Section II, Book 2, member 2, chapter 5: The magneticall nature and the loadstone (part 1 of 3)

CHAP. V. In this Chapter is expressed the secret cause why, and manner how, as well the Microcosmicall, as Macrocosmicall Load-stone, doth operate ad distans, and th[…] unto an unknown dimension, or unlimited intervall.

MR. Foster hath sufficiently expressed the shallowness of his Philosophy, where he averreth, That because the light of the Sun and Stars cannot penetrate the thick clowds, and opake bodies; Ergo, the formall essence of a man is not able to pierce and penetrate directly in his course, without being stopped or hindred by Castles, Hills, Woods, and such like. But had he been a little more profoundly seen, or immersed in the bowels of true Philosophy, he would have known, that the Etheriall sperm, or Astralicall influences, are of a far subtiler condition, than is the vehicle of visible light: Yea verily, they are so thin, so mobile, so penetrating, and so lively, that they are able, and also do continually penetrate, and that without any manifest obstacle or resistance, even unto the center or inward bosom of the earth, where they generate mettals of sundry kinds, according unto the condition of the influence, as the antient Philosophers do justifie. The subtlety therefore of this spirit, Plotinus, according unto Plato's minde, doth fully expresse in these words, Tanta est Aetheris tenuitas ut omnia corpora penetret universi tam supera quam infera, & cum ipsis conjunctus aut implicitus, ea major a minime reddat, quia spiritus iste interior cuncta opera eorum mole minima nullum prorsus augmentum recipiente, alit atque conservat. The tenuity of the Aether is such, that it doth penetrate all the bodies of the world, as well above in heaven, as below on earth; and this heavenly substance being joyned and mixed with them, it maketh them not a jot the bigger for all that, because this inward spirit doth nourish and preserve all bodies, without adding any thing unto their weight, or encreasing of their substance. And by reason of this heavenly natures purity or subtlety, the heaven, or coelum, is called by the wiser Philosophers, and mysticall Poets, the Husband unto the earth, which they tearm Vesta; yea, and the very stars of heaven, among the which the Copernicans ranck the earth, are likened unto his wife, being that they are extracted out of the aetheriall substance, no otherwise than Eve was out of the side of Adam; for they are defined to be the thickest portions of their orbs, by reason whereof, they are accounted as the members of heaven, and consequently there is nothing so thin, subtle, and piercing, as is that spirit from whence by condensation they are derived. This is the cause, that the true Alchymists do tell such wonders of their Coelum, which they call their Quintessence, arguing, that by reason of its purity and subtlety, it is able to penetrate all things. And the Philosophers say, that it is their nature, which they define to be, Vis quaedam rebus infinita, omnia permeans entia, cunctas generans res, easque augens alensque & ex similibus similia procreans. A certain infinite power in things, which penetrateth and passeth through all things, ingendring every thing, and augmenting and nourishing them, and procreating like things of their like. And verily, if you will be pleased to consider really what I have spoken before, you will remember how I told you, that the angelicall vertue proceeded from the archetypicall emanations, and are the types of the divine Idea. Again, that the aetheriall spirit was filled with the angelicall influences, which had their essentiall root from God. So that in verity, it is not the starry light which penetrateth so deeply, or operateth so universally, but that eternall centrall spirit, with which his divine and unresistable essence, penetrateth all things, both in heaven above, and in the earth and waters beneath. And all this the mysticall Philosophers seemed to verifie, though darkly, when they called Saturn, which was the father also of Jupiter, or the head of the catholick emanation, the father of Coelum, or Heaven, arguing thereby, that in the emission of the spirit of wisdom, he produced created, or informed the heavens, according to that of Job, Coelum ornasti Spiritu tuo, Thou didst adorn the heavens by thy