10 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE 



conceive it as the holder of the luminiferous ether, through 

 which are interspersed, at enormous distances apart, the 

 ponderous nuclei of the stars. Associated with the star 

 that most concerns us we have a group of dark planetary 

 masses revolving at various distances 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 plan- 

 etary companions or not is to us a matter of pure con- 

 jecture, 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 

 inquiry whether things were so created at the beginning. 

 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 re- 

 spective pair of masses together being the integrated force 



