Eureka: A Prose Poem — Edgar A. Poe, 1848 — reading text

referring Gravity to some very un certain isms. These attempts, however, although consi dered bold and justly so considered, looked no farther than to the generality — the merest generality — of the Newtonian Law. Its modws operandi has never, to my knowledge, been approached in the way of an effort at explanation. It is, therefore, with no unwarranted fear of being taken for a madman at the outset, and before I can bring my propositions fairly to the eye of those who alone are com petent to decide upon them, that I here declare the modus operandi of the Law of Gravity to be an exceedingly sim ple an'd perfectly explicable thing — that is to say, when we make our advances towards it in just gradations and in the true direction — when we regard it from the proper point of view. THE UNIVERSE. 49 Whether we reach the idea of absolute Unity as the source of All Things, from a consideration of Simplicity as the most probable characteristic of the original action of God ; — whether we arrive at it from an inspection of the universality of relation in the gravitating phenomena ; — or whether we attain it as a result of the mutual corrobora- tion afforded by both processes ; — still, the idea itself, if entertained at all, is entertained in inseparable connection with another idea — that of the condition of the Universe of stars as we now perceive it — that is to say, a condition of immeasurable diffusion through space. Now a connec tion between these two ideas — unity and diffusion — cannot be established unless through the entertainment of a third idea — that of irradiation. Absolute Unity being taken as a centre, then the existing Universe of stars is the result of irradiation from that centre. Now, the laws of irradiation are known. They are part and parcel of the sphere. They belong to the class of indisputable geometrical properties. We say of them, " they are true — they are evident." To demand why they are true, would be to demand why the axioms are true upon which their demonstration is based. Nothing is de monstrable, strictly speaking ; but if anything be, then the properties — the laws in question are demonstrated. But these laws — what do they declare ? Irradiation — how — by what steps does it proceed outwardly from a centre ? From a luminous centre, Light issues by irradiation ; and the quantities of light received upon any given plane, supposed to be shifting its position so as to be now nearer 3 50 EUREKA. the centre and now farther from it, will be diminished in the same proportion as the squares of the distances of the plane from the luminous body, are increased ; and will be increased in the same proportion as these squares are diminished. The expression of the law may be thus generalized : — the number of light-particles (or, if the phrase be preferred, the number of light-impressions) received upon the shifting plane, will be inversely proportional with the squares of the distances of the plane. Generalizing yet again, we may say that the diffusion — the scattering — the irradiation, in a worc[ — is directly proportional with the squares of the dis tances. For example : at the distance B, from the luminous centre A, a certain number of particles are so diffused as to occupy the surface B. Then at double the distance — that is to say at C — they will be so much farther diffused as to occupy four such surfaces : — at treble the distance, or at D, they will be so much farther separated as to occupy nine such surfaces : — while, at quadruple the distance, or at E, they THE UNIVERSE. 51 / will have become so scattered as to spread themselves over sixteen such surfaces — and so on forever. In saying, generally, that the irradiation proceeds in direct proportion with the squares of the distances, we use the term irradiation to express the degree of the diffusion as we proceed outwardly from the centre. Conversing the idea, and employing the word " concentralization " to ex press the degree of the drawing together as we come back toward the centre from an outward position, we may say that concentralization proceeds inversely as the squares of the distances. In other words, we have reached the con clusion that, on the hypothesis that matter was originally irradiated from a centre and is now returning to it, the concentralization, in the return, proceeds exactly as we know the force of gravitation to proceed. Now here, if we could be permitted to assume that con- centralization exactly represented the force of the tendency to the centre — that the one was exactly proportional to the other, and that the two proceeded together — we should have shown all that is required. The sole difficulty exist ing, then, is to establish a direct proportion between " con- centralization " and the force of concentralization ; and this is done, of course, if we establish such proportion be tween "irradiation" and the force of irradiation. A very slight inspection of the Heavens assures us that the stars have a certain general uniformity, equability, or equidistance, of distribution through that region of space