^^4-6 ^^^' Herschel on the 



denly to pafs over from one extreme to the other, the gages 

 were redoced to other forms, fuch as tiie border gage, the 

 diftaiice-gage, &c. which terms, and the ule of fuch gages, 

 I (hall hereafter find an opportunity of explaining. And none 

 of thoie kinds of gages have been admitted in this table, which 

 contifts only of fuch as have been taken in places v/here the 

 liars a|)parently leemed to be, in general, pretty evenly fcat- 

 tercd ; and to increafe and decreafe in number by a certain gra- 

 dual piogreffion. Nor has any part of the heavens containing 

 a clufter of ftars been put in the gages ; and here I mufi: ob- 

 lerve, that the difference between a crowded place and a clufter 

 may eaiily be perceived by the arrangement as well as the fize 

 and mutual diilance of the fears ; for in a clufter they are 

 generally not only refembling each other pretty nearly in fize, 

 but a certain uniformity of diilance alfo takes place ; they are 

 more and more accumulated towards the center, and put on all 

 the appearances which we fhould naturally expevfl from a num- 

 ber of them colle6led into a group at a certain diiliance from 

 VIS. On the other hand, the rich parts of the milky way, as 

 well as thofe in the diftant broad part of the ftratum, confifh 

 of a mixture of ffars of all poifible fizes, that are feemingly 

 placed without any particular apparent order. Perhaps we might 

 recolle6l, that a greater condenfation towards the center of our 

 fyftem than towards the borders of it fhould be taken into con- 

 fideration; but, with a nebula of the third form, containing 

 fuch various and extenfive combinations, as I have found to 

 take place in ours, this circumftance, which in one of the firfl: 

 form would be of coniiderable moment, may, I think, be 

 fafely negledted. However, I would not be underftood to lay 

 a greater ftrefs on thcfe and the following calculations than the 

 principles on which they are founded wdll permit ; and if here- 

 after 



