DIALOGUE III.

Of the FIXED STARS.
Euphrofyne.

F you remember, Cleonicus, you was faying this Morning, that our next Converfation in the philofophical Way, was to be on the Subject of the fixed Stars.

Cleonicus. I did, my Euphrofyne; for having already confidered all the moveable Bodies of our mundane System; we are of Course led in the next Place to those which are more remote and immoveably fixed through all the visible Part of the Universe.

Euphrof. The Stars will afford Matter of moft agreeable Speculation; I have many Things to afk concerning them.-See, the Heavens are clear; they begin already to twinkle.-Let us go and take a Walk in the Park to view the fpangled Canopy.

Cleon. With a very good Will, my Euphrofyne; this fine Seafon is very aufpicious to our Defigns. The Evening feems to invite us abroad, in the Language of Mr. Baker:

Come forth, O Man! yon azure Round furvey,
And view thofe Lamps which yield eternal Day.
Bring forth thy Glaffes; clear thy wond'ring Eyes,
Millions beyond the former Millions rife:
Look farther :-Millions more blaze from remoter Skies.

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Universe.

Euphrof. Exceeding a propos: They appear Millions beyond Millions indeed!

Cleon. But don't mistake, Sifter; the Meaning is, they appear fo numerous through the Telefcope, not to the naked Eye.

Euphrof. Truth, I think they appear fo to the Eye. Is it poffible for the Eye to number them over all the Surface of the Heavens ?

Cleon. Yes, Sifter; all that are vifible to the Eye have been numbered long fince over all the starry Vault.. Euphrof. Surely you joke with me now, Cleonicus. Cleon. Not at all, Euphrofyne; the Stars vifible to the

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naked

naked Eye have been numbered in both the Hemispheres, and how many do you think they are?

Euphrof. How many! Why, ten Thousand to be fure, and more.

Cleon. No, no, Sifter; nor yet fo many Hundreds neither: What do you think of fix or seven Hundred at moft ?

Euphrof. Think! why I think any one may fee more than five Hundred at one Glance, look which Way you will.

Cleon. I do not wonder to find you thus miftaken, and furprized at what I tell you. People take it for granted, that because they appear a great many, and scattered all over the Sky, that, therefore, they are innumerable; whereas they are not fo, but are easily numbered.

Euphrof. But give me Leave, Cleonicus, I fear you go a Step too far: Does not Jehovah tell Abraham, that he will make his Seed as the Stars of Heaven, as the Sands on the Sea Shore, and as the Duft of the Earth, which can't be numbered? Yea the Scripture fays exprefsly in one Place, that the Hoft, i. e. the Stars, of Heaven cannot be numbered, Jer. xxxiii. 22. What say you to this, Cleonicus?

Cleon. Nothing that fhall reflect on the Holy Scriptures: Only confider, Sifter, what a mad Piece of Work would it be to infift on the literal Senfe of the Scripture in every Place? and our Divines will tell you, that in thefe and fuch like Places, the Scripture fpeaks by Way of Hyperbole, which is a Figure of Speech very beautifully implying, a great Number by one infinitely great.

Euphrof. Well, in thefe Things I muft fubmit to fuperior Judgement. But fince you fay they are numbered, pray who numbered them, and what may their Number be?

Cleon. The antient Philofopher Hipparchus, of Rhodes, was the first who undertook the arduous Tafk, about 120 Years before Chrift; daring, fays Pliny, to undertake a Thing, which feemed to furpass the Power of the Gods, viz. number the Stars for Pofterity, and reduce them all to Rule. -His Catalogue contained one thousand and twenty-two Stars.

Ptolemy, the Egyptian Aftronomer, enlarged his Cata logue with only four Stars.

After Ptolemy, Ulugh Beighi, the Grandfon of Tamerlain the Great, made a Catalogue of one thousand and Seventeen Stars.

Next to him the noble Danish Aftronomer, Tycho Brahe, determined the Places of feven hundred and feventySeven Stars, and reduced them all to a Catalogue.

Kepler produced the next Catalogue, of one thousand one hundred and fixty-three Stars.

After this William, Prince of Heffe, computed the Places of four hundred Stars, by the Help of his Mathematicians.

Some time afterwards the famous Jefuit, Ricciolus, enlarged Kepler's Catalogue to the Number of one thousand four hundred and fixty-eight Stars.

'Tis alfo faid one Bayerus made a Catalogue of one thoufand feven hundred and twenty-five Stars.

After this the famous Hevelius, of Dantzick, compofed a new Catalogue, of one thousand eight hundred and eightyLight Stars.

