CONSTITUENTS OF THE UNIVERSE. 



vogue, is that too much importance has been 

 attached to these motions, and their phenom- 

 ena; and too little to the vastly more import- 

 ant primary motions. The chief aim has been 

 to measure the universe by these compara- 

 tively insignificant secondary motions. When 

 a projectile is fired from a cannon at a target, 

 no change occurs in the target until the col- 

 lision from the projectile takes place; and then 

 changes follow the impact. If this operation 

 was continuous, the changes of course would 

 be continuous. Now the surface of the earth 

 is being continually bombarded by the radial 

 motion from the sun, without which there 

 would be only the primary motions of the 

 earth with the sun, around the same, the 

 diurnal motion, the one called weight, and 

 that unseen movement of slight range. No 

 secondary motions and none of the complex 

 phenomena now so abundantly manifested 

 would occur; and of course no vegetable or 

 animal life would result. 



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