( 4i8 ) 
the other yet fo faintly, that it applied contrary to their 
Inclination ; (that is, at the upper end, if it affefted to 
draw the South or the lower end, if the North.) They 
caufed the Needle to (land in aquilibrio, Eaft and Weft ; 
the particular Inclination of either one end feeming in 
fbme pieces, quite to conquer ; in others, quite to hinder 
that more general Polarity they both acquire, by being 
either upward or downward. Yet this (eeriis only to be 
found in fmall Stems of Iron ; the being either upward 
or downward always prevailing in pieces of greater 
Bulk. 
3, As to the Opinion of the Magnetick Philolbphers, 
that nothing gives or receives a Magnetifm, but what is 
in it felf truly Magnetick, as is only Iron ; as to the 
laftpart, that is, only Iron receiving a Magnetifm, I have 
nothing certain to fay, but for giving the fame ,• I fup- 
po(e it very queftionable, whether only Iron (or what is 
of near kin to it, as we fuppofe the Loadftone it felf to 
be) can beftow or impart fuch Virtue, fince not only, as 
I have faid before, the quenching in Water will do ir, 
but the heating alfo of an Iron by violent Motion, will 
do the fame ; as by quick and hard filing, which is the 
very fame thing as brisk drilling in the Iron ; and there- 
fore may be faid to proceed from the File which is Steel 
or Iron. But to fiiew it comes from the meer Motion 
(or heat,which is nothing elfe but the Motion continued). 
This Experiment may fuffice, if it fucceed toothers as it 
feem'd to do to me. I took my Knife, which had been 
formerly toucht (a quarter of a Year or more before,) 
and proftring it to the Needle, it drew the North Pole 
which happened right for my purpofe. I whetted it 
briskly on a dry dirty Threfliold, and being thin, it be- 
came very hot towards the Point, the Edge being whet 
away to a Wire, as they t?rm it, I ftruck the very top, 
and back towards the top, againft the Ground, as I had 
done 
