68 Dr. Herschel on the Nature and Construction 
views, which plainly favour the same opinion, we need not 
hesitate to admit that the sun is richly stored with inhabitants. 
This way of considering the sun is of the utmost importance 
in its consequences. That stars are suns can hardly admit of 
a doubt. Their immense distance would perfectly exclude 
them from our view, if the light they send us were not of the 
solar kind. Besides, the analogy may be traced much farther. 
The sun turns on its axis. So does the star Algol. So do the 
stars called (3 Lyra*, $ Cephei, ^ Antinoi, o Ceti, and many 
more ; most probably all. From what other cause can we so 
probably account for their periodical changes ? Again, our sun 
has spots on its surface. So has the star Algol ; and so have 
the stars already named ; and probably every star in the 
heavens. On our sun these spots are changeable. So they 
are on the star o Ceti ; as evidently appears from the irregu- 
larity of its changeable lustre, which is often broken in upon 
by accidental changes, while the general period continues un- 
altered. The same little deviations have been observed in 
other periodical stars, and ought to be ascribed to the same 
cause. But if stars are suns, and suns are inhabitable, we see 
at once what an extensive field for animation opens itself to 
our view. 
It is true that analogy may induce us to conclude, that since 
stars appear to be suns, and suns, according to the common 
opinion, are bodies that serve to enlighten, warm, and sustain 
a system of planets, we may have an idea of numberless globes 
that serve for the habitation of living creatures. But if these 
suns themselves are primary planets, we may see some thou- 
sands of them with our own eyes ; and millions by the help 
of telescopes ; when at the same time, the same analogical 
