NOVUM OROANUM 203 



quenched in a direction parallel to the north and south, 

 also acquires polarity without the touch of the magnet, as 

 if the parts of iron being put in motion by ignition, and 

 afterward recovering themselves, were, at the moment of 

 being quenched, more susceptible and sensitive of the power 

 emanating from the earth, than at other times, and therefore 

 as it were excited. But these points, though well observed, 

 do not completely prove his assertion. 



An instance of the cross on this point might be as fol 

 lows: Let a small magnetic globe be taken, and its poles 

 marked, and placed toward the east and west, not toward 

 the north and south, and let it continue thus. Then let an 

 untouched needle be placed over it, and suffered to remain 

 so for six or seven days. Now, the needle (for this is not 

 disputed), while it remains over the magnet, will leave the 

 poles of the world and turn to those of the magnet, and 

 therefore, as long as it remains in the above position, will 

 turn to the east and west. But if the needle, when removed 

 from the magnet and placed upon a pivot, be found imme 

 diately to turn to the north and south, or even by degrees 

 to return thither, then the presence of the earth must be 

 considered as the cause, but if it remains turned as at first, 

 toward the east and west, or lose its polarity, then that cause 

 must be suspected, and further inquiry made. 



Again, let the required nature be the corporeal substance 

 of the moon, whether it be rare, fiery, and aerial (as most 

 of the ancient philosophers have thought), or solid and 

 dense (as Gilbert and many of the moderns, with some of 

 the ancients, hold). 63 The reasons for this latter opinion 



68 Bacon plainly, from this passage, was inclined to believe that the moon, 

 like the comets, was nothing more than illuminated vapor. The Newtonian 



