PLATE XIV.
Is from an Observation I made myself, of a bright Part of this Zone near the Feet of Antinous; which, (by a Mistake of the Engraver) is, as it appears through a Tube of two convex Glasses. I saw it through a very good Reflector, and formed the Plan by a Combination of Triangles.
Milton takes notice of this Zone in a most beautiful Manner, where he describes the Creator's Return from his six Day's Work to Heaven, he introduces it as a Simile to express his Idea of the eternal Way, or Road to the celestial Mansions.
——A broad and ample Road, whose Dust is Gold
And Pavement Stars, as Stars to thee appear,
Seen in the Galaxie, that Milky Way,
Which nightly as a circling Zone thou seest
Powder'd with Stars.
But to infer from their Appearance only, that they are really Stars, without considering their Nature and Distance; and that nothing but Stars could possibly produce such an Effect, may perhaps be assuming too much, when we have nothing but the bare Credit of the Belgic Glasses to support our Conjectures; and although this may be sufficient for any Mathematician, yet for your greater Satisfaction, I have thought proper to give two or three more evincing Arguments, to confirm these important Discoveries. Democritus, as I have said before, believed them to be Stars long before Astronomy reaped any Benefit from the improved Sciences of Optics; and saw, as we may say, through the Eye of Reason, full as far into Infinity as the most able Astronomers in more advantageous Times have done since, even assisted with their best Glasses: And his Conjectures are almost as old as the philolaic System of the Planets itself; the Construction of which, though attempted by many, none have ever yet been able to confute.
The Light which naturally flows from this Crowd of radiant Bodies is mixt and confused, chiefly occasioned by the Agitation of our Atmosphere, and from a Union of their Rays of Light, by a too near Proximity of their Beams, altogether they appear like a River of Milk, but more of a pelucid Nature, running all round the starry Regions.