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3 i The INTRODUCTION:

Heavens, either to commemorate the Deedsof some great Man, or of some notable Ex-ploit or Action; or else took them from theFables of their Religion, &c. And theModern Astronomers do still retain them,to avoid the Confusion that would arise bymaking new ones, when they compare themodern Observations with the old ones.

Some of the principal Stars have parti-cular Names given them, as Syrius, Ar Bu-rns ^ &c. There are also several Stars thatare not reduced into Constellations, andUnformed these are called Unformed, Stars.ar, ‘ Besides the Stars visible to the naked Eye,there is a very remarkable Space in the Hea-The Galaxy vens, called the Galaxy, or Milky Way.my l . k * This is a broad Circle of a whitish Hue,like Milk, going quite round the wholeHeavens; and consisting of an infinite Num-ber of small Stars, visible thro’ a Telescope,tho’ not discernable by the naked Eye, byreason of their exceeding Faintness; yetwith their Light they combine to illustratethat Part of the Heavens where they are,and to cause that shining Whiteness.

The Places of the fixed Stars, or theirrelative Situations one from another, havebeen carefully observed by Astronomers,and digested into Catalogues. The firstamong the Greeks , who reduced the Starsinto a Catalogue, was Hypparcus, who, fromhis own Observations, and of those who

lived