THE ORIGIN OF THE MAGNET. 27 



emigrants, but fugitives flying from Greece, and a third 

 brings them, not from Thessaly at all, but from Delphoi. 1 



Divested of speculation, there remains simply the fact 

 that there was a town of Magnesia close to a large bed of 

 magnetite. 2 Klaproth 3 notes that this same settlement 

 was called "Heraclea," whence the Greek term "stone of 

 Heraclea " for the magnet ; but there was also a town of 

 Heraclea near the first Magnesia, and several other settle- 

 ments, similarly named, in widely separated parts of 

 Greece and Asia Minor, so that this derivation is also 

 in doubt. Indeed, Pliny 4 regards the name "stone of 

 Heraclea" or "Heraclea-lithos," not as based on locality, 

 but as meaning "Herculean stone," for the reason already 

 given, namely, the conquering power of the magnet over 

 iron ; and Professor Schweigger, 5 with labored ingenuity, 

 goes even further, and asserts that "Herculean" and 

 "magnetic" mean the same thing, and that the entire 

 ancient myth of Hercules merely symbolized the natural 

 strength of the magnet. 



To these early traditions of the Greeks and Syrians, 

 research into the dim historical annals of other peoples, 

 existing at that far distant time, adds nothing of import- 

 ance. A familiarity with electrical (or magnetic) effects is 

 often attributed to the Egyptians of the Pharaonic periods; 

 but this seems to be without trustworthy foundation. No 

 legends of magnetic rocks or mountains on Egyptian ter- 

 ritory have been encountered. But one Egyptian iron 

 mine shows any signs of having been anciently worked, 

 and, there the ore is of the specular or red, and not of the 

 magnetic variety. 6 L,epsius considers that iron or steel do 



1 Cox, G. W. : A History of Greece, London, 1874. 



2 Trans. Phil. Soc., Cambridge; and Athenaeum, Jan. 4, 1834. See, 

 also, Wilkin's Ed. of Works of Sir T. Browne. London, 1883. 



s L'Invention de la Boussole, Paris, 1834. *Lib. xxxvi. 



6 Ennemoser : History of Magic, London, 1854. 



6 Wilkinson: Anc. Egyptians, Boston, 1883, ii., 250. Rawlinson : 

 Hist, of Anc. Egypt, London, iSSi, 93. 



