216 WALKS AND TALKS. 



its rupture, when the smoke became a simple cloud. The 

 cosmic ring will experience the same fate. This nebula is 

 not hanging in the universe alone. All sjsace is animated by 

 moving masses and groups of masses. Comets are darting to 

 and fro. Distant suns are tugging steadily, even if feebly, 

 on the parts of this ring. Somehow, in 'the course of ages, 

 the balance of the ring will be destroyed. An excess of mat- 

 ter will be drawn to one side ; and, as a consequence, all the 

 matter will be drawn to that side. Or, perchance, the unequal 

 attraction may set up a wabbling rotation of the ring. Then, 

 by the laws of matter, the wabbling will increase until the 

 ring is ruptured. That will cause all the matter to gather to 

 the unbroken side. 



Thus, from one cause or another, the ring of nebulous 

 matter must become a sphere of nebulous matter. Its distance 

 from the original center is the distance of the ring. This 

 sphere moves in an orbit occupying nearly the place of the 

 ring. This sphere rotates on an axis, and the direction of the 

 rotation will be determined largely by the width of the ring 

 from which it was formed, and relative velocities of the outer 

 and inner circumferences of the ring. In this place I can 

 not attempt to explain this matter. Suffice it to know that 

 in most cases, the direction of the rotation would be the same 

 as the direction of the mass in its orbit; but if the diameter 

 of the orbit is relatively very great, the direction of rotation 

 may be the reverse of the motion in the orbit. 



This resultant spheroid is to become a planet. The resi- 

 dual mass continues its history as begun. By and by, another 

 ring is detached, and in the course of ages, this also becomes 

 a spheroid destined to become another planet. Meantime, as 

 the disengagement of a new ring diminishes the mass of the 

 central body, the centripetal force exerted on the first planet 

 is diminished. The centrifugal force therefore increases its 

 distance from the common center. This diminishes its angular 

 velocity, and therefore the centrifugal force, and thus the 

 centripetal and centrifugal forces become equal again both 

 diminished. 



