corruptly from _adamant_; by the Spaniards _piedramant_: by the Italians _calamita_[55]; by the English LOADSTONE and ADAMANT STONE[56], by the Germans _magness_[57] and _siegelstein_: Among English, French, and Spaniards it has its common name from adamant; perhaps because they were at one time misled by the name _sideritis_ being common to both: the magnet is called [Greek: sideritês] from its virtue of attracting iron: the adamant is called [Greek: sideritês] from the brilliancy of polished iron. Aristotle designates it merely by the name of _the stone_:[58] [Greek: Eoike de kai thalês ex hôn apomnêmoneuousi, kinêtikon ti tên psuchên hupolabein, eiper ton lithon ephê psuchên echein, hoti ton sidêron kinei]: _De Anima_, Lib. I. The name of magnet is also applied to another stone differing from siderite, having the appearance of silver; it is like Amianth in its nature; and since it consists of laminæ (like specular stone)[59], it differs in form: in German _Katzensilber_ and _Talke_[60]. * * * * * {12} CHAP. III. The Loadstone has parts distinct in their natural _power, & poles conspicuous for their property._ The stone itself manifests many qualities which, though known afore this, yet, not having been well investigated, are to be briefly indicated in the first place so that students may understand the powers of loadstone and iron, and not be troubled at the outset through ignorance of reasonings and proofs. In the heaven astronomers assign a pair of poles for each moving sphere: so also do we find in the terrestrial globe natural poles preeminent in virtue, being the points that remain constant in their position in respect to the diurnal rotation, one tending to the Bears and the seven stars; the other to the opposite quarter of the heaven. In like manner the loadstone has its poles, by nature northern and southern, being definite and determined points set in the stone, the primary boundaries of motions and effects, the limits and governors of the many actions and virtues. However, it must be understood that the strength of the stone does not emanate from a mathematical point, but from the parts themselves, and that while all those parts in the whole belong to the whole, the nearer they are to the poles of the stone the stronger are the forces they acquire and shed into other bodies: these poles are observant of the earth's poles, move toward them, and wait upon them. Magnetick poles can be found in every magnet, in the powerful and mighty (which Antiquity used to call the masculine) as well as in the weak, feeble and feminine; whether its figure is due to art or to chance, whether long, flat, square, three-cornered, polished; whether rough, broken, or unpolished; always the loadstone contains and shows its poles. * But since the spherical form, which is also the most perfect, agrees best with the earth, being a globe, and is most suitable for use and experiment, we accordingly wish our principal