PLANETARY MOTIONS 35 



would inevitably rapidly precipitate the moon upon our 

 heads. On the other hand, suppose the tangential veloc- 

 ity to be ever so slightly excessive, so that the moon in 

 its initial second of time could not at P drop clear to the 

 orbital line, then would the earth's attraction, relatively 

 and absolutely, acceleratingly decrease more and more, 

 and the moon would consequently escape irrecoverably 

 into space. 



So precarious an arrangement as this surely cannot 

 be the cosmic fact ! Newton, with his hypothesis of di- 

 vine agency, had a great tactical advantage over the pro- 

 ponents of spontaneous motions, who, no doubt, imagine 

 that their hypothesis covers the requirements as respon- 

 sively as his. But they are vastly mistaken. Were New- 

 ton here to answer us, he could consistently retort that 

 the Creator is omnipotent ; that it was within His power 

 to place the moon just where He pleased ; that He could at 

 will fling it even more accurately than any mathematician 

 could compute its proper course, and that He could im- 

 press upon it such velocity as He listed. Moreover, 

 Newton might add, the Divinity still watches over His 

 universe and by His mere fiat can readjust it, when and 

 where needed, just as effectually as when He created it. 

 Do I hear any astronomer make like claims of conscious 

 design on the part of inanimate nature I 



Now, in the solar system there are eight major 

 planets, some twenty-five satellites, and more than 700 as- 

 teroids, all of whose orbits are very much larger than that 

 of the moon, and whose trajectories consequently are in- 

 finitely straighter. Are we to believe that these, too, 

 have uncaused motions, that these motions are all miracu- 

 lously tangential, and that their speeds are magically ac- 

 commodated by mere accident to the strength of their 

 several central forces? 



The vicious habit of the Newtonians of covering up 

 the flaws of their theories was br'oken in upon in one 

 notable instance. This was when Laplace, deceived into 

 thinking that he had in his Nebular Hypothesis the key to 

 their answer, pointed out the amazing inadequacies of 



