214 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



very different from the circles and the ellipfes 

 which we have affigned to the heavenly bodies. I 

 am fully perfuaded, that there is among thefe the 

 fame variety of motion, as between thofe of many 

 terreftrial bodies ; and that there are Stars which 

 defcribe cycloids, fpirals, and many other curves, 

 of which we have not fo much as an idea. 



I muft proceed no farther on this ground, for 

 fear of appearing better informed refpeding the 

 affairs of Heaven, than thofe which are much 

 nearer to us. All that 1 intended was to expofe my 

 doubts and my ignorance. If Stars are Suns, then 

 there mufl be Stars in motion; and, furely, ours 

 may be in motion as well as they are *. 



It 



* I now leave the Reader to refleél on the total difappearance 

 of thofe Stars. The Ancients had obferved feven Stars in the 

 Pleiades. Six only are now perceptible. The l'çventh difap- 

 peared at the fiege of Troy. Ovid fays, it was fo affefted by the 

 fate of that unfortunate city, as, from grief, to cover it's face 

 with it's hand. I find, in the book of j^o^, a curious pafTage, 

 which feems to prefage this difappearance : it is chap, xxxviii. 

 vei". 31. Nitmquid co7ifimg€re malebis jnicaiifesjlrllaspkiadas, ant 

 gynim avBuri poteris dijppare ? "Will it be in thy power to 

 " unite the brilliant Stars, the Pleiades ; and to turn afide the 

 " great Bear from it's courfe ?" This is the import of the tranf- 

 iation of M. le Maître de Sacy. However, if I might venture to 

 give an opinion after that learned man, I would put a different 

 fenfe "on the conclufion of the paflage. Gyrum arSlmi dijpparey 

 means, in my opinion, ♦' to diffipate the attradion of the arftic 



pole." 



