The great majority of star clusters are also found along the course of the Milky Way, while many of the irresolvable nebulae seem to congregate near the poles of this starry region. The Milky Way is divided in one part of its course by a stream of stars, which seems to branch off as a separate stream, thus dividing it into two parts. All these facts seem to point to the conclusion that the stars of the universe, instead of being scattered about haphazard in the space, form a ring or layer, of which the thickness is very small compared with its length and breadth. Our own solar system, according to Herschel, occupies a place somewhere about the middle of the thickness of the zone, and near the point where it divides into two parts. Recent observations go to show that there is a tendency of the sun's apex to drift along the edge of the Milky Way, and this drift seems to point to a plane of motion of the sun, nearly coinciding with the plane of the Milky Way. ART. 118. _Stars and Kepler's Laws._--We have learned in a previous chapter that the sun is the centre of a system which comprises a retinue of planets, with their attendant satellites, together with a number of asteroids or minor planets, with the addition of meteors and comets to complete the system. Now if the sun is a star, then, according to our First and Second Rules of Philosophy, every star ought also to be the centre of a stellar system and the centre of two aetherial motions, that is, the Centrifugal and Centripetal forces, due to the pressures and tensions of the Aether medium. Further, every stellar system would be composed of exactly similar bodies to those which compose our solar system, as planets with their attendant satellites, together with meteors and comets; the whole of the stellar planets being bound to the central body by the combination of the two aetherial motions, and kept revolving round the central star by the rotating electro-magnetic Aether currents. Such a hypothesis is entirely philosophical, as it is simple in conception, and fully agrees with our experience in relation to the only star of which we have any complete knowledge.