26 FROM NEBULA TO NEBULA 



In order now to gain a conception of relations and 

 distances, let it be stated that the pole star, which is 

 certainly not far from the present location of the apex of 

 our drift, is, in round numbers, 100,000 times farther 

 away than Neptune, our outermost planet, is from the 

 sun, or 50,000 times the width of his orbit. Represent- 

 ing our whole system then as encompassed within a 

 disc one foot in diameter, the star will be about ten 

 miles distant ! And if we accept eleven miles a second 

 as the sun's real velocity, it will take a decade, on the 

 scale we have chosen, to advance the system by so much 

 as a single foot! 



Eeturning again to the consideration of the actual 

 system, imagine its members falling in space like the 

 sparks from a burst rocket, and so being drawn down- 

 ward into the gravitational vortex created by the Prime 

 Resultant. Remember, also, that the planets are teth- 

 ered to each other and to the sun by ties of gravity 

 whose law is constant and not to be denied. What is 

 more likely, then, than that they should seek to poise 

 themselves on their common center of gravity as upon a 

 fulcrum, and start to gyrate around this pivotal point 

 in great descending spirals, whirled about by the im- 

 petus of their own fall? It is not only likely, but it can 

 be mathematically demonstrated to be true. 



Here we are forcibly reminded of the Cartesian doc- 

 trine of vortices. But Descartes died when Newton 

 was but a child, and so knew naught of the great law 

 of gravitation, nor yet of the sun's trend through space. 

 All Descartes could do was to show mathematically that 

 the planets revolve as though they were caught in a 

 whirlpool, but in place of the subtle suction of gravita- 

 tion he was driven to postulate impossible fluids to 

 carry out his demonstration. 



