stone. 



magnetized by coming within the "orbis virtutis" 

 have in turn an efflux of their own."* Iron can also 

 receive verticity directly from the earth without the 

 intervention of an ordinary loadstone.'" Such 

 verticity can be expelled and annulled by the presence 

 of another loadstone.'"* 



Although one does not normally find iron to be 

 magnetized, a loadstone always has some magnetism. 

 That two bodies such as iron and loadstone should 

 have different properties is the result of the loss of a 

 form by the iron, but this form is still polentiallv 

 present in the iron. The iron that has been obtained 

 from an ore has been deformed, '"' for it has been 

 placed "outside its nature" by the fire.'*" The nature 

 has not been removed, since, once the iron has 

 cooled, the confused form can be reformed by a load- 

 '-' The latter "awakens" the proper form of 

 After smelting, the magnetized iron may 

 manifest stronger powers than a loadstone of equal 

 weight, but this is because the primary matter of the 

 earth is purer in the iron than in the loadstone.'*' 

 If fire does not deform a loadstone too much, it can 

 be remagnetized,"** but a burnt loadstone cannot be 

 reformed."' Corruption from external causes may 

 also deform a loadstone or iron so that it can not be 

 magnetized.'*'' Bodies mixed with the degenerate 

 substance of the earth or with aqueous humor spoilt 

 by contamination with earth, do not show either 

 electric attraction or magnetic coition."*" 



In a manner suggestive of Peregrinus, Gilbert 

 wrote that, "magnetic bodies seek formal unity." "* 

 Thus a dissected loadstone not only tends to come 

 back together, as in the unordered coacervation of 

 electric attraction, but to restore the organization 

 it had before dissection."*^ Accordingly, opposite 

 poles appear on the interfaces of the sections, not 

 "from an opposition" but from "a concordance and 

 a conformance." ""' This ensures that when the 



parts are joined together again, they have the same 

 orientation as before. Gilbert compared this power 

 of restoring the original loadstone with that of a 

 plant's vital power under the process of cutting and 

 grafting; the plant can be revived only when the parts 

 are in a certain order."' 



A hypothesis similar to that used to explain electric 

 attraction lay beneath the explanation of magnetic 

 coition: that bodies brought into contact will move 

 together. In electric attraction, the contact is ma- 

 terial and due to the "spiritus" from the electric body; 

 in magnetic coition, it is formal and depends on the 

 action of a primary form that spreads from a magnet- 

 ized body to its limit of effusion, the "orbis virtutis." 

 If iron is inside the "orbis virtutis," the two bodies "en- 

 ter into alliance and are one and the same" "^ for within 

 it "they have ab.solutc continuity, and are joined by 

 reason of their accordance, albeit the Ixidies them- 

 selves be separated." "' 



Gilbert's treatment of coition can be analyzed into 

 the same two steps as can electric attraction. First 

 occurs a contact, which in this case is not physical 

 but formal, and from this initial formal contact 

 follows movement to a more complete unity. Both 

 the contact and the movement to unity are described 

 on the same level of abstraction, instead of on two 

 different levels as in electric attraction. Again 

 one does not find any clear-cut concept of force as a 

 push or pull,"* but instead, a motion to a formal 

 unity, this time a cooperative motion. The parts of 

 a magnetic body are in greater harmony when they 

 are as.sembled in a certain pattern and so they move 

 accordingly. 



As to the nature of the primary form itself, Gilbert 

 agreed with Thales that it is like a soul,"* "for the 

 power of self-movement seems to betoken a soul." '" 

 W'ith Galen and St. Thomas he placed the form of 

 the loadstone superior to that of inanimate matter. '*' 

 In a sense, Gilbert even made it superior to organic 

 matter, for it is incapable of error."' Like the soul, 

 the primary form cannot be fragmented; when a 

 loadstone is divided, one does not separate the poles 

 but each part acquires its own poles and an equator. 



'»' M: pp. 199-200. 



'« M: p. 111. 



'" M: p. 112. 



"• See, however, M: pp. 112, 113. 



'" M: pp. 109, 312. 



"« M: p. 109. 



'»• M: p. 309. 



'« M: pp. 311-312. 



PAPER 8: N.\TURAL PHILOSOPHY OF WILLIAM GILBERT 



137 



