the Confirudtion of the Heavens, 4.4% 
with fmall, feeming attendants; narrow but much extended, 
fucid nebule or bright dafhes; fome of the fhape of a fan, re- 
fembling an electric brufh, iffuing from a lucid point; other 
of the cometic fhape, with a fen ming nucleus in the center; 
bg 
n 
or like cloudy flars, furrounded with a nebulous atmofphere; a 
different fort again contain a nebulofity of the milky kind, like 
that wonderful, inexplicable phenomenon about @ Orionis ; 
while others fhine with a fainter, mottled kind of light, which 
denotes their being refolvable into ftars. See fig. 3. &c. But ir 
would be too extenfive at prefent to enter more minutely into 
fuch circumftances, therefore I proceed me the fubje of ne- 
bulous and fidereal ftrata. 
ft is very probable, that the great ftratum, called the milky 
way, is that in which the fun is placed, though perhaps not in 
the very center of its thicknefs. We gather this from the 
appearance of the Galaxy, which feems to encompafs the whole 
heavens, as it certainly muft do if the fun is within the fame. 
For, {uppofe a number of ftars arranged between two parallel 
planes, indefinitely extended every way, but at a given confi- 
derable diftance from each other; and, calling’this a fidereal 
ftratum, an eye placed fomewhere within it will fee all the 
ftars in the direftion of the planes of the ftratum projected 
into a great circle, which will‘appear lucid on account of the 
accumulation of the ftars; while the reft of the heavens, at 
the fides, will only fee to be fcattered over with conftella- 
tioils, more or lefs crowded, according to the diftance of the 
planes or number of ftars contained in the thicknefs or fides of 
the ftratum. | | 
Thns, in fig. 16. (tab. XVIII.) an eye at S within the ftratum 
2b, will fee the ftars in the direction of its length 24, or height 
ed, with all thofe in the intermediate fituations, projected into the 
VoL. LXXIV. Mmm lucid 
