NOVUM ORGANUM. 



sympathy. Now, if the latter of these two causes be the right one, it 

 follows that the nearer heavy bodies approach the earth, the stronger 

 and more impetuous is their motion towards it ; and the farther they 

 are from it, the weaker and slower is that motion (as is the case with 

 magnetic attraction), and that this takes place within certain limits ; 

 so that if they were removed to such a distance from the earth that 

 the earth s influence could not act upon them, they would remain sus 

 pended, like the earth itself, and would not fall at all. 



And so we may employ the following Instance of the Cross in this 

 case. Take a clock worked by means of leaden weights, and another 

 worked by compression of an iron spring ; adjust them accurately, so 

 that one may not go faster or slower than the other ; then place the 

 clock which is moved by the weights upon the tower of a very high 

 church, and keep the other on the ground ; note carefully whether the 

 clock placed on the elevation goes more slowly than usual, owing to 

 the diminished virtue of the weights. Try the same experiment at the 

 bottom of deep mines, viz., whether a clock of the kind mentioned 

 does not go faster than usual, on account of the increased value of the 

 weights. And if the value of the weights is found to be diminished in 

 the higher and increased in the lower position, we may receive the 

 attraction of the mass of the earth as the cause of weight. 



In like manner let the Nature investigated be the Polarity of the 

 Iron Needle, when touched with the Magnet. With regard to this 

 Nature we shall have two roads meeting after this fashion. The touch 

 of the magnet must either of itself impart a north and south polarity 

 to the iron, or it must only excite the iron and prepare it, while the 

 motion itself is communicated by the presence of the earth ; as Gilbert 

 thinks and takes so much pains to prove. To this conclusion, there 

 fore, tend the observations which he has collected with such clear 

 sighted industry ; to wit, that an iron nail, which has lain for some 

 time in a direction north and south, after a lapse of some time gathers 

 polarity without the touch of the magnet ; as if the earth itself, which 

 on account of the distance operates feebly (the surface or outer crust 

 of the earth being, as he says, destitute of magnetic virtue), were yet 

 enabled by this long continuance to supply the place of the magnet, 

 and excite the iron, and then conform and turn it. Again, if iron be 

 heated to whiteness, and be laid, while cooling, north and south, it 

 also acquires polarity without the touch of the magnet ; as if the 

 particles of the iron, set in motion by the ignition, and afterwards re 

 covering themselves, were at the very moment of extinction more 

 susceptible, and, so to speak, sensitive of the influence proceeding 

 from the earth than at other times, and thence became excited. But 

 these things, although well observed, yet do not prove quite so much 

 as he asserts. 



Now, as an Instance of the Cross on this subject we may take the 

 following. Take a magnetized globe and mark its poles, and let the 

 poles of the magnet be arranged east and west, instead of north and 

 south, and so remain ; then place above it an untouched iron needle, 

 and let it remain six or seven days. Now the needle (for there is no 



