De Magnete by Gilbert William;

Author:Gilbert, William; [Gilbert, William]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1890366
Publisher: Dover Publications
Published: 2012-10-07T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XXXIX.

OF MUTUALLY REPELLANT BODIES.

AUTHORS who have treated of the forces of attracting bodies have discoursed of the powers of repellant bodies also ; and in particular those who have classified objects in nature according to sympathy and antipathy. It would seem, therefore, that we must needs say something about the strife of bodies among themselves, lest widespread errors, accepted by all to the ruin of true philosophy, should extend farther. They tell us that as like things attract for conservation’s sake, so unlike things and opposites repel and drive each other away, as is seen in the antiperistasis (counteraction) of many bodies; but it is most potent in plants and animals, which, as they attract things in affinity and of kin, so do put away things extreme and disadvantageous to themselves. But in other bodies the same reason does not exist for their coming together by mutual attraction when they are separated. Animals take food (as do all things that live), bring it into their inwards, absorb their nourishment by means of certain organs (the vital principle acting and operating). Only things set before them and adjoining them do they enjoy through a natural instinct, not things placed afar; herein there is no exercise of force, no movement on the part of those other things, and therefore animals neither attract bodies nor repel. Water does not repel oil, as some do think, for oil floats on water; nor does water repel mud, because when mixed with water it settles at last. This is a separation of bodies unlike or not perfectly mixed, because of their matter; but after they have been separated, they still remain in conjunction without any natural strife. Thus, in the bottom of a vessel, muddy sediment rests quiet, and oil remains on the top of water, nor is it ordered away. A drop of water remains whole on a dry surface, nor is it chased away by the dry. Wrongly, therefore, do they who discourse of these things impart an antipathy —antipathia (i.e., a power of repulsion through opposite passions) ; for neither is there in them any repellant force, and repulsion comes of action not of passion. But these people dearly love their Greek terms. The question for us is whether there is any body that drives another away to a distance without material impetus, as the loadstone attracts. Now a loadstone does repel another loadstone ; for the pole of one is repelled by the pole of another that does not agree naturally with it ; driving it, it makes it turn round so that they may come together perfectly according to nature. But if a weak loadstone floating freely in water cannot, on account of obstacles, readily turn about, then it is repelled and driven farther away by the other. All electrics attract objects of every kind; they never repel or propel. What is told of some plants (e.g., of the cucumber, which, when oil is placed beneath it, moves away) is a material change from neighborhood, not a hidden sympathy.

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