112 FROM NEBULA TO NEBULA 



Now, it is a sound and cardinal rule of experimental 

 science that the experimenter shall not allow his personal 

 predilections to color the result. Unfortunately, New- 

 ton and, worse still, all who have since been led to repeat 

 this particular experiment have started out with no other 

 possibility in mind than that the moon is the major cause 

 of the tides ; and it is therefore not at all surprising that 

 all of them alike have fallen blind victims to the same 

 blunder. Nor, when we recall the countless instances in 

 the past of the tenacity of traditional error, should it be 

 any more surprising that Newton's tidal hypothesis has 

 survived in human opinion the positive disproof of the 

 same by Nature herself. 



The worst fault I have to find with modern astron- 

 omy is its impotency to rid itself of the ancient pro- 

 pensity of trying to interpret the phenomena of the 

 firmament by systematically differentiating between ter- 

 restrial natural law and celestial natural law. The one 

 great truth I seek to inculcate is that natural law is every- 

 where identically the same, from center to circumference 

 of the physical universe, be it finite or infinite. Meta- 

 physics and physics are independent worlds. You can- 

 not rationally postulate uncaused rectilinear physical 

 motions or assert that persistence and inertia are equiva- 

 lent terms and still claim to be a scientist in the ideal 

 sense. Here in this question as to the universality of the 

 law of equilibrium we have another such case in point. It 

 would seem that Newtonians look upon the principle of 

 equilibrium as a sort of incubus upon matter, a mistake of 

 Nature's as it were, and that they feel that they are per- 

 forming a signal service to her by cogitating this base 

 mundane impediment out of existence in the "nobler" 

 universe above us. Terrestrial objects, say they, are 

 bound by the law of equilibrium ; celestial bodies, on the 

 contrary, are of a higher order and are absolved from 

 such servile obedience. With them "celestial me- 

 chanics" is not terrestrial mechanics applied to stellar 

 objects, but rather an elaborate transmogrification of it. 

 Where Newton did not hesitate to invoke divine agency 

 to explain such physical wonders of the heavens as he 



