Note 5 — Introductory material
Reading edition
In this Chapter I of Book II Gilbert says that Aristotle admits only of two simple movements of his elements, from the centre and toward the centre ... so that in the earth there is but one motion of all its parts towards the centre of the world—a wild headlong falling. Johannes Franciscus Offusius (the author of “De divina astrorum facultate,” Paris, 1570), says he distinguishes several magnetic movements, the first to the centre, the second to the pole, traversing seventy-seven degrees, the third to iron, the fourth to a loadstone.