46 FROM NEBULA TO NEBULA 



with reference to him and, in obedience to the law of 

 equilibration, to depress her center of gravity sunward. 

 Now, were she a solid body throughout, she would in 

 the course of a short time settle into a fixed attitude and 

 constantly turn the same face toward him, just as the 

 moon does now toward us. However, the earth is not 

 such a body, but is generously endowed with liquid oceans 

 (less than five times as heavy as her solid parts), which 

 she is compelled to shift constantly from the sunlit side 

 in her efforts to preserve her center of gravity at the 

 lowest point. It is this struggle for equilibrium, while 

 all the time being forced to advance in her orbit, which 

 I assign as the major cause of the earth's diurnal rota- 

 tion; the other being the torsional influence of the Prime 

 Eesultant. 



It is not only necessary to Nature's scheme that the 

 earth respect her center of gravity, but the earth-moon 

 system must also respect its. It follows that in shifting 

 her oceans from place to place over her surface the earth 

 must automatically take into account the angular posi- 

 tion of the moon with reference to the sun, as well as 

 her own lunar distance at the moment, in order that both 

 equilibrating objects may be jointly accomplished. 

 Under these conditions we should naturally expect to 

 find the tidally-displaced waters seeking, not a place 

 under the moon, but rather those "corners" of the earth 

 farthest removed from her; just as the phenomena pro- 

 claim. Herein, then, lies not only the explanation of why 

 * ' the moon seems to repel the waters under her ' ', but also 

 why she and the tide follow each other in such rhythmical 

 sequence. 



THE PLANET MARS 



Until very recent years Mars' surface was sup- 

 posed to be an arid desert, but during his last two or 

 three oppositions the evidence whether due to more 

 critical study or more intelligent interpretation has led 

 to the conviction that it is exceptionally moist. This 

 condition being admitted, the reason for construing the 



