[ 26 q ] 
and about half a fcorc of the biggeft ftars would be 
there vifible to the naked eye ; but a telefcope, whofe 
object lens was of two inches aperture, would in 
that cafe, I apprehend, take in almoft all the ftars 
belonging to this fyftem of the fourth magnitude and 
upwards. Thefe appearances fall in lets, I think, 
with the general analogy of what we fee in the 
heavens, than the former fuppofition ; but for want of 
more obfervations I cannot fay this with any certainty : 
in the mean time however till we have fomething 
farther to go upon, it may not perhaps be amifs to take 
a kind of medium between the two, and fuppofe the 
Pleiades to be at about twenty times the mean diftance 
of the ftars belonging to our own fyftem, in which 
cafe y\ will exceed the biggeft of thefe, in the pro- 
portion of about eight or ten to one; or it will exceed 
the Sun, according to our former fuppofitions of his 
being of a medium fizeamongft 1000 or 3,50 ftars, in 
one cafe in the proportion of about eight or ten 
thoufand, and in the other, about a thcufand or twelve 
hundred to one; its parallax in the former cafe being 
about 36 //;/ and in the latter about 1 
I fhall conclude this inquiry with one obfervation 
more, concerning the appearance of the ftars of our 
own fyftem, as feen from great diftances. Whatever 
then the real diftance and magnitude of thefe ftars 
may be, provided we have not been greatly out in 
aligning the proportion of their light in refpeeft to 
that of the Sun and one another, if they were to be 
feen from a diftance, at which the whole fyftem would 
not fubtendan angle of more than lix or eight minutes, 
it would appear only as a nebula, no fingle ftar being 
vifible with perhaps any telefcope, that has ever yet 
been 
