ening space the planet would rush, and if there were
no centrifugal force in existence, the planet would ultimately rush into
the central body, the sun, and being swallowed up by it, would maintain
for a time the heat thereof.

Let us now view the case from the conjoint working of these forces, or
motions, the centripetal and centrifugal, and we shall see, that under
certain conditions it is possible to conceive physically of a planet
being in a state of rest as stated in Newton's First Law of Motion, and
also remaining in that state of rest, until it is compelled by other
forces or motions to change that state. Mercury is now situated at its
mean distance of about 36,000,000 miles. At the same instant let both
the centrifugal and the centripetal forces or motions be applied to it,
and to the sun. What is the result of such application? Will the planet
move nearer the sun, which we are supposing to be perfectly at rest, or
will it be urged further away? The effect is nil! for the simple reason,
that when we set in motion the centripetal force of Gravitation, at
exactly the same time we set in motion an exactly opposite force which
is the exact complement and counterpart of the other, so that they
exactly counterbalance each other, and Mercury under the influence of
both forces still retains its mean position of 36,000,000 miles; and,
until we either set the sun rotating, or give it a motion of its own
through space, Mercury would remain at its distance of 36,000,000 miles
comparatively at rest. The same reasoning may be applied to all the
other planets, in relation to their mean distances, with the result that
they too would remain in a comparative state of rest, so long as they
were only under the influence of the two forces or motions, viz. the
centrifugal and centripetal.

Each of these, being the exact complement and counterpart of the other,
when applied together to any planet of any size or mass or density, at
any distance, fails to affect the distance of that planet in its
relation to the sun, but simply establishes it in that distance, subject
to certain regulations dependent upon other motions of the sun, and the
aetherial medium in which they exist. Thus we learn, that if, in the
beginning, Mercury were formed at a distance of 36,000,000 miles, it
would for ever remain at that distance; and the same is true of the
other planets at their mean distances, no matter what their mass or
density may be; and that, ac