Page:Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton's life.djvu/157

 this great mundane meridian. & that this is the occasion of the appearance, which we call the milky way.

for this notion we have a considerable confirmation, from considering our own world, that the plane of all the circles of the primary, & of the secondary planets, is nearly in one line, G. observes a great analogy in all his works. so that our system in that respect is but a sort of picture of the universe. & that meridional plane of our solar system may be called our milky way. & hence the milky way in the heavens is the aggregate of what we can discern of the meridional plane of the macrocosm.

Sr. Isaac seem'd to listen to this kind of discourse, with some approbation. & we discus'd an objection or two. as 1. whether tis not better to suppose the worlds infinitely extended quaquaversum than in a sort of plane. this would provide better for thir stability; that mutual attraction acting on all sides, hinder'd the systems from falling together. this objection is overruled, by supposing the several systems set respectively, at such distances, as that attraction from any side, shd. be infnitely small, which therefore wd. operate nothing in the case.