Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1873-05-29
COMPARATIVE VELOCITIES.

NeIOc1ly means rate OF mOJlOn. But
aohat is n2otion9 Could there be found,
anywhere through space, a point of alb
solute rest, from which to date as a
starting-point, we might quickly give
the old-time answer that motion is
change of place. And were there n
degree Of speed, however great or how
ever small, measured from any such
point, which might be used as a unit of
velocity, we could as easily define what
we mean by rate Of motion. But, when
we come to realize that no such fixed
point has been found, and no unit of
velocity agreed upon, that every known
particle of matter is III absolute motion,
and that their motions are in every CON
eeivable direction, and, with every con
ceivable degree of velocity, the case is
materially altered.
This is an unenviable predicament for
n who would write intelligently, if he
could, on a subject that certainly pos
sesses some interesting points. Our
fathers had a much easier time. With
them there were many fixed points
broad earth, with its firm rocks and i'm
movable hills-from which they could
measure motion at will. But that time
wa long since - before those arch
"heretics," Copernicus and Calico.
played such wild work with the founda-
tions of physical faith, proving, to the
satisfaction of everybody, except the
Pope and a few other conservators of the
oldTegines, that "the earth does mOUe,"
thus striking away the only fixed points
from which to measure absolute motion.
This was not all the mischief done-it
was only the entering wedge. For a
time, after the earth had been abandon
ed to the resistless whirl upon its own
axis, and the stupendous orbit round
the sun assigned to it by C~opernicus,
the minds of a few rallied around the
sun itself as a fixed center; and others
looked, as a last resort, to those twink
lers on high, which to this day are call
ed "fxed stals." Alas ! they are fixed
only in fancy. Science has demonstrat-
ed that the sun is no better behaved
thap the earth, but is whizzing through
Space, like a great red-hot cannon-ball,
shot In the direction of the constellation
Hercules, and that the starry hosts are
all engaged in a brilliant dance, more
grand ard nimble-footed than magma
ton can conceive, IN some order, and
probably around some center, as yet
beyond the reach of science.
This upturning of all the old settled
notions about rest and motion would
e to have been pretty thorough, but
it was scarcely the half. Whenan one.
wearied with the ceaseless motions O.
sun, moon and stars, sought relief b,
locking to the earth in hopes to fine
something here that was at least rela
lively at rest, they shared the fate of thu
dove sent out from Noah's ark. True
there were many things relatively at res
as to theirexternal forms, but, whenthei
interiors came to be critically examined
it was discovered that, not only is ever,
living creature, whether animal or yege
table, a laboratory, with various depart
ments, forever alive with pumping
pushing, heating, cooling, depositing
rejecting, but that even the atoms o
hardened steel and other adamantin
things, instead of being at perfect res
among themselves. locked each to each
as our fathers thought, appear to be i
a state of endless activity, how great i
proportion to their several magnitude
we know not, but perhaps even to tn
extent OF rOtallOu UPON tLoI oofOld
axes, and even of revolution round eac
other, like stars in the unwearied sky
So says theory and if it prove to b
trne, then is there no rest this side {
hedUen.
In this state of affairs, what are we t
do for a zero and a unit? We must al
point them for ourselves, of course, an
the simplest plan will be to adopt th
principle involved in that queer Germa
philosophy which distributes the who!
universe into two grand divisions, ~
Me" on one side, and The Not NE
on the other, and suppose each man
make his person the zero, and his ra1
of locomotion the unit of measure
Now, it is true that this plan involve
an almost absurdity for, if each ma
makes his person a zero, he is in fancy
his osoaa fancy, by-the-by, the center
the universe-the fixed point fro
which, and to which, and tangentlal
related to which, all motion proceed
But, If he is a feed point, he cam
move SO that, as he strolls upon tt
surface of the earth, it is not he th'