22 UNIVERSAL EVOLUTION 



subsequent concentration of his arm of the original 

 nebula. The nebula was the result of the collisions of 

 the globes which had been formed previously in the 

 same way. Granted the existence of this nebula, and 

 the attraction of gravitation, and it can be mathe- 

 matically proved that condensation would begin. In 

 the process of condensation a rapid circular, or spiral 

 motion, would be set up ; and by the force thus 

 generated, the different planets would eventually be 

 iormed upon self-appointed centers in succession ; each 

 planet representing a minor center of condensation, 

 and being, at first, a mass of incandescent gas, accord- 

 ing to the planetesimal theory, separated from the 

 original mass by the attraction of a solid meteor pene- 

 trating the nebula from the outside. The momentum 

 of each planet given it while remaining a part of the 

 nebula would keep it moving. The velocity would in- 

 crease as the planet solidified ; and the pull of the 

 central mass would convert this forward motion into 

 motion in an elliptical track; the law of moment of 

 momentum would perpetuate the character of the 

 motion begun in the nebula, resulting, in the course of 

 untold ages, in the separate planets as we now see 

 them, moving in perfect harmony in their co-ordinate 

 orbits around a central sun. The sun is the remaining 

 portion of the original nebula, many times larger than 

 all the planets thrown off, and retains its luminosity 

 and high temperature long after the planets have lost 

 theirs. It is still shrinking, and its heat is produced 

 by the friction of condensation, and the chemical 

 action of its elements. When energy seems to be lost 

 it has only taken another form. Should all the bodies 

 of the solar system come together in such way as to 

 reform the nebula, would there be in such resulting 



