Fart I. /;^ /^^ C R E A T r o N. 19 



in Nature as they are in Place from the Terre- 

 ftrial, and from each other. Whence it will fol- 

 low, That thefe muft be much more infinite than 

 the Stars ; I do not mean abfolutely according 

 to Philofophick Exadnefs infinite, but only infi- 

 nite or innumerable as to us, or their Number 

 prodigioufly great. 



That the fix'd Stars are innumerable, may 

 thus be made out : Thofe vifible to the naked 

 Eye are by the leaft Account acknowledged to 

 be above a Thoufand, excluding thofe towards 

 the South Pole, which are not vifible in our 

 Horizon : Befides thefe, there have been incom- 

 parably more detected and brought to Light 

 by the Telefcopes ; the Milky-way being found 

 to be (as was formerly conjedur'd) nothing but 

 great Companies or Swarms of Minute Stars 

 fingly invifible, but by reafon of their Proximity 

 mingling and confounding their Lights, and 

 appearing like lucid Clouds. And ic is likely 

 that, had we more perfed: Telefcopes, many 

 Thoufands more might be difcovered ; and 

 yet, after all, an incredible Multitude remaim, 

 by reafon of their immenfe Uiftance beyond 

 all Ken, by the beft Telefcopes that could 

 poflibly be invented or polifti'd by the Wit and 

 Hand of an Angel: For if the World be (as 

 Des Cartes would have it) indefinitely e^^ten- 

 ded, that is, fo far as no human Luelledl- can 

 fancy any. Bound of it -, then what we fee, or 

 can come to fee, muft be the leaft Part of what 

 is undifcoverable by us, the whole Univerfe 

 extending a thoufand times farther beyond the 



C 2 ^ utmoft 



