INTRODUCTION 



THE object of this work is twofold: (1) to present 

 a re-valuation of the time-honored doctrines upon 

 which modern theoretical astronomy is based, and 

 (2) having shown wherein they are defective, to propose 

 a new and far more comprehensive system revealing the 

 entire visible universe in the philosophic aspect of a single 

 organic unit co-ordinated throughout, as a priori it must 

 be, by a single dynamical force. Like that of Newton, 

 my system is founded upon the great underlying prin- 

 ciple of universal gravitation, but it improves upon his, 

 as a universe of three dimensions excels one of two, by 

 extending this universality to include the clearly indis- 

 pensable, yet hitherto strangely omitted, factor of the 

 cumulative attraction of the stars and defining its won- 

 derful functioning in the affairs, not only of our solar 

 system, but of the stellar system as well. 



During the two centuries which have elapsed since 

 the publication of The Principia many important as- 

 tronomical truths have come to light the journey of the 

 sun in space, the proper motions of the stars, star 

 streams, the chemical constitution of the stars, the secu- 

 lar acceleration of the moon, the anomalous progression 

 of Mercury's perihelion, the stupendous age of our earth, 

 the existence and peculiarities of nebulae, etc. whose 



