By virtue of the principle that flows from the magnet to the iron--which principle is potentially in the iron, for the iron already has a foretaste for it--the excited iron could transcend its gravid nature and be preternaturally moved to unite with its principle. Reciprocally, the loadstone has a greater attraction to the iron than to other things. Just as the power of attraction comes from the loadstone, so the Deity is the source of our life. Just as the principle implanted in the magnet moves the iron against its heavy nature, so the Deity raises us above our brutish nature so that we may fulfill our life. As the iron moves to the loadstone, so we move to the Deity as to the goal and end of our life. In _De pace fidei_, Cusa[37] again used the iron and magnet as an example of motion contrary to and transcending nature. He explained this supernatural motion as being due to the similarity between the nature of the iron and the magnet, and this in turn is analogous to the similarity between human spiritual nature and divine spiritual nature. As the iron can move upward to the loadstone because both have similar natures, so man can transcend his own nature and move towards God when his potential similitude to God is realized. Another image used by Cusa was the comparison of Christ to the magnetic needle that takes its power from the heavens and shows man his way.[38] [36] Nicholas of Cusa (Nicolaus Cusaneus), _Nicolaus von Cues, Texte seiner philosophischen Schriften_, ed. A. Petzelt, Stuttgart, 1949, bk. 1, _Idiota de sapientia_, p. 306 (quoted in Gilbert, M:104). It is interesting that Cusa held that the loadstone has an inclination to iron, as well as the converse! [37] Cusa, _Cusa Schriften_, vol. 8, _De pace fidei_, translated by L. Mohler, Leipzig, 1943, ch. 12, p. 127. [38] Cusa, _Exercitationes_, ch. 7, 563 and 566, quoted in, F. A. Scharpff, _Des Cardinals und Bischofs Nicolaus Von Cusa Wichtigste Schriften in Deutscher Uebersetzung_, Freiburg, 1862, p. 435. See also Martin Billinger, _Das Philosophische in Den Excitationen Des Nicolaus Von Cues_, Heidelberg, 1938, and _Cusa Schriften_ (see footnote 37), vol. 8, p. 209, note 105. Gilbert (M: p. 223) called the compass "the finger of God." The Elizabethan Englishman Robert Norman also turned to the Deity to explain the wonderful effects of the loadstone.[39]