MOTION OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM THROUGH SPACE. 59 



equally partake as particles of that system ; the motion 

 demonstrated in the direction of the south pole being, 

 in such case, a majestic movement in which the 

 whole visible universe is plunging onwards through 

 space. 



And, since astronomical observations appear to 

 have shown that the solar system has a motion 

 among the stars by which it is carried along in the 

 direction of the northern hemisphere, we are, if those 

 observations be reliable, compelled to the conclusion 

 that in the same manner as that in which, when the 

 moon is inside the earth's orbit, the lesser velocity 

 of its orbital motion round the earth is swallowed up 

 in the greater velocity of the orbital motion in which, 

 together with the earth, it is carried round the sun ; 

 so also, in a similar manner, must the velocity of the 

 motion in which the solar system is carried north- 

 wards among the stars, be swallowed up in the 

 greater velocity of a motion in which, together with 

 the stars, it is plunging southwards. 



The winds, as they sweep earth's surface; the 

 waters of the ocean, as they ebb and flow; the 

 trembling needle as it variously declines eastwards or 

 westwards, or inclines from earth to heaven or heaven 

 to earth ; the liquid silver in the Torricellian tube, as 

 it variously oscillates with wave-like motion; the 

 configuration of the earth itself; these all with one 

 voice tell us of earth's career southwards. And, 

 through the Galilean lenses, faint radiations from the 



