of the Sun and Fixed Stars. 225. 
miles in depth. It is true that in our atmofphere the extent 
of the clouds is limited to a very narrow compafs; but we 
ought rather to compare the folar ones to the Juminous de- 
compofitions which take place in our aurora borealis, or lu- 
minous arches which extend much farther than the cloudy 
regions. The denfity of the luminous folar clouds, though 
very great, may not be exceedingly more fo than that of our 
aurora borealis. For, if we confider what would be the bril- 
hancy of a fpace two or three thoufand miles deep, filled with 
fuch corrufcations asewe fee now and then in our atmofphere, 
their apparent intenfity, when viewed at the diftance of the 
fun, might not be much inferior to that of the lucid folar 
fluid. 
From the luminous atmofphere of the fun I proceed to its 
opaque body, which, by calculation from the power it exerts 
upon the planets, we know to be of great folidity; and from 
the phenomena of the dark fpots, many of which, probably 
on account of their high fituations, have been repeatedly 
feen, and otherwife denote inequalities in their level, we 
furmife that its furface is diverfified with mountains and 
vallies. F 
What has been faid enables us to come to fome very im- 
portant conclufions, by remarking, that this way of confi- 
dering the fun and its atmofphere removes the great diflimi- 
larity we have hitherto been ufed to find between its condi- 
tion and that of the reft of the great bodies of the folar fyftem. 
The fun, viewed in this light, appears to be nothing elfe 
than a very eminent, large, and lucid planet, evidently the 
firft, or, mn firiétnefs of {peaking, the only primary one of our 
fyftem, all others being truly fecondary to it. Its fimilarity 
to the other globes of the folar fyftem with regard to its fo- 
lidity, its atmofphere, and its diverfified furface, the rotation 
‘upon its axis, and the fall of heavy bodies, leads us on to 
fuppofe that it is moft probably alfo inhabited, like the reft 
of the planets, by beings whofe: organs are adapted to the 
peculiar circumftances of that vaft globe. 
Whatever fanciful poets might fay in making the fun the 
abode of blefled f{pirits, or angry moralifts devife in pointing 
it out as a fit place for the punifhment of the wicked, it does 
VoL. V. Gg not 
