392. The number of Stars discoverable, in either Hemisphere, by the naked eye, is not above a thousand. This at first may appear incredible, because they seem to be without number: But the deception arises from our looking confusedly upon them, without reducing them into any order. For look but stedfastly upon a pretty large portion of the sky, and count the number of Stars in it, you will be surprised to find them so few. Or, if one considers how seldom the Moon meets with any Stars in her way, although there are as many about her Path as in other parts of the Heavens (the _Milky way_ excepted) he will soon be convinced that the Stars are much thinner sown than he was aware of. The _British_ catalogue, which, besides the Stars visible to the bare eye, includes a great number which cannot be seen without the assistance of a telescope, contains no more than 3000, in both Hemispheres. [Sidenote: The absurdity of supposing the Stars were made only to enlighten our nights.] 393. As we have incomparably more light from the Moon than from all the Stars together, it were the greatest absurdity to imagine that the Stars were made for no other purpose than to cast a faint light upon the Earth: especially since many more require the assistance of a good telescope to find them out, than are visible without that Instrument. Our Sun is surrounded by a system of Planets and Comets; all which would be invisible from the nearest fixed Star. And from what we already know of the immense distance of the Stars, the nearest may be computed at 32,000,000,000,000 of miles from us which is more than a cannon bullet would fly in 7,000,000 of years. Hence ’tis easy to prove, that the Sun seen from such a distance, would appear no bigger than a Star of the first magnitude. From all this it is highly probable that each Star is a Sun to a system of worlds moving round it though unseen by us; especially, as the doctrine of a plurality of worlds is rational, and greatly manifests the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of the great Creator. [Sidenote: Their different Magnitudes.] 394. The Stars, on account of their apparently various magnitudes, have been distributed into several classes or orders. Those which appear largest are called _Stars of the first magnitude_; the next to them in lustre, _Stars of the second magnitude_, and so on to the _sixth_, which are the smallest that are visible to the bare eye. This distribution having been made long before the invention of telescopes, the Stars which cannot be seen without the assistance of these instruments are distinguished by the name of _Telescopic Stars_. [Sidenote: And division into Constellations.]