60 FROM NEBULA TO NEBULA 



the solar system, also, be but a cog in a yet greater ma- 

 chine, and should it not be interpreted internally as af- 

 fected by externals? 



Gravitation I accept as an objective reality. I recog- 

 nize the right of the reader to accept or reject it at his 

 option, but unless he is willing to accept it in its broadest 

 implications he may just as well stop here. If the force 

 of gravitation extends from the moon to the earth, from 

 the earth to the sun, and from the sun to Neptune, with- 

 out sagging of the law, I contend there is no logical 

 reason why it should not extend throughout the universe 

 to its outermost limits. Moreover, if this be indeed true, 

 you can no more solve the problems of our system, or of 

 the earth alone, without taking this new relation into ac- 

 count than you can explain our change of seasons without 

 mentioning the sun. 



Suppose only two bodies to exist in space, at rest, and 

 separated from each other by a finite distance, they 

 would then inevitably approach each other in a direct line 

 and finally meet. Supposing the law of equilibrium to 

 apply, namely, that freely moving bodies seek their lowest 

 center of gravity; the direction of the axes of the two 

 bodies would in that case point each other out in the sky 

 until they met. Suppose, now, we add a third body and 

 call them A, B and C, all of the same size, starting from 

 rest, and so placed as to mark the points of an equilateral 

 triangle. In this case the axes of the bodies would not 

 point to each other, but would instead aim at the blank 

 point being the mathematical center of the triangle, where 

 eventually they would all simultaneously collide. 



Now, we do not live in a universe of two or three 

 bodies, but in one of many millions ; not in one of two 

 dimensions, but of three. Moreover, the planet we live on 

 is pointing to something with its axis. To what, then, if 

 not to the mathematical point to which the stars with 

 their resultant attraction are drawing us ? Here you may 

 interject that this cannot be true, because if the earth be 

 indeed so falling, it is falling in vacuo and that bodies so 

 falling do not obey the general law of equilibrium. I 

 shall answer this objection squarely in a future chapter. 



