Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 17.djvu/636

618 globe and its sister planets, a similar action is constantly going on between each planet and all the others. The mind is lost in such a labyrinth of forces, and almost refuses to proceed. But we have only entered upon the vestibule of the mysteries of the universe. Across that gulf which separates our system from the stars, unseen hands with sinews strong as steel are extended to bind all into one great whole. From each star reaches out to our sun a force, small as compared with those which hold our system together, yet of a size that will amaze us. To the nearest of these far-off suns the distance is so great that light, which travels almost 200,000 miles in a second, requires three years to traverse it! Yet gravity reaches across that gulf with a speed which, if not absolutely instantaneous, is, according to Laplace, 50,000,000 times greater than that of light. Such a distance reduces proportionably the attraction; yet our sun with its attendant planets is drawn by mutual attraction toward the nearest star, supposing them to be of the same size, with a force great enough to break a cable, each of whose strands, 236 in number, should be a solid bar of steel one mile square; or, if we change our scale, and employ such bars as those used when speaking of the interplanetary forces, bars of steel one foot square, then the attraction between the nearest tiny speck of light and our sun would be equal to the united strength of 6,500,000,000 such bars.

When we remember that each star, however remote, adds its quota of force, and that a star whose light requires 6,000 years to reach the earth is linked to our system by a band able to lift more than 14,000,000 tons, we may well believe that our system is being hurried through space in a path which is the resultant of innumerable forces.

The force which thus impels our sun reacts on other suns, and they on each other, and thus all are in movement. This is not a conclusion drawn from mere theorizing; the measurements of astronomers have established the fact that the "fixed" stars are moving with enormous velocities, not, as has often been said, about a common center, but in directions which cross each other at all angles. Millions of years hence these movements will result in the destruction of the present universe, unless He who called the stars into existence shall lay his hand upon them. If, as revelation and science both teach, not a sparrow falls to the ground without his knowledge, surely suns and worlds shall not perish without his consent. He who in the beginning created the heavens and the earth will guide them to the end.