Wright's theory of the universe. Title page for 'An original theory or new hypothesis of the Universe' (1750) by English astronomer Thomas Wright (1711-1786). In this book Wright gave the first explanation of the appearance of the Milky Way (mentioned here as 'Via Lactea') as being due to our immersion in a layer of stars. He proposed that the Sun is one of many stars orbiting around a Divine Centre and that the stars are distributed either in annuli (rings) or in thin, concentric, spherical shells. The title page includes a quotation from the poem 'Night-Thoughts' (1745) by Edward Young: 'One Sun by Day, by Night ten Thousand Shine; And light us deep into the Deity'.