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it increases and then decreases, and is about a month making its revolution.

There is an admirable star in the whale's neck: This first appears as one of the sixth magnitude, and then increases by little and little, for one hundred and twenty days together, till it arrives to its full bigness and brightness, which is that of the third magnitude; wherein it continues fifteen days together after which, it then decreases until it becomes invisible. It appears every year in its greatest lustre, thirty-two or thirty-three days earlier than in the foregoing year; so that its revolution is completed in about three hundred and thirty-three days.

In the years 1612, and 1613, there appeared a cloudy star in the girdle of Andromeda; which disappeared until the year 1664, and then appeared again.

There is another star, between Eridanus and the Hare, which also shows itself, and then withdraws, like the former.

There is one star of the fourth magnitude, with two of the fifth, in Cassiopeia, which in all probability are new ones.

Mr. Cassini has observed four towards the Artick pole, which are probably new ones too.

Some stars formerly appearing, do now dis appear. One such there was in Ursa Minor. Another or two in Andromeda. One which Tycho Brahe inserts in his catalogue, for the twentieth of Pisces. For time out of mind, there were seven stars observed in the pleiades. The writer of Astronomy's advancement inquires, whether the seven stars in the first of the Revelation have no allusion to them. However, at present there are but six to be seen, probably one of them is retired,

Mr. Derham thinks these new stars may be planets belonging to some of the systems of the fixed stars, and those planets become visible, when they are in that part of their orbits which is nearest the earth, and again gradually disappear, as they move in their orbits farther from us.

It is a surprising observation of Dr. Cheyne: "Supposing that every fixed star is a sun, and governs in a mundine space, equal to our system, then there must be only as many fixed stars of the first magnitude, as there are systems that can stand round ours. But there are but about twelve or thirteen spheres that can stand round a middle one, equal to them and so many are the stars of the first magnitude. Again, if we examine how many spheres can stand round this first range of spheres, we shall find their number between forty eight and fifty two. And so we find the number of the stars of the second magnitude. As for the several other magnitudes, it is not altogether possible to determine their number, because they are not so distinguishable from those of the other magnitudes, as the first and second are." He adds most reasonably and religiously: "It is impossible for any body seriously to consider in his mind, what is certain about these heavenly bodies, and to hinder himself from being ravished with the power and wisdom of the great God of heaven and earth!"

Mr. Derham supposes the particular star Syrius to be above two millions of millions of miles distant from us.

Dr. Grew, from a very probable computation, makes the distance of the Pole Star from the earth to be four hundred and seventy millions, and eight hundred and forty thousand miles.

Considering the mean and vile fables of the pagan poetry, yea, and the scandalous actions of some greater devils among the pagans, which are commemorated and celebrated in the names which our globes give to the constellations, I cannot but move you, O Christian astronomers, to attempt a reformation of so shameful an abuse.. For shame, let those glorious bodies no longer suffer the affronts of our base denominations. To put Christian names on the constellations, and allowing the present figures upon our globes to remain still as they are, nevertheless to transfer them into scriptural stories, was a thing endeavoured by Schillerus, and by Novidius.

The caution used in the ancient Hebraic and Arabic astronomy, about the names of the constellations, is well known to all who are versed in antiquities. Dismissing that reflection, what remains is this: a learned Frenchman pretends to tell us, That the stars in the heavens do stand in the form of Hebrew letters, and that it is possible to read there, whatever is to happen of importance throughout the universe. Amazing! that so much learning should be consistent with, and much more, that it should be subservient to such futilities! The true reading of the stars is to look up, and spell out, the glorious perfections of that God, who is the Father of those lights, and who made and moves them all.

"I would by no means look up to the stars, with the foolish astrology of the star gazers, who try to read, what the great God that made them has not written there. But there is very plainly to be read there, the power and the grandeur of

the glorious God. This I will observe, prostrate in the dust before Him. The heavens declare the glory of God; and shall not I observe it? When I consider thy heavens, O Lord, and the stars which thou hast ordained, I cannot but cry out, What is man, that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man, that thou visitest him!

"Unto the father of the faithful, my God said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them; so shall thy offspring be. Glorious Lord, make me one of them. A worm of the dust, filled with the love of God and of his neighbour, becomes a star in the eye of the glorious God and if he be one of much grace, and one of much use, he is then a star of the greater magnitude.

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God, my maker and theirs, gives me that song for the night, wherein I view them; he tells the number of the stars; he calls them all by their names. It is true of the just, who are to shine as the stars for ever and ever. May I be known by the Lord as one of that number, and have a name in his book of life!.

"Are the very stars themselves liable to vicissitudes? And shall not I look for them in this our miserable world?

"How little can I comprehend the condition and intention of the stars? O incomprehensible God, I will not cavil, but adore, when I find mys. teries in thy providence, altogether beyond my penetration !"

ESSAY IV. Of the SUN.

A most glorious and most useful creature! But still a creature! By old astronomers called

the heart of the planets. There will be no Athenians now to arraign me if I call him the carbuncle of the heavens. Kircher supposes the Sun to be a body of fire, unequal in surface, composed of parts which are of a different nature, some fluid, some solid. The disk of it, a sea of fire, wherein waves of astonishing flame have a perpetual agitation.

Sir Isaac Newton, as well as Dr. Hook, takes the Sun to be a solid and opaque body. Dr. Hook thinks this body to be encompassed with a vast atmosphere, the shell whereof is all that shines. The light of the Sun he takes to be from the burning of the more superficial parts, which are set on fire, which may be without hazard of being burnt out in a vast number of ages. And Sir Isaac Newton thinks the Sun to be a sort of a mighty earth, most vehemently hot; the heat whereof is preserved by the astonishing magnitude of the body, and the mutual action and reaction between that, and the light emitted from it. Its parts are kept from fuming away, not only by its fixity, but also by the density and vast weight of the atmosphere incumbent on it. The light seems to be emitted much after the manner as iron, when heated to such a degree, as to be just going into fusion, by the vibrating motion of its parts, emits with violence plentiful streams of liquid fire. So great a body will continue its heat a great while, perhaps in proportion to its diam

eter.

Upon the convexity of the body of the Sun, there are observed black spots, which are moveable, and changable. These move regularly towards the west, and finish their revolution in about

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