C 2+3 ] 
confirmed by very drong arguments of analogy drawn 
from the circumstances of the particular fituation of 
the Stars in the heavens. 
It has always been ufual with Adronomers to dif- 
pofe the fixed Stars into constellations: this has been 
done for the fake of remembering and distinguishing 
them, and therefore it has in general been done merely 
arbitrarily, and with this view only ; nature herfelf 
however Seems to have distinguished them into groups. 
What I mean is, that, from the apparent fituation of 
the Stars in the heavens, there is the highed pro- 
bability, that, either by the original a£t of the Creator, 
or in confequence of Some general law (Such perhaps 
as gravity) they are collected together in great num- 
bers in Some parts of fpace, whiled in others there are 
either few or none. 
The argument, I intend to make ufe of, in order 
to prove this, is of that kind, which infers either 
defign, or feme general law, from a general analogy, 
and the greatnefs of the odds againSt things having 
been in the prefen t fituation, if it was not owing to 
fome fuch caufe. 
Let us then examine what it is probable would have 
been the lead apparent didance of any two or more 
dars, any where in the whole heavens, upon the iup- 
pofition that they had been Scattered by mere chance, 
as it might happen. Now it is manifed, upon this 
fuppofition, that every dar being as likely to be in any 
one fituation as another, the probability, that any one 
particular dar Should happen to be within a certain 
didance (as for example one degree) of any other 
given dar, would be represented (according to the 
common way of computing chances) by a fraction, 
1 i 2 whole 
