48 Vital Physics. 



repellent force, diminishes in intensity as it recedes from 

 the focus of action in a constant and regular manner, but 

 much less rapidly than does the attractive ; and as a result of 

 this slower diminution in acceleration or intensity, it gets 

 the start of the attractive, or is in advance in motion 

 over the attractive, arid always pushes the attracted body a 

 little ahead of the curbing or attracting force. 



To illustrate this, let it be supposed that S is the 

 Sun and J Jupiter, or any other planet. Let G G G G 

 represent the direction of the repellent force, and H H H 

 of the attractive ; and let A B represent the line of 

 equipoise of the two forces in relation to their nearness 

 to the sun. Or that, at the line A B, the attractive 

 and repellent forces have attained their perfect equili- 

 brium, but inasmuch as the rate of acceleration is greater 

 in the direction of G G G G than in the opposite direc- 

 tion of H H H, it follows that the increased acceleration 

 will ever tend to project J towards the line C D, but 

 the acceleration losing in force directly in relation to its 

 distance from the sun, and attraction, by its slower ac- 

 celeration but greater force, effectually checks the repel- 

 lent force, when it reaches C D, and being no longer equally 

 equipoised, brings J back to F E ; for the ratio of accelera- 

 tion in the adverse direction will, by inertia itself, be carried 

 beyond the line of equipoise A B, but the increased resist- 

 ance of the repellent force at E F will be too great for 

 attraction to further overcome, and aided by the accumulated 

 force at E F, rebounds back to C D ; and in this manner, by 

 two forces of unequal acceleration, a constant ingress 

 towards and egress from the sun, are sustained in the form 

 of perpetual motion. It is this unceasing oscillation, as 

 here supposed, which tends to bring about that unresting 

 state of the waves, present at all times, whether in storm 

 or calm, as distinct from the tide, and is dependent upon 



