COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



push before them as they advance. The local 

 rarefaction is achieved only at the expense of an 

 adjacent condensation. This condensation of 

 the adjacent molecules increases their elasticity 

 until it begins to overbalance the momentum 

 of the separating pair of molecules, and then 

 these molecules are driven back toward each 

 other. And so on, without intermission. Now 

 the recoil of the advancing molecule is necessi- 

 tated by the fact that the elasticity which it gen- 

 erates in the resisting molecule cannot expend 

 itself without producing motion. And to say 

 this is to recur again to our fundamental axiom. 

 Thus in all cases, whether molar or molecu- 

 lar, the rhythm of motion is necessitated by the 

 fact that in a multiform universe no portion of 

 matter can move uninfluenced by some other 

 portion. The illustrations just given do but 

 typify that which is forever going on through- 

 out the length and breadth of the Cosmos. 

 Periodicity, rise and fall, recurrence of maxima 

 and minima, — this is the law of all motions 

 whatever, whether exemplified by the star rush- 

 ing through space, by the leaf that quivers in 

 the breeze, by the stream of blood that courses 

 through the arteries, or by the atom of oxygen 

 that oscillates in harmony with its companion 

 atoms of hydrogen in the raindrop. Always, as 

 in our initial illustration, the forces which are 

 carrying a given portion of matter in a given 

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