Tutor. To be sure; and yet you say you were astonished when you saw it! Every thing we do not understand at first appears difficult.—To apply this to our present purpose. You see that a weight of 1 Cwt. at 10 feet from a prop, will balance another of 10 Cwt. at one foot from it. Now, instead of a prop let the two weights be nicely poised on a center, round which they may freely turn; the heaviest would move in a circle, whose radius, or distance from the center would be one foot, whilst the lightest would move in one 10 feet from the center in the same time.
Pupil. Is the center round which they move the center of gravity?
Tutor. It is; and round an imaginary point as a center the sun and planets move, always preserving an equilibrium. If the earth were the only attendant on the sun, as his quantity of matter is 200,000 times as great as that of the earth, he would revolve in a circle a 200,000th part of the earth’s distance from him, in the same time as the earth is making one revolution in its orbit, or in one year; but, as the planets in their orbits must vary in their positions, the center of gravity cannot be always at the same distance from the sun.
Pupil. If it were, the balance could not be preserved.
Tutor. Clearly so. But you must know that the quantity of matter in the sun so far exceeds that of all the planets together, that even if they were all in a line on one side of him he would never be more than his own diameter distant from his center of gravity; therefore, astronomers consider the sun as the center of the system, and express themselves accordingly.
Pupil. As you told me the secondary planets are governed by the same laws as the primaries, I imagine they also with their primaries move round a center of gravity.
Tutor. They do so.—The earth and moon, Jupiter with his satellites, Saturn and his attendants, revolve about their respective centers; these, with the sun and the rest of the planetary system, make their circuits round their center; every system in the universe is supposed to revolve in like manner; and all these together to move round one common center.—How are we lost in contemplating the omniscience of the Deity! How difficult to conceive so many millions of bodies of dead matter constantly in motion, so nicely balanced and governed by such unerring laws!—Well may we say with the Psalmist, “Lord! how manifold are thy works, in wisdom hast thou made them all.”
[12]. Dr. Herschel is of opinion, that bodies near the sun do not acquire so great a degree of heat as has been generally imagined.