ftars. But this we can difcern, viz. That the fixt stars have the nature of funs, as I have made probable in Book ii. Chap. 2. As also that there are fome things very like unto planets, which fometimes appear and disappear in the regions of the fixt ftars; as I have fhewn in my discourse of

new stars, Book ii, Chap. 3,

But befides what I have faid there, I have this farther to add from fome late obfervations I have made fince my writing that part of my book; and that is, that the Galaxy being well known to be the fertile place of new stars, the region in which they commonly appear, I am much inclined to be of opinion, that the whiteness there is not caused by the bare light of the great number of fixt stars in that place, as hath commonly been thought, but partly by their light, and partly (if not chiefly) by the reflections of their planets; which ftop and reflect, intermix and blend the light of their respective stars or funs, and so cause that whiteness the Galaxy prefents us with; which hath rather the colour of the reflected light of our moon, than the primary light of our fun.

And that there are planets enough for this purpose, I fufpect, because I have some reasons to imagine that there are many more new stars in

the

3. Befides thofe ftrong probabilities, we have this farther to recommend thofe imaginations to us, that this account of the universe is far more magnificent, worthy of, and becoming the infinite Creator, than any other of the narrower fchemes. For here we have the works of the creation, not confined to the more fcanty limits of the orb, or arch of the fixt stars, or even the larger fpace of the primum mobile, which the ancients fancied were the utmost bounds of the univerfe, but they are extended to a far larger, as well as more probable, even an indefinite fpace as was fet forth in the first book. Also in this profpect of the creation, as the earth is discarded from being the centre of the universe, fo neither do we make the ufes and offices of all the glorious bodies of the universe, to centre therein, nay, in man alone, according to the old vulgar opinion, that "all things were made for "man" But in this our scheme we have a far more extenfive, grand, and noble view of God's works a far greater number of them not those alone that former ages faw, but multitudes of others that the telescope hath difcovered fince; and all these far more orderly placed throughout the heavens, and at more due and agreeable dif

See Phpfico-Theol. B. ii. c. 6. n. 3.

tances,

tances, and made to ferve to much more noble and proper ends; for here we have not one fyftem of fun and planets alone, and one only habitable globe, but myriads of systems, and more of habitable worlds, and fome even in our own folar fyftem, as well as thofe of the fixt ftars. And confequently if in the fun and its planets, although viewed only here upon the earth at a great diftance, we find enough to entertain our eye, to captivate our understanding, to excite our admiration and praifes of the infinite Creator and Contriver of them; what an augmentation of thefe glories fhall we find in great multitudes of them! in all thofe fyftems of the fixt stars throughout the universe, that I have spoken of and fhall have occafion to mention again in the next chapter:

See the preface, p. 45.

CHAP.

CHA P. III.

OF NEW STARS.

ESIDES the planets of our Solar fyftem, and the wonderful number of fixt ftars, there are fome others, which are called New Stars, which fometimes appear and difappear in divers parts of the Heavens, and will deferve a place here.

Some of these new ftars have been taken notice of as early as Hipparchus's time, "who feeing "such a new star, and doubting whether it often

66

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happened, and whether the stars we take to be "fixt were fo or no;" he therefore (as Pliny tells us fet upon numbering the stars for "pofterity; a difficult task," he faith, " even for a God and by proper inftruments he marfhalled them in fuch order, that their places and magnitudes might be known: by which means it might be eafily found, not only whether they

Nat. Hift. L. 2. 5. 26.

decayed

than that which is in the hilly parts, but in which alfo there are some places brighter than others." Thus the most ingenious. Mr. Huygens,, who then proceeds to fhew that there are neither rivers, clouds, air, or vapours.

But that there are feas, or great collections of water, and confequently rivers, clouds, air, and vapours in the moon, I fhall make out from fome of my own views and obfervations; many of which were made with Mr. Huygens's own long glafs before mentioned: through which, and all other long glaffes, instead of imagining the lunar fpots to be unlike feas, I have always thought them to look more like feas, than through short glaffes.

It is true indeed that in thofe fpots we take to be the feas, there are fuch cavities as Mr. Huygens fpeak of, or rather mountains with fhaded cavities in them, as alfo fome parts lefs dark than others. Thus in the foutherly parts of the Lunar Euxine and Mediterranean, in the Sinus Sirbonis, the Egyptian, and divers other feas, there are feveral fuch parts that appear more luminous than others, fome having the appearance of rocks and islands, fome of large fhallows, particularly towards the fhores, and efVOL. II. pecially