Now if energy be impressed on this mass beyond its capacity a new order
of phenomena appears. Distortion will be followed by disruption and
disintegration. By the action of the disruptive forces a portion of the
primary material will be projected into space as a planetary body. The
manner of formation of such a secondary body is perhaps best illustrated
by reference to the commonplace yet beautiful and suggestive phenomenon
of the separation of a drop of water or other viscous fluid under the
action of gravitation. In this process, during the first downward
movement of the drop, it is united to its source by a portion of
attenuated material which is finally ruptured, one part moving downwards
and being embodied in the drop whilst the remainder springs upwards
towards the source. In the process of formation of the planetary body we
are confronted with an order of phenomena of somewhat the same nature.
The planetary orb which is hurled into space is formed in a manner
similar to the drop of viscous fluid, and under the action of forces of
the same general nature. One of these forces is the bond of gravitative
attraction between planet and primary which is never severed, and when
complete separation of the two masses finally occurs, the incessant
combination of this force with the tangential force of disruption acting
on the planet will compel it into a fixed orbit, which it will pursue
around the central axis. When all material links have thus been severed,
the two bodies will then be absolutely separate masses in space. The
term "separate" is here used in its most rigid and absolute sense. No
material connection of any kind whatever exists, either directly or
indirectly, between the two masses. Each one is completely isolated from
the other by interplanetary space, and in reality, so far as material
connection is concerned, each one might be the sole occupant of that
space. This conception of separate masses in space is of great
importance to the author's scheme, but, at the same time, the condition
is one which cannot be illustrated by any terrestrial experimental
contrivance. It will be obvious that such a device, as might naturally
be conceived, of isolating two bodies by placing them in an exhausted
vessel or vacuous space, by no means complies with the full conditions
of true separation portrayed above, because some material connection
must always exist between the enclosed bodies and the containing
vessel. This aspect is more fully treated later (Sec. 30). The condition of
truly separate masses is, in fact, purely a celestial one. No means
whatever are existent whereby such a condition may be faithfully
reproduced in a terrestrial environment.