206 GERARDI REGNERI FOCKENS 



« and there is no reason for assigning any one limit lo Ihcm rather tlian anoihnr ; yet ,'■ 

 « wlien it is as likely thal Ihc largest slars should be in any one pari of space as in 

 « any ollier , tlie probabilily in favour of Ihis hypothesis is very great; llie roal mo- 

 V tions also, which have heen observed amongst scveral of thc briglitesl of Ihe fixed 

 <( Stars, is another argument lo the same purpose; and we shall find il still fartlier con- 

 « firmcd by very streng arguments of analogy drawn from the circumslances of Ihe 

 « particular Situation of tlie slars in the heavens. " 



Ergo dislribiitionem slcllarum inaequalcm explicat ; el juxta principia probabililalis de» 

 monslrat , hanc inaequalitalem esse veram , non apparenlcm : siquidem, cum stellae casu 

 et forte ita projectae essent , ut quemlibet aeque locum inspatio oblinere possenl , proba- 

 bihtas , ordincm universi vindicans, certo non admisisset, in Pleiadibiis sex Stellas illius 

 magniludinis , quarum numerus est circiter 1500, lam vicinas invicem esse; praesepe 

 Cancro , mauubrium gladii Perseo , abncgasset ; et discidisset multiplices Stellas, 



Itaque syslemala fixarum adsunt vinculo nexarum. Quidni et sol adeo syslematis cu- 

 jusdam membrum est? 



(1 Äs ihe nebulae and smaller amslella tions , composed of a great number of slars, 

 « within a small distance from one another , belong probably to other Systems ; so Iho- 

 « se , which beiug placed at greater dislances from each other compose the larger con- 

 (( stellalions , and such as have few or no smallev slars near them , when examined witlr 

 « telescopes , belong probably to our own systcm, Most of the slars of the first and se»' 

 « cond magnilude hace Ihis criterion lo dislinguish ihem as belonging to the same System' 

 « -with Ihc sun, bcsides several other circumslances, such as their great brighiness; 

 « the proper motions , that have been observed amongst soraej of ihem ; their being more 

 « numerous, Ihan we might nalurally expect in proporlion to the smaller slars, if Ihcy 

 « did not compose a pari of the same System 'with ourselvcs etc." [Note. The apr 

 « parent change of Situation, thal has been observed amongst a few of the slars, is ai 

 « slrong circumstance in favour of those stars being some of the nearest to us. This ap- 

 « parent change of Situation may be owing eithcr lo the real motion of the slars Ihemsel- 

 « ves , or to that of the sun , or partly lo the one and partly to ihe other. As far as it 

 « is owing lo the latler ( which it is by no means improbable may in some measure be 

 « the case ) il may be considered as a kind of secular parallax , which if the annual 

 « parallax of a few of the slars should some time or other be discovered , and the quan- 

 « tily and direolion of the sun's motion should be discovered likewise , mighl serve lo 

 « inform us of Ihe dislances of many of them\ which il would be utlerly impossible 

 (' lo find out by any other means. ] 



Sed e debilioribus etiam quaedam ad systema noslrum pertinent, quarum indicat noj 

 tas, Jam vero sequelas exponit ficli hujus syslematis sidereo- solaiis , in quibu« 



maxi- 



