THE mariner's COMPASS. 571 



ill navigation. It is, indeed, indubitable that the Greek and Roman 

 mariners were completely ignorant of the use of the nautical compass, 

 and that they were principally guided in their voyages by the stars 

 during night, and by their knowledge of the coasts and islands during 

 the day. 



Vincent de Beauvais and Albert the Great cite, indeed, a passage 

 from an Arabic book on stones, ascribed to Aristotle, in which the 

 question of the polarity of the loadstone and its use in the navy is 

 distinctly referred to; but we shall see presently that this passage is 

 merely a note interpolated by some copyist in the Arabic text of this 

 book. I will now request permission to call your attention to the 

 various names by which the loadstone is designated in the several 

 idioms of Europe and Asia. This nomenclature appears to me rather 

 curious, as it demonstrates that in countries the furthest removed from 

 each other analogous denominations are sfiven to this mineral, all 

 derived from its wonderful properties. 



The most ancient name for the loadstone to be found amongst 

 G reek authors is that of stone of Hercules, or rather stone of Heraclea, 

 a town situated at the foot of Mount Sipylas in Lydia. It appears that 

 this town afterwards received the name of Magnesia, and that then 

 the loadstone was called stone of Magnesia, and commonly magnes, 

 and magueies. We see also in Hesycliius that it was called stone of 

 Lydia, because it came from that country ; Zidrjplrrjg \i5oc, because 

 it is of the nature of iron ; and Sextus Empiricus gives it the name of 

 Sioijpa X'x^' because it attracts that metal. 



Marcellus Empiricus, physician to Theodosius the Great, says that 

 the loadstone called antiphyson attracts and repels iron. These last 

 words are the inore remarkable as proving that in the fourth 

 century of our era the two opposite properties of the loadstone were 

 known, that of attracting and that of repelling iron. It is this last 

 that is expressed by the word antiphyson, which indicates the 

 loadstone to breathe against iron, to repel it. But a passage by 

 Manethon, cited by Plutarch (de Iside et Osiride), gives rise to a 

 suspicion that the Egyptians had long before entertained the same 

 ideas about the loadstone : for they called it bone of Horns, and the 

 iron, bone of Typhon. Considering nature in its state of union and 

 decomposition under the symbol of Horus and Typhon, they fancied 

 a resemblance to these two states in the action of the loadstone on 

 the iron, according as this stone attracts or repels this metal. The 

 Romans, to whom the Greeks taught the knowledge of the loadstone, 

 preserved with its name of magnes the tradition of the origin of this 

 denomination, as is evident from the lines of Lucretius. 

 " Quem magnela vocant patrio de nomine Graii : 

 Magnetum, quia sit patrus in montibus ortus." 



According to Nicander, cited bv Pliny (lib. 36, cap. IG), it was the 

 shepherd Magnes, who, leading his flocks to pasture, found himself 

 attracted towards a loadstone mine by the nails of his shoes. Isidorus 

 (Originuin, lib. 16, cap. 4) follows Nicander, but places the event in 

 Indiii. The account of this latter was repeated in the Miroir du 

 Monr/e of Vincent de Beauvais, who wrote towards the year 1250: 

 " Mngnes" saya hv, " est bipis indicus, ab inventore vocatvs. Fuit 



