THE LAW OF EQUILIBRIUM 145 



that the areas of the respective segments at perihelion 

 and at aphelion covered in equal times are equal. Of 

 course the rule holds good whatever parts of the orbit be 

 compared. 



Kepler's first law, namely, that planets travel in el- 

 lipses, is true only in the most superficial of senses. It 

 is not true geometrically, dynamically, philosophically, or 

 actually. Planets travel, instead, in open elliptical 

 spirals of an exceedingly complicated design. Astron- 

 omers, indeed, acknowledge that the orbits are not re- 

 entering, inasmuch as the translation of the sun is well 

 established; but they assume that, even if the sun were 

 stationary, the planets would, nevertheless, continue re- 

 volving, and that these orbits would then veritably be 

 closed curves. They picture the sun as possessing a 

 unique rectilinear motion not primevally shared by his 

 planets, and that the reason they accompany him is be- 

 cause he is dragging them along as a horse does a vehicle, 

 whether or no. Thus have the Newtonians, in a way be- 

 come habitual with them, underestimated the most signifi- 

 cant and potential facts of the cosmos, facts, too, gained 

 by their OWTI herculean labor and expense. 



Even though the bores, or calibers, of planetary 

 spirals admittedly exhibit elliptical curvatures, the fact 

 conveys little hint of the dynamical agencies concerned in 

 their generation. Profoundly interpreted, each infinites- 

 imal arc in each and every one of the planetary- and 

 satellite spirals is a coordinated resultant of the equili- 

 bristic adjustments of the aggregate system; that is to 

 say, every movement and turn of movement of the planets 

 is a concomitant, effect of each member balancing itself 

 against all the rest. The solar system, in fine, is essen- 

 tially a revolving, composite lever. To preserve the com- 

 mon equilibrium, when one member moves out from the 

 sun another or others must, perforce, move in, and vice 

 versa. These compensations automatically follow from 

 the principle of balance, and extend to every part, even 

 to the molecules and atoms that hang suspended in space ; 

 even, indeed, to the ether itself, if it be amenable to grav- 



