6 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



round it, each again rotating on its own axis ; and, 

 finally, associated with some of these planets we have 

 dark bodies of minor note the moons. Whether the 

 other fixed stars have similar planetary companions or 

 not is to us a matter of pure conjecture, which may or 

 may not enter into our conception of the universe. But 

 probably every thoughtful person believes, with regard 

 to those distant suns, that there is, in space, something 

 besides our system on which they shine. 



From this general view of the present condition of 

 space, and of the bodies contained in it, we pass to 

 the enquiry whether things were so created at the be- 

 ginning. Was space furnished at once, by the fiat of 

 Omnipotence, with these burning orbs? In presence 

 of the revelations of science this view is fading more 

 and more. Behind the orbs, we now discern the nebulae 

 from which they have been condensed. And without 

 going so far back as the nebulae, the man of science can 

 prove that out of common non-luminous matter this 

 whole pomp of stars might have been evolved. 



The law of gravitation enunciated by Newton is, 

 that every particle of matter in the universe attracts 

 every other particle with a force which diminishes as 

 the square of the distance increases. Thus the sun and 

 the earth mutually pull each other ; thus the earth and 

 the moon are kept in company ; the force which holds 

 every respective pair of masses together being the in- 

 tegrated force of their component parts. Under the 

 operation of this force a stone falls to the ground and 

 is warmed by the shock ; under its operation meteors 

 plunge into our atmosphere and rise to incandescence. 

 Showers of such meteors doubtless fall incessantly upon 

 the sun. Acted on by this force, the earth, were it 

 stopped in its orbit to-morrow, would rush towards, and 

 finally combine with, the sun. Heat would also be 



