The Magnetic Kingdom of Nature

could not praise enough, he bestowed upon me. However, when I showed that I had no faith in this kind of report unless sensory experience itself made me more certain of their power, he replied that he would not leave Rome until I became fully convinced of the truth of these things through the evidence of experience.

Encouraged by this promise, I prepared myself without delay to undertake a trial original: "periculum," which in an experimental context refers to a trial, test, or attempt of each and every thing. Not without amazement and wonder, I learned that the things he had related to me were true and worthy of all belief, as will become clear in the course of this work.

Since I discovered certain remarkable and truly wonderful magnetisms Kircher uses the term "magnetisms" to describe various hidden forces of attraction and repulsion found throughout the natural world, not just in literal magnets of hidden power in the practice of these experiments, I have written this short work concerning the triple Magnet of Nature: the Inanimate, the Vegetable, and the Sensitive original: "Inanimato, vegetabili, & sensitivo," referring to the three kingdoms of nature: minerals, plants, and animals.