618 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



globe and its sister planets, a similar action is constantly going on 

 between each planet and all the others. The mind is lost in such 

 a labyrinth of forces, and almost refuses to proceed. But we have 

 xmly entered upon the vestibule of the mysteries of the universe. 

 Across that gulf which separates our system from the stars, unseen 

 hands with sinews strong as steel are extended to bind all into one 

 great whole. From each star reaches out to our sun a force, small 

 as compared with those which hold our system together, yet of a size 

 that will amaze us. To the nearest of these far-off suns the distance 

 is so great that light, which travels almost 200,000 miles in a second, 

 requires three years to traverse it ! Yet gravity reaches across that 

 gulf with a speed which, if not absolutely instantaneous, is, according 

 to Laplace, 50,000,000 times greater than that of light. Such a distance 

 reduces proportionably the attraction ; yet our sun with its attendant 

 planets is drawn by mutual attraction toward the nearest star, sup- 

 posing them to be of the same size, with a force great enough to break 

 a cable, each of whose strands, 236 in number, should be a solid bar of 

 steel one mile square ; or, if we change our scale, and employ such 

 bars as those used when speaking of the interplanetary forces, bars of 

 steel one foot square, then the attraction between the nearest tiny 

 speck of light and our sun would be equal to the united strength of 

 6,500,000,000 such bars. 



"When we remember that each star, however remote, adds its quota 

 of force, and that a star whose light requires 6,000 years to reach the 

 earth is linked to our system by a band able to lift more than 14,000,000 

 tons, we may well believe that our system is being hurried through 

 space in a path which is the resultant of innumerable forces. 



The force which thus impels our sun reacts on other suns, and they 

 on each other, and thus all are in movement. This is not a conclusion 

 drawn from mere theorizing ; the measurements of astronomers have 

 established the fact that the " fixed " stars are moving with enormous 

 velocities, not, as has often been said, about a common center, but in 

 directions which cross each other at all angles. Millions of years hence 

 these movements will result in the destruction of the present universe, 

 unless He who called the stars into existence shall lay his hand upon 

 them. If, as revelation and science both teach, not a sparrow falls to 

 the ground without his knowledge, surely suns and worlds shall not 

 perish without his consent. He who in the beginning created the 

 heavens and the earth will guide them to the end. 



