Epicycle

“ In other words, the theory of epicycles will account for all the facts of the observed motions of all the heavenly bodies, but in so doing it fills the universe with a most bewildering network of intersecting circles. ”

“ If circular motion be made about a resting centre, and in that circle there be an epicycle whose revolution is made the contrary way, in such manner that in equal times it make equal angles, every strait line taken in that epicycle will be so carried, that it will always be parallel to the places in which it formerly was. ”

“ To which, though the diurnal motion contribute but little, yet seeing I have supposed that the simple motion of the earth, in its own epicycle, makes two revolutions in the same time in which the diurnal motion makes but one, and that the semidiameter of the epicycle is double to the semidiameter of the diurnal conversion, the 470motion of every point of the earth in its own epicycle will have its velocity quadruple to that of the diurnal motion ”

“ Each planet, instead of moving simply and uniformly round the earth in a circle, had to be supposed to move uniformly in a circle round another point that moved round the earth in a circle. This secondary circle, in which the planet moved, was called an epicycle. ”

“ And to this we may reply, that it does not appear that the best astronomers of antiquity conceived the cycles and epicycles to have a material existence. Though the dogmatic philosophers, as the Aristotelians, appear to have taught that the celestial spheres were real solid bodies, they are spoken of by Ptolemy as imaginary;75 and it is clear, from his proof of the identity of the results of the hypothesis of an eccentric and an epicycle, that they are intended to pass for no more than geometrical conceptions, in which view they are true representations of the apparent motions. ”

“ Thus these epicycles, as the circles were called, moving along the imaginary circle, or deferent, cause the planets to have, at times, an apparent easterly direction, at other times a westerly one, and at other times, again, to appear stationary. ”

“ The result is that the physical doctrine of the atom has got into a state which is strongly suggestive of the epicycles of astronomy before Copernicus. ”

“ We are at once ourselves and another, ourselves and several others, ourselves and all others, ourselves and the Universe, ourselves and infinity.
“The evolution of our terrestrial globe is an infinitesimal cycle of this universal evolution, corresponding merely with a day and a night of Brahma, and is divided into fourteen cycles, each consisting of a Manvantara and a Pralaya. The cycle of organic evolution upon our solidified globe represents only one of these subdivisions, that is to say, the radius of the organic sphere is only a fourteenth part of the radius of the mineral sphere. ”

“ And the constantly revolving circle of periodic changes of growth and decay, of life and death, of seed beginning and seed producing—like sunshine and shadow, light and darkness—are opposite points in the circle of electric force and physical life. The growing and dying life-forms intervene between these two points of rest and renewal, of attraction and repulsion, of positive organism and negative diffusion of matter. ”

“ Appears to indicate, as I suspected, that earth has seen whole cycle or cycles of organic life before known one that begins with Archæozoic cells. Was evolved and specialized not later than a thousand million years ago, when planet was young and recently uninhabitable for any life forms of normal protoplasmic structure. ”

“ Any supposition that the astronomical cycle has occasioned the physiological one, that the structure of plants has been brought to be what it is by the action of external causes, or that such plants as could not accommodate themselves to the existing day have perished, would be not only an arbitrary and baseless assumption, but moreover useless for the purposes of explanation which it professes, as we have noticed of a similar supposition with respect to the annual cycle. How came plants to have periodicity at all in those functions which have a relation to light and darkness? ”

“ Within the cycle of reproduction there are cycles upon cycles in the life of each individual, whether animal or plant. Observe the action of our lungs and heart, how regular it is, and how a cycle having been once established, it is repeated many millions of times in an individual of average health and longevity. Remember also that it is this periodicity—this inevitable tendency of all atoms in combination to repeat any combination which they have once repeated, unless forcibly prevented from doing so—which alone renders nine-tenths of our mechanical inventions of practical use to us. ”

“ The conditions which are likely to affect excitability and induce periodicity are, first, the effects of light and darkness: under natural conditions the plant is subjected in the morning to the changing condition from darkness to light; then to the action of continued light during the day; and in the evening to the changing condition from light to darkness. A second periodic factor is the change in the condition of turgidity, which is at its maximum in the morning, as evidenced by the characteristic erect position of the petiole. ”

“ This process is an upward one, through the formation of the solar system and of our earth with its inorganic bodies, up to the production of man. The process is essentially a polar linear action, or differentiation from a common centre. By means of this process the bodies of the solar system separate themselves, and the order of cosmic evolution is repeated in that of terrestrial evolution. The organic world (like the world as a whole) arises out of a primitive chaos, namely, the infusorial slime. ”

“ The integrity of cosmical evolution in relation to organic life, accordingly, seems to require the maintenance of great central laboratories where molecular disturbances of sufficient intensity and quantity can be continually generated, and their effects distributed throughout the universe. ”

“ Hence, throughout that re-arrangement of parts which constitutes Evolution, we must nowhere expect to see the change from one position of things to another, effected by continuous movement in the same direction. Be it in that kind of Evolution which the inorganic creation presents, or in that presented by the organic creation, we shall everywhere find a periodicity of action and reaction—a backward and forward motion, of which progress is a differential result. ”

“ A cycle thus transfers and transforms energy radiated to the earth from the sun, building up the vegetable, sacrificing the structure in the building of the animal organism, breaking down the animal structure again, and setting free the circling energy to continue its progress along other paths into other organic matter, or elsewhere, as directing agencies may compel. ”

