During the short historic period there was no record of such an event;
still it would seem to be only through the collision of dark suns, of
which the number must be increasing, that a temporary rejuvenescence
of the heavens was possible, and by such ebbings and flowings of
stellar life that the inevitable end to which evolution in its
apparently uncompensated progress was carrying us could, even for a
little, be delayed. We could not refuse to admit as possible such an
origin for nebulae. In considering, however, the formation of the
existing nebulae we must bear in mind that, in the part of the heavens
within our ken, the stars still in the early and middle stages of
evolution exceeded greatly in number those which appeared to be in an
advanced condition of condensation. Indeed, we found some stars which
might be regarded as not far advanced beyond the nebular condition. It
might be that the cosmical bodies which were still nebulous owed their
later development to some conditions of the part of space where they
occurred, such as conceivably a greater original homogeneity, in
consequence of which condensation began less early. In other parts of
space condensation might have been still further delayed, or even have
not yet begun.
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