112 NOMOS. 



ments of the heavenly bodies, and the simple ques- 

 tion now is, whether we are at liberty to use it as 

 such a sign. If we are at liberty and, after what 

 has been said, reason must be shown why we are 

 not, and not why we are then the conclusion is, 

 that the reciprocal action between the terrestrial and 

 solar currents is greater when the northern hemi- 

 sphere is exposed to the light, than when the southern 

 hemisphere is so exposed; and, being greater, it 

 follows that the subtensial impulses will issue in a 

 greater amount of motion, and carry the earth further 

 from the sun when the northern hemisphere is more 

 directly acted upon by the sun ; which is really the 

 case. The arrangements of land and water are, indeed, 

 precisely what they ought to be, according to the 

 theory. The lands of the northern hemisphere are 

 more and more exposed to the sun as the sun rises 

 above the vernal equinoxial point, and they are most 

 exposed at the aphelion. The lands of the northern 

 hemisphere are less and less exposed to the sun as 

 he sinks to the autumnal equinoxial point ; and at this 

 point, where the sun holds the same relation to the 

 northern hemisphere as it did at the vernal equinoxial 

 point, the distance of the earth from the sun is the 

 same. As the sun sinks towards the winter solstice, 

 he is more and more removed from the lands of the 

 north, and he is most removed at the solstice itself 

 when the earth is at the perihelion ; and again, the 

 lands of the north are more and more exposed to 

 the sun as the earth recedes from her perihelion to 

 the point from which we began to trace her move- 

 ments the vernal equinox. The positions of the 



