44 FROM NEBULA TO NEBULA 



On checking up with the phenomena, however, he 

 found that although the excess waters ought, under this 

 ingenious theory, to be under the moon, they are actually 

 found afar off at the marginal areas whence he had hypo- 

 thesized them to have been withdrawn ! In other words, 

 by drawing the waters theoretically to where she is, the 

 moon objectively forces them to where she isn't : by pull- 

 ing them obliquely away from the marginal areas, she 

 obliquely heaps them up at those very areas ! 



But Newton in the pursuit of his object was deter- 

 mined not to be downed, and so he invented still another 

 expedient. The tide, he now said, is " dragged " around 

 the earth, and, like all things that are dragged, it is 

 naturally to be found at a distance behind the tractive 

 power. When we ask, "Dragged from where "? he 

 answers, "Dragged from the place where it was origi- 

 nally raised up J '. When we ask, ' ' Where was it raised 

 up?", he answers, "Under the moon." When again we 

 question, "Here is the moon now over our heads, and 

 here we are at the port; show us the tide in process of 

 rising, for to us it looks rather as though 'the action of 

 the moon was actually to repel the water instead of rais- 

 ing it.' How does the moon thus manage to drag about 

 a tide which she manifestly never originated and from 

 where it never existed? Or are the tides, perhaps, like 

 rectilinear motions, self -existent? Or does the moon 

 find it easier to drag tides than to raise them ; and to 

 drag them to where she isn't than to raise them where 

 she is?" 



Another obstacle that lay in Newton's path, and 

 which he resolved to get rid of, was the law of equili- 

 brium. A little reflection will show that if this law ap- 

 plies to the earth in its relation to the moon, then the for- 

 mer should depress her center of gravity moonward, or, 

 in other words, transfer her lighter mobile parts (her 

 ocean waters) from in front of the moon to the rear, 

 thus lowering the water-level under the moon f in accord- 

 ance with the physical fact. Newton saw this plainly 

 enough, and he would no doubt have been glad to accept 



