THE PRIME RESULTANT 75 



curve ? To begin with, in order that the system may re- 

 coil at all, it cannot possibly abide in one place, but must 

 keep perpetually on the move. Nor can it sail away in a 

 straight line, because, by premiss, it is tethered to the lo- 

 cal centrum or Vertex of stellar attractions, hence a reen- 

 tering curve must consequently result. But here, again, 

 we are confronted with the circumstance that the system 

 is falling at the same time, hence our final conclusion 

 must be that the center of mass of our system is pursuing 

 a sweeping spiral path, inferentially requiring some 26, 

 000 years to complete a single coil of it. 



In order to make all these relations perfectly clear in 

 the reader's mind, let us, for the time being, disregard the 

 falling motion of the sun and treat his path as a simple 

 closed curve. Imagine then, if you please, an immense 

 sphere suspended in space, having for its center the Ver- 

 tex and for its radius the stem of the Prime Resultant 

 (that is to say, the distance between the Vertex and the 

 sun's center), and for convenience of reference we shall 

 call it the GravispJiere. For reasons previously stated, 

 let us picture this sphere as inverted, with its south pole 

 at the top, and inscribed on it an Equator, and Arctic and 

 Antarctic circles. Transport yourself now, in spirit, to 

 the Vertex and, from it look up at our descending system 

 and take note of its motions, imagining yourself to con- 

 tinue in the same position for 260 centuries. This is 

 what you should see : first, a complete revolution of the 

 system in a clockwise direction around the line of the 

 grav- Antarctic circle which, being projected against the 

 celestial sphere, would describe on it precisely the same 

 sort of circle, around the southern pole of the ecliptic, 

 23y 2 in radius; second, you should see the north pole of 

 the earth's axis constantly turned toward you, so stead- 

 ily, indeed, that were that axis a hollow bore you could 

 see clear through it, at all times, to the background of 

 the southern sky beyond ; third, you should see the earth 

 rotate on its axis in a contra-clockwise direction; and, 

 fourth, you should see all the planets revolve around the 

 sun, and the moon around the earth, in this same left- 

 handed manner. (See Fig. 3.) 



