< i 4 ) 
in the proportion of Squares, and the Space to contain 
them will be increafed in the fame proportion fo that 
in each Spherical Surface the number of Stars it might 
contain, will be as the Biquadrate of their diflanccs. 
Put then the diftances immenfely grear, as we are well 
allured they cannoc but be, and from thence by anobvi- 
ous calculus , ic will be found, that as the Light of the 
Fix’d Stars diminifiies, the intervals between them de- 
creafe in a lefs proportion, the one being as the Diftances, 
and the other as the Squares thereof, reciprocally. Add 
to this, that the more remote Stars, and thofe far fhort of 
the remote!!, vanifti even in the niceft Telefcopes, by rea- 
fbn of their extream minutenefs^ fo that, tho’ it were true, 
that fome fuch Stars are in fuch a place, yet their Beams, 
aided by any help yet known, are not fufficient to move 
our Senfe ; after the fame manner as a fmall Telefcopical 
fixe Star. is by no means perceivable to the naked Eye. 
V2i Of the Number, Order , and Light of the Fix’d 
Stars, <By the fame . 
A T the laft meeting of the Society, I adventured to 
propofe fome Arguments, that feemed to me to 
evince the Infinity of the Sphere of Fixt Stars, as occupy- 
ing the whole Abyfis of Space, or the mr, which at 
prefent is generally underftood to be necefiarily Infinite; 
and thence I laid before you whit may feem a very Meta- 
fbyfical Paradox, viz ;» That the number of Fixt Stars muft: 
then be more than any finite Number, and fome of them 
more than at a finite diftance from others. This feems 
to involve a Contradiction, but it is not the only one 
that occurs to thofe who have undertaken fteely to con- 
fide^ 
