8/17 It had by this time turned over considerably under the influence of attraction, but its own original motion still followed a decidedly oblique direction. The consequence of these two forces might possibly be a tangent, line approaching the edge of the Moon's disc. One thing was certain: the Projectile had not yet commenced to fall directly towards her surface; its base, in which its centre of gravity lay, was still turned away considerably from the perpendicular. His Projectile was proving intractable to the laws of gravitation. The _unknown_ was opening out dimly before him, the great boundless unknown of the starry plains. |