NEWTON'S THEORY OF PLANETARY MOTIONS 83 



the conservation of energy, loss of "position" involves 

 transformation of potential energy into kinetic, and for 

 every unit of the former that disappears one of the latter 

 must appear. If such be not the case in every instance, 

 the law is no law at all, and must be relegated to the limbo 

 of exploded errors. In one ordinary month there are 

 about 2,551,400 seconds, or 708.7, hours, or 29.5306 days. 

 If in one second of time, as alleged, the moon falls .0535 

 ins., it should develop kinetic energy equal to 240 million, 

 million horse-power as long as the falling process con- 

 tinues, which, humanly speaking, means forever. What 

 becomes of this energy, I ask! If nothing becomes of it 

 and it passes out of existence in the moment of its 

 creation, then must we not admit that there exists a 

 creative energy in nature and also a way whereby energy 

 can perish, neither of which propositions scientists now 

 concede f If no potential energy, on the other hand, dis- 

 appears and no kinetic energy appears, then there is no 

 loss of "position" at all, the moon is not falling, and the 

 whole Newtonian argument breaks down. Lastly, if the 

 moon is not falling earthward, it is not construable as a 

 "body falling in vacua/' nor, for the like reason, is the 

 earth ; and the elaborate theories of Newton 's Tides and 

 Darwin's Tidal Evolution are rendered wholly irrelevant 

 and prima facie absurd. 



As you, of course, know, the moon travels around our 

 earth, not in a perfect circle, but in an ellipse ; of which 

 latter the earth occupies the focus. The long axis of this 

 ellipse is called the major- and the shorter the minor axis. 

 Now, there is one way, and but one, whereby you can di- 

 vide this orbit into exactly similar halves (at the same 

 time severing the earth in half) and that is, by slitting it 

 along the line of the major axis. Along one of these 

 semi-orbits, the moon, proceeding from her perigee to 

 her apogee, constantly decreases her velocity ; while along 

 the other, on her return journey, she correspondingly in- 

 creases it. Now, the doctrine of "persistent velocities" 

 holds that, in coming inward, the moon is endowed with 

 the occult property of gaining, not merely in velocity, 



