The Tragic Neglect of a Fertile Working Hypothesis.

This wonderfully prolific theory has never been examined critically by anyone who speaks with authority. The reason usually given for this neglect is that stars are so far apart that they do not collide. But with streams of thousands of millions of stars interpenetrating one another, and each pulling every other more strongly as the distance decreases, it would be strange if no encounter ever took place. And it seems mathematically certain that, if one star does graze another, the clash must give birth to a Nova. One of the outstanding advantages of this theory is that is is not founded on vague surmises but on arithmetical calculations. One of the losses from its neglect is that it has allowed an immense amount of work to be spent elaborating theories that are arithmetically absurd.