Quote: experiment and demonstrated arguments are more effective than conjecture and philosophical speculation

Quotation

Since in the discovery of secret things and in the investigation of hidden causes, stronger reasons are obtained from sure experiments and demonstrated arguments than from probable conjectures and opinions of philosophical speculators of the common sort; therefore to the end that the noble substance of that great loadstone, our common mother (the earth), still quite unknown, and also the forces of the extraordinary and exalted of this globe may the better be understood, we have decided first to begin with the common stony and ferruginous matter, and magnetic bodies, and the parts of the earth that we may handle and may perceive with the senses; then to proceed with plain magnetic experiments, and to penetrate to the inner parts of the earth. ... Nor did we find this our labour vain or fruitless, for every day, in our experiments, novel, unheard-of properties came to light: and our philosophy became so widened, as a result of diligent research, that we have attempted to set forth, according to magnetic principles, the inner constitution of the globe and its genuine substance, and in true demonstrations and in experiments that appeal plainly to the senses, as though we were pointing with the finger to exhibit to mankind earth, mother of all.   Google-1   Google-2

Published before 1923

Additional Titles

Quote: study the inner constitution of the earth by experimenting with magnetic bodies

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