314 The Construction of the Heavens. [July, 
system of the second order, including all those stars, spread 
over all parts of the heavens, which do not belong to the 
milky way. He further held that there are many systems 
of the second order, and that these are not distributed 
throughout all space, but are all found near a certain 
principal plane or mean level, and being ranged one behind 
the other to a great depth, form by their concourse the 
Milky Way. This is a@ system of the third ordere 
Analogy suggests, he added, that there are in the universe 
many Milky Ways; ‘‘ perhaps, for instance, the nebula in 
Orion may be a Milky Way, nearer to us than the rest. 
Should this be the case, telescopic research will reveal 
many others, forming together a system of the fourth order.” 
And he proceeded thence to the inference that there may be 
systems of yet higher orders. 
It will be observed that in regarding the Milky Way as 
formed, not directly of the concourse of many stars, but 
of the concourse of many clusters of stars, Lambert adopted 
a totally different conception of its nature than Kant had 
formed. Nor was this view of Lambert’s, any more than 
his other opinions, merely speculative. He based it on the 
observed irregularity of the Milky Way, on the different 
richness of its various parts, and on its branching figure. 
In passing, it may be observed that Lambert here antici- 
pated the conclusions to which Sir William Herschel was 
led after he had abandoned the principle of star gauging. 
Lambert thus describes the grandeur of the universe of 
systems as pictured in his theory :—‘‘ How far soever we 
may extend the scale,” he says, ‘‘ we must necessarily stop 
at last. And where? At the centre of centres, at the centre 
of creation, which I should be inclined to term the capital 
of the universe, inasmuch as thence originates motion 
of every kind, and there stands the great wheel in which 
work the teeth of all the rest. F‘rom thence the laws are 
issued which govern and uphold the universe; or rather, 
there they resolve themselves into one law of all others the 
most simple. But who would be competent to measure the 
space and time which all the globes, all the worlds, all the 
worlds of worlds employ in revolving around that immense 
body—the Throne of Nature and the Footstool of the 
Divinity! What painter, what poet, what imagination is 
sufficiently exalted to describe the beauty, the magnificence, 
the grandeur, of this source of all that is beautiful, great, 
and magnificent ; and from whence order and harmony flow 
in eternal streams through the whole bounds of the 
universe.” 
