LITTLE 

 JOURNEYS 



pulling things toward the center of the earth. This 

 power extended straight down into the earth he knew 

 it he had dropped a stone into a mine, and had also 

 dropped things from steeples. He dropped apples from 

 kites by an ingenious device of two strings, and he 

 concluded that an apple taken a hundred miles up in 

 the air would return to earth. He then began to spec- 

 ulate as to what a body would do a thousand or ten 

 thousand miles from the earth. So as high as we could 

 go, or as deep as we could dig, this drawing power 

 was always present. 

 The Law of Gravitation ! 



If a cannon-ball was fired in a straight line at a distant 

 target, the gunner had to elevate the aim, if he would 

 hit the target, for the ball described a curve and would 

 keep dropping to the earth until it actually struck the 

 ground. Something was pulling it down what was it? 

 Q The Law of Gravitation ! 



The moon was attracted toward us and would surely 

 fall into us, but for the fact that there were other at- 

 tractions drawing her toward them. The movements 

 of the planets were owing to the fact that they were 

 obeying attractions. They were moving in curves, just 

 like cannon-balls in motion. They had two movements, 

 also, like the cannon-ball. 



Newton had noticed that the stars within a certain ter- 

 ritory all moved in similar directions, and so must be 

 acted upon by the same influences. 

 The Law of Gravitation ! It is held by many people 

 in East Aurora and elsewhere that Newton's invention 

 82 



