Qiap. 25.] ACCOITNT OF THE WOELD. 69 



CHAP. 24. (26.) — THE DOCTEnne or hippabchits^ about 



THE STABS. 



This same Hipparchus, who can never be sufficiently 

 commended, as one who more especially proved the relation 

 of the stars to man, and that our souls are a portion of 

 heaven, discovered a new star that was produced m his own 

 age, and, by observing its motions on the day in which it 

 shone, he was led to doubt whether it does not often happen, 

 that those stars have motion which we suppose to be fixed. 

 And the same individual attempted, what might seem pre- 

 sumptuous even in a deity, viz. to number the stars for 

 posterity and to express their relations by appropriate names ; 

 having previously devised instruments^, by which he might 

 mark the places and the magnitudes of each individual star. 

 In this way it might be easily discovered, not only whether 

 they were destroyed or produced, but whether they changed 

 theu" relative positions, and likewise, whether they were in- 

 creased or diminished; the heavens being thus left as an 

 inheritance to any one, who might be found competent to 

 complete his plan. 



CHAP. 25. — EXAMPLES FEOM HISTOET OF CELESTIAL PEO- 

 DIGLES ; fdCES^ LAMPADES^ AND BOLIDES^. 



The faces shine brilliantly, but they are never seen except- 

 ing when they are falling^ one of these darted across the 



mortalium exire." He concludes by observing, "Veniet tern pus, quo ista 

 quae nunc latent, in lucem dies extrahat, et longioris diei diligentia j " 

 Nat. Quffist. lib. 7. § 19. p. 807. 



* For some accoimt of Hipparchus, see note *, p. 87. 



^ Nothing is known respecting the natiire of these instruments, nor 

 have we any means of forming even a conjecture upon the subject. 



3 The terms "faces," "lampades," "boHdes," and "trabes," Hterally 

 torches, lamps, darts, and beams, which are employed to express different 

 kinds of meteors, have no corresponding words in English which would 

 correctly designate them. 



■* From this account it would appear, that the " fax " was what we 

 term a falling star. " Meteora ista, super cervices nostras transeuntia, 

 diversaque a stellis labentibus, modo aerohthis ascribenda sunt, modo va- 

 poribus incensis aut electrica vi prognata videntur, et quamvis frequen- 

 tissime recurrant, expUcatione adhuc incerta indigent." Alexandre in 

 Lemaire, i. 302. 



