124 NOMOS. 



must therefore cause attraction between the several 

 parts and particles which are subject to them. These 

 several parts and particles, indeed, must needs attract 

 each other if they enter into the course of currents 

 which pass in the same way ; and as they do so, and 

 as the law of the attraction is the same as that of 

 gravity, why may not this attraction be the attraction 

 of gravity ? And if there is no reason to believe in 

 the existence of any special force of gravity upon the 

 earth, there is assuredly none to be found elsewhere. 



In this way, then, it is possible to trace in the 

 regions beyond the Earth the workings of the law 

 which is revealed in manifold operations 

 upon the Earth; and the movements of 



en?y indies ^ heavenly bodies would seem to be 

 are due, one obedient to the actions which determine 



and all, to the 



law of the the experimental movements of which we 

 have spoken in a former page. Much, no 

 doubt, remains to be done before these hints can be 

 constructed into a perfect theory, but in the mean- 

 time it must be remembered that the explanation 

 which has been offered is based upon the firm ground 

 of experiment and analogy, and that it initiates as 

 well as maintains the rotatory and translatory move- 

 ments of the heavenly bodies, and this without requir- 

 ing that space should be that incorporeal void which 

 the imagination is now so sorely taxed to conceive. 

 But we must proceed to the consideration of other 

 phenomena, for it is only when we get a view of the 

 whole subject that we can judge of the full value of 

 the evidence in this or any other particular point. 