Spirit. And David, Verbo Domini fimati sunt coeli & Spiritu ab ore ejus omnis virtus eorum: By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by his Spirit each vertue thereof. And St. Peter, Coeli erant prius & terra ex aquis, & per aquas existentes verbo Dei: The heavens were first, and the earth of water, and by the waters, existing by the word of God. It is certain therefore, that the whole essentiall act of the aetheriall spirit, is the divine emanation, or the bright incorruptible Spirit of the Lord; and therefore of necessity that spirit, which is worthy to be the immediate vehicle of so unresistible and emanating influence must be conformable to it in purity and subtility which is the informer, who is said by the wise Solomon to be Omni re mobilior & subtilior & attingere ubique propter suam munditiam, & innovare omnia & implere orbem terrarum: To be the most active and moveable and subtill of all things, and to penetrate and pass everywhere, by reason of his purity in essence, and to renew and refresh all things, and to fill the earth with his presence. This therefore was it that made some, even of our Christian Philosophers, to break forth into these speeches: Deus est Natura, & Natura Deus: God is Nature, and Nature is God. Whereby they ment, that the naturating or radicall informing nature, was the eternall emanation, which made and informed the humid nature of the world; which for that reason was called Natura naturata, or the Nature which was made naturall, namely by the presence of the Naturating nature or Spirit of the Lord, which moved upon the waters, and imparted unto them of his fiery informing Vigor or Essence, as we may find partly by Sacred Testimony, and partly by the confirmation of St. Austin.

We must therefore after a due consideration of this which is said, infer, that if the influence be compleatly animated by the incorruptible Spirit of the Lord, then must it be indued with the properties of that Spirit or Divine Nature, and consequently it must be the most subtill, quick, movable and penetrating of all spirits, and in that respect will be able to pass through all solid bodies without resistance, and also to ingender, augment, and nourish all things; and being incorporated or specificated, it procreateth like individualities of their like; and again, it hath in regard of our capacity, an infinite extension, and therefore cannot be limited. All which I purpose by experience or ocular demonstration, to demonstrate in this manner. We find in practice, that the Load-stone by virtue of his subtill spirit, which doth internally animate it, is made so potent through it, in his attractive virtue, that it is able without resistance to display and transmit the beams of his active virtue quite atravers the hardest stones, the most solid and finest grained wood, through thick plates, copper, tin, silver, or gold: yea, and to penetrate quite through the impenetrable glass it self, and other such like compacted stuff, which have no sensible porosity or spiracle, which is an evident Argument, that this spirit is of a far more peircing and subtill nature, than the sublunary aire: forasmuch as it is denied passage through the slightest paper-skin or bladder. In the like manner man's inward or celestiall spirit, which is the vehicle of this vivifying beam, is so subtil in it self, that nothing is able to resist it, when the inward mentall beam doth aime at any mark, how far or how inaccessible soever it may be esteemed in the fleshly mans conceit. For being this celestiall or aethereall spirit in man, is made after the pattern of the Divine Image which it beareth, it must also resemble it in its actions. Now the subtilty of the Divine act in man's spirit, is expressed by Hermes, in these words: Quicunque hac Dei Naturà fulti sunt, intelligentià suâ cunctà complectuntur quae in terra sunt, & in mari, & siquid est praeter ea supra coelum, atque adeo scipsos erigunt ut ipsum quoque bonum intueantur: Who soever do rely on this Divine Nature, may comprehend by their understanding all thing[…], wh[…]ch are upon the earth, and in the seas; yea, and besides all this, any thing that is in heaven above; and also they may elevate themselves in such a manner, that they may behold the face of goodnesse it self, &c. Whereby he signifieth the all-sufficient act of