t a time; for, however eccentric the orbit, we should keep the axis
absolutely straight. At perihelion there would simply be increased
evaporation and clouds near the equator, which would shield those
regions from the sun, only to disappear again as the earth receded.

"The only trouble," said Cortlandt, "is that we should have no fulcrum.
Straightening the axis is simple enough, for we have the attraction of
the sun with which to work, and we have but to increase it at one end
while decreasing it at the other, and change this as the poles change
their inclination towards the sun, to bring it about. If a comet with
a sufficiently large head would but come along and retard us, or
opportunely give us a pull, or if we could increase the attraction of
the other planets for us, or decrease it at times, it might be done.
If the force, the control of which was discovered too late to help us
straighten the axis, could be applied on a sufficiently large scale; if
apergy----"

"I have it!" exclaimed Ayrault, jumping up. "Apergy will do it. We
can build an airtight projectile, hermetically seal ourselves within,
and charge it in such a way that it will be repelled by the magnetism
of the earth, and it will be forced from it with equal or greater
violence than that with which it is ordinarily attracted. I believe
the earth has but the same relation to space that the individual
molecule has to any solid, liquid, or gaseous matter we know; and that,
just as molecules strive to fly apart on the application of heat, this
earth will repel that projectile when electricity, which we are coming
to look upon as another form of heat, is properly applied. It must be
so, and it is the manifest destiny of the race to improve it. Man is a
spirit cursed with a mortal body, which glues him to the earth, and his
yearning to rise, which is innate, is, I believe, only a part of his
probation and trial."

"Show us how it can be done," shouted his listeners in chorus.

"Apergy is and must be able to do it," Ayrault continued. "Throughout
Nature we find a system of compensation. The centripetal force is
offset by the centrifugal; and when, according to the fable, the
crystal complained of its hard lot in being unable to move, while the
eagle could soar through the upper air and see all the glories of the
world, the bird replied, 'My life is but for a moment, while you, set
in the rock, will live forever, and will see the last sunrise that
f