THE AUTHOR'S THEORIES OUTLINED 37 



be irregular and nondescript. Whatever its original 

 shape, however, we have in the Prime Resultant a lever 

 whereby to bring it into harmony and order. From its 

 imaginary initial state of rest, it would, at the behest of 

 the Prime Eesultant, begin to fall, thereafter accelerar 

 ting its motion with lapse of time, each discrete particle 

 accommodating itself to the vortical current by the neces- 

 sity imposed upon it of contributing to the general bal- 

 ance. 



Obviously, such a process of concerted equilibration 

 implies two things as necessary consequences: (1) that 

 the gyrations occur in the same direction, and (2) that, 

 though they need not so begin, they must tend more and 

 more toward rotundity of orbit. 



Again, what should the natural figure of equilibrium 

 of the nebula be when the process reaches the mature 

 stage? To open the way to the answer of this question 

 let me follow it with another: Given a miscellaneous 

 group of solid objects free to seek their lowest common 

 center of gravity, how must they arrange themselves so 

 as to ensure that center being at its lowest level possible? 

 Can there be any doubt of the answer? On the same 

 plane, of course. 



Thus far we have considered the two extremes, to 

 wit, first, our own globe, as a simple body dropping into 

 the void, the while automatically poising itself on its 

 center of gravity, and, second, the solar system in its 

 entirety going through the same procedure, but reacting 

 somewhat differently because of the multiplicity of its 

 detached members. Between these extremes are 

 the subordinate systems the earth-moon, the Jovian, the 

 Saturnian, etc. which also demand our consideration. 

 Each of these minor systems is, by itself considered, a 

 gravitational unit seeking its proximate, local, individual 

 center of gravity, and like the parent system constitutes 

 a separate vortex. It is not the planets, as such, but 

 rather the centers of gravity of their vortices that 

 revolve around our luminary. Is it too much to assume, 

 provisionally, that our solar system is in turn a member 



