It being granted that the Stars are all of the same Kind, I think it may be agreed, that what we evince of any one may be allowed to be true of any other, and consequently of all the rest. This Postulata gained, I shall next proceed to enquire what the real Use and Design of so many radiant Bodies are, or may be made for.
The Sun we have justly reduced to the State of a Star, why then in Reason should he have his attendant Planets round him, more than any of the rest, his undoubted Equals? No Shadow even of a Reason can be given for such an Absurdity.
May we not with the greatest Confidence imagine, that Nature as justly abhors a Vacuum in Place, as much as Virtue does in Time? Surely yes: And by supposing the Infinity of Stars, all centers to as many Systems of innumerable Worlds, all alike unknown to us; how naturally do we open to ourselves a vast Field of Probation, and an endless Scene of Hope to ground our Expectation of an ever-future Happiness upon, suitable to the native Dignity of the awful Mind, which made and comprehends it; and whose Works are all as the Business of an Eternity?
If the Stars were ordained merely for the Use of us, why so much Extravagance and Ostentation in their Number, Nature, and Make? For a much less Quantity, and smaller Bodies, placed nearer to us, would every Way answer the vain End we put them to; and besides, in all Things else, Nature is most frugal, and takes the nearest Way, through all her Works, to operate and effect the Will of God. It scarce can be reckoned more irrational, to suppose Animals with Eyes, destined to live in eternal Darkness, or without Eyes to live in perpetual Day, than to imagine Space illuminated, where there is nothing to be acted upon, or brought to Light; therefore we may justly suppose, that so many radiant Bodies were not created barely to enlighten an infinite Void, but to make their much more numerous Attendants visible; and instead of discovering a vast unbounded desolate Negation of Beings, display an infinite shapeless Universe, crowded with Myriads of glorious Worlds, all variously revolving round them; and which form an Atom, to an indefinite Creation, with an inconceivable Variety of Beings and States, animate and fill the endless Orb of Immensity.
That the sidereal Planets are not visible to us, can be no Objection to their actual Existence, and being there, is plain from this; it is well known, that the Stars themselves, which are their Central, and only radiant Bodies, are little more to us at the Earth, than mathematical Points. How ridiculous then is it to expect, that any of their small opaque Attendance, should ever be perceived so far as the Earth by us; and besides, to show the Impossibility of such a Discovery, we need only consider, what is, and what is not to be expected, or known in our own home System. All the Planets in this our sensible Region, every Astronomer knows, is far from being visible to one another, in every individual Sphere; for to an Eye at the Orb of Saturn, this Earth we live upon, which requires Years to circumscribe, and Ages to be made acquainted with, and is far from being yet all known, cannot possibly from the above Planet be seen: And further, since Saturn and Jupiter, two of the most material and considerable Globes we know of, except the Sun himself, are Bodies apparently of the same kind, and are observed to have each a Number of lesser Planets moving round them; why may we not expect with equal Certainty and Propriety, that all other Bodies, under the same Circumstances, are in like manner attended; that is, seeing the Sun is found to be the Center of a System of Bodies, all variously revolving round him? where lies the Improbability of his fellow Luminaries, the Stars, being surrounded in like sort, with more or less of such Attendance.
I shall offer but one Thing more to your Consideration in this Affair, and which I am in great Hopes will be sufficient to make you think these natural Suggestions a good deal more than probable, and that is this:
The modern Astronomers having, in a great measure, proved that the Stars are, in all respects, vast Globes of Fire like our Sun. Let us suppose a new-created Mind, or thinking Being, in a profound State of Ignorance, with regard to the Nature of all external Objects, but fully endowed with every human Sense and Force of Reason, suspended in Æther, exactly in the midway, betwixt [T]Syrius and the Sun; in which Case, both of these Luminaries would equally appear much about the Brightness of the largest of our Planets. Now should such a Being, determined either by Accident or Choice, arrive at this our System of the Sun, and seeing all the planetary Bodies moving round him, I would ask you what you think he would imagine to be round Syrius? Your Answer, I think I may venture to say, would not be nothing; and methinks I already hear you say, Why Planets such as ours.
[T] A Star of the first Magnitude in the greater Dog, and the most neighbouring to our Sun.
PLATE XI.
Is designed as a geometrical Scale to all the primary Parts of the visible Creation, with regard to the Distance of Orbits compared with the Globe of the Sun; by which at once may be conceived, and justly measured in the Mind, not only the mean Distance of the Planets with regard to one another, but also that of the Comets, and even the comparative Distances of the nearest of the Stars, which will, I guess, greatly help you to form an Idea of the vast Extent of Space necessary to comprehend the whole Creation.