22 FROM NEBULA TO NEBULA 



some kind intellectual as well as religious repose. Just 

 as many honest souls believe in this or that religious 

 dogma under the mistaken conviction that denial there- 

 of involves a denial of God, so do men believe in this 

 inertial theory under the hallucination that to deny it 

 is to sacrifice the doctrine and law of Gravitation 

 itself. This sacrifice is needless falsehood is never a 

 safe anchor for Truth. 



So much by way of destruction. What, now, r>y 

 wav of construction? 



THE PRIME RESULTANT 



What does the nicety of the equipoise between the 

 centripetal and the centrifugal forces suggest to the 

 intelligent reader's mind? Does it not indicate the 

 existence of a second source of gravitation extraneous 

 to our system, and simultaneously playing upon the 

 planets from a distance? a gravitational force A pitted 

 against a gravitational force B? But where is there 

 such a force? 



Astronomers have proved, by the most elaborate and 

 painstaking research, that our solar system is headed 

 northwardly at a speed approximating eleven miles 

 a second. Exactness in so delicate a matter, either as 

 to velocity or apex (goal point), cannot reasonably be 

 expected, nor perhaps is it even possible; but the fact 

 of movement and of the general trend is sufficiently well 

 settled. This knowledge is comparatively recent, 

 although the elder Herschel suspected the fact a cen- 

 tury or so ago. It was certainly unknown to Newton 

 who, had he but known, might have seized upon it, as 

 we are now doing, as the possible cause of centrifugal 

 motion. 



