48 OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM, AND THE

alone as a real fun, and the rest only as so manyshining points, placed at equal distances fromhim in the firmament.

Those stars which are the nearest to us seemthe largest, and are therefore called stars of thefirst magnitude; those that appear somethingless, of the second magnitude ; and so on as faras the sixth; which includes all the stars thatare visible without a telescope. And though ina clear winter’s night, when the moon is belowthe horizon, the stars seem to be innumerable,yet when the whole firmament is divided intosigns and constellations, as it has been by theancients, the number which can be seen at once,by the naked eye, is not above a thousand.

Since the invention of the telescope, indeed,the number of the fixed stars has been justlyconsidered as immense; because the more per -sect our instruments are, the more stars alwaysappear to us ; and it is therefore probable, thatno limits can be set to their number or distances.The Galaxy, or Milky-Way, is one continuedcluster of small stars, which combine to illumi-nate that part of the firmament, and diffusesuch a shining whiteness through it; and in thisportion of the heavens only, the telescopediscovers to us that their number is without,bounds.

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