System of the World has been reviv'd by Copernicus, (and now by all Mathematicians accepted for the true one) there seem'd Ground to imagine that the Diameter of the Earth's Annual Course (which, according to our best Astronomers, is at least 40000 times bigger than the Semi-diameter of the Earth) might give a sensible Parallax to the fix'd Stars, though the other could not, and thereby determine their Distance more precisely.
But though we have a Foundation to build on so vastly exceeding that of the Ancients, there are some Considerations may make us suspect that even this is not large enough for our purpose.
Monsieur Hugens (who is very exact in his Astronomical Observations) tells us, he could never discover any visible Magnitude in the fix'd Stars, though he used Glasses which magnified the apparent Diameter above 100 times.
Now, since in all likelyhood the fix'd Stars are Suns, (perhaps of a different Magnitude) we may as a reasonable Medium presume they are generally about the bigness of