PROGRESS OF MODERN ASTRONOMY 



that are immediately around them; by which means 

 they will be, in time, as it were, condensed about a 

 centre, or, in other words, form themselves into a clus- 

 ter of stars of almost a globular figure, more or less 

 regular according to the size and distance of the sur- 

 rounding stars. . . . 



" The next case, which will also happen almost as fre- 

 quently as the former, is where a few stars, though not 

 superior in size to the rest, may chance to be rather 

 nearer one another than the surrounding ones, . . . and 

 this construction admits of the utmost variety of 

 shapes. . . . 



" From the composition and repeated conjunction of 

 both the foregoing formations, a third may be derived 

 when many large stars, or combined small ones, are 

 spread in long, extended, regular, or crooked rows, 

 streaks, or branches; for they will also draw the sur- 

 rounding stars, so as to produce figures of condensed 

 stars curiously similar to the former which gave rise to 

 these condensations. 



"We may likewise admit still more extensive com- 

 binations; when, at the same time that a cluster of 

 stars is forming at the one part of space, there may be 

 another collection in a different but perhaps not far- 

 distant quarter, which may occasion a mutual approach 

 towards their own centre of gravity. 



"In the last place, as a natural conclusion of the 

 former cases, there will be formed great cavities or 

 vacancies by the retreating of the stars towards the 

 various centres which attract them." 1 



Looking forward, it appears that the time must come 



25 



