THE LUNAR WORLD. 79 



But why does not the moon do this ? Or rather why has 

 not the moon done it ages ago P By what spell is that body 

 poised aloft in seeming defiance of the attraction by which 

 mother earth seeks to gather together all exterior objects 

 into her bosom ? We have read how the coffin of Mahomet 

 was poised without support in the mosque of the faithful, 

 from which all unbelievers were so rigidly excluded ; no 

 material support was necessary to sustain the remains of 

 the prophet, the body itself seemed ever on the point of 

 following the departed spirit to the realms of bliss. A 

 perennial miracle was indeed necessary to sustain the 

 revered sarcophagus in space. The infidel, no doubt, is 

 somewhat sceptical about this marvellous phenomenon, but 

 now, as ever, truth is stranger than fiction. Far over our 

 heads there is a vast globe larger and heavier than 

 millions of sarcophagi ; no material support is rendered to 

 that globe, yet there it is sustained from day to day, from 

 year to year, from century to century. What is it that 

 prevents the moon from falling ? That is the question 

 which now lies before us. 



It is assuredly the case that the earth continually attracts 

 the moon. The effect of the attraction is not, however, 

 shown in actually drawing the moon closer to the earth, for 

 this, as we have seen, does not happen, but the attraction of 

 the earth keeps the moon from going farther away from 

 the earth than it would otherwise do. Suppose, for instance, 

 that the attraction of the earth were suspended, the moon 

 would no longer follow its orbit but would start off in a 

 straight line in continuation of the direction in which it 

 was moving at the moment when the earth's action was 

 intercepted. What Newton did was to show, from the 



