I.

_CREATIVE PROCESSES._

During all the ages there has been one bright and glittering page

of loftiest wisdom unrolled before the eye of man. That this page

may be read in every part, man's whole world turns him before it.

This motion apparently changes the eternally stable stars into a

moving panorama, but it is only so in appearance. The sky is a

vast, immovable dial-plate of "that clock whose pendulum ticks

ages instead of seconds," and whose time is eternity. The moon

moves among the illuminated figures, traversing the dial quickly,

like a second-hand, once a month. The sun, like a minute-hand, goes

over the dial once a year. Various planets stand for hour-hands,

moving over the dial in various periods reaching up to one hundred

and sixty-four years; while the earth, like a ship of exploration,

sails the infinite azure, bearing the observers to different points

where they may investigate the infinite problems of this mighty

machinery.

This dial not only shows present movements, but it keeps the history

of uncounted ages past ready to be [Page 4] read backward in proper

order; and it has glorious volumes of prophecy, revealing the

far-off future to any man who is able to look thereon, break the

seals, and read the record. Glowing stars are the alphabet of this

lofty page. They combine to form words. Meteors, rainbows, auroras,

shifting groups of stars, make pictures vast and significant as the

armies, angels, and falling stars in the Revelation of St.

John--changing and progressive pictures of infinite wisdom and

power.

Men have not yet advanced as far as those who saw the pictures John

describes, and hence the panorama is not understood. That continuous

speech that day after day uttereth is not heard; the knowledge that

night after night showeth is not seen; and the invisible things

of God from the creation of the world, even his eternal power and

Godhead, clearly discoverable from things that are made, are not

apprehended.

The greatest triumphs of men's minds have been in astronomy--and

ever must be. We have not learned its alphabet yet. We read only

easy lessons, with as many mistakes as happy guesses. But in time we

shall know all the letters, become familiar with the combinations,

be apt at their interpretation, and will read with facility the

lessons of wisdom and power that are written on the earth, blazoned

in the skies, and pictured by the flowers below and the rainbows

above.

In order to know how worlds move and develop, we must create them;

we must go back to their beginning, give their endowment of forces,

and study the laws of their unfolding. This we can easily do by that

faculty wherein man is likest his Father, a creative imagination.

God creates and embodies; we create, but [Page 5] it remains in

thought only. But the creation is as bright, strong, clear,

enduring, and real, as if it were embodied. Every one of us would

make worlds enough to crush us, if we could embody as well as

create. Our ambition would outrun our wisdom. Let us come into the

high and ecstatic frame of mind which Shakspeare calls frenzy, in

the exigencies of his verse, when

"The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,

Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;

And, as imagination bodies forth

The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen

Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing

A local habitation and a name."

In the supremacy of our creative imagination let us make empty

space, in order that we may therein build up a new universe. Let us

wave the wand of our power, so that all created things disappear.

There is no world under our feet, no radiant clouds, no blazing

sun, no silver moon, nor twinkling stars. We look up, there is

no light; down, through immeasurable abysses, there is no form;

all about, and there is no sound or sign of being--nothing save

utter silence, utter darkness. It cannot be endured. Creation is

a necessity of mind--even of the Divine mind.

We will now, by imagination, create a monster world, every atom

of which shall be dowered with the single power of attraction.

Every particle shall reach out its friendly hand, and there shall

be a drawing together of every particle in existence. The laws

governing this attraction shall be two. When these particles are

associated together, the attraction shall be in proportion to the

mass. A given mass will pull twice [Page 6] as much as one of half

the size, because there is twice as much to pull. And a given mass

will be pulled twice as much as one half as large, because there is

twice as much to be pulled. A man who weighed one hundred and fifty

pounds on the earth might weigh a ton and a half on a body as large

as the sun. That shall be one law of attraction; and the other shall

be that masses attract inversely as the square of distances between

them. Absence shall affect friendships that have a material basis.

If a body like the earth pulls a man one hundred and fifty pounds at

the surface, or four thousand miles from the centre, it will pull

the same man one-fourth as much at twice the distance, one-sixteenth

as much at four times the distance. That is, he will weigh by a

spring balance thirty-seven and a half pounds at eight thousand

miles from the centre, and nine pounds six ounces at sixteen

thousand miles from the centre, and he will weigh or be pulled by

the earth 1/24 of a pound at the distance of the moon. But the moon

would be large enough and near enough to pull twenty-four pounds on

the same man, so the earth could not draw him away. Thus the two

laws of attraction of gravitation are--1, _Gravity is proportioned

to the quantity of matter_; and 2, _The force of gravity varies

inversely as the square of the distance from the centre of the

attracting body_.

The original form of matter is gas. Almost as I write comes the

announcement that Mr. Lockyer has proved that all the so-called

primary elements of matter are only so many different sized molecules

of one original substance--hydrogen. Whether that is true or not,

let us now create all the hydrogen we can [Page 7] imagine, either

in differently sized masses or in combination with other substances.

