1014 Dynamic Theory. 



the sun ), the earth's attraction for it would be only i of a grain, and 

 if it were on the opposite side of the earth's orbit, its weight from the 

 earth's attraction alone, would be reduced to ^ of a grain. At the 

 distance of the nearest fixed star, it would be immeasurably small. 

 But if allowed to fall to the earth from such a distance, the force of its 

 blow would turn it into gas as well as a part of the earth receiving the 

 blow. 



Thus the force of attraction diminishes with the increase of distance, 

 and at an infinite distance, if that were possible, it would be nothing at 

 all. But bodies falling under the force of gravity acquire greater ve- 

 locity with the distance they fall, and when they strike the earth, 

 the energy of the blow is increased in proportion to the square of 

 the velocity so that if a body goes at double speed, its energy is in- 

 creased fourfold; at triple speed, ninefold, &c. So it is eas} 7 to under- 

 stand that an enormous energy is created or rather made kinetic, when 

 bodies meet as the result of attraction from long distances. 



Now if we were to suppose all the suns and planets in the universe to 

 become stagnated, motionless and cold in the positions they occupy at 

 this moment, and all matter to be suddenly deprived of the property of 

 the attraction of gravitation, and every other form of attraction, we 

 might, with some propriety, apply to matter the term dead. But now 

 suppose it to be instantly re-endowed with that one property or affection 

 of the attraction of gravitation; and at once all would be motion. The 

 creation of attraction would be the creation of force, and the positions 

 which the different bodies occupied with reference to one another would 

 be potential positions. As pointed out (page 326 ), all potential energy 

 tends to run down to zero, and convert itself into kinetic energy, so that 

 worlds would fly toward each other with a constantly increasing velocity 

 and force. The larger ones would become centers toward which smaller 

 ones would tend with inconceivable force, and the shock of the col- 

 lisions which would result, would convert the motion thus arrested into 

 heat, great enough to turn the material of the solid bodies into gas, ex- 

 panded into many millions of times its original bulk. Such an aggre- 

 gation of gaseous matter is what astronomers call a nebula, of which 

 there are many examples in the heavens. A nebula contains all the 

 possibilities of a solar system. The energy developed by such a tre- 

 mendous collision is enough to last while planets are formed, and while 

 on them organic beings are slowly evolved through the tireless ages. 

 The energy we live on, of which our sun has yet a great store, may 

 have been born from such a collision. All its various forms could 

 have arisen from that one catastrophe. We have seen how every form 

 of motion may arise from other forms and be converted into other 

 forms. Heat, light, magnetism, electricity, nervous energy, chemism, 



