CHAP. II.
The Directive or Versorial Virtue (which we call
verticity): what it is, how it exists in the loadstone;
and in what way it is acquired when innate.
irective force, which is also called by us
verticity, is a virtue which spreads by an innate vigour from the æquator in both directions toward the poles. That
power, inclining in both directions towards the termini, causes the motion of direction, and produces a constant and
permanent position in Nature, not only in the earth itself but also in all magneticks. Loadstone is found either in veins
of its own or in iron mines, when the homogeneous substance of the earth, either having or assuming a primary form, is
changed or concreted into a stony substance, which besides the primary qualities of its nature has various dissimilitudes
and differences in different quarries and mines, as if from different matrices, and very many secondary qualities and
varieties in its substance. A loadstone which is dug out in this breaking up of the earth's surface and of protuberances
upon it, whether formed complete in itself (as sometimes in China) or in a larger vein, is fashioned by the earth and
follows the nature of the whole. All the interior parts of the earth mutually conspire together in combination and
produce direction toward north and south. But those magnetical bodies which come together in the uppermost parts of the
earth are not true united parts of the whole, but appendages and parts joined on, imitating the nature of the whole;
wherefore when floating free on water, they dispose themselves just in the same way as they are placed in the terrestrial
system of nature. We had a large loadstone of twenty pounds * weight, dug up and cut out of its vein, after we
had first observed and marked its ends; then after it was dug out, we placed it in a boat on water, so that it could turn
freely; then immediately the face which had looked toward the north in the quarry began to turn to the north on the waves and at length settled toward that point. For that face
which looked toward the north in the quarry is the southern, and is attracted by the northern parts of the earth,
in the same way as pieces of iron
which acquire their verticity from the earth. About this point we intend to speak afterwards202 under change of verticity. But there is a different rotation of the internal parts of the earth,
which are perfectly united to the earth and which are not separated from the true substance of the earth by the
interposition of bodies as are loadstones in the upper portion of the earth, which is maimed, corrupt, and variable. Let
A B be a piece of magnetick ore; between which and the uniform globe of the earth lie various soils or mixtures which
separate the ore to a certain extent from the globe of the true earth. It is therefore influenced by the forces of the
earth just in the same way as C D, a piece of iron, in the air. So the face B of some ore or of that piece of it is moved
toward the Boreal pole G, just as the extremity C of the iron, not A or D. But the condition of the piece E F is
different, which piece is produced in one connected mass with the whole, and is not separated from it by any earthy
mixture. For if the part E F were taken out and floated freely in a boat by itself, it is not E that would be directed
toward the Boreal pole, but F. So in those substances which acquire their verticity in the air, C is the southern part
and is seen to be attracted by the Boreal pole G. In the case of others which are found in the upper unstable portion of
the earth, B is the south, and in like manner inclines toward the Boreal pole. But if those pieces deep down which are
produced along with the earth are dug up, they turn about on a different plan. For F turns toward the Boreal parts of the
earth, because * is the southern part;
E toward the south, because it is the northern. So of a magnetick body, C D, placed close to the earth, the end C turns
toward the Boreal pole; of one that is adnate to it B A, B inclines to the North; of one that is innate in it, E F, E
turns toward the southern pole; which is confirmed by the 
following demonstration, and comes about of necessity
according to all magnetick laws. Let there be a terrella with poles A B; from its mass cut out a small part E F; if this
be suspended by a fine thread above the hole or over some other place, E does not seek the pole A but the pole B, and F
turns to A; very differently from a rod of iron C D; because C, touching some northern part of the terrella, being
magnetically carried away makes a turn round to A, not to B. And yet here it should be observed, that if the pole A of
* the terrella were moved toward the
earth's south, the end E of the piece cut out by itself, if not brought too near to the stone, would also move of itself
toward the south. But the end C of the piece of iron, placed beyond its orbe of virtue, will turn toward the north. The
part E F of the terrella, whilst in the mass, produced the same direction as the whole; but when it is separated and
suspended by a thread, E turns to B, and F to A. 
So parts having the same verticity with
the whole, when separated, are impelled in the contrary direction; for contrary parts solicit contrary parts. Nor yet is
this a true contrariety, but the highest concordancy, and the true and genuine conformation of bodies magnetical in the
system of nature, if they shall have been divided and separated: for the parts thus divided should be raised some
distance from the whole, as will be made clear afterwards. Magnetick substances seek a unity as regards form; they do not
so much respect their own mass. Wherefore the part F E is not attracted into its former bed; but when once it is
unsettled and at a distance, it is *
solicited by the opposite pole. But if the small piece F E is placed back again in its bed or brought close to, without
any substances intervening, it acquires its former combination, and, as a part of the whole once more united, accords
with the whole and sticks readily in its former position; and E remains toward A, and F toward B, and they settle
steadily in their mother's lap. The reasoning is the same when the stone is divided into equal parts through the poles.
A spherical stone is divided into
two equal parts along the axis A B; *
whether therefore the surface A B is in the one part facing upward (as in the former diagram) or lying on its face in
both parts (as in * the latter), the
end A tends toward B. But it must also be understood that the point A is not carried with a definite aim always toward
the point B, because in consequence of the division the verticity proceeds to other points, as to F G, as appears in the
fourteenth chapter of this book. And L M are now the axes in each, and A B is no longer the axis; for magnetick bodies,
as soon as they are divided, become single magnetick wholes; and they have vertices in
accordance with their mass, new poles arising at each end in consequence of the division. Yet the axis and the poles
always follow the leading of a meridian; because that force passes along the meridians of the stone from the æquator to
the poles, by an everlasting rule, the inborn virtue of the substance agreeing thereto from the long and lasting position
and the facing of a suitable substance toward the poles of the earth; by whose strength continued through many centuries
it has been fashioned; toward fixed and determined parts of which it has remained since its origin firmly and constantly
turned.