56 THE BIOCOSM08 PRELIMINARY. 



There are accordingly two other stages of 

 Nature as a whole which are antecedent to 

 the present one, and which we name in order 

 Cosmos and Diacosmos. The first is essen- 

 tially gravitative, and manifests the varied 

 unification of matter after its equally varied 

 separation, and thus gives rise to what is gen- 

 erally known as the mechanical world. The 

 second stage (Diacosmos) is the separative, 

 and as the opposite of unity-seeking gravita- 

 tion may be considered degravitative, or 

 radio-active in the wide sense of the term. 

 Already in the Cosmos is to be noticed a 

 radial force which arises in the case of a rap- 

 idly rotating body, and flings off an outermost 

 fragment in opposition to gravitation. This 

 is the way in which the sun as nebula is sup- 

 posed to have ejected the planets of the solar 

 system, which still remains cosmical or me- 

 chanical, since this ejective or radial energy is 

 in the end controlled by gravitation. Thus it 

 is that the planets, after having been thrown 

 off by the sun, remain in its gravitational 

 empire and circle about it in their orbits. 

 From this point of view we are to make a dis- 

 tinction between a radial (cosmical) move- 

 ment and a radio-active (diacosmical) move- 

 ment. An instance of the latter is seen in 

 Light, which the Sun rays out far beyond His 

 system, without return apparently, as may 



