8$ ON THE CONSTRUCTION OP THE HEAVENS, 



The numcroui ,Before I proceed, it will be proper to remark, that it may 

 ShlSr^Mn in P offibl y occur t0 many, who are not much acquainted with the 

 the heavens arrangement of the numberlefs ftars of the heavens, that what 



P [eIeHin at dir haS b<ien faid may a11 be mere "^(s furmife ; and that, poffi- 

 quifirions is not bly, there may not be the leaft occafion for any fuch fpecula- 

 mere furmife. tions upon the fubjed. To this, however, it may be anfwered, 

 that fuch combinations as I have mentioned, are not the inven- 

 tions of fancy : they have an actual exiitence; and, were it 

 neceflary, I could point them out by thoufands. There is not 

 a (ingle' night when, in pafling over the zones of the heavens 

 by fweeping, I do not meet with numerous collections of double, 

 treble, quadruple, quintuple, and multiple ftars, apparently 

 infulated from other groups, and probably joined in fome fmall 

 fidereal fyftem of their own. I do not imagine that I have 

 pointed out the a&ual manner in which they are held together; 

 but it will always be a defirable ftep towards information, if 

 the poffibility of fuch unions, in many different ways, can be 

 laid before us ; and, very probably, thofe who have more 

 leifure to confider the different combinations of central forces, 

 than a practical aftronomer can have, may eafily enlarge oh 

 what has been laid down in the foregoing paragraphs. 



IV. Of clujlering Stars, and the Milky-way. 



4. Cluttering From quadruple, quintuple, and multiple ftars, we are na- 



ft«s and the ^ mH ^ t ■ a con tfd e ration of the vaft colledions of fmall 

 milky way. J . , 



ftars that are profufely fcattered over the milky-way. On a 



very flight examination, it will appear that this immenfe ftarry 

 aggregation is by no means uniform. The ftars of which it is 

 compofed are very unequally fcattered, and (how evident 

 marks of cluftering together into many feparate allotments. 

 By referring to fome one of thefe cluftering collections in the 

 heavens, what will be faid of them will be much better under- 

 stood, than if we were to treat of them merely in a general way. 

 Let us take the fpace between /Sand y Cygni for an example, in 

 which the ftars are cluftering with a kind of divifion between 

 them, Co that we may fuppofe them to be cluftering towards 

 two different regions, by a computation, founded on obferva- 

 tions which afcertain the number of ftars in different fields of 

 view, it appears that our fpace between ft and V, taking an 

 average breadth of about five degrees of it, contains more 

 than 331 thoufand ftars j and, admitting them to be cluftering 



two 



