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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44220	Magnetismus magnus, or, Metaphysical and divine contemplations on the magnet, or loadstone written by Sir Matthew Hale.	Hale, Matthew, Sir, 1609-1676.	1695 (1695)	Wing H250; ESTC R8784	65,385	172

Magnetismus Magnus OR Metaphysical and Divine CONTEMPLATIONS ON THE MAGNET OR LOADSTONE Written by Sir MATTHEW HALE Knight some time Lord Chief-Justice of the King 's Bench. LONDON Printed for William Shrowsbury at the Bible in Duck-lane 1695. The PREFACE THE Author of this hath written Three Tracts concerning the Subject of the Magnet or Magnetism whereof this is the last The First is of the Magnet it self which he calls Magnetismus Magneticus the next is concerning other Magnetisms observable in other Natural Bodies which he calls Magnetismus Physicus and the last is this which he calls Magnetismus Magnus for what Reason it is plain in the Book He had received very early a special Touch of the Divine Magnet and from his Youth had not only studied the Holy Scriptures but had moreover very industriously studied the Great Book of Nature in all its Particles and besides that that large Volume of Providence in the History and Chronology of the Actions and Occurrences of Mankind upon Earth from the beginning and all this for the very same end for which this little Tract was written He is well known to have been a most industrious Man in his own Profession of the Law and to have made himself a compleat Master of it and yet notwithstanding I am very well satisfied that the Industry and Time which he imployed in these Studies was nothing less if not much more as I verily believe than what he imployed in that laborious Study and Practice Hardly a Day passed over his Head in the Times of most pressing Business in his Profession even the Term and the Circuits wherein he did not rescue some portion of time more or less for those Studies which he imploy'd in Writing or in Reading of some Book or other in order to this end It was his Diversion and Recreation if he had no Company with him after his Labour and Pains in his Civil Employment The Effect of all he hath left behind him in divers Volumes in Folio besides many other small Tracts Whereof this may serve for a Specimen of his Physical Considerations or rather of the Use and Improvement which he makes of his Physical Observations which he here calls the Best and Noblest Part of True Philosophy and very truly though I doubt not but we have some Pretenders to Philosophy and to Divinity too who will be apt to censure him to have gone too far and to have given too much advantage to Enthusiasm in the latter part of this Tract And therefore I think fit to say something of that in this place We have here his Judgment and Belief of a Divine Efflux upon the Understandings and Wills of Men and that even among the Heathen those so famed for Wisdom Justice Piety and Knowledge were Illuminated and Guided by a Divine Influence And we have here also the Ground of this his Judgment 1. Observations in Nature 2. The Sentiments of Learned and Understanding Men Philosophers in all Ages 3. The Authority of the Sacred Scriptures to which he elsewhere adds his own Experience And whereas he had in some things changed his Opinion as he saw cause from what it was in his younger time this he received early as appears by some of his first Writings and retain'd constantly to the last as appears by his Tr. of Humility which he wrote upon my Motion not long before his last Sickness In his Tr. of Wisdom and the Fear of God after other Particulars of the Wisdom of the Fear of God he adds in the 10th place But besides all this there is yet a Secret but a most certain Truth that highly improveth that Wisdom which the Fear of the Lord bringeth and that is this That those that truly fear God have a Secret Guidance from a higher Wisdom than what is barely humane namely by the Spirit of Truth and Wisdom that doth really and truly but secretly prevent and direct them And let no Man think that this is a Piece of Fanaticism Any Man that sincerely and truly fears Almighty God relies upon him calls upon him for his Guidance and Direction hath it as really as the Son hath the Counsel and Direction of his Father and though the Voice be not audible nor the Direction always perceptible to Sense yet it is equally as real as if a Man heard the Voice saying This is the Way walk in it And this Secret Direction of Almighty God is principally seen in Matters relating to the Good of the Soul but it may also be found in the Great and Momentous Concerns of this Life which a Good Man that fears God and begs his Direction shall very often if not at all times find And in his Tr. of Humility speaking of this Guidance and Direction of Almighty God in relation to a double End 1. The Salvation and Happiness of the Soul 2. In all the Walk and Concern of this Life As to this latter he saith The Air doth not more naturally yield to our Attraction in Respiration or to insinuate it self into those spaces that are receptive of it than the Divine Assistance Guidance and Beneficence doth to the Desires Exigencies and Wants of an humble Soul sensible of its own Emptiness and Deficiency and imploring the Direction Guidance and Blessing of the most Wise and Bountiful God And then adds I can call my own Experience to Witness that even in the External Actions Occurrences and Incidences of my whole Life I was never disappointed of the best Guidance and Direction when in Humility and Sense of my own Deficiency and diffidence of my own Ability to direct my self or to grapple with the Difficulties of my Life I have with Humility and Sincerity implored the Secret Direction and Guidance of the Divine Wisdom and Providence This he speaks of the secret Guidance by the Spirit of Truth by Illumination of the Understanding and Inclination of the Will but there is another Secret Guidance by a Providential Disposal of Occurrences which he doth not here exclude yet seems more especially to intend when he afterward appeals to the Experience of others I have also observed as well from what he hath said upon several Occasions as from divers Passages in his Writings that he had from his younger time in all his Life not only a great respect to this secret Guidance of the Spirit of God but also so great a Sense of the Malice Subtlety and Energy of the Evil Spirits as made him very vigilant against them And I doubt not but his constant and reverend Attendance to that Holy Conduct and his Vigilance against the Wiles and Devices of those invisible Enemies were a principal Means whereby he became so Great and Good a Man as he was THE CONTENTS THE Reason and Order of this Tract Page 1 The Magnetical Manuduction unto the Sovereign Being in Ordine Causarum Efficientium Page 7 The Evidence of the Existence of the Glorious GOD from the Supposition of a Self-moving Principle in Nature