penetration, which is in the mentall beam, by whose unresistable action the celestiall influence doth penetrate and operate without any intermediate resistance in and through all things, By which it is evident, that as every inferior specifick creature is indued with this essentiall spirit, and doth consist, and is as it were founded and edificated on it, as on an essential Corner-stone or Foundation; so the emission of his beams is not to be limited by any setled Sphere of activity, as the unadvised and more sensuall then intellectuall Philosophers have defined it to be, being that it is Vis in rebus infinita, An infinite virtue or nature in things, and therefore not finite or determinable: For look how far it shineth or emitteth his active spirit out of the Center of the celestiall star; even so far is this Centrall terrestriall bright Spirit able to make his Semid[…]ameter of extension; So that as the heavenly starr's beamy influence doth penetrate downward unto the Center of the earth; even after the very like manner doth each terrestriall star peirce unto the Center of the celestiall star from whence it was derived; and the more rich and exalted is the starry form in the creature, the nearer it approacheth unto the nature of the most exalted star in heaven, and maketh his extension the more forcible. Now as we see that every Astrall influence in the creature doth by a naturall inclination, and that Sympathetically, aspect the star or celestiall Fountain from which it did spring; and likewise that star in heaven, by a paternall respect, doth send down his influences to feed and nourish his like filiall fire or form in the creature here below, and both of them by a mutuall relation do rejoyce together at the spirituall presence of each other, (whereupon it is said: Naturá natura laetatur & naturam continet; O natura coelestis veritatis, naturas Dei nutu multiplicans: Nature is rejoyced in nature, and containeth nature; O celestiall nature which by the Will of God doth mul[…]ply natures,) so likewise each kind or species which is indued with all one influence, doth, because of his likness to another, send forth by a sympatheticall consent, beams of one nature, making an harmonious Symphony in the concourse of their beams, by which they do agree in union of love. And for this reason the axiom of the Philosophers before mentioned runneth in this strain, Natura ex similibus similia procreare solet: Nature doth use to procreate like of like. And this is the cause why each specifick Form doth rejoyce in its like, and is ready to produce his kind, and doth not use to passe the limits of his kind, as for example: A Man's nature produceth a Man, a Horse a Horse, a fenel-seed fenel, a bean a bean, wheat produceth wheat, &c. And also the nature of each thing so created is most amiable unto the nature of his like, and sendeth forth the amiable and Sympatheticall beams of his affection, to concurre with the like beams, which are emitted from his like; so that both of them do easily consent and rejoyce at each other, and by contraction of beams, they indeavour to cause a union: For this reason therefore the Load-stone rejoyceth at the aspect of its like; for if one Load-stone meeteth with another, each will aspect the other by their Saturnine Sulphureous spirits, and embrace each other: For by their applications, they will Centrally suck and draw the one to the other, with a Sympatheticall imbracing. Also because that the Iron is subject unto the self-same constellation, and hath his Centrall star in all points correspondent unto the Load-stone, (for which essentiall consanguinity, they are both found in the self-same […]errestriall vein, therefore they both are observed so lovingly to entertain and hug one another: For experience telleth us, that the feminine Load-stone above all measure embraceth as a luxurious harlot the masculine Iron, and not the Iron the Load-stone, as Averroes, Scaliger, and Cusanus the Cardinall, have erroneously surmised; affirming that the Iron moveth unto the Load-stone, as unto his beginning and matrix from whence it came: for, by that reason, the North Pole in the Iron should move of it self more swiftly unto the Pole-starr, which is the fountain of both their Centrall influences, than the Magnet: all which is by experience proved quite contrary.

