C 2 1 J ) 
ex gr. in the whole Indian Sea, the Needk declines the 
fame way^and that regularly : twill follow that the atcra£l« 
- ing Subftance that occafions it^nnuft be very far diftant.Now 
by Experience we find the little force that Iron Guns have 
upon the Compafs in Ihips (their vertue, tho they be demi» 
cUlverin , or greater Gannon ^ being not perceptible at 
I^our or Five yards diftance ) and the Experiments now 
before the l{pyal Society do plainly (hew , how little a Mag- 
netifm there is in moft crude Iron Ores.- what quantity 
thereof rauft be then fuppofed to make fo powerfull 
a diverfion at Two or Three Thoufand miles diftance.^ 
Yet I cannot deny that infome places near the fhore, or 
ia (hoal water > the Needle may be irregularly diredled from 
the aforefaid caufeS:» and that not a little , as Gajfendus 
gives a notable inftance of the ifland in the Mediter- 
ranean Sea : but thefe differences from the general Dire- 
dion are always figns of the nearnefs of thofe Magneticai 
fubftances, for the produdion whereof that Ifland Elba 
has been famous from all antiquity. Befidesj againft both 
Ves Cartes and Gilberts, the change of the Variation, which 
^ has been within this Hundred yearlaft paft more than 15 
gr. 2iiLo7idon^ is an entire Demonftration • tho Des- Cartes 
does not ftick to fay, that the tranfportanon of Iron from 
place to place, and the growth of new Iron within the 
Earth * where there was none before, may be thecaufe 
thereof The fame holds likewife againft the Hypothecs of 
yiagnetical Fibres > vAiioh Kircher maintains. 
Now to propofe fomething that may ani wcr the feveral 
appearances , -ind introduce nothing ftrange in Philofc- 
phy , after a great many clofe thoughts , I can come to no 
otner conclufion than that , The whole Globe of the Earth u 
one great Magnet, having Four Magneticai poles, or points of 
attraUion^ near each pole of the EquatorTwo 5 and that^in thofe 
parts of the World which lye near adjacent to any one of thofe 
Ff 2 Mag- 
I 
