196 DE MORGAN'S ACCOUNT OF WRIGHT'S SPECULATIONS 



Opinion, and I think not without Reason, that the true 

 Magnitude of the Sun is not near what the modern 

 Astronomers have made it ; and that it may not possibly 

 be much above two Thirds of what it appears to us ; . . . 

 This, tho' I presume to call it at present only mere Hypo- 

 thesis, will in a great measure account for the excessive 

 Changes in the Constitution of our Air and Atmosphere, 

 which we often find very unnatural to the Season ; . . . 

 But all this will very naturally be accounted for by the 

 Levity, or expanding Quality of the Sun's circumambient 

 Flame, or Atmosphere ; and hence, according to its various 

 State, being more condensed, or rare, we may have Heat 

 or Cold in the greatest Extream, and alternately so, in a 

 perpetual Vicissitude." 



Wright then proceeds to estimate the number of stars in 

 the milky way, and to discuss the question of the distance 

 of stars from our sun. Making the distance of one star 

 from another at least about three thousand times that of 

 the furthest planet from our sun, he argues that "... as 

 no sensible Disorder can be observed amongst the solar 

 Planets, what Reason have we to suppose any can be 

 occasioned amongst the Stars, or that a general Motion of 

 these primary Luminaries round a common Center, should 

 be any way irrational, or unnatural ? " 



The sixth letter is headed ' Of General Motion amongst 

 the Stars, the Plurality of Systems, and Innumerability of 

 Worlds.' That the stars are not promiscuously dispersed, 

 he argues from the phsenomenon of the milky way, supposed 

 to be resolvable into stars. He then proceeds to say, "If 

 any regular Order of the Stars then can be demonstrated 

 that will naturally prove this Phenomenon to be no other 

 than a certain Effect arising from the Observer's Situation, 

 I think you must of course grant such a Solution at least 

 rational, if not the Truth ; and this is what I propose by 

 my new Theory." Afterwards he adds, ". . . we may 

 reasonably expect, that the Via Lactea^ which is a manifest 

 Circle among the Stars, conspicuous to every Eye, will 

 prove at last the Whole [creation] to be together a vast 

 and glorious regular Production of Beings, . . . and that 

 all its irregularities are only such as naturally arise from 

 our excentric View : To demonstrate which absolutely and 

 incontestibly, we shall only want this one Postulata to be 



