156 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



that they lead, and have led, men to regard with more or less of 

 acquiescence the sufferings of " this present evil time." That there 

 may be a Providence inwrapping the whole of human life with its 

 environment, and that there may be, to higher faculties than ours, a 

 significance in life that we have never grasped, it would be most ad- 

 venturous and, indeed, unphilosophical to deny. Admitting such a pos- 

 sibility, however, or even probability, our duty is in no way changed. 

 The whole solar system may be hurrying on through space toward 

 some unknown goal, or in some infinite and incalculable circuