THE AUTHOR'S THEORIES OUTLINED 39 



cession of the equinoxes is not owing to the causes 

 Newton assigned to that phenomenon, but rather to the 

 earth's comradeship of the sun in his spiral descent; 

 while the misapplied causes pertain instead to the more 

 recently discovered phenomenon of latitude variations 

 that is still awaiting elucidation. 



Again. We are prepared to explain the phenomenon 

 pointed out by Kapteyn, namely, that the velocity of the 

 rotation of nebulae and systems increases with the evolu- 

 tional stage. The older a nebula, the longer, obviously, 

 has it been subjected to the influence of its stellar resul- 

 tant, so that not only is each falling at a faster rate than 

 ever before, but by virtue of the torsional strains I have 

 described, its velocity of rotation is likewise increasing. 

 In brief, the stellar resultant is the evolving power. 



THE LAWS OF GRAVITATION AND EQUILIBRIUM 



One of the most disastrous as well as one of the most 

 inexcusable blunders ever perpetrated by men of science 

 is their denial of the principle of balancing to cosmic 

 bodies. The principle of gravitation implies equilibra- 

 tion, and vice versa: the two are virtually identical. 

 When the body is in stable equilibrium, it means that the 

 action of gravitation on its one side exactly equals and 

 cancels that on its other side: when the body is not in 

 equilibrium it means that the force of gravitation on one 

 side is greater than it is on the other. Hence it is the 

 height of absurdity to suppose it to be possible for one 

 arm of a balance-scale to ever be heavier than the other 

 without the fact being indicated by a downward move- 

 ment of that side. Equilibration on the part of a free 

 body is the best, and in some cases the sole, evidence of 

 gravity. An excess of weight on one side is a motive 

 poiver of which, in a universe seething with dynamical 

 activities and problems, we must aim to make the most, 

 rather than to try to conjure it out of existence. 



As between my conception of our solar system being 

 a gravity-engine whirled round and round by the force of 



