1 ET. XX. PHÆNOMHNA OF THE FIjtED STARS. 337

natural, that it is found among the Chinese, the -Americans, and many other nations that seemto have had no intercourse with the rest of theworld.

The heavens being thus divided, it was moreeasy to reduce the stars into order, and to findtheir number, than it would have been withoutsuch a contrivance. And though this be con-sidered, by the uninstructed part of mankind, asan impossible thing, it has been often attemptedboth by the ancients and moderns. Hipparchusthe Rhodian, who lived about 120 years beforeChrist, was the first among the Greeks that en-gaged in this singular enterprise ; “ daring (ac-cording to Pliny) to undertake a thing whichseemed to surpass the power of a divinity; thatis, to number the stars, and to ascertain theirtrue places in the heavens.” It was imaginedin those days, as it is at present, that, in a sinewinter’s night, when the Iky is perfectly clear,the stars which may be seen in the firmament arebeyond the reach of all calculation; and that

To count their numbers, were to count the sandsThat ride in-whirlwinds the parch’d Lybian air;

Or waves that, when the blustering north embroilsThe Baltic, thunder on the German lhore.

Armstrong.

This, however, is a mistaken notion: thenumber of stars, as I have observed in a formerZ letter,