"Gilbert, in his work, De Magnete printed in 1600 has only some vague notions that the magnetic virtue of the earth in some way determines the direction of the earth's axis, the rate of its diurnal rotation, and that of the revolution of the moon about it. Gilbert died in 1603, and in his posthumous work (De Mundo nostro Sublunari Philosophia nova, 1631) we have already a more distinct statement of the attraction of one body by another. "The force which emanates from the moon reaches to the earth, and, in like manner, the magnetic virtue of the earth pervades the region of the moon: both correspond and conspire by the joint action of both, according to a proportion and conformity of motions, but the earth has more effect in consequence of its superior mass; the earth attracts and repels, the moon, and the moon within certain limits, the earth; not so as to make the bodies come together, as magnetic bodies do, but so that they may go on in a continuous course." Though this phraseology is capable of representing a good deal of the truth, it does not appear to have been connected... with any very definite notions of mechanical action in detail."
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Philosophers from EnglandCosmologistsAstronomers from EnglandPhysicists from EnglandPhysicians from England
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William Whewell, ibid. Vol.1 p. 394.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Gilbert_(astronomer)
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William Gilbert (astronomer)
William Gilbert (24 May, 1544 – 30 November, 1603) was an English natural philosopher and royal physician to England's Elizabeth I and to James VI and I. He studied the earth's magnetism and properties of the compass, such as magnetic dip, using the model of a terrella. He is highly regarded for original experiments in electricity and magnetism and for his advocacy of the experimental method. He preceded Francis Bacon in his opposition to the methods of Scholasticism with its emphasis on dialect
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