in which, collectively, and in a roughly globular form, they are situated : — this species of very general, rather than ab solute, equability, being in full keeping with my deduction 52 E U II E K A . of inequidistance, within certain limits, among the origin ally diffused atoms, as a corollary from the evident design of infinite complexity of relation out of irrelation. I started, it will be remembered, with the idea of a generally uniform but particularly unumform distribution of the atoms ; — an idea, I repeat, which an inspection of the stars, as they exist, confirms. But even in the merely general equability of distribu tion, as regards the atoms, there appears a difficulty which, no doubt, has already suggested itself to those among my readers who have borne in mind that I suppose this equabi lity of distribution effected through irradiation from a cen tre. The very first glance at the idea, irradiation, forces us to the entertainment of the hitherto unseparated and seemingly inseparable idea of agglomeration about a centre, with dispersion as we recede from it — the idea, in a word, of inequability of distribution in respect to the matter irra diated. Now, I have elsewhere* observed that it is by just such difficulties as the one now in question — such roughnesses — such peculiarities — such protuberances above the plane of the ordinary — that Reason feels her way, if at all, in her search for the True. By the difficulty — the " peculiarity " — now presented, I leap at once to the secret — a secret which I might never have attained but for the peculiarity and the inferences which, in its mere character of pecu liarity, it affords me. The process of thought, at this point, may be thus roughly sketched : — I say to myself — " Unity, as I have * " Murders in the Rue Morgue"— p. 133. THE UNIVERSE. 53 explained it, is a truth — I feel it. Diffusion is a truth — I see it. Irradiation, by which alone these two truths are reconciled, is a consequent truth — I perceive it. Equability of diffusion, first deduced a priori and then , corroborated by the inspection of phenomena, is also a truth — I fully admit it. So far all is clear around me : — there are no clouds behind which the secret — the great secret of the gravitating modus operandi — can possibly lie hidden ; — but this secret lies hereabouts, most assuredly ; and were there but a cloud in view, I should be driven to suspicion of that cloud." And now, just as I say this, there actually comes a cloud into view. This cloud is the seeming impossibility of reconciling my truth, irradiation, with my truth, equa bility of diffusion. 1 say now : — " Behind this seeming impossibility is to be found what I desire." I do not say " real impossibility ;" for invincible faith in my truths as sures me that it is a mere difficulty after all — but I go on to say, with unflinching confidence, that, when this difficulty shall be solved, we shall find, wrapped up in the process of solution, the key to the secret at which we aim. More over — I feel that we shall discover but one possible solution of the difficulty ; this for the reason that, were there two, one would be supererogatory — would be fruitless — would be empty — would contain no key — since no duplicate key can be needed to any secret of Nature. And now, let us see : — Our usual notions of irradiation — in fact all our distinct notions of it — are caught merely from the process as we see it exemplified in Light. Here there is a continuous outpouring of ray-streams, and with a force which we have at least no right to suppose varies at 54 E IT H E K A . all. Now, in any such irradiation as this — continuous and of unvarying force — the regions nearer the centre must inevitably be always more crowded with the irradiated matter than the regions more remote. But I have assumed no such irradiation as this. I assumed no continuous irra diation ; and for the simple reason that such an assumption would have involved, first, the necessity of entertaining a conception which I have shown no man can entertain, and which (as I will more fully explain hereafter) all observa tion of the firmament refutes — the conception of the abso lute infinity of the Universe of stars — and would have involved, secondly, the impossibility of understanding a reaction — that is, gravitation — as existing now — since, while an act is continued, no reaction, of course, can take place. My assumption, then, or rather my inevitable de duction from just premises— was that of a determinate irra diation — one finally ^continued. Let me now describe the sole possible mode in which it is conceivable that matter could have been diffused through space, so as to fulfil the conditions at once of irradiation and of generally equable distribution. For convenience of illustration, let us imagine, in the first place, a hollow sphere of glass, or of anything else, occupying the space throughout which the universal matter is to be thus equally diffused, by means of irradiation, from the absolute, irrelative, unconditional particle, placed in the centre of the sphere. Now, a certain exertion of the diffusive