RECENT COSMOGONIES 203 



In recent years Sir George H. Darwin (1845-1913), 

 more than any other single investigator perhaps, has 

 made a special and practical study of the tides ; and, like 

 the rest of mankind, he fell naturally into the habit of 

 viewing the universe through the spectacles of his 

 specialty. There were three peculiarities about our earth- 

 moon system that struck him as possibly susceptible of 

 correlation under the tidal principle, and to the pursuit 

 of this object he devoted many years of his studious life. 

 These three peculiarities, according to his interpretation, 

 were the following : 



1. The moon constantly turns the same side toward 

 us. 



2. Her surface is obviously volcanic. 



3. The earth is the only planet having a single 

 satellite, and this satellite is the largest, relatively to its 

 primary, in the whole solar system. 



Between Darwin pere and Darwin fils there lay an 

 antipodal distinction. The former was a pioneer in the 

 true sense, caring little for established opinions, but 

 everything for the realities of Nature. The latter, on the 

 contrary, gave the lie to Nature and servilely followed 

 on the heels of Tradition. What chance, think you, has 

 the cause of progress, when one such as he, having ut- 

 tered the statement : i ' The equilibrium theory of tides is 

 nearly as much wrong as possible in respect to the time of 

 high water. In fact in man} 7 places it is nearly low water 

 at the time the equilibrium theory predicts high water. 

 It would seem then as if the tidal action of the moon was 

 actually to repel the water instead of attracting it, and we 

 are driven to ask whether this result can possibly be con- 

 sistent with the theory of universal gravitation ' ' yet 

 deliberately flew in the face of the truth and rushed on in 

 the same old rut? 



So Darwin, following perversely in the footsteps of 

 the mistaken Newton and Kant, pursued the following 

 train of hyper-speculative reasoning : 



Since, according to Kant, the day is longer (or at 



