If I had never feen these little democratical states, I could have for. med no idea of the general equality and indistinction that prevails among the inhabitants. All the houses, like thofe of Appenzel, are built of wood; large, folid, and compact, with great pent-h -house roofs, that hang very low, and extend beyond the area of the foundation. This peculiar ftructure is of ufe to keep off the fnow; and, from its fingularity, accords furprizingly with the beautiful wildness of the country. The houses of the richer inhabitants in the principal burghs, are of the fame materials; the only difference confifts in their being lar ger. If that fort of government be confeffedly the best, which conftitutes the greatest good of the greatest number in the community; thefe little states, notwithstanding the natural defects of a democratical conftitution, may juftly claim a large share of our approbation. General liberty, general independence, and an exemption from arbitrary taxes, are bleffings which amply compenfate for a want of those refinements that are introduced by opulence and luxury. However, it is only in these small republics, and in such a state of society, that this kind of general democracy can have place. And although the machine of go. vernment is confiderably clogged by that variety of wheels required to put

it into motion; yet it is not neceffary, that, its decifions fhould be fudden and expeditious; for, as there is no fear of an invafion, and as the people have no conquefts, either to make or to defend; their principal policy confifts in maintaining their independence, and in preferving the public tranquillity.

The police is well regulated thro'out Switzerland ; and even in these democratical states, liberty does not often degenerate into licentioufnefs; we may except, perhaps, the day of their general affemblies, when it is impoffible to prevent fome degree of confufion in a meeting where there is fcarcely any diftinction of perfons; and where every peafant confiders himself as equal to the first magistrate.

Our hoft is an open-hearted, ho neft Swifs; he brings his pint of wine, fits down to table with us, and chats without the least ceremony. There is a certain forwardness of this kind which is infupportable, when it apparently is the effect of impertinent curiofity, or fawning officiousness; but the prefent inftance of trank familiarity, arifing from a mind confcious of its natural equality, and unconstrained by arbitrary diftinctions, is highly pleasing; s the fimp e demeanor of unfophifticated nature is far preferable to the talle refinements of artificial manners.'

HE method I have taken of anaTHE lyzing the heavens, if I may fo express myself, is perhaps the only one by which we can arrive at a knowledge of their construction. In the profecution of fo extenfive an undertaking, it may well be fuppofed that many things must have been fuggefted,

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the

the most remote that our telescopes, of the greatest power to penetrate into Space, can reach. We shall touch but lightly on things that have already been remarked.

From the earth, confidered as a planet, and the moon as its fatellite, we pafs through the region of the rest of the planets, and their fatellites. The fimilarity between all thefe bodies is fufficiently striking to allow us to comprehend them under one general definition of bodies, not luminous in themselves, revolving round the fun. The great diminution of light, when reflected from fuch bodies, efpecially when they are alfo at a great diftance from the light which illuminates them, precludes all poffibility of following them a great way into space. But if we did know that light diminishes as the fquares of the diftances increafe, and that moreover in every reflection a very confiderable part is entirely loft, the motion of comets, whereby the fpace through which they run is meafured out to us, while on their return from the fun we fee them gradually difappear as they advance towards their aphelia, would be fufficient to convince us, that bodies fhining only with borrowed light can never be feen at any very great distance. This confideration brings us back to the fun, as a refulgent fountain of light, whilft it establishes at the fame time beyond a doubt that every ftar muft likewife be a fun, fhining by its own native brightness. Here then we come to the more capital parts of the great conftruction.

Thefe funs, every one of which is probably of as much confequence to a fyftem of planets, fatellites, and comets, as our own fun, are now to be confidered, in their turn, as the minute parts of a proportionally greater whole. I need not repeat, that by my analyfis it appears that the heavens confift of regions where funs are gathered into feparate fyftems, and that the catalogues I have

given comprehend a lift of fuch fyftems; but may we not hope that our knowledge will not flop fhort at the bare enumeration of phænomena capable of giving us fo much inftruction? Why should we be lefs inquifitive than the natural philofopher, who fometimes, even from an inconfiderable number of fpecimens of a plant, or an animal, is enabled to prefent us with the hiftory of its rife, progrefs, and decay? Let us then compare together, and clafs fome of thefe numerous fidereal groups, that we may trace the operations of natural caufes as far as we can perceive their agency. The moft fimple form, in which we can view a fidereal fyftem, is that of being globular. This alfo, very favourably to our defign, is that which has prefented itself moft frequently, and of which I have given the greatest collection, in my Catalogue of Nebule.

