A very slight deviation, indeed, would
account for the facts, but cautious astronomers want other proofs
before regarding the deviation of gravitation as an established
fact.
Intelligent men have sometimes inquired how, after devoting so
much work to the study of the heavens, anything can remain for
astronomers to find out. It is a curious fact that, although they
were never learning so fast as at the present day, yet there seems
to be more to learn now than there ever was before. Great and
numerous as are the unsolved problems of our science, knowledge is
now advancing into regions which, a few years ago, seemed
inaccessible. Where it will stop none can say.
II
THE NEW PROBLEMS OF THE UNIVERSE
The achievements of the nineteenth century are still a theme of
congratulation on the part of all who compare the present state of
the world with that of one hundred years ago. And yet, if we
should fancy the most sagacious prophet, endowed with a brilliant
imagination, to have set forth in the year 1806 the problems that
the century might solve and the things which it might do, we
should be surprised to see how few of his predictions had come to
pass. He might have fancied aerial navigation and a number of
other triumphs of the same class, but he would hardly have had
either steam navigation or the telegraph in his picture.
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