Now to confirm the infinity of the extension of these Centrall beams in two like bodies unto one another, let us first be capable of some Theory, that we may afterward the better descend unto Practice. Radius (saith Alkindus) quia centro stellae ad centrum terrae procedit fortissimus esse probatur in operationis suae specie: The beam which proceedeth from the Center of the star unto the Center of the earth, i[…] proved to be most strong in the kind of his operation. Whereby he signifieth at what an incommensurable distance the occult starry beam, or beamy influence, worketh with and in his image on the earth; for he saith elsewhere Liquet quòd Radii stellares diversa constituunt individua in hoc mundo: It is manifest, that the starry beams do make and ingender d[…]vers individuall creatures in this world. Again, for the Centrall starrs, or starry influences of the lower bodies, and their beam's extension he speaketh thus: Mundus Elementarius est exemplum mundi Syderei, ita ut quaelibet res in eo contentia ipsius speciem contineat. Manifestum est quòd omnis res hujus mundi radios faciat suo more ad instar Syde[…]um; alioq[…]i figuram mundi Syderei ad plenum non haberet: sed & hoc in aliqu[…]bus sensu manifestatur: ignis enim radios caloris ad loca proxima transmittit, & terra radios algoris. Hoc igitur pro vero assumentes, dicimus quod omne quod actualem habet existentiam in mundo elementorum radios emittit in omnem partem, qui totum mundum elementarem replent suo modo. Praeterea distantia unius rei ab alia fac[…] d[…]fferentiam in effectu radiorum in rebus hujus mundi: The Elementary world is the image or patern of the starry world; so that every thing that this world containeth in it, doth comprehend the form or likness of the starry world. It is evident that every thing in this world, doth […]mit his beams after his manner, even as the starrs of heaven do, for else it would not fully assume the figure of the starry world; but this is made manifest in some things unto sense: For the fire doth send forth the beams of his heat unto the bordering places, and also the earth the Emanations of his cold. We affirm therefore for a certainty, that every thing which hath an actuall existence in this elementary world, doth emit or send forth his beams unto every part, the which do fill the elementary world after their fashion. Moreover, the distance of one thing from an other, maketh a difference in the effect of the beams, in things of this world. Whereby he maketh it plain, first, That there is nothing in the lower world, but hath his like in the starry world, whose beams and influences it receiveth. And again, that as the said star in heaven doth dart forth his beams even unto the very center of the earth, and therefore hath so large a sphear of activity, that it searcheth every place of the vawted world: Even so, and after the same manner, those starry […]intills, or beamy sparks, which it sendeth down into his subject creature, being that it is all one in essence with its fountain, and therefore continued with it, and indivisible; searcheth in like manner each angle or corner of the sublunary region, yea, it penetrateth even unto the very celestiall fountain, from whence it is derived, as shall be more clearly demonstrated hereafter, being that every portion or small part of a large Load-stone, hath his poles and circles, as well as the whole. It is made therefore apparent by this, that the action of each elementary thing is effected, as well by disjunction of their bodies, that is to say, ad distans, as when they are joyned together by a mutuall contact of one another; but the action of elementary things, when they are separated from one another, is performed by a fit application, and infusion of their beamy influences unto each other, which would hardly be believed, by reason of the occultness of the action, did not experience guide us, by the observation of the Load-stones attraction of Iron unto it at a distance. Also we observe, that the images of things are seen afar off in Mirrors, or Opticall glasses; and it was no small artifice of the Pythagoreans, and some other of our Christian Philosophers, to express their minds unto f[…]iends, being in far countries, by reflexion, made through prepared Ma[…]hemati[…] glasses, in the circle or compass of the Moon. But forsooth, our externall Philosophers, which will onely be guided by their sense, do dream of a certain limited sphear of activity, and do ascribe bounds unto the action of this mysticall nature, as they please, or according unto their exterior sense's observation: As for example, Because the Load-stone draweth the Iron but at half the distance of a table, Ergo, they think and conclude, that the vivifying act of his vertue penetrateth or extendeth it self no farther, than at that distance in the aire, and consequently being led by their corporall eye-sight, they limit, after this externall and visible action, the Load stones spirituall extension. But if they would duely close their corporall eyes in this inquisition, and look, as true Philosophers ought, in the re-search of so abstruse an action, with the aspect of their mentall intellect, they would find, that the extension of the beamy spirit in the Load-stone, doth equalize that of his proper celestiall star, being that they are both of one essence; as also is the like spirit in the Iron, and every scintill or spark of fire hath the properties of the whole, as is said of the Load-stone. But there are many things, which may hinder the evident effect in the Load-stone, namely, the ponderosity of the body of the Iron, and therefore it will not draw it beyond the circle of his sensible emanation; and another thing is the dispersing and dilating of the union of beams in the Load-stone: for the beams, after they are emitted, are the more dispersed the farther they pass, as it appeareth by this demonst[…]ation.

