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THE SIDEREAL MESSENGER.
the benefit of those who urge that the Earth must be separated from the starry host, chiefly for the reason that it has neither motion nor light, for I will prove that the Earth has motion, and surpasses the Moon in brightness, and is not the place where the dull refuse of the universe has settled down; and I will support my demonstration by a thousand arguments taken from natural phenomena.
Stars. Their appearance in the telescope.Hitherto I have spoken of the observations which I have made concerning the Moon's body; now I will briefly announce the phenomena which have been, as yet, seen by me with reference to the Fixed Stars. And first of all the following fact is worthy of consideration:—The stars, fixed as well as erratic, when seen with a telescope, by no means appear to be increased in magnitude in the same proportion as other objects, and the Moon herself, gain increase of size; but in the case of the stars such increase appears much less, so that you may consider that a telescope, which (for the sake of illustration) is powerful enough to magnify other objects a hundred times, will scarcely render the stars magnified four or five times. But the reason of this is as follows:—When stars are viewed with our natural eyesight they do not present themselves to us of their bare, real size, but beaming with a certain vividness, and fringed with sparkling