were great Masters of Sea-Affairs and made great Voyages were not without the Help of the Magnetical Director And though it may possibly be true that the Use of it was either restor'd or possibly first brought into the Western World not above 400. or 500. years since and yet some Navigation was in use in this Western part of Europe before that time yet this is to be said 1. Their Navigation was not safe so expedite so certain as it hath been since the use of the Pixis Nautica brought hither 2. The Voyages and Discoveries were in those ancienter Times hereabouts but short they crept along near the Shores guided themselves by Sea-marks the Voyages to the Eastern and Western World and the Discoveries of the American Continent and many Western Islands having been since the Reformation of Navigation by the Help of the Pixis Nautica and the great Intercourse between the West of Europe and the Easterly and Western Indies being but of late and could never be maintained without the help of this Director So that the late Discovery thereof to this part of the World was yet in a seasonable time and such wherein this Expedient was most usefull and sutable to the Exigence and Convenience of Mankind And the Divine Providence is no less conspicuous in exhibiting this to the World in its due and sutable Season than if it had been known and in use from the beginning of Time A little Observation will give us Instances of Providential Discoveries of things for the use of Mankind at such Seasons and under such Circumstances as render the Providence it self the more admirable And though possibly the first Discovery of the Magnetical Properties and Uses may seem accidental yet in relation to the Divine Providence those things that seem to us accidental are designed and ordered by an unerring Guidance When I have many times considered the many usefull Discoveries of the Vertues of Herbs and many inconsiderable abject Simples that are of singular use for the Health and Medicine of Mankind which no Man could reasonably suspect before-hand to be in them and therefore could not in probability be designedly and industriously experimented And when I likewise consider by how many unthought of Accidents those Vertues and Energies have been found out I have abundantly satisfied my self that those seemingly accidental Discoveries have yet been made by a secret intelligent Dispensation of the Divine Providence for the Good of Mankind and that the same Wisdom and Goodness that first implanted those Vertues and Energies in Vegetables and Minerals did it designedly for the use and benefit of Mankind And as their first Endowment with those Vertues was not accidental or at a venture but by Design for those Ends by the Divine Wisdom and Benignity so the strange and unthought of Discoveries thereof to Mankind were no less designed Methods of the same Wisdom and Goodness though to us they seem merely casual and accidental I do therefore upon the whole Matter look upon this little Stone so inconsiderable in outward Appearance and that admirable directive Vertue thereof its Polar Verticity and the Power of communicating that Verticity to a piece of Iron or Steel and the singular Use thereof to Mankind as a great Instance of the Divine Wisdom Goodness and Power of Almighty God and of that Care and Providence he exerciseth over and towards the Children of Men and as a Design of his Goodness and Wisdom ' specially levelled at the Good and Benefit of Mankind and that in the most seasonable and necessary Time CHAP. VI. The Wonderfull VVisdom and Power of God appearing in the admirable and various Motions of the Magnet ALL the Works of God which we commonly call the Works of Nature are full of unimitable and inexplicable Wisdom The very Contemplation of a Fly or a Worm doth nonplus all the Wit Reason and Understanding of the most profound Philosopher in a thousand Instances and exceeds all his Inquisitiveness Skill and Industry to give a satisfactory Account of them So true is that of the Wise Man as well in the Works of Nature as of those of Providence Eccles 8.17 Then I beheld all the Works of God that a Man cannot find out the work that is done under the Sun because though a man labour to seek it out yet he shall not find it Yea further though a wise man think to know it yet shall he not be able to find it And as the Works of God are done with that unsearchable Wisdom so they are much more unimitable by any Humane Skill or Understanding When we see the choicest Mechanical Engines that the skilfullest Artists have invented what are they in comparison of the curious Mechanism of the Body of a Grashopper or a Gnat But suppose the Mechanical part might be imitated by some skilful Hand what is that to the Motiva potestas virtus that from it self fets it in Motion Archytas his Dove was so framed as they say by Engines that it would perform a Flight but yet when that was done the Spring must be wound up before it could attempt another But the little busie Fly that in the Summer-time plays upon my Face performs a thousand various spontaneous Motions in the Compass of an hour and thousands more it will perform with as great variety diversity multiplicity and agility from that little internal self-moving Principle lodged in it we know not how nor where and moving it s well ordered Mechanical Body we know not how nor wherewith and that with an admirable connatural Dexterity which she never learned by Books Instruction or Imitation But I shall keep my self within the Compass of my Subject the Magnet and its Motions Among many other strange Motions and admirable Phenomena's that it exhibits these are worth our Observation First That an inanimate and as it appears to us inorganical Stone should compose it self by its own free Motion just to a North and South Position that point of the Stone that hath its North Verticity always turning to the North and not to the South unless enervated by the prevalence of another Magnet and that which hath its South Verticity always converting it self to the South when it enjoys the Liberty of its own Motion 2 dly That this Magnet should always carry about it even without the limits of its own Body a certain Orbe of its own Essential Vertue that pervades the most obstinate and gross interposed Body and Communicates it self through it 3 dly That the same Magnet or Magnetically excited Body should in a Moment in the twinkle of an Eye convey and derive the intire Idea of its own Vigour and Vertue to another piece of Iron by one single contact or touch 4 thly That the same Magnet or Magnetical Body should derive from it self a Force or Energy at the same time from one Extream thereof to the other by Vertual Radii extreamly contrary and repugnant each to other that one and the same Iron