VOL. LXXV.] PHILOSOPHICAL TKANSACTIONS. 083 



not to be perceived without the greatest attention. To pass by other situations, 

 let him be placed in a much extended stratum, or branching cluster of millions 

 of stars, such as may fall under the 3d form of nebulas considered in a foregoing 

 paragraph. Here also the heavens will not only be richly scattered over with bril_ 

 liant constellations, but a shining zone or milky way will be perceived to sur- 

 round the whole sphere of the heavens, owing to the combined light of those 

 stars which are too small, that is, too remote to be seen. Our observer's sight 

 will be so confined, that he will imagine this single collection of stars, of which 

 he does not even perceive the thousandth part, to be the whole contents of the 

 heavens. Allowing him now the use of a common telescope, he begins to sus- 

 pect that all the milkiness of the bright path which surrounds the sphere may be 

 owing to stars. He perceives a few clusters of them in various parts of the 

 heavens, and finds also that there are a kind of nebulous patches ; but still his 

 views are not extended so far as to reach to the end of the stratum in which he is 

 situated, so that he considers these patches as belonging to that system which 

 to him seems to comprehend every celestial object. He now increases his power 

 of vision, and, applying himself to a close observation, finds that the milky way 

 is indeed no other than a collection of very small stars. He perceives that those 

 objects which had been called nebulas are evidently nothing but clusters of stars. 

 He finds their number increase on him, and when he resolves one nebula into 

 stars he discovers lO new ones which he cannot resolve. He then forms the 

 idea of immense strata of fixed stars, of clusters of stars, and of nebulae ; till, 

 going on with such interesting observations, he now perceives that all these ap- 

 pearances must naturally arise from the confined situation in which we are placed. 

 Confined it may justly be called, though in no less a space than what before 

 appeared to be the whole region of the fixed stars ; but which now has assumed 

 the shape of a crookedly branching nebula ; not, indeed, one of the least, 

 but, perhaps very far from being the most considerable of these numberless clus- 

 ters that enter into the construction of the heavens. 



Result of observations. — I shall now endeavour to show, that the theoretical 

 view of the system of the universe, exposed in the foregoing part of this paper, 

 is perfectly consistent with facts, and seems to be confirmed and established by a 

 series of observations. It will appear, that many hundreds of nebulas of the 1st 

 and 2d forms are actually to be seen in the heavens, and their places will hereafter 

 be pointed out. Many of the 3d form will be described, and instances of the 

 4th related. A few of the cavities mentioned in the 5th will be particularized, 

 though many more have already been observed; so that, on the whole, I believe, 

 it will be found, that the foregoing theoretical view, with all its consequential 

 appearances, as seen by an eye inclosed in one of the nebulas, is no other than a 

 drawing from nature, wherein the features of the original have been closely 



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