144 FROM NEBULA TO NEBULA 



speak of nil the other celestial bodies each of them 

 with precisely the same force as though none of the 

 rest existed. Fourth, its effect is transmitted over 

 the abysses of space instantly, and not after a lapse 

 of seconds or years, as in the case even of light itself. 

 And, finally, it cannot be eclipsed, as by the interposi- 

 tion of one planet between two others. 



Our cosmic dust, then, being actuated by this mar- 

 velous force, would proceed to combine, so that in the 

 course of time, of which there was no stint, a miscel- 

 laneous assortment of bodies would arise in different 

 parts of the heavens. Gravitation is a constant force, 

 and does not defer action until psychological moments, 

 wherefore, throughout, this whole process of agglom- 

 eration, from its very inception, a given congeries of 

 particles would feel a dominant but distant pull (being 

 the resultant of all the forces of the universe acting 

 upon it) in obedience to which the parts would adjust 

 themselves spontaneously, as a weathervane does to the 

 wind, into positions of equilibrium thereto and to each 

 other. But plainly such an equilibrium is fickle and 

 unstable, and the members of the forming system would 

 have to continue to shift their relative positions ac- 

 cording to some natural law, which, as I have previ- 

 ously shown, is that of the lever, or, what is the same 

 thing, Kepler's triad of laws. Though motion of rev- 

 olution would be inevitable, its initial direction would 

 be a matter of chance, but once settled, would remain 

 permanent and the same for all. 



All planetary systems, it will be noticed, have a 

 primary far exceeding in mass the aggregate of its 

 satellites. There is a reason for this. When the par- 

 ticles are all approximately of one size, the fulcrum 

 of the system is necessarily in the midst of the few 

 largest, which consequently are drawn, sooner or later, 



