The distortional movement of the material is carried out against the action and within the field of certain forces which exist in the mass of material in virtue of its gravitative or cohesive qualities. It is carried out also in virtue of the application of energy to the sphere, which energy has been, as it were, transformed or worked down, in the distortional movement, against the restraining action of this gravitation field or influence. The outward displacement of the material from the central axis is thus coincident with a gain of energy to the mass, this gain of energy being, of course, at the expense of, and by the direct transformation of, the originally applied energy. It is stored in the distorted material as energy of position, potential energy, or energy of displacement relative to the central axis. But, in the distortive movement, the mass will also gain energy in other forms. The movement of one portion of its material relative to another will give rise (since it is carried out under the gravitational influence) to a fractional process in which, as we know from terrestrial experience, heat and electrical energy will make their appearance. These forms of energy will give rise, in their turn, to all the phenomena usually attendant on their application to material. As already pointed out also, the whole mass gains, in varying degree, energy of motion or kinetic energy. It would appear, then, that although energy was nominally applied to the mass in one form only, yet by its characteristic property of transformation it has in reality manifested itself in several entirely different forms. It is important to note the part played in these transformation processes by the gravitation field or influence. Its action really reveals one of the vital working principles of energetics. This principle may be generally stated thus:—

Every Transformation of Energy is carried out by the Action of Energised Matter in the Lines or Field of an Incepting Energy Influence.

In the particular case we have just considered, the incepting field is simply the inherent gravitative property of the energised mass. This property is manifested as an attractive force between portions of matter. This, however, is not of necessity the only aspect of an incepting influence. In the course of this work various instances of transformation will be presented in which the incepting influence functions in a guise entirely different. It is important to note that the incepting influence itself is in no way changed, altered, or transformed during the process of transformation which it influences.

5. Limits of Rotational Energy. Disruptional Phenomena

It is clear that the material at different parts of the rotating spheroid will be energised to varying degrees. Since the linear velocity of the material in the equatorial regions of the spheroid is greater than that of the material about the poles, the energy of motion of the former will exceed that of the latter, the difference becoming greater as the mass is increasingly energised and assumes more and more the discoidal form.

The question now arises as to how far this process of energising the material mass may be carried. What are its limits? The capacity of the rotating body for energy clearly depends on the amount of work which may be spent on its material in distorting it against the influence of the gravitative attraction. The amount is again dependent on the strength of this attraction. But the value of the gravitative attraction or gravitation field is, by the law of gravitation, in direct proportion to the quantity of material or matter present, and hence the capacity of the body for energy depends on its mass or on the quantity of matter which composes it.

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 (§ 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.

In their separate condition the primary and planetary mass will each possess a definite and unvarying amount of energy. It is to be noted also, that since the original mass of the primary body has been diminished by the mass of the planet cast off, the capacity for energy of the primary will now be diminished in a corresponding degree. Any further increment of energy to the primary in any form has now, however, no direct influence on the energy of the planet, which must maintain its position of complete isolation in its orbit. But although thus separate and distinct from the primal mass in every material respect, the planet is ever linked to it by the invisible bond of gravitation, and every movement made by the planet in approaching or receding from the primary is made in the field or influence of this attraction. In accordance, therefore, with the general principle already enunciated (§ 4), these actions or movements of the energised planetary mass, being made in the field of the incepting gravitative