History of Science, a — Volume 3 by Henry Smith Williams;Edward Huntington Williams
page 63 of 354 (17%)
page 63 of 354 (17%)
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with the year; and that the moon meantime must
pause in its outward flight, and come swinging back on a descending spiral, until finally, after the lapse of untold aeons, it ploughs and ricochets along the surface of the earth, and plunges to catastrophic destruction. But even though imagination pause far short of this direful culmination, it still is clear that modern calculations, based on inexorable tidal friction, suffice to revolutionize the views formerly current as to the stability of the planetary system. The eighteenth-century mathematician looked upon this system as a vast celestial machine which had been in existence about six thousand years, and which was destined to run on forever. The analyst of to-day computes both the past and the future of this system in millions instead of thousands of years, yet feels well assured that the solar system offers no contradiction to those laws of growth and decay which seem everywhere to represent the immutable order of nature. COMETS AND METEORS Until the mathematician ferreted out the secret, it surely never could have been suspected by any one that the earth's serene attendant, "That orbed maiden, with white fire laden, Whom mortals call the moon," |
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