“ Where, as in organic bodies, the whole series of changes constituting Evolution can be traced, we saw that, dynamically considered, Evolution is a change from molecular motion to the motion of masses; and this change, becoming more active during the ascending phase of Evolution while the masses increase in bulk and heterogeneity, eventually begins to get less active; until, passing through stages in which the integration grows greater, and the equilibrium more definite, it finally ceases ”

“ But there are organisms whose life-wave truly takes up the
periodicity of the Earth in its orbit. Thus the smaller animals
and plants, possessing less resources in themselves, die at the
approach of winter, propagating themselves by units which,
whether egg or seed, undergo a period of quiescence during the
season of want. In these quiescent units the energy of the
organism is potential, and the time-energy function is in
abeyance. ”

“ Yet the ideal or abstract moving equilibrium, by whose aid we are endeavouring to understand the actions of organisms, is derived from the consideration of the solar system as a moving equilibrium. But reducing the problem from the abstract to the concrete study of an organism, we have to ask what place consciousness holds in a moving equilibrium of oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, hydrogen, etc., in relation with an environment of heat, light, etc. ”

“ The nature of the forces is revealed in ever higher expression, and at the same time in ever more closely connected series of stages. Even between the inorganic and the organic there is an intermediate stage—crystal formation—which is no longer entirely of the one, yet not of the other. ”

“ The evolution of the atom or elementary molecule from the particle, even if real, is not continuous with the present order of nature within our observation, and need not be, any more than the formation of a storm-cloud is a continuous process in the atmosphere, or the appearance of a rash in the human patient is continuous. ”

“ Let the eleventh motion be that of assimilation, or self-multiplication, or simple generation, by which latter term we do not mean the simple generation of integral bodies, such as plants or animals, but of homogeneous bodies. By this motion homogeneous bodies convert those which are allied to them, or at least well disposed and prepared, into their own substance and nature. Thus flame multiplies itself over vapors and oily substances and generates fresh flame; the air over water and watery substances multiplies itself and generates fresh air ”

“ The structures thus produced have functions which are also analogous to those of living beings, a double current of diffusion, an evolutionary existence, and a latent vitality when desiccated or congealed.
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CHAPTER VI PERIODICITY
Periodic Precipitation.—A phenomenon is said to be periodic when it varies in time and space and is identically reproduced at equal intervals. We are surrounded on all sides by periodic phenomena; summer and winter, day and night, sleep and waking, rhythm and rhyme, flux and reflux, the movements of respiration and the beating of the heart, all are periodic. ”

“ Each of these modifications is a change of the molecule into equilibrium with its environment—an adaptation, as it were, to new surrounding conditions to which it is subjected; as through Evolution in general. Larger or more integrated aggregates are successively generated; as through Evolution in general. More complex or heterogeneous aggregates are so made to arise, one out of another; as through Evolution in general. A geometrically increasing multitude of these larger and more complex aggregates so produced, at the same time results; as through Evolution in general. ”

“ Cosmic, or inorganic, evolution involves three kinds of changes—atomic, molecular and molar. There are accordingly in this department of evolution three sets of causes. These causes are forces to which we may ascribe the names atomic, molecular and molar. Changes which take place in the organic process are vital and mental; or, as we prefer to call them and the forces which give rise to them, biotic and psychic. ”

“ In a word, the movement of the inorganic world is obvious and palpable, and might be likened to the minute-hand of a clock, the progress of which can be seen and heard, whereas the fluctuations of the living creation are nearly invisible, and resemble the motion of the hour-hand of a timepiece. ”

“ That is to say, the molecular motion of the etherial medium, is transformed into the motion of gases, thence into the motion of liquids, and thence into the motion of solids—stages in each of which, successively, a certain amount of molecular motion is lost and an equivalent motion of masses produced. If we seek the origin of vital movements, we soon reach a like conclusion. The actinic rays issuing from the Sun, enable the plant to reduce special elements existing in gaseous combination around it, to a solid form,—enable the plant, that is, to grow and carry on its functional changes. ”

“ As an example of this may be cited the periodic variation of growth. Here the daily periodicity exhibited by a plant is not only different in varying seasons, but it also differs in diverse species of plants. The complexity of the problem is very great, for not only are the direct effects of the changing environment to be taken into consideration but also their unknown after-effects. Even in the case of direct effect, different factors, such as light, temperature, turgor, and so on, are undergoing independent variations ”

“ Under the influence of the life impulse, the old routine of matter—from compound to compound, from solid to fluid, from fluid to gaseous, from rock to soil, the cycle always ending where it began—is broken into, and cycles of a new order are instituted. ”

“ During growth, which is an increase of form and structure by a succession of changes, it also exhibits a new mode of motion, which is vitality or life, and the cessation of this activity is death, when the plant returns to the geonomic world by decay. But assimilation, growth and life are continued from one generation to another, and imply time from period to period. ”

“ I explained that world cycles follow an orderly progression according to a divine plan. No earthly dissolution is in sight; two billion years of ascending and descending equinoctial cycles are yet in store for our planet in its present form. ”

“ Employing the term, then, in its usual sense, as applicable only to organisms, Life may be defined as—the co-ordination of actions. The growth of a crystal, which is the highest inorganic process we are acquainted with, involves but one action—that of accretion. The growth of a cell, which is the lowest organic process, involves two actions—accretion and disintegration—repair and waste—assimilation and oxidation. ”