DIASTROPHISM AND THE FORMATIVE PROCESSES 135 



VIII. There is pressing need for rectified concepts of cosmic 

 time and stellar endurance. The recent deep penetration of the 

 stellar field by improved instruments, increased skill, and new- 

 methods has forced a revolutionary enlargement of concepts of 

 interstellar space, while co-ordinate enlargements of concepts of 

 cosmic time have not kept apace. And yet time and space are 

 necessary correlatives in stellar movements and in stellar organiza- 

 tion. Time concepts must keep pace with space concepts if 

 consistent views of organizing processes are to be entertained. 

 Inadequate concepts of time retained from old estimates of the 

 sun's longevity and like sources now embarrass the free acceptance 

 of cosmic views — if these imply great intervals of time — much as 

 they restrained geological interpretations during the last century. 

 It may be wholesome therefore to inquire specifically: What 

 length of Hfe is implicitly assigned to stars when they are made 

 integers in the evolution of a globular cluster or of a galaxy ? What 

 intergenetic periods mark off the generations of stars ? What 

 careers appropriately fit them into the vast cosmos that is now 

 reveahng itself? And then, subordinate perhaps to the life of 

 a star, what intergenetic periods mark off the generations of 

 planets ? 



It is to be recognized, of course, that the career of a planet may 

 belong to a different order of magnitude from the career of a star, 

 or of a star cluster, or of the galactic system, and no doubt these 

 differ among themselves. And so our immediate problem may not 

 be more than remotely concerned wdth these immense questions, 

 but yet it is related to them, and its answer should be consistent 

 with them. Perhaps all that need be said here is that when the 

 estimates of the longevity of stars, star clusters, and the stellar 

 galaxy are brought into harmony with the time requirements of 

 their own processes of organization and their own normal careers, 

 students of the evolution of our Httle planet will probably feel 

 quite as much call to ampHfy as to repress their interpretations of 

 the terrestrial time factors in order to bring them into harmony 

 with those of the higher systems, 



IX. As a matter of scientific conservatism, it should be taken 

 for granted that the sole source of material and of energy for the 

 formation of new organizations is to be sought in the dissolution 



