ASTRONOMICAL HISTORY. 191 



laboured in that attempt, seemingly with great and exact 

 minuteness, yet in reality with no little license and teme 

 rity) ; but must seek, if any present themselves, proofs and 

 evidence more to be trusted to and more genuine. Now 

 the magnitude and distance of the stars reciprocally indi 

 cate each other by the methods of optics: the roots of 

 which science, however, ought to be a little shaken. 



The question of the true magnitude of the stars is the 

 twelfth in our enumeration : there follows another respect 

 ing the form, whether they be globes, that is, masses of 

 matter of a solid round figure ? Now there are apparently 

 three figures of the stars ; spherical and comose as the sun ; 

 * * spherical and angular, as the stars, (the coma and angles 

 relate here only to aspect, the spherical form only to sub 

 stance); spherical only, as the moon. For no star looks 

 oblong, or triangular, or square, or of any other figure than 

 the above. And it appears to be the order of nature that 

 the larger accumulations of things, for their own preserva 

 tion and a truer union of parts, impact themselves into 

 globes. 



The fourteenth question relates to distance: What is 

 the true distance of any star in the abyss of heaven? For 

 the distances of the planets, both relatively to one another 

 and to the fixed stars, are consequent upon, or determined 

 by, their motions in the path they describe through the 

 heavens. But as we have said above concerning the mag 

 nitude of the stars, if an exact and directly measured mag 

 nitude cannot be had, we must have recourse to their com 

 parative magnitudes : we give the same precept as to 

 their distance, that if the distance cannot be accurately 

 taken, (for instance, from the earth to Saturn and to Jupi 

 ter), yet let it be set down at least as certain, that Saturn 

 is of greater altitude than Jupiter. For the system of the 

 heavens interiorly, that is, the common arrangement of the 

 planets with reference to their heights, is not unchallenged, 

 nor were the opinions that now obtain formerly believed. 

 There is even now a controversy respecting Mercury and 

 Venus, which of them is higher. The distances are found 

 either by their parallaxes, or their eclipses, or their modes 

 of motion, or the differences of their visible magnitude. 

 Other helps must also be obtained for this inquiry, which 

 man s industry will suggest. The question, also, with re 

 gard to the thickness or depth of the spheres, is connected 

 with these distances. 



W. G. G. 



