44 



the sun at 600 kilometres a second, and, as this shower 

 takes place in oxygen-hydrogen, the velocity of the fall 

 of cosmic matter is probably the same as the movement 

 of the oxygen-hydrogen itself. Obviously with such a 

 rate of movement atmospheric blows must take place, 

 corresponding to the pushing or pressing force of the 

 gases ; as our sun, then, is only a burning planet, it must 

 possess the same indispensable organs of movement as 

 our earth, organs answering to our mountain ridges and 

 uplands, acting upon which the force of the gases, ac- 

 ting in a parallelogram of forces, can impart to the great 

 globe movement around its pole and movement for- 

 ward, in common with the planets. 



If the sun does not move round its axis so quickly as 

 the planets, this can be explained by the following two 

 considerations. 1) The sun's mass is 550 times greater 

 than the mass of all the planets together ; hence the ac- 

 tion of its rays may well be far stronger than the counter 

 action of the planetary gases. 2) Secondly, if the sun 

 began to revolve with the same rapidity as the planets 

 it would forge ahead in the cosmic progress and thereby 

 break the harmony of the solar system, which would 

 lead inevitably to its destruction. We see in this exi- 

 sting harmony a cosmic reason, and not the action of 

 any blind law of attraction. 



Suppose we imagine that all cosmic space is a fluid in 

 which the cosmic spheres are swimming. By the laws 

 of physics all bodies made to swin in liquid elements 

 must have a rounded form, so that the pressure of the 

 surrounding medium may be uniform on all sides. The 

 starry universe presents a mass of such bodies, from 

 whence we assume that the heavenly bodies move in a 

 cosmic fluid, which astronomers call ether, but which is, 

 in reality, planetary oxygen combined with hydrogen. 



The more brilliant the sun, the more perfect ; the more 

 perfect the planet the more oxygen it gives out, and 

 vice versa; and as a planet cannot give out oxygen 

 without the light and heat of the sun, nor can the 



