AND THEORY OF THE HEAVENS. 137 



of these spheres. Every one of these suns, with its 

 revolving planets, constitutes a particular system by itself; 

 but this does not hinder them from being parts of a still 

 greater system, just as Jupiter or Saturn, notwithstanding 

 their being accompanied by satellites of their own, are 

 embraced in the systematic constitution of a still greater 

 system. With such an exact agreement in their consti- 

 tution, can we not recognize the same cause and mode ot 

 production in them? 



If, then, the fixed stars constitute a system whose extent 

 is determined by the sphere of the attraction of that body 

 which is situated in the centre, shall there not have arisen 

 more Solar Systems and, so to speak, more Milky Ways, 

 which have been produced in the boundless field of space ? 

 We have beheld with astonishment figures in the heavens 

 which are nothing else than such systems of fixed stars 

 confined to a common plane Milky Ways, if I may so 

 express myself, which, in their different positions to the 

 eye, present elliptical forms with a glimmer that is weakened 

 in proportion to their infinite distance. They are systems 

 of, so to speak, an infinite number of times infinitely 

 greater diameter than the diameter of the Solar System. 

 But undoubtedly they have arisen in the same way, have 

 been arranged and regulated by the same causes, and pre- 

 serve themselves in their constitution by a mechanism 

 similar to that which rules our own system. 



If, again, these star-systems are viewed as members in 

 the great chain of the totality of nature, then there is just 

 as much reason as formerly to think of them as in mutual 

 relation and in connections which, in virtue of the law of 

 their primary formation that rules the whole of nature, 

 constitute a new and greater system ruled by the attraction 



