114 TWO NEW WORLDS 



posed, the break-up of the system would probably 

 be more rapid than in the ideal case of sym- 

 metry. . . ." 



This would imply that the great annular system 

 of the Milky Way is unstable. But if so, its exist- 

 ence at all is a greater mystery than ever. . . . 

 Mr. E. T. Whittaker (secretary to the Royal 

 Astronomical Society), to whom Professor G. 

 Darwin sent my questions, writes : " I doubt 

 whether the principal phenomena of the stellar 

 universe are consequences of the law of gravita- 

 tion at all. ... In fact, it may be questioned 

 whether, for bodies of such tremendous extent 

 as the Milky Way or Nebulae, the effect which we 

 call gravitation is given by Newton's law ; just 

 as the ordinary formulae of electrostatic attraction 

 break down when we consider charges moving 

 with very great velocities." 



In spite of these doubts, it behoves us to cling 

 as long as possible to Newton's great generalisa- 

 tion, and only to abandon it when by doing so we 

 attain a greater. 



When, instead of a few million years, we draw 

 upon all eternity for our resources in time, we 

 actually meet with some simplifications rather 

 than the reverse. The first of these is that the 

 present moment does not differ from any previous 

 moment hi the universe as a whole. Whatever 

 has been, is, and will be. Our galactic system 



