Bibliographical history of electricity & magnetism, chronologically arranged
History
Bibliographical history of electricity & magnetism, chronologically arranged
Electricity -- History; Electricity -- History -- Bibliography; Magnetism -- History; Magnetism -- History -- Bibliography; Science, Medieval
“The stone magnet is believed by many to owe its name to Magnesia....”
We consider, however, the opinion of the Hermetists to be the correct
one. The word _magh_, _magus_, is derived from the Sanscrit _mahaji_,
meaning the great or wise ... so the magnet stone was called in honour
of the Magi, who were the first to discover its wonderful properties.
Their places of worship were located throughout the country in all
directions, and among these were some temples of Hercules, hence
the stone--when it became known that the priests used it for their
curative and magical purposes--received the name of Magnesian or
Herculean stone. Socrates, speaking of it, says: “Euripides calls it
the Magnesian stone, but the common people the Herculean” (Plato,
“Ion”--Burgess--Vol. IV. p. 294). In the same Vol. I. of “Isis
Unveiled” we are likewise informed that Electricity in the Norse
legends is personated by Thor, the son of Odin, at Samothrace by the
Kabeirian Demeter (Joseph Ennemoser, “History of Magic,” London,
1854, Vol. II.; J. S. C. Schweigger, “Introd. to Mythol. through Nat
Hist.,” Halle, 1836), and that it is denoted by the “twin brothers,”
the Dioskuri. Also that the _celestial_, pure fire of the Pagan altar
was electrically drawn from the astral light, that magnetic currents
develop themselves into electricity upon their exit from the body, and
that the first inhabitants of the earth brought down the heavenly fire
to their altars (J. S. C. Schweigger in Ennemoser’s “Hist. of Magic,”
Vol. II. p. 30; Maurus Honoratus Servius, “Virgil,” Eclog. VI. v. 42).
=B.C. 321.=--Theophrastus, Greek philosopher, first observed the
attractive property of the _lyncurium_, supposed by many to be the
_tourmaline_, and gave a description of it in his treatise upon stones
(“De Lapidibus,” sec. 53; or the translation of Sir John Hill, 1774,
chap. xlix.-l., p. 123). This crystal was termed _lapis lyncurius_ by
Pliny in his “Nat. Hist.,” and _lapis electricus_ by Linnæus in his
“Flora Zeylanica” (U. Aldrovandus, “Mus. Metal.”; Philemon Holland,
“The Historie of the World,” commonly called “The Naturall Historie of
C. Plinius Secundus,” London, 1601).
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