socrates again mentions the magnet (chap. vii.):
[Greek: Oisth' oun hoti outos estin ho theates ton daktulion ho eschatos,
hon ego elegon hupo tes Herakleiotidos lithou ap' allelon ten dunamin
lambanein, ho de mesos su ho rhapsodos kai hupokrites, ho de protos autos
ho poietes? ho de theos dia panton touton helkei ten psuchen hopoi an
bouletai ton anthropon, k.t.l.] (Edition Didot of 1856, vol. i., p. 391; or
Stephanus, p. 533 D).

There is another reference in Plato to the magnet, namely, in the _Timaeus_
(p. 240, vol. ii., Edit. citat.). See the Note to p. 61.

The reference by Euripides to the magnet occurs in the lost play of Oeneus,
in a fragment preserved by Suidas. See _Fragmenta Euripidis_ (Ed. Didot,
1846, p. 757, or Nauck's edition, No. 567).

[Greek: hos Euripides en Oinei; tas broton gnomas skopon, hoste Magnetis
lithos ten doxan helkei kai methistesin palin.]

[3] PAGE 1, LINE 28. Page 1, line 29. The brief passage from Aristotle's
_De Anima_ referring to Thales is quoted by Gilbert himself at the bottom
of p. 11.

[4] PAGE 2, LINE 1. Page 1, line 29. The edition of 1628 inserts commas
between Theophrastus and Lesbius, and between Julius and Solinus, as though
these were four persons instead of two.

[5] PAGE 2, LINE 8. Page 2, line 5. _si allio magnes illitus fuerit, aut si
adamas fuerit_. An excellent version of this myth is to be found in Julius
Solinus, _Polyhistor, De Memorabilibus_, chap. lxiv., of which the English
version of 1587, by A. Golding, runs thus: "The Diamonde will not suffer
the Lodestone to drawe yron unto him: or if y^e Lodestone haue alreadie
drawne a peece of yron to it, the Diamond snatcheth and pulleth away as hys
bootye whatsoever the Lodestone hath taken hold of." Saint