^46 ^^' Herschel on the 



denly to pafs ov^r from one extreme to the other, the gages 

 were reduced to other forms, fuch as the border-gage, the 

 diilance-gage, &c. which terms, and the ufe of fuch gages, 

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

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

 eonfiils only of fuch as have been taken in places where the 

 irars apparently feemed to be, in general, pretty evenly fcat- 

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

 dual progrefiion. Nor has any part of the heavens containing 

 a clufler of Ifars been put in the gages ; and here I mull: ob- 

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

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

 and mutual diilance of the ilars : 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 expecl from a num- 

 ber of them colle£ltd into a group at a certain diflance from 

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

 well as thofe in the diftant broad part of the ftratumx, confid: 

 of a mixture of flars of all poffible fizes, that are feemingly 

 placed without any particular apparent order. Perhaps we might 

 recoliecl, that a greater condenlation tow^ards the center of our 

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

 fideration ; but, w- itli 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 v/ould be of confid^rable moment, may, I think, be 

 lafely neglected. However, I would not be undei flood to lay 

 a greater ftrefs on thcfe and the following calculations than the 

 principles on which they are founded will periiiit ; and if here- 

 after 