There it is! We cannot measure its bulk; we cannot fly around it in

any recordable eons of time. It has boundaries, to be sure, for we

are finite, but we cannot measure them. Let it alone, now; leave it

to itself. What follows? It is dowered simply with attraction. The

vast mass begins to shrink, the outer portions are drawn inward.

They rush and swirl in vast cyclones, thousands of miles in extent.

The centre grows compact, heat is evolved by impact, as will be

explained in Chapter II. Dull red light begins to look like coming

dawn. Centuries go by; contraction goes on; light blazes in

insufferable brightness; tornadoes, whirlpools, and tempests

scarcely signify anything as applied to such tumultuous tossing.

There hangs the only world in existence; it hangs in empty space.

It has no tendency to rise; none to fall; none to move at all in

any direction. It seethes and, flames, and holds itself together

by attractive power, and that is all the force with which we have

endowed it.

Leave it there alone, and withdraw millions of miles into space:

it looks smaller and smaller. We lose sight of those distinctive

spires of flame, those terrible movements. It only gives an even

effulgence, a steady unflickering light. Turn one quarter round.

Still we see our world, but it is at one side.

Now in front, in the utter darkness, suddenly create another world

of the same size, and at the same distance from you. There they

stand--two huge, lone bodies, in empty space. But we created them

dowered with attraction. Each instantly feels the drawing influence

of the other. They are mutually attractive, and begin to [Page 8]

move toward each other. They hasten along an undeviating straight

line. Their speed quickens at every mile. The attraction increases

every moment. They fly swift as thought. They dash their flaming,

seething foreheads together.

And now we have one world again. It is twice as large as before,

that is all the difference. There is no variety, neither any motion;

just simple flame, and nothing to be warmed thereby. Are our creative

powers exhausted by this effort?

[Illustration: Fig. 1.--Orbit A D, resulting from attraction, A

C, and projectile force, A B.]

No, we will create another world, and add another power to it that

shall keep them apart. That power shall be what is called the force

of inertia, which is literally no power at all; it is an inability

to originate or change motion. If a body is at rest, inertia is

that quality by which it will forever remain so, unless acted upon

by some force from without; and if a body is in motion, it will

continue on at the same speed, in a straight line, forever, unless

it is quickened, retarded, or turned from its path by some other

force. Suppose our newly created sun is 860,000 miles in diameter.

Go away 92,500,000 miles and create an earth eight thousand miles

in diameter. It instantly feels the attractive power of the sun

drawing it to itself sixty-eight [Page 9] miles a second. Now, just

as it starts, give this earth a push in a line at right angles with

line of fall to the sun, that shall send it one hundred and

eighty-nine miles a second. It obeys both forces. The result is that

the world moves constantly forward at the same speed by its inertia

from that first push, and attraction momentarily draws it from its

straight line, so that the new world circles round the other to the

starting-point. Continuing under the operation of both forces, the

worlds can never come together or fly apart.

They circle about each other as long as these forces endure; for

the first world does not stand still and the second do all the

going; both revolve around the centre of gravity common to both.

In case the worlds are equal in mass, they will both take the same

orbit around a central stationary point, midway between the two.

In case their mass be as one to eighty-one, as in the case of the

earth and the moon, the centre of gravity around which both turn

will be 1/81 of the distance from the earth's centre to the moon's

centre. This brings the central point around which both worlds

swing just inside the surface of the earth. It is like an apple

attached by a string, and swung around the hand; the hand moves

a little, the apple very much.

Thus the problem of two revolving bodies is readily comprehended.

The two bodies lie in easy beds, and swing obedient to constant

forces. When another body, however, is introduced, with its varying

attraction, first on one and then on the other, complications are

introduced that only the most masterly minds can follow. Introduce

a dozen or a million bodies, and complications arise that only

Omniscience can unravel.

[Page 10]

[Illustration: Fig. 2.]

Let the hand swing an apple by an elastic cord. When the apple

falls toward the earth it feels another force besides that derived

from the hand, which greatly lengthens the elastic cord. To tear

it away from the earth's attraction, and make it rise, requires

additional force, and hence the string is lengthened; but when

it passes over the hand the earth attracts it downward, and the

string is very much shortened: so the moon, held by an elastic cord,

swings around the earth. From its extreme distance from the earth,

at A, Fig. 2, it rushes with increasing speed nearly a quarter of a

million of miles toward the sun, feeling its attraction increase

with every mile until it reaches B; then it is retarded in its

speed, by the same attraction, as it climbs back its quarter of

a million of miles away from the sun, in defiance of its power,

to C. All the while the invisible elastic force of the earth is

unweariedly maintained; and though the moon's distances vary over a

range of 31,355 miles, the moon is always in a determinable place.

A simple revolution of one world about another in a circular orbit

would be a problem of easy solution. It would always be at the

same distance from its centre, and going with the same velocity.

