54 KANT'S UNIVERSAL NATURAL HISTORY 



appeared as if the regulated relation which is found in 

 the smaller solar system, did not rule among the 

 members of the universe as a whole. The fixed stars 

 exhibited no law by which their positions were bounded 

 in relation to each other; and they were looked upon 

 as filling all the heavens and the heaven of heavens 

 without order and without intention, Since the curiosity 

 of man set these limits to itself, he has done nothing 

 further than from these facts to infer, and to admire, 

 the greatness of Him who has revealed Himself in 

 works so inconceivably great. 



It was reserved for an Englishman, Mr Wright of 

 Durham, to make a happy step with a remark which does 

 not seem to have been used by himself for any very 

 important purpose, and the useful application of which 

 he has not sufficiently observed. He regarded the Fixed 

 Stars not as a mere swarm scattered without order and 

 without design, but found a systematic constitution in 

 the whole universe and a universal relation of these stars 

 to the ground-plan of the regions of space which they 

 occupy. We would attempt to improve the thought 

 which he thus indicated, and to give to it that modifica- 

 tion by which it may become fruitful in important 

 consequences whose complete verification is reserved for 

 future times. 



Whoever turns his eye to the starry heavens on a clear 

 night, will perceive that streak or band of light which on 

 account of the multitude of stars that are accumulated 

 there more than elsewhere, and by their getting per- 

 ceptibly lost in the great distance, presents a uniform 

 light which has been designated by the name Milky Way. 

 It is astonishing that the observers of the heavens have 



