The process of
condensation, which formed a part of the doctrines of Anaximenes and of the
Ionian School, appears to be going on before our eyes. This subject of
investigation and conjecture is especially attractive to the imagination,
for in the study of the animated circles of nature, and of the action of all
the moving forces of the universe, the charm that exercises the most
powerful influence on the mind is derived less from a knowledge of that
which 'is' than from a perception of that which 'will be', even though the
latter be nothing more than a new condition of a known material existence;
for of actual creation, of origin, the beginning of existence from
non-existence, we have no experience, and can therefore form no conception.
A comparison of the various causes influencing the development manifested by
the greater or less degree of condensation in the interior of nebulae, no
less than a successive course of direct observations, have led to the belief
that changes of form have been recognized first in Andromeda, next in the
constallation Argo, and in the isolated filamentous portion of the nebula in
Orion. But want of uniformity in the power of the instruments employed,
different conditions of our atmosphere, and other optical relations, render
a part of the results invalid as historical evidence.
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