Part 7 (1/2)

[204] M: p. 312.

[205] Francis Bacon, _op. cit._ (footnote 42), vol. 1, _Novum organum_, bk. 1, ch. 95, p. 306.

[206] _Ibid._, ch. 54 and ch. 64 (pp. 259 and 267).

Few of the subsequent experimenters and writers on magnetism turned to Gilbert's work to explain the effects they discussed. Although both his countrymen Sir Thomas Browne[207] and Robert Boyle[208] described a number of the experiments already described by Gilbert and even used phrases similar to his in describing them, they tended to ignore Gilbert and his explanation of them. Instead, both turned to an explanation based upon magnetic effluvia or corpuscles. The only direct continuation of Gilbert's _De magnete_ was the _Philosophia magnetica_ of Nicolaus Cabeus.[209] The latter sought to bring Gilbert's explanation of magnetism more directly into the fold of medieval substantial forms.

[207] Sir Thomas Browne, _Pseudodoxia epidemica_, ed. 3, London, 1658, bk. 2, ch. 2, 3, 4.

[208] Robert Boyle, _Experiments and notes about the mechanical production of magnetism_, London, 1676.

[209] Nicolaus Cabeaus, _Philosophia magnetica_, Ferarra, 1629.

However, Gilbert's efforts towards a magnetic philosophy did find approval in two of the men that made the seventeenth century scientific revolution. While Galileo Galilei[210] was critical of Gilbert's arguments as being unnecessarily loose, he nevertheless saw in them some support for the Copernican world-system. Johannes Kepler[211] found in Gilbert's explanation of the loadstone-earth a possible physical framework for his own investigations on planetary motions.

[210] Galileo Galilei, _Dialogue on the great world systems_, in the translation of T. Salusbury, edited and corrected by G. de Santillana, University of Chicago Press, 1953, pp.

409-423.

[211] Ca.s.sirer, _op. cit._ (footnote 3), vol. 1, p. 359-367.