i88i.| 
Scientific Arrogance. 
257 
receding from the Sun because it is repulsed by it. If it be 
asserted that the Earth is attracted by the Sun because it is 
not further from it, it may be replied that it is repulsed by 
the Sun because it is not nearer to it. I assert that the 
attraction or repulsion is the result of a constitutional rela- 
tionship consequent upon the laws of God in Nature. This 
relationship has arisen out of the circumstances under which 
the Earth has been created. The Earth has been consti- 
tuted under the influence of the Sun, any change in its 
relationship to which would, proportionately to its import- 
ance, change its present condition, just as any change in 
that condition would effedt a change in its entire plant and 
animal life. Hence I assert that the Earth has derived its 
existence from the Sun, just as the oak tree has derived 
its existence from the soil into which the acorn was planted, 
and by its relationship to which the tree has passed through 
all the phases which commenced in its first fructification. 
The Earth’s present existence is consequent upon that of 
the Sun ; and as, by the theory of Evolution, its present 
existence has been derived from the past up to the remotest 
beginning, its past existence must have been derived from 
the Sun. I have shown that there is a relation between the 
sizes of the planets and their distances from the Sun ; be- 
tween the number of satellites of a planet and its distance 
from the Sun ; between the velocity of the revolutionary 
motion of a planet and its distance from the Sun ; and be- 
tween the rotary motion of a planet and its distance from 
the Sun ; all of which relationships are suggestive of a 
higher development of the more distant planets. I fail, 
therefore, to see that there is anything “ absurd or extrava- 
gant ” in the belief that they all originated in the Sun, and 
that there is a relationship between their ages and their dis- 
tances from that body. Notwithstanding the proverb, I do 
not know that growing old is growing cold ; I have never 
heard of the “ accepted doCtrine” that heat radiates under 
all conditions ; I am certainly not aware that the Earth is 
growing cold ; but some eminent scientists do tell us that 
there is a constant relationship between heat and motion, 
and I believe it is a faCt that the more distant, and, as I 
believe, the older planets, have much quicker rotary motions 
than those which are nearer to the Sun. 
In answer to the charge of arrogance which has been 
brought against them, I have seen it stated that it is cer- 
tainly not true that men of science, as a body, or the leaders 
of physical science in particular, have used a tone of over- 
bearing confidence or wanton insult, and I am willing to 