But there are over sixty causes that interfere with such a simple

orbit in the case of the moon, all of which causes and their

disturbances must be considered in calculating such a simple matter

as an eclipse, or predicting the moon's place as the sailors guide.

One of the most puzzling of the irregularities [Page 11] of our

night-wandering orb has just been explained by Professor Hansen, of

Gotha, as a curious result of the attraction of Venus.

[Illustration: Fig. 3.--Changes of orbit by mutual attraction.]

Take a single instance of the perturbations of Jupiter and Saturn

which can be rendered evident. The times of orbital revolution of

Saturn and Jupiter are nearly as five to two. Suppose the orbits of

the planets to be, as in Fig. 3, both ellipses, but not necessarily

equally distant in all parts. The planets are as near as possible

at 1, 1. Drawn toward each other by mutual attraction, Jupiter's

orbit bends outward, and Saturn's becomes more nearly straight, as

shown by the dotted lines. A partial correction of this difficulty

immediately follows. As Jupiter moves on ahead of Saturn it is held

back--retarded in its orbit by that body; and Saturn is hastened

in its orbit by the attraction of Jupiter. Now greater speed means

a straighter orbit. A rifle-ball flies nearer in a straight line

than a thrown stone. A greater velocity given to a whirled ball

pulls the elastic cord far enough to give the ball a larger orbit.

Hence, being hastened, Saturn stretches out nearer its proper orbit,

and, retarded, Jupiter approaches the smaller curve that is its

true orbit.

But if they were always to meet at this point, as they would if

Jupiter made two revolutions to Saturn's one, it would be disastrous.

In reality, when Saturn has gone around two-thirds of its orbit to

2, Jupiter will have gone once and two-thirds around and overtaken

[Page 12] Saturn; and they will be near again, be drawn together,

hastened, and retarded, as before; their next conjunction would be

at 3, 3, etc.

Now, if they always made their conjunction at points equally distant,

or at thirds of their orbits, it would cause a series of increasing

deviations; for Jupiter would be constantly swelling his orbit at

three points, and Saturn increasingly contracting his orbit at

the same points. Disaster would be easily foretold. But as their

times of orbital revolutions are not exactly in the ratio of five

and two, their points of conjunction slowly travel around the orbit,

till, in a period of nine hundred years, the starting-point is

again reached, and the perturbations have mutually corrected one

another.

For example, the total attractive effect of one planet on the other

for 450 years is to quicken its speed. The effect for the next 450

years is to retard. The place of Saturn, when all the retardations

have accumulated for 450 years, is one degree behind what it is

computed if they are not considered; and 450 years later it will

be one degree before its computed place--a perturbation of two

degrees. When a bullet is a little heavier or ragged on one side,

it will constantly swerve in that direction. The spiral groove in

the rifle, of one turn in forty-five feet, turns the disturbing

weight or raggedness from side to side--makes one error correct

another, and so the ball flies straight to the bull's-eye. So the

place of Jupiter and Saturn, though further complicated by four

moons in the case of Jupiter, and eight in the case of Saturn, and

also by perturbations caused by other planets, can be calculated

with exceeding nicety.

The difficulties would be greatly increased if the orbits [Page 13]

of Saturn and Jupiter, instead of being 400,000,000 miles apart,

were interlaced. Yet there are the orbits of one hundred and

ninety-two asteroids so interlaced that, if they were made of wire,

no one could be lifted without raising the whole net-work of them.

Nevertheless, all these swift chariots of the sky race along the

course of their intermingling tracks as securely as if they were

each guided by an intelligent mind. _They are guided by an

intelligent mind and an almighty arm._

Still more complicated is the question of the mutual attractions of

all the planets. Lagrange has been able to show, by a mathematical

genius that seems little short of omniscience in his single department

of knowledge, that there is a discovered system of oscillations,

affecting the entire planetary system, the periods of which are

immensely long. The number of these oscillations is equal to that

of all the planets, and their periods range from 50,000 to 2,000,000

years,

Looking into the open page of the starry heavens we see double

stars, the constituent parts of which must revolve around a centre

common to them both, or rush to a common ruin. Eagerly we look

to see if they revolve, and beholding them in the very act, we

conclude, not groundlessly, that the same great law of gravitation

holds good in distant stellar spaces, and that there the same sufficient

mind plans, and the same sufficient power directs and controls all

movements in harmony and security.

When we come to the perturbations caused by the mutual attractions

of the sun, nine planets, twenty moons, one hundred and ninety-two

asteroids, millions [Page 14] of comets, and innumerable meteoric

bodies swarming in space, and when we add to all these, that belong

to one solar system, the attractions of all the systems of the other

suns that sparkle on a brilliant winter night, we are compelled to

say, "As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high above our

thoughts and ways must be the thoughts and ways of Him who

comprehends and directs them all."

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II.