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THE

SEVENTH BOOK

O F

Natural Magick:

U

Of the wonders of the Load-stone.

t v {Pol a

The Proems.

pass from Jewels to Stones: the chief whereof, and the most admirable k the Load-stone,and in it the Majesty ofNjture doth most appear : and I undertake this workjhemore willingly, because the Ancients left little or nothing of this in wri ting to p osterity. In afew days, not to fay hours t when 1 fought one experiment, others offered themselves , that IcolleBed almost two hundred of principal note ; so wonderful is God in all his works. But whatwiser and learneder men might find out , let all men judge, I knew at Venice R. M,Paulus the Venetian, that was bused in the fame study : he was 'Provincial ofthe Order ofservants , but now a most worthy Advocate , from whom I not onely confess , that /gainedsomething, but J glory in tt, because of all the men I ever saw, J never knew any man morelearned, or more ingenious , having obtained the whole body of learning - and is mt onelythe Splendor and Ornament of Venice or Italy » but ef the whole world. I snail begin fromthe most k>>cwn experiments , and pass to higher matters, that it may not repent any man ofhis great study and accurate diligence therein . By these, the longitude of the world may be

found out, that is of no small moment for Say lor s, and wherein the greatest wits have beenemployed , And to a friend that is at afar distance from us, and fast shut up in prison, wemay relate our minds ; which I doubt not maybe done by two Mariners (ompajfes, havingthe Alphabet wrtt about them. Upon this depends the principles of perpetual motion, andmore admirable things, which I shad here let pass. If the Antients left any thing of it, I shallput that in by the way : I stall mark . some false reports of some men , not to detefi their painsand industry , but lest any man should follow them in an error, and so errorsstould be perpe-tual thereby . I stall begin with the Name.

Chap. I.

What is the Name of this Stone, the kind of it, and the Ceuntrty where itgrews.

Lato is lone writes, that Empedecles called this stone yaytSm,but Lucretius from the conntrey Magnesia.

The Greeks do call it Magnes from the place,

For that the Magnets Land it doth embrace.

And the fame Plate faith , some call it Heraclius. Theophrastmin his book of Stones calls it ««*»»,. that is Herculeum , be-cause he found it about the city Heraclea. Others think it denominated from Her-cules : for as he conquered and subdued all beasts, and men; so this stone conquersiron, which conquers all things. Meander thinks the stone so called, and so dothPliny from him, from one Magnes a shepherd; for it is reported that he found it byhis hobnail’d fhooes, aud his shepherds-crook that it stuck to, when he fed his flocksin Ida, where he was a shepherd. But I think it is called Magnes, as you should sayCWagnus, onely one letter changed. Others call it Sidcrites from , that in

Greek

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