52 FROM NEBULA TO NEBULA 



uously, but so far without success. The difficulty has 

 always been found to lie in the impossibility of provid- 

 ing a clear track for the descending weight; the earth 

 herself persistently barring the way. We have seen, 

 however, how Nature, wiser than man, utilizes the diver- 

 gent rays of the far distant stellar attractions to operate 

 our cosmic machine and keep it going through the ages. 



But here arises a misgiving : Must not this process 

 of mutual approach of the stars, however ingeniously 

 prolonged, end in any case in their final collision and 

 common burial? Will not Nature encounter, sooner or 

 later, precisely the same difficulty as man and find her 

 operating weights blocked by the sources of gravitation 

 themselves getting in the way? My answer to this is, No. 



In our discussion of the causes of celestial motions 

 we saw with what improvidence Newtonians cast aside 

 the cumulative attraction of the stars as a thing of no 

 account, or, worse still, as an actual stumbling-block to 

 the smooth working out of their adynamic theories. 

 Here again, in another field, we come upon a second ex- 

 ample of how blunderingly they mistake gold for dross. 

 Let me explain myself : 



According to the letter of the law, gravitation in- 

 creases inversely as the square of the distance. If this 

 means anything, it means that when a cosmic body, say 

 the sun, reaches its most condensed and compact state, 

 its integral gravitation attains its maximum. Our 

 scientists inform us that in progressing toward this com- 

 pacted condition gravity causes the collapse of the neb- 

 ula and by so doing converts its " potential" energy into 

 "kinetic" energy, or heat. Now, common sense should 

 lead us to conclude that when the power (in this case 

 gravitation) is capable of producing certain well-defined 

 thermal effects, then when said power is increased to its 

 maximum it ought to produce maximum effects; nor this 

 for a single moment only, but as long as the power re- 

 mains at par. This, at least, is my contention, though 

 it is quite the opposite of what orthodox science is now 

 teaching. Its teaching is that force and energy are two 



