Although one does not normally find iron to be magnetized, a loadstone always has some magnetism. That two bodies such as iron and loadstone should have different properties is the result of the loss of a form by the iron, but this form is still potentially present in the iron. The iron that has been obtained from an ore has been deformed,[179] for it has been placed "outside its nature" by the fire.[180] The nature has not been removed, since, once the iron has cooled, the confused form can be reformed by a loadstone. [181] The latter "awakens" the proper form of iron.[182] After smelting, the magnetized iron may manifest stronger powers than a loadstone of equal weight, but this is because the primary matter of the earth is purer in the iron than in the loadstone.[183] If fire does not deform a loadstone too much, it can be remagnetized,[184] but a burnt loadstone cannot be reformed.[185] Corruption from external causes may also deform a loadstone or iron so that it can not be magnetized.[186] Bodies mixed with the degenerate substance of the earth or with aqueous humor spoilt by contamination with earth, do not show either electric attraction or magnetic coition.[187] [179] M: pp. 107, 110, 111. [180] M: p. 108. [181] M: pp. 111, 112, 113. [182] M: pp. 109, 111, 112, 148, 149. [183] M: pp. 112, 149. [184] M: pp. 142, 189. [185] M: p. 190. [186] M: pp. 85, 105, 113, 143, 226. [187] M: p. 84. In a manner suggestive of Peregrinus, Gilbert wrote that, "magnetic bodies seek formal unity."[188] Thus a dissected loadstone not only tends to come back together, as in the unordered coacervation of electric attraction, but to restore the organization it had before dissection.[189] Accordingly, opposite poles appear on the interfaces of the sections, not "from an opposition" but from "a concordance and a conformance."[190] This ensures that when the parts are joined together again, they have the same orientation as before. Gilbert compared this power of restoring the original loadstone with that of a plant's vital power under the process of cutting and grafting; the plant can be revived only when the parts are in a certain order.[191] [188] M: p. 186. [189] M: pp. 185-188. See also footnote 31. [190] M: pp. 186, 193. [191] M: pp. 199-200.