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AMERICAN NATURALIST. 
Vol. VIII.— NOVEMBER, 1874, — No. 11. 
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ADDRESS OF PROFESSOR JOSEPH LOVERING.* 
[Concluded from October Number.] 
Ay interesting question, which has waited thousands of years 
even to be asked, and may wait still longer for an all-sufficient 
answer, relates to the motion of what were once called the fixed 
stars, If numbers count for anything, this is the grandest prob- 
lem which can be presented to the mind of the astronomer. The 
argument from probabilities, which reposes on a substantial math- 
matical foundation, is loud in affirming some kind of motion, and 
tepudiates the notion of absolute rest. We must place the stars 
outside the pale of science, and where no process of reasoning 
a ean reach them, or we must suppose that they subscribe to the 
a Miversal law of all matter which we know, and exert attractive 
_ repulsive forces upon each other. There may be one solitary 
“J, OF more probably an ideal point of space, the centre of 
Stavity of the material universe, around which there is equilib- 
| rium ; but everywhere else there must be motion. Though 
, ace may reduce the effect of each one of the forces to a 
m nimum, in the aggregate their influence will not be insignificant. 
a a must share the common lot of the stars unless we repeat 
ONY of ancestral science, at which we now smile, and transfer 
Pe 
r i Ta isnag a A E EET A E cay 
n ece nt tiring President of the American Association for the Advancement of Sei- 
ered at the Hartford meeting. 
et oning to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by the PEABODY ACADEMY OF 
lg Be of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. T 
T, NATURALIST, VOL. VIII. 41 (641) 