[Figure]

A, the Load-stone, B D, the basis of his emitted beams, which doth aptly terminate and adapt it self unto the Iron B D, so that nothing is lost, but all the force is upon the Iron, for which cause it attracteth its spirits forcibly, because, vis unita est fortior. But when the Iron is planted at a further distance, namely, in C, the greatest portion of the basis of the spirituall triangular-emission, passeth by the Iron, without any streight encounter, and so his effect or vertue is made too weak, to draw so ponderous a thing at so far a distance. But because his celestiall star doth meet and embrace his emissions, and doth fortifie them, therefore it is evident, that the pole-star doth act in the Load-stone, to stir up and animate his like vigour in it; and the Load-stone being so vivified, doth correspond unto the action of the star, penetrating, by all one sympatheticall and symphoniacall consent, even to the center of his fountain, which is easily effected, being they are all of one essence. Do we not perceive this by an externall apprehension to be true, when we observe the northern pole of the Load-stone, in a kind of naturall duty, to regard and behold with a stedfast constancy the pole-star, which is so far off from the body of the Load-stone, though near and conjoyned in the beamy affection of one essentiall spirit? That this is so, we may perceive by the needle touched. Do we not gather by Astronomicall practise, that the distance of these two bodies, I mean, the celestiall star, and the terrestriall stone, is so great, as there cannot be esteemed a greater extension in our regard? namely, seeing that the space is between the starry heaven, or eighth sphear, in which the pole-star is; and the earth: And yet we find them to concur and meet in aspect, and to operate and sympathize with each other. What! and must this abstruse spirits action be limited by any phantasticall and imaginary sphear of activity, figured out by persons little skilled, and too too superficiall in the occult treasure, and arcane or centrall actions of God in nature? In like manner there must needs be a sympatheticall concurrence of occult beamy light, betwixt the Iron and the Load-stone, because they have both centrall stars, or beamy influences of one nature, and from one and the same fountaine, whose occult emanations pass, God knoweth, at how far a distance, although the effects do accidentally appear unto our sense, no more than the celestiall influences which descend from heaven, upon the Minerals, Vegetables, and Animals. Nevertheless, if we will believe the relations of History, we are told by Serapio, O aus Magnus, and the Moors, that as well in the Indies, as towards the northern pole, there are Rocks of this Stone, which suck and draw ships unto them at a far distance, and pull the iron nailes out of them, which is a cause, as they say, that they fasten together the plancks and boards of their boats and ships with wooden pins. And again, what shall we say unto the opinion of Fracasto[…]ius, a learned Physitian, and a well grounded Philosopher, who blusheth not, after a tedious enquiry made by him in the Load-stones secret disposition, to conclude, that the reason why the Load-stone directeth his pole unto the north, is, because that in that angle of the terrestriall world, there are mountaines of Load-stone, which do draw Iron unto it. Verily, it is a great distance, that this magnetick Rock is able to operate upon the Iron, if that were true, namely, from the Aequinoctiall unto the frozen point of the North-pole; for unto the Aequinoctiall line, the Mariners make use of the Needle, to find out what altitude they are in. And although some do think this strange, yet for all that, many learned men, seen as well in Geography and composing of Sea-Maps, as delineating the description of the world, do firmly adhere unto this opinion. Whereby we see, that wise and learned men do confirm, that the limited sphear of activity, ascribed unto the Load-stone by the Peripatetick Philosophers, and Christian School-men of his sect is vain and frivolous.