70 FKOM NEBULA TO NEBULA 



because the center of gravity is then depressed the lowest 

 possible. The planets, for this reason, in the pursuit of 

 their general equilibrium, affect, very closely, the same 

 plane of rotation around the sun. So near are they to 

 one plane, indeed, that, reduced to a small enough scale, 

 the system would practically fit into a box about the 

 shape of a silver dollar. 



4. That what can be truthfully said of the planets 

 in these respects applies with no less force to the subor- 

 dinate systems and to the axial rotations of the planets. 



Thus does the introduction of the Prime Eesultant 

 into astronomical theory justify its entrance by explain- 

 ing, dynamically, all those numerous and amazing con- 

 cordances that Laplace sought to explain by postulating 

 the monstrosity of a self -rotating nebula, Indeed, it ex- 

 plains the rotation of all the nebulas just as effectively, 

 for these, too, are gravitational units. So are many of 

 the star clusters. Even the Milky Way itself is a gravi- 

 tational unit, composed though it is of billions of separate 

 stars, seeking its equilibrium with respect to the stellar 

 resultant playing upon it from many distant universes 

 like it, so far distant, indeed, that their light dies out be- 

 fore it can reach us. The facts are not susceptible of ob- 

 servational proof, but to my vision the Galaxy is nothing 

 else than a disc of starry globes extending indefinitely be- 

 yond our keenest telescope, and revolving, like our solar 

 system, about an axis passing through its poles. 



RETROGRADE MOTIONS 



"But what about the retrograde motions ?" I seem 

 to hear asked. These may be generally divided into two 

 classes : those of asteroids, and those of satellites. 



The first of these classes involves the solution of the 

 nature and origin of the comets. These bodies, as I shall 

 later explain more fully, are fragments cast off by ex- 

 ploded stars and enter our system as fugitives from their 

 own land seeking an asylum in ours. When they first 

 make their appearance, they exhibit certain eccentricities 