But, first of all, it will be neceffary to explain what is our idea of a clufter of stars, and by what means we have obtained it. For an instance, I fhall take the phænomenon which prefents itself in many clufters: It is that of a number of lucid fpots, of equal luftre, scattered over a circular fpace, in fuch a manner as to appear gradually more compreffed towards the middle; and which compression, in the clulers to which I allude, is generally carried fo far, as, by imperceptible degrees, to end in a luminous center, of a refolvable blaze of light. To folve this appearance, it may be conjectured, that stars of any given, very unequal magnitudes, may eafily be fo arranged, in fcattered, much extended, irregular rows, as to produce the above-described picture; or, that ftars, scattered about almost promifcuoufly within the fruftum of a given cone, may be affigned of fuch properly-diverfified magnitudes as alfo to form the fame picture. But who, that is acquainted with the doctrine of chances, can feriously maintain fuch

improbable

improbable conjectures? To confider this only in a very coarfe way, let us fuppofe a cluster to confift of 5000 ftars, and that each of them may be put into one of 5000 given places, and have one of 5000 affigned magnitudes. Then, without extending our calculation any further, we have five and twenty millions of chances, out of which only one will anfwer the above improbable conjecture, while all the reft are against it. When we now remark that this relates only to the given places within the fruftum of a fuppofed cone, whereas thefe ftars might have been scattered all over the vifible space of the heavens; that they might have been scattered, even with in the fuppofed cone, in a million of places different from the affumed ones, the chance of this apparent clutter's not being a real one, will be rendered fo highly improbable that it ought to be entirely rejected.

Mr Michell computes, with respect to the fix brighteft ftars of the Pleiades only, that the odds are near 500,000 to 1 that no fix ftars, out of the number of those which are, equal in fplendour to the fainteft of them, fcattered at random in the whole heavens, would be within fo fmall a diftance from each other as the Pleiades

and therefore the diftance of the clufter from us about feventeen thousand times greater than the distance of Sirins. Now, fince the apparent magnitude of thefe ftars is equal, and their diftance from us is alfo equal,-becaufe we may fafely neglect the diameter of the cluster, which, if the center be feventeen thousand times the diftance of Sirius from us, will give us feventeen thousand and twenty-five for the fartheft, and feventeen thoufand wanting twenty-five for the near- · eft ftar of the clufter ;-it follows that we muft either give up the idea of a cluster, and recur to the above refuted fuppofition, or admit the equality of the ftars that compose these clusters. It is to be remarked, that we do not mean entirely to exclude all variety of fize; for the very great diftance, and the confequent fmallness of the component clustering ftars, will not permit us to be extremely precife in the estimation of their magnitudes; tho' we have certainly feen enough of them to know that they are contained within pretty narrow limits; and do not, perhaps, exceed each other in magnitude more than in fome fuch proportion as one full-grown plant of a certain fpecies may exceed another fullgrown plant of the fame fpecies.

If we have drawn proper conclufions relating to the fize of ftars, we may with ftill greater fafety fpeak of their relative fituations, and affirm that in the fame diftances from the center an equal fcattering takes place. If this were not the cafe, the appearance of a cluster could not be uniformly increafing in brightnefs towards the middle, but would appear nebulous in those parts which were more crowded with stars; but, as far as we can diftinguish, in the clusters of which we speak, every concentric circle maintains an equal degree of compreffion, as long as the ftars are visible; and when they become too crowded to be distinguished, an equal brightness

Śidus, to affure us that the fame powers are likewife lodged in the maffes of thefe planets. Their globular figure alone must be admitted as a fufficient argument to render this point uncontrovertible. We also apply this inference with equal propriety to the body of the fun, as well as to that of Mercury, Venus, Mars, and the Moon; as owing their spherical fhape to the fame caufe. And how can we avoid inferring, that the conftruction of the clusters of stars, and nebulæ likewife, of which we have been speaking, is as evidently owing to central powers?

Befides, the step that I here make in my inference is in fact a very eafy one, and fuch as ought freely to be granted. Have I not already fhewn, that these clusters cannot have come to their prefent formation by any random scattering of ftars. The doct rine of chance, by expofing the very great odds against fuch hypothefis, may be faid to demonftrate that the stars are thus affembled by fome power or other. Then, what do I attempt more than merely to lead the mind to the conditions under which this power is feen to act?

In a cafe of fuch confequence I may be permitted to be a little more diffuse, and draw additional arguments from the internal conftruction of spherical clusters and nebu'æ. If we find that there is not only a general form, which, as has been proved, is a fufficient manifeftation of a centripetal force, what fhall we fay when the accumulated condenfation, which every where follows a direction towards a center, is even vifible to the very eye? Were we not already acquainted with attraction, this gra dual condenfation would point out a central power, by the remarkable difpofition of the lars tending towards a center, In confequence of this vifible accumulation, whether it nay be owing to audiononly, or whether other powers may afft in the

formation, we ought not to hesitate to afcribe the effect to fuch as are central; no phænomena being more decifive in that particular than those of which I am treating.

I

I am fully aware of the confequences I fhall draw upon myself in but mentioning other powers that might contribute to the formation of elufters. A mere hint of this kind, it will be expected, ought not to be given without fufficient foundation; but let it fuffice at prefent to remark, that my arguments cannot be affected by my terms: whether I am right to use the plural number,-central powers,- -or whether I ought only to fay,-the known central force of gravity,—my conclufions will be equally valid. will however add, that the idea of 0ther central powers being concerned in the conftruction of the fidereal heavens, is not one that has only lately occurred to me. Long ago I have entertained a certain theory of diverfified central powers of attractions and repulfions; an expofition of which I have even delivered in the year 1780, and 1781, to the Philofophical Society then exifting at Bath, in feveral mathematical papers upon that fubject. i fhall, however, fet afide an explanation of this theory, which would not only exceed the intended limits of this paper, but is moreover not required for what remains at prefent to be added, and therefore may be given fome other time, when I can enter more fully into the fubject of the interior conftruction of fidereal fyf