THE TIDES 167 



in another paltry millennium or so, it is doomed to perish 

 in flame and ashes. This notion of the earth's transiency 

 narrowed his outlook on the greater universe most 

 pathetically, insomuch that, in all his deliberations, he 

 overlooked altogether the relations of the solar system 

 to the stars, and treated it as a universe unto itself. (2) 

 He did not know of the sun 's motion, or that the stars 

 move in regular courses. (3) He took no account of the 

 greatest dynamical factor in nature, namely, the com- 

 posite of the stellar attractions. (4) He never heard of 

 the existence of nebulae, for these were not discovered by 

 Sir Wm. Herschel until two score years after Newton's 

 death, hence the characteristic forms of these wonderful 

 objects carried no suggestion to him. (5) He knew of 

 the existence of only six great planets. Had he known of 

 the asteroids, he might have thought twice before predi- 

 cating divine agency to set these, like the great planets, 

 in what he conceived to be miraculous and studied motion. 

 (6) He knew of the secular acceleration of the moon, 

 but he did not foresee that mathematics alone would 

 never solve it. (7) The problem of the origin of the 

 sun 's heat troubled him not, for to him it was transient as 

 the earth. (8) He had no ideas whatever about the 

 genesis of new stars, or about their variability. (9) The 

 use of steam as a source of mechanical power was un- 

 known, and, of course, so was the mechanical theory of 

 heat as well. (10) Spectrum analysis had not yet 

 demonstrated that the sun and stars are essentially of the 

 same chemical composition as our base earth. (11) 

 Finally, Newton lacked the advantage we possess of 

 factual knowledge that his tidal theory is all wrong. Had 

 he had this knowledge he might have taken a second 

 thought and, retracing his steps, hit upon the true solu- 

 tion. After severally weighing this formidable array of 

 his handicaps, ask yourself whether the presumption 

 should be in favor of, or against, Newton's theory of tides 

 or, for that matter, any of his theories, and what should 

 be our duty in the premises T 



It is curious that our Newtonian friends, who lay 

 such great store upon the value of the concordance of 



