DE MORGAN'S ACCOUNT OF WRIGHT'S SPECULATIONS 199 



objects do towards the Horizon Point of their Perspective, 

 which ends but with Infinity : Thus, all their Rays at last 

 so near uniting, must meeting in the Eye appear, as almost, 

 in Contact, and form a perfect Zone of Light ; this I take 

 to be the real Case, and the true Nature of our Milky Way, 

 and all the Irregularity we observe in it at the Earth, I 

 judge to be intirely owing to our Sun's Position in this 

 great Firmament, and may easily be solved by his Excen- 

 tricity, and the Diversity of Motion that may naturally 

 be conceived amongst the stars themselves, which may here 

 and there, in different Parts of the Heavens, occasion a 

 cloudy Knot of Stars, as perhaps at E. 



" But now to apply this Hypothesis to our present Pur- 

 pose, and reconcile it to our Ideas of a circular Creation, 

 and the known Laws of orbicular Motion, so as to make 

 the Beauty and Harmony of the Whole consistent with 

 the visible Order of its Parts, our Reason must now have 

 recourse to the Analogy of Things. It being once agreed, 

 that the Stars are in Motion, which, as I have endeavoured 

 in my last Letter to shew is not far from an undeniable 

 Truth, we must next consider in what Manner they move. 

 First then, to suppose them to move in right Lines, you 

 know is contrary to all the Laws and Principals we at 

 present know of; and since there are but two Ways that 

 they can possibly move in any natural Order, that is either 

 in right Lines, or in Curves, this being one, it must of 

 course be the other, i.e. in an Orbit; and consequently, 

 were we able to view them from their middle Position, as 

 from the Eye seated in the Center of Plate XXV. we might 

 expect to find them separately moving in all manner of 

 Directions round a general Center, such as is there repre- 

 sented. It only now remains to shew how a Number of 

 Stars, so disposed in a circular Manner round any given 

 Center, may solve the Phenomena before us. There are 

 but two Ways possible to be proposed by which it can be 

 done, and one of which I think is highly probable ; but 

 which of the two will meet your Approbation, I shall not 

 venture to determine, only here inclosed I intend to send 

 you both. The first is in the Manner I have above de- 

 scribed, i.e. all moving the same Way, and not much 

 deviating from the same Plane, as the Planets in their 

 heliocentric Motion do round the solar Body. In this Case 



