Chap. 25.] 
ACCOTJNT or THE "WOELD. 
59 
CHAP. 24. (26.) — THE DOCTEIITE Or HIPPAECHUS* ABOrT 
THE STAES. 
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 in 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 
their 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 EEOM HTSTOET OE CELESTIAL PEO- 
DIGIES ; fACES^ LAMPADESy 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, "Yeniettempus, quo ista 
quae nunc latent, in lucem dies extrahat, et longioris diei diligentia j '* 
Nat. Qusest. Kb. 7. § 19. p. 807. 
^ For some account of Hipparchus, see note ^, p. 37. 
^ Nothing is known respecting the nature of these instruments, nor 
have we any means of forming even a conjecture upon the subject. 
3 The terms "faces," "lampades," "bohdes," and "trabes," HteraUy 
torches, lamps, darts, and beams, which are employed to express different 
kinds of meteors, have no corresponding words in Enghsh 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 steUis labentibus, modo aerohthis ascribenda sunt, modo va- 
poribus incensis aut electrica vi prognata videntur, et quamvis frequen- 
tissime recurrant, exphcatione adhuc incerta indigent." Alexandre in 
Lemaire, i. 302. 
i 