The late incomparable Aftronomer Royal, Dr. Edmund Halley, undertook a Voyage to the Ifle of St. Helena, to obferve the Stars in the fouthern Hemisphere, and at his Return published a Catalogue of three hundred and feventy-three of them,

And lastly, the most complete Catalogue of the Stars, was that made and published by the late Mr, Flamsteed, in his Celestial Hiftory, which contains about three thousand Stars, which by far the greatest Part are to be seen only with the Telescope. And thus you fee to count the Stars is no fuch new or impracticable Thing.

Euphrof. I thank you, Cleonicus, for this concife Hiftory thereof. What will not the Skill and Industry of Men enable them to attain to!

Cleon. You'll further wonder, perhaps, when I tell you, that there is not the leaft Star in the Heavens to be feen, whofe Place and Situation is not better known, than the Pofition of many Cities, through which Travellers do daily pass.

Euphrof. That is very wonderful, indeed; but, I prefume, Mr. Flamsteed's Catalogue does not contain all the Stars that be in the Universe.

Cleon. All! No, nor but a very fmall Number, in Comparison of what are unknown and unfeen. The Number of the Stars through all the Extent of univerfal Space is, doubtlefs, infinitely great; but of this no Man can adequately judge.

Euphrof. Be the Number of the invifible Stars as it will, I am fure those which are visible give the Heavens à most agreeable Afpect To-night, and brings to my Mind two Lines of Sir Richard Blackmore.

With Orbs of Light he inlays all the Spheres,
And fuds the fable Night with Silver Stars.

Cleon. The fame Poet has another Strain on this Subject, very grand and sublime.

He fpreads the pure Cerulean Fields on high,
And arch'd the Chambers of the vaulted Sky;
Which be, to fuit their Glory with their Height,
Adorn'd with Globes, that reel as drunk with Light ;
His Hand directed all the tuneful Spheres,

He turn'd their Orbs, and polish'd all the Stars. Euphrof. The Stars are, to be fure, as well a glorious Theme as a beautiful Scene-But why, Cleonicus, do fome Stars appear fo large, and others fo very small?

Cleon. Becaufe fome are very near in Comparison of others; by common Experience we know, that equal Bodies at unequal Distances will appear unequal in Magnitude; thofe which are nearest appearing largest,

Euphrof. Can you tell any Thing certain about the Distance of the Stars?

Cleon. No; the Distance of the neareft fixed Star is immeasurably great.

Euphrof. Can you make no Computation or Guess in any wife probable?

Cleon. Scarcely that: The celebrated Hugenius tells us, that the Dog-Star (which is the largest, and confequently the neareft) appears twenty-seven thoufa d, fix hundred and fixty Times less than the Sun, and therefore must be above two Millions of Millions of Miles from us.

Euphrof. Stupendous Distance

Cleon. So great, that a Cannon-ball would spend near Seven hundred thousand Years in Aying thither, with the fame Velocity it has at the Cannon's Mouth.

Euphrof. Amazing! But, pray, must not thofe Bodies be very large to be vifible at fuch an immense Distance

Cleon. Yes, immenfely large indeed; and not only fo, but they must also shine with their own native Light, or elfe they could never be vifible to us at fuch a Dif

tance.

Euphrof. Indeed! Why what will you make of the Stars at this Rate of confidering them? I believe People in general look upon them only as twinkling Points, to make the Night pleafant.

Cleon. This vulgar Notion of the Stars is very poor and low, and utterly unworthy fo grand and glorious a Part of visible Nature. The Poet elegantly reproves and derides the Ignorance and Stupidity of fuch as think the Stars were appointed to ferve fuch mean Purposes, in the following Lines.

And can't thou think, poor Worm! thofe Orbs of Light,
In Size immenfe, in Number infinite,

Were made for thee alone, to twinkle to thy Sight?
Prefumptuous Mortal! can thy Nerves d fery,
How far from thee they roll, from thee how high?
With all thy boafted Knowledge can't thou fee
Their various Beauty, Order, Harmony?
If not then fure they were not made for thee.
And a little after;

Correct thy aukward Pride, be wife, and know,
Thofe glitt'ring Specks thou fcarce difcern'ft below,
Are Founts of Day, Stupendous Orbs of Light,
Thus by their Difiance leffen'd to the Sight.

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UNIVERSE,

Euphrof. One would take a Star, according to these Defcriptions, to be in itfelf fomewhat like our Sun.

Cleon. You have just hit upon the Matter, my Euphrofyne; they are by all the modern thinking Philofophers judged to be fo many Suns, having their feveral Systems of Planets circling about them, though by Reafon of their Smallness they cannot be seen.

Euphrof. Then, according to this Doctrine, the Univerfe must be filled with folar Syftems, which, if they bear any Analogy to ours, muft make a glorious Harmony in the grand Compofition of Nature; and is fuch a noble and auguft Idea of the World, as I never fhould have conceived or thought of, nor can enough admire!