What will you say, if I tell you, it is my Belief we are so far from the real Summit of the Science, that we scarce yet know the Rudiments of what may be expected from it. This luminous Circle has often engrossed my Thoughts, and of late has taken up all my idle Hours; and I am now in great Hopes I have not only at last found out the real Cause of it, but also by the same Hypothesis, which solves this Appearance, shall be able to demonstrate a much more rational Theory of the Creation than hitherto has been any where advanced, and at the same Time give you an intire new Idea of the Universe, or infinite System of Things. This most surprizing Zone of Light, which have employed successively for many Ages past, the wisest Heads amongst the Antients, to no other Purpose than barely to describe it; we find to be a perfect Circle, and nearly bisecting the celestial Sphere, but very irregular in Breadth and Brightness, and in many Places divided into double Streams.
[U]The principal Part of it runs through the Eagle, the Swan, Cassiopea, Perseus, and Auriga, and continues its Course by the Head of Monoceros, along by the greater Dog through the Ship, and underneath the Centaur's Feet, till having passed the Alter, the Scorpion's Tail, and the Bow of Aquarius, it ends at last where it begun.
——Carried toward the opposed Bears,
Its Course close by the Artick Circle steers,
And by inverted Cassiopea tends;
Thence by the Swan obliquely it descends
The Summer Tropick, and Jove's Bird divides;
Then cross the Equator, and the Zodiack glides
'Twixt Scorpio's burning Tail, and the left Part