Note 167 — Chapter XII · THE STONE OF HERCULES.
Reading edition
“Homer, in the Odyssey, says that the Greeks used the needle in the time of the siege of Troy: thus it is certain that the polarity of the magnet and the mariner’s compass were discoveries which date back 3000 years.”—Buffon, t. xii. p. 386. This passage is often quoted to throw ridicule on the supposition. The only mistake of Buffon was in reading as general the description which in Homer was particular and restricted.