[ 2 59 1 
if a telefcope of twelve feet length, the aperture ot 
whofe objed lens was probably lefs than two inches, 
increafed the number of vifible (bars in the Pleiades to 
78, we may well fuppofe, that with an objed lens 
of two feet diameter, they would amount to more 
than 1000. What this number would be muft depend 
however upon the gradation of real magnitude amongft 
the ftars of that fyftem, to which there mud; necef- 
farily be fome limit, and it is not therefore improbable, 
that obfervations of the increafe of the number of 
bars amongft the Pleiades, &c. with telelcopes of 
larger apertures, efpecially if this was carried on to 
very large ftzes, might ferve to infoim us or many 
circumftances, both with regard to this gradation, and 
perhaps fome other things, that would enable us to 
jud ge with more probability concerning the diftances, 
magnitudes, &c. of the ftarsof our own fyftem. 
If we now imagine a fpedator amongft the Pleiades - 
to take a view of this fyftem from thence, fuppoftng 
the diftance, as before, 57 times the mean diftanceof 
our own ftars, we fhould appear to him as a nebula, 
in which there would be no ftar bright enough to be 
diftinguifhable by the naked eye j and with a telefcope, 
the aperture of whofe objed lens was two inches, 
he would hardly, I fuppofe, be able to diftinguifh more 
than half a fcore ftars at the utmoft. 
Having hitherto fuppofed the diftances of the ftars 
of our own fyftem to be the fame with thofe ot the 
Pleiades, and examined the appearances according to 
that hypothefis, let us now, inftead of their diftances, 
fuppofe their magnitudes to be the fame. This would 
make this fyftem, as leen from the Pleiades, to fubtend 
an angle of about twelve degrees inftead of two, 
L 1 2 and 
