CHAP. XI.

That the force of this Stone will pass into other Stones, that sometimes you may see as it were a rope of Stones.

THe Stone with us is commended for another property; for when it hath taken hold of another Stone, it not only holds that fast, but it sends into the Body of it an effluxion of its forces; and that having got more forces, draws another, and gives it the like faculty: the third made to partake of the same vertue, draws others that are neer or far off, and cast forth and brandisheth the same vertue; and this draws another: and so, by a reciprocal ejaculation, by the same force it is held, by the same it holds others; and from each of them to the other, are their darts flying, as it were endowed with the vertue of them: and if you lift them up on high, they seem to hang in links like a Chain, that they will not easily be drawn one from the other; that we must needs wonder exceedingly, how that internal and invisible force can run from one to the other, and pass through them: and the more vertue it hath, to the more it doth communicate it. Yet I thought fit to forewarn you that you fail not in your trial, that the Stones must stick the one to the other by the parts that agree, and not by contrary parts; for so would not one impart his vertues to another, but by the meeting with an opposite part, would be held back, and cease from doing its Office; namely, that the North point of the one, must stick to the South point of the other, as I said; and not contrarily: for the South point ap∣plied to the South, and the North point to the North point, is contrary and the fa∣culty will faint and decay at the presence of its Adversary. Nor yet will we omit to remember those that are curious to try this, that the Stones must successively be pro∣portionable, that the great one must draw a less, and a little one must draw one less then it self: for so they will hang the faster, and not be so easily pulled asunder.