GRAVITATION VERSUS INERTIA 35 



Resultant (of course in proportionately less degree), 

 but, unlike it, they are continually shifting their point 

 of attack. The result is a tidal turmoil in the solar 

 economy that, were there no better explanation forth- 

 coming, might be magnified into a substantial cause of 

 solar heat, and is the true cause of the sun's equatorial 

 bulge. 



Suppose, now, that the sun were suddenly con- 

 verted, where he now stands, into a congeries of separate 

 meteors equi-distant from each other, but retaining the 

 general outline of a globe a dozen times his present dia- 

 meter. In that case the particles ought severally to 

 follow Kepler's third law, ought they not? If so, those 

 particles nearest the medial line would revolve fastest, 

 so that if we now fancy all the particles again coalescing 

 in order, and resuming their former places, we shall be 

 able, by looking sharp, to discover the phenomenon of 

 equatorial acceleration! 



But here I fancy the objection being raised that the 

 sun's turning is only about one two-hundred ths as fast 

 as it ought to be, in order to harmonize with the veloc- 

 ities of the planets. 



Under the inertia! theory this objection was indeed 

 insuperable, but in the present instance it is not well 

 taken. It will be observed that all the planetary sys- 

 tems have a primary greatly exceeding the combined 

 mass of all its satellites, which is just the condition we 

 should expect of a gravitational vortex. In the case of 

 the solar system it is the sun who stands astride this 

 vortex. Now as the concern of the sun is to maintain 

 an even keel for himself and his system in his giant trick 

 of balancing, he will not wait for his rim to turn but 

 will lean, now this way and now that, as a shorter cut 

 to the same end, although he will nevertheless continue 

 automatically to turn as well. The result of this 

 maneuver will be that the sun's axis will describe a cone, 



