[2] PAGE 1, LINE 28. Page 1, line 28. _Plato in Ione._--The passage in the _Io_ of Plato is in chap. v. Socrates addressing the poet Io tells him that his facility in reciting Homer is not really an art: [Greek: theia de dunamis, hê se kinei hôsper en têi lithôi, hên Euripidês men Magnêtin ônomasen, hoi de polloi Hêrakleian. kai gar autê hê lithos ou monon autous tous daktulious agei tous sidêrous, alla kai dunamin entithêsi tois daktuliois, ôst au dunasthai tautou touto poiein, hoper hê lithos, allous agein daktulious, hôst' enioth' hormathos makros panu sidêriôn kai daktuliôn ex allêlôn êrtêtai pasi de toutois ex ekeinês tês lithou hê dunamis anêrtêtai.] The idea is that as the loadstone in attracting an iron ring will make it into a magnet, which can in turn act magnetically on another ring, and this on yet another, so the inspiration of the Muse is transferred to the poet, who in turn hands on the inspiration through the reciter to the listener. After further expanding the same idea of the transference of influence, Socrates again mentions the magnet (chap. vii.): [Greek: Oisth' oun hoti outos estin ho theatês tôn daktuliôn ho eschatos, hôn egô elegon hupo tês Hêrakleiôtidos lithou ap' allêlôn tên dunamin lambanein, ho de mesos su ho rhapsôdos kai hupokritês, ho de prôtos autos ho poiêtês? ho de theos dia pantôn toutôn helkei tên psuchên hopoi an boulêtai tôn anthrôpôn, k.t.l.] (Edition Didot of 1856, vol. i., p. 391; or Stephanus, p. 533 D). There is another reference in Plato to the magnet, namely, in the _Timæus_ (p. 240, vol. ii., Edit. citat.). See the Note to p. 61. The reference by Euripides to the magnet occurs in the lost play of Oeneus, in a fragment preserved by Suidas. See _Fragmenta Euripidis_ (Ed. Didot, 1846, p. 757, or Nauck's edition, No. 567). [Greek: hôs Euripidês en Oinei; tas brotôn gnômas skopôn, hôste Magnêtis lithos tên doxan helkei kai methistêsin palin.] [3] PAGE 1, LINE 28. Page 1, line 29. The brief passage from Aristotle's _De Anima_ referring to Thales is quoted by Gilbert himself at the bottom of p. 11. [4] PAGE 2, LINE 1. Page 1, line 29. The edition of 1628 inserts commas between Theophrastus and Lesbius, and between Julius and Solinus, as though these were four persons instead of two.