Cosmic law

“ It seems to me that these modern discoveries as to the periodic decay and re-birth of cosmic bodies, which we owe to the most recent advance of physics and astronomy, associated with the law of substance, are especially important in giving us a clear insight into the universal cosmic process of evolution. In their light our earth shrinks into the slender proportions of a “mote in the sunbeam,” of which unnumbered [Pg 244] millions chase each other through the vast depths of space. ”

“ That study of our Earth in its entirety falls properly within the province of astronomy, is not only deducible from its relationship to the other planets, but demonstrable from the cosmic causes that have been at work upon it, and the inadequacy of anything but cosmic laws to explain them. ”

“ We live in a world of relativity. What we call cosmic laws have only a relative value. The Ptolemaic system of epicycles was relatively true to the view of the universe which regarded the Earth as the centre of the system. It answered to all the phenomena. It had an integrity of its own. When the view-point was shifted so that the Sun came to be regarded as the centre of the system, then the 68epicycle no longer held good. But the elliptical theory of Kepler was only a relative truth. The planets do not really move in elliptical orbits. ”

“ Let it be supposed that the property of attraction was impressed upon all the particles of matter in the universe, and then that the Infinite Power, abstaining from all farther action, and without forming and arranging the bodies of the solar system upon any intentional plan, left all that plan to be worked out by that property of matter; what reason have we to conclude that the law of gravitation would, as the sole efficient cause, have produced just exactly this complex piece of mechanism, so wonderfully adjusted? ”

“ The answer is, that it is not less universal than the law of gravitation and no more so. There is a prevalent popular fallacy that the force of gravity is such that the movements, not only of solar systems, but of whole galaxies, and of all the illimitable systems of galaxies, are under its effective control, and that the whole universe of boundless space acknowledges its overwhelming sway. ”

“ But nothing can be further from the truth. We know, of course, that the law is universal, as expressed in the statement of its terms by Newton, but the mere statement of the law itself, as applied to interstellar distances, refutes the idea that solar systems and galaxies can rotate around any common center by virtue of the attraction of gravitation as a controlling force. The universality of the law itself has even been doubted. Professor Ball says, “In the first book about astronomy which I read in my boyhood there was a glowing description .... ”

“ Is not the government of the solar system by a force varying inversely as the square of the distance, a simpler conception than any that preceded it? Should we ever succeed in reducing all orders of phenomena to some single law—say of atomic action, as M. Comte suggests—must not that law answer to his test of being independent of all others, and therefore most simple? And would not such a law generalize the phenomena of gravity, cohesion, atomic affinity, and electric repulsion, just as the laws of number generalize the quantitative phenomena of space, time and force? ”

“ So that, by the study of the solar system, as its arrangements and movements are disclosed by astronomy, our inquirer would be naturally led to the conception of a lawgiver and artificer of infinite power and wisdom, ordaining the law of gravitation to operate against the centrifugal force, which would otherwise conduct out of its orbit a body revolving around a center, and then adjusting the relative distances, weights, and revolutions of the different bodies, so as to subject them to the operation of the great law that is to preserve them in fixed relations to each other. ”

“ In a word, amid all these manifest proofs of evolution, what proof exists of dissolution regarded as a cosmical process? We are bound to confess that there is none. We are justified in its assumption on a priori grounds alone, if at all. The law of the conservation of energy, now so well established in all the departments of physics, must be theoretically extended to the mechanics of space. This law is only another expression for the indestructibility of motion. If no motion can be destroyed, the same quantity must always exist in the universe. ”

“ If we continue to pile galaxies, in the same perpetual recession, behind each other to all infinity, we still could not engender sufficient attractive force to control the observed movements of the multitudinous stars of space. The very statement of the law of gravitation itself disproves it ”

“ It is impossible for us to over-estimate the importance of this law. It supplies the clue by which we can unravel the complicated movements of the planets. It has led to marvellous discoveries, in which the law of gravitation has enabled us to anticipate the telescope, and to feel the existence of bodies before those bodies have even been seen. ”

“ Nor can we suppose the structure of the globe alone to be exempt from the universal fiat, though ages may pass before the changes it has undergone, or that are now in progress, can be referred to existing causes with the same certainty with which the motions of the planets and all their secular variations are referable to the law of gravitation. ”

“ Suppose that, at some future day, all physical and mechanical laws should be found to be direct consequences of a single majestic law, just as all the motions of the planets are (but—are they?) the direct results of the single law of gravitation. Gravitation will, probably, soon be explained in terms of some remoter cause, but the reason of that single and ultimate law of the universe which we have imagined would still remain unknown. Human knowledge will always have limits, and beyond those limits there will always be room for mystery and wonder. ”

