VOL. XXIII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 657 



any other circle than the circulus nauticus. But now in all languages, French, 

 Italian, German, &c. the circulus nauticus has the name of compass, or some- 

 what analogous, compass, compasso, zee-kompas, &c. Which name I guess, 

 together with the art, they borrowed from England. 



I might urge the same from another name, bossolo, bossola, &c. For, as 

 circulus nauticus is the mariner's compass ; so pyxis nautica is the mariner's 

 box, for the English box is from the Latin pyxis; and pyxidula (as a diminutive 

 from pyxis) must be boxel, or some word like it, which easily passes into the 

 French buxole, boussole ; and the Italian bossola, boussola ; all which seem to 

 be from the English boxel (pyxidala) a little box ; softening the sound of the 

 letter x into ss; as in Alessandro, for Alexandro. 



All which, though it be not a direct demonstration, is at least a probable 

 conjecture, and a plausible pretence to the invention, till a better claim appears. 

 For, in the case of new inventions, when they come abroad, they commonly 

 take their names from whence the invention itself is taken. And where inven- 

 tions creep in by degrees, it must not be thought strange if it be not easy to 

 say who is the first inventor. In the present case; he who first observed that 

 the magnet has a polarity, or inclination northward, made the first step towards 

 this invention. This I think was at first wont to be showed, by putting a 

 magnet into a little boat, swimming on water, when it was observed, that this 

 magnet would of itself so steer this little boat, as that a certain point in the 

 magnet would turn toward the north : which point was thence called the mag- 

 net's north pole. He that afterwards observed, that this verticity or polarity, 

 was communicable to a piece of iron or steel rubbed on a magnet, added a 

 further step towards the business in hand. And he who contrived a way to set 

 a needle, or piece of steel, so touched, on a sharp pin, so as in the air to move 

 horizontally on it, and thus of itself to find out the north, and point towards it : 

 had now discovered a new experiment in natural philosophy very surprising. 



But this could not yet be called circulus nauticus, or the mariner's compass, 

 till they had further contrived a way how to put a needle, thus poised, into a 

 box, with a compass or circle round it ; so divided as to denote the azimuthal 

 points of the horizon, or the points of the compass; and so commodiously to 

 fix this box to the ship, as thereby to instruct the mariner towards what point 

 of the compass the ship moved ; that he might put it into such a course, as was 

 proper for his voyage. And it was now indeed pyxis nautica, or circulus nauti- 

 cus, the mariner's box or compass, but not till then. And he who first con- 

 trived this application completed this invention of circulus nauticus. But all 

 those antecedent discoveries were steps towards it, and parts of the invention. 



Now it is not likely, that all these discoveries were made at once, by the 



VOL. IV. 4 P 



