Page:On the various forces of nature and their relations to each other.djvu/17

 THE

LECTURE I.

THE FORCE OF GRAVITATION.

T grieves me much to think that I may have been a cause of disturbance in your Christmas arrangements, for nothing is more satisfactory to my mind than to perform what I undertake; but such things are not always left in our own power, and we must submit to circumstances as they are appointed. I will to-day do my best, and will ask you to bear with me if I am unable to give more than a few words; and as a substitute, I will endeavour to make the illustrations of the sense I try to express as full as possible; and if we find by the end of this lecture that we may be justified in continuing them, thinking that next week our power shall be greater,—why, then,