“ If the planets are kept in their orbits by a force which draws the particles composing them toward every other particle of matter in the solar system, they are not kept in those orbits by the impulsive force of certain streams of matter which whirl them round. The one explanation absolutely excludes the other. Either the planets are not moved by vortices, or they do not move by a law common to all matter. ”

“ Anyone who chooses may prove for himself that the force exercised by gravitation between the multitudinous suns of our own galaxy, the Milky Way, and our earth must be quite infinitesimal, and totally unable to control the motions of our own solar system in a definite orbit through universal space. We know that the law which regulates the intensity of light at various distances is the same as the law of gravity,—that is to say, the proportion is directly as the mass and inversely as the square of the distance. ”

“ Summary.—Thus, then, on a review of the whole, we find all things are endowed with attractive power, and that there is no particle which is not directly or indirectly related, in manifold ways, to the other particles of the universe. There is, first, the universal attraction of gravitation, under which every particle is, by a fixed law, drawn to every other within the sphere of existence. There is, secondly, the attraction of cohesion or aggregation, which acts at short distances, and unites the otherwise loose atoms of bodies into coherent masses. ”

“ There is no reason apart from Continuity to expect that gravitation for instance should prevail outside our world. But wherever matter has been detected throughout the entire universe, whether in the form of star or planet, comet or meteorite, it is found to obey that Law. "If there were no other indication of unity than this, it would be almost enough. ”

“ We are reminded of the universal monarchies, where a man could not escape from the empire without quitting the world. We have now to notice some other discoveries, in which this reference to the law of universal gravitation is less immediate and obvious; I mean the astronomical discoveries respecting Light.
The general truths to which the establishment of the true laws of Atmospheric Refraction led astronomers, were the law of Deflection of the rays of light, which applies to all refractions, and the real structure and size of the Atmosphere, so far as it became known. ”

“ Another reason for supposing that the solar system is the result of one separate act of creation is, that all parts of it are subject to one uniform law—that of gravitation. By that law every particle of matter attracts every other particle with a force directly proportionate to its mass. ”

“ A last objection against the doctrine we have established might be drawn from the difficulty of reconciling the existence of repulsive elements with universal attraction; for if we admit that repulsion can be exercised at astronomical distances, it will be difficult to see how the celestial bodies can attract one another in the direct ratio of their masses, as the law of attraction requires. ”

“ And assuredly, as in the firmament that simple law of gravitation reigns supreme—making it indeed a kosmos—majestic, orderly, comely in its going—ruling, and binding not the less the fiery and nomadic comets, than the gentle, punctual moons—so certainly, and to us moral creatures to a degree transcendently more important, does the whole intelligent universe move around and move towards and in the Father of Lights. ”

“ Yet such theories were only an attempt to regulate the universe by celestial intelligences like our own, and by standards within our reach. It required the discovery of an all-pervading law, universal throughout all space, to enlarge the thoughts of men, and one which, while it widened the conceptions of the universe, reduced the earth and solar system to true dimensions. ”

“ The several great bodies which compose the solar system are kept from joining together at the common centre of gravity by the rectilinear motions the author of nature has impressed on each of them; which, concurring with the attractive principle, form their respective orbits round the sun; upon the ceasing of which motions, the general law of gravitation that is now thwarted, would show itself by drawing them all into one mass. ”

“ For vast as is the visible universe, infinite as may have been the intelligence that went to its evolution, yet [Pg 149] while viewed in the external way in which we alone can view it—while seen as a product and not as a plan—it cannot possibly suggest to us an indefinite number of universal laws. Such cosmic generalizations as gravitation, evolution, correlation of forces, conservation of energy, though assuredly as yet unexhausted, cannot, in the nature of things, be even approximately inexhaustible. ”

“ But some affirm that matter, being altogether inert, cannot be impressed with any Law, even by almighty Power: and that the Deity must therefore be constantly impelling the Planets toward the Sun, and moving them with the same irregularities and disturbances 60which Gravity would cause, if it could be supposed to exist. But, if a man may venture to publish his own thoughts, (and why should not one as well as another?) ”

“ The mechanical theory of the maintenance of at least a part of the sun's radiation must be considered as a necessary consequence of the law of gravitation—as unavoidably a consequence of that law as precession is. ”

“ In all the known universe it moved against the forces of celestial mechanics because some intelligent mote that infested the surface of a planet once had a longing to visit the stars. In all the Solar System, most of the cosmic stuff was larger than it—but it alone defied the natural laws of space. ”