ConJlruSlion of the Heavens. . 255 



faid to be one that has fewer marks of profound antiquity upon 

 it than the reft. To explain this idea perhaps more clearly, we 

 fhould recoiled that the condenlation of clufters of ftars has 

 been afcribed to a gradual approach ; and whoever refle6ls on 

 the numbers of nges that muft have paft before fome of the 

 clufters, that will be found in my intended catalogue of them, 

 could be fo far condenfed as we find them at prcfent, will not 

 wonder if I afcribe a certain air of youth and vigour to many 

 very regularly fcattered regions of our fidereal ftratum. There 

 are moreover many places in it where there is the greateft 

 reafon to believe that the ftars, if we may judge from ap- 

 pearances, are now drawing towards various fecondary centers, 

 and will in time feparate into different clufters, fo as to occa- 

 fion many fub-divifions. Hence we may furmife that when a 

 nebulous ftratum confifts chiefly of nebuliE of the firft and fe* 

 cond form, it probably owes its origin to what may be called 

 the decay of a great compound nebula of the third form ; and 

 that the fub-divifions, which happened to It in length of time, 

 cccafioned all the fmall nebulae which Iprung from it to lie in a 

 certain range, according as they were detached from the pri- 

 mary one. In like manner our fyftem, after numbers of ages, 

 may very poflibly become divided fo as to give rife to a ftratum 

 of two or three hundred nebula ; for it would not be difficult 

 to point out fo many beginning or gathering clufters in It (/). 

 This view of the prefent fubje^l throws a confiderable light 

 upon the appearance of that remarkable coUedlion of many 



(y) Mr. MicHELL has alfo confidered the ftars as gathered together info 

 groups (Phil. Tranf. voU LVII. p. 249.) j which idea agrees with the fub-diviCcn 

 of our great fyftem here pointed out. He founds an elegant proof of this on 

 the computation of probabilities, and mentions the Pleiades, the Pra*fepc Cancri, 

 and the nebula (or chifter of ftars) in the hilt of Perfeus's fuord, as inftanccr. 



hundreds 



