Whosoever with anxious thought examines the universe and searches out the origin of things--the reason of the sun’s and moon’s eclipse, the causes of comets’ red and baneful fires, the source of the winds, the motion that makes the earth to quake, the force that splits the heavens in twain, the noise of the thunder, the brilliance of the rainbow, let this man (if man’s mind has any power to conceive the truth) explain to me something I would fain understand. There is a stone called the loadstone; black, dull, and common. It does not adorn the braided hair of kings nor the snowy necks of girls, nor yet shine in the jewelled buckles of warriors’ belts. But consider the marvellous properties of this dull-looking stone and you will see that it is of more worth than lovely gems and any pearl sought of * * * * * Page 236 Indus litoribus Rubra scrutatur in alga. 15 nam ferro meruit vitam ferrique rigore vescitur; hoc dulces epulas, hoc pabula novit; hinc proprias renovat vires; hinc fusa per artus aspera secretum servant alimenta vigorem; hoc absente perit: tristi morientia torpent 20 membra fame, venasque sitis consumit apertas. Mavors, sanguinea qui cuspide verberat urbes, et Venus, humanas quae laxat in otia curas, aurati delubra tenent communia templi. effigies non una deis: sed ferrea Martis 25 forma nitet, Venerem magnetica gemma figurat. illis conubium celebrat de more sacerdos. ducit flamma choros; festa frondentia myrto limina cinguntur, roseisque cubilia surgunt floribus, et thalamum dotalis purpura velat. 30 hic mirum consurgit opus: Cytherea maritum sponte rapit caelique toros imitata priores pectora lascivo flatu Mavortia nectit et tantum suspendit onus galeaeque lacertos implicat et vivis totum complexibus ambit. 35 ille lacessitus longo spiraminis actu arcanis trahitur gemma de coniuge nodis. pronuba fit Natura deis ferrumque maritat aura tenax: subitis sociantur numina furtis. Quis calor infudit geminis alterna metallis 40 foedera? quae duras iungit concordia mentes? flagrat anhela silex et amicam saucia sentit materiem placidosque chalybs cognoscit amores. * * * * * Page 237 Indian amid the seaweed on the Red Sea’s shores. It lives on iron and feeds on its inflexible nature; iron is its food and nourishment; from iron it recruits its strength. This seemingly inedible food, circulating throughout its body, renews its hidden powers. Without iron the loadstone dies; its bulk wastes away from lack of nourishment and thirst parches its emptied veins.