Page:On the Magnet - Gilbert (1900 translation of 1600 work).djvu/253

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ON THE LOADSTONE, BK. VI.
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solid circumference from the surrounding bodies; but all her effluvia surround her, and in them heavy bodies projected in any way by force, move on uniformly along with the Earth in general coherence. And this also takes place in all primary bodies, the Sun, the Moon, the Earth, the parts betaking themselves to their first origins and sources, with which they connect themselves with the same appetence as terrene things, which we call heavy, with the Earth. So lunar things tend to the Moon, solar things to the Sun, within the orbes of their own effluvia. The emanations hold together by continuity of substance, and heavy bodies are also united with the Earth by their own gravity, and move on together in the general motion: especially when there is no renitency of bodies in the way. And for this cause, on account of the Earth's diurnal revolution, bodies are neither set in motion, nor retarded; they do not overtake it, nor do they fall short behind it when violently projected toward East or West.

Let E F G be the Earth's globe, A its centre, L E the ascending effluvia: Just as the orbe of the effluvia progresses with the Earth, so also does the unmoved part of the circle at the straight line L E progress along with the general revolution. At L and E, a heavy body, M, falls perpendicularly toward E, taking the shortest way to the centre, nor is that right movement of weight, or of aggregation compounded with a circular movement, but is a simple right motion, never leaving the line L E. But when thrown with an equal force from E toward F, and from E toward G, it completes an equal distance on either side, even though the daily rotation of the Earth is in process: just as twenty paces of a man mark an equal space whether toward East or West: so the Earth's diurnal motionis