34 FROM NEBULA TO NEBULA 



indicate the line of attraction between the two bodies; 

 this attraction, of course, varying directly as the product 

 of their respective masses and inversely as the square of 

 their separating distance. As a consequence, the earth is 

 impelled to fall toward the star, which in turn falls earth- 

 ward. Now, a falling body, unlike any other sort of 

 motion we know of, ' ' advances with the square of the 

 time", a peculiarity which, as we shall presently see, 

 supplies us with a very valuable corroboration of our 

 main argument. 



Now pick out a second star, a third, a fourth, a 

 twentieth, in divers sections of the heavens and repeat 

 the performance made with the first, and then try to im- 

 agine as well as you can (as by picturing them luminous) 

 the net work of rays from all the stars simultaneously f o- 

 cussed on our planet. What, think you, should be their 

 cumulative effect upon the ball of the earth? Should 

 not this latter fall in the direction of the maximum pull 1 

 Does it not also seem natural that it should so fall with 

 its center of gravity at the lowest point, that is, with its 

 heavier hemisphere underneath Should not so many 

 divergent stresses, all acting in unison, work a torsion 

 within the globe and incline it to gyrate upon its axis? 



Turning now to contemplate the earth directly, we 

 perceive at once that her axis is " fixed", which is just 

 what we should look for under our hypothesis ; and this 

 fixation we note persists in spite of the fact that she re- 

 volves yearly around the sun. Secondly, we observe a 

 very marked difference between our northern and 

 southern hemispheres; the former comprising nearly 

 two and a half times as much land as the latter, while a 

 closer inspection discloses the continents so eagerly seek- 

 ing the north pole as to seem to be shouldering each 

 other away from it, like cakes of ice jammed by the cur- 

 rent against a bridge pier. Thirdly, there is the ob- 

 lateness of the earth's figure, which tells as plainly as 

 words that the globe is settling upon itself, like a ball of 

 soft putty, and that its present shape is but its ' ' figure of 

 equilibrium". Finally, we have here the vera causa of 



