32 KANT'S UNIVERSAL NATURAL HISTORY 



swifter their motions are, or the more proper the direction 

 of the motion is to be rendered perceptible by us. Since 

 then the relative places of the stars may be changed from 

 such a variety of causes, considering that amazing distance 

 at which it is certain that some of them are placed, it 

 may require the observations of many ages to determine 

 the laws of the apparent changes even of a single star. 

 Much more difficult therefore must it be to settle the 

 laws relating to all the most remarkable stars." 1 



I cannot exactly define the boundaries which lie 

 between Mr Wright's system and my own ; nor can I 

 point out in what details I have merely imitated his 

 sketch or have carried it out further. Nevertheless, I 

 found afterwards valid reasons for considerably expanding it 

 on one side. I considered the species of nebulous stars, of 

 which De Maupertuis makes mention in his treatise On 

 the Figure of the Fixed Stars? which present the form of 



^[Philosophical Transactions , Vol. XLV., for the year 1748. Pp. 

 39-41. London, 1750.] 



2 As I have not the treatise referred to at hand, I will here insert 

 what bears upon the subject from a quotation taken from the Outrages 

 divers de Msr. Maupertuis in the Ada Eruditorum, 1745. " Le 

 premier phenomene est celui de ces taches brillantes du ciel, que Ton 

 nomme nebuleuses, et qui ont ete considerees comme des amas de 

 petites etoiles. Mais les astronomes, a 1'aide de meilleures lunettes, 

 ne les ont vues que comme de grandes aires ovales, lumineuses, ou 

 d'une lumiere plus claire que le reste du ciel. Huygens en a 

 rencontre d'abord une dans Orion ; Halley, dans les Philosophical 

 Transactions, signale six de ces nebulosites, dont la premiere est 

 dans 1'epee d'Orion ; la deuxieme dans le Sagittaire ; la troisieme 

 dans le Centaure ; la quatrieme devant le pied droit d'Antinous ; la 

 cinquieme dans Hercule, et la sixieme dans la Ceinture d'Andromede. 

 Cinq de ces taches ayant ete observees avec un reflecteur de 8 pieds, 

 il ne s'en est trouve qu'une, la quatrieme, qui puisse etre prise pour 

 un amas d'etoiles ; les autres paraissent de grandes aires blanchatres 



