THE PRIME RESULTANT 67 



Prime Resultant that extends from the center of gravity 

 of the moon to the Vertex, also that ray from the earth's 

 center of gravity to the same point. You will now, I 

 hope, be able to perceive that the Vertex is not the simple 

 mathematical point it may have seemed at first blush, but 

 a PLEXUS OF MANY STRESSES. In a general sense, our whole 

 solar system has indeed the same Vertex, but to that Ver- 

 tex each individual particle and molecule is attached by 

 its own independent strand. Between these strands 

 there is in every case a minute jog, or angle. In fact, the 

 strands all cross each other at diverse, though proximate, 

 points and lead away beyond the Vertex. Moreover, they 

 can by no possibility ever fully unwind, though always 

 unwinding. To illustrate : Take a yard stick and from its 

 ends pass tethers through a ring letting them extend a 

 little beyond, being careful to see that they are crossed 

 where they pass through the ring. Now pull the tips of 

 the strings and you will find there is a torsion on the stick 

 tending to turn it around its axis, which torsion will cease 

 only when the strings no longer cross. As I said before, 

 in the case of the earth and moon (as a typical example), 

 their gravitational filaments to the Vertex stay crossed 

 and are always "wound up ", unceasingly twisting the two 

 bodies round and round each other ; the rigidity of the 

 stick being replaced by the momentum implanted in the 

 bodies by their cosmic fall. And so throughout the sys- 

 tem and the universe. 



Thus you may see that the ' ' centrifugal force ' ' of the 

 moon is a reed thing, and I hope, too, that you perceive 

 that it and the centripetal attraction of the earth adjust 

 themselves to one another automatically ; which means, to 

 perfection. Our old equation, then, may be amended 

 thus: 



M C+C'=M' 



in which C and C' are immense real quantities of a 

 creative nature, but cancel each other, in the shape of 

 work done, leaving M' continuously equal to M. In- 

 cidentally, it may be affirmed that the moon does not fall, 

 in any fair sense. The true explanation is, that between 

 the centrifugal motion maintained by the Prime Resultant 



