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IX. Glvc me Ieave to fttggest a Speculation, which hath bccn jn my i® fi** »*<■ r<*Thoughts thesc fourty ^cars or more ; but I have not had the opportunity &!£ fit* fi * fof reducing it to Practiee : It is conceming the Parallax of the Fixed Stars, Dr. Willi?, »»as to the Earth’s Annual Orb. i^neux" M °~

Galileo complains of it a great while since, sin his System* Cosmicum) f. 844.as a thing nor attempted to be observed with sich diiigence as he couldwifh, and I doubt we have the sime Cause of complaining still. I knowthat Dr. Hook. ^nd *Mr. VUmstecd have attemptcd somewhat that way, buthave desisted before they came to any thing of certainty. What hath beendone to that purpole abroad I know not.

Galileo hath fuggcsted divers things Confiderable in order to it: a?,the Times öf Oblervation; the Stars to be Oblerved ; and the manner ofObsirving them , which yet I doubt is not Practicable. That which oc-curred to my Thoughts upon thesi Obnsiderations, was to this purpose ,

That sime- Circumpalar Sears fnearcr. to the Pole of the Equator than is ourzst-nieb, and not far from the Pole of the Zodiadd (hould bc made choiceof for this purposc. And in casi the Meridional Altitude be disiernablydifferent at different times, si will also be their utmost East and WestAzimuth, which may be better obsirved than their Rising or SettingAnd this will not be obnoxiotis to the Refraction, as is the Meridional Al-titudo ; (for though the Refraction do affect the Altitude, yet not the AzL-muth at aliand We may here have choice of Stars for the purpose;which, in Observations from the bottotnof a Well, we cannor have ; beingthere confined to those only which paß Very near our Zenith, though veryfinali Stars.:

I Would then takt it fof granted, as a thing at least very probable;that the Fixed Stars are not all (as was wont to bc fupposid ) arthe sitne DistaftCe .from US, but the Distance of forne vastly greater ,

than of other« ; and consiquently, though as to the more remote, the Pa-nstax msy be undifccmable, it may pesiiaps be disiernable in thole that arencartr fo uS.

And fhosi We may reasonabJy guese (though we are not sire of it .)to bt rttarest to us, Whicsi to« us do. appear biggest and brightest, atafe thdsi of the First and. S-econL Magmtude; and there are at .feastof the Seconä Magnitude, pretty fttany not far from the Pole of theEcliptick, ,f as that in particular in the ShaMcr of the Leister Bear : )ftnd iri case we fall In one, we may try again and agaso oh simeofher ; which may chance to bö siearer to us than what we try first.

Arid- Stars of siis bignefi may be diseerned by a moderate. Tclesiope,fcVen iri the Day timC; dpedalty. when. wc know just where to lookfof thetn.

The manner of Obsirv;t(iofiy J conceivC, c rnay Be thus. .Häving first: :jdtc'hed upon sic Star WC meari to observe, and having then conudered,

( Which is iiöf. fcttd.,10 , 1 t> dt>) whefc. sich Star is to be seen in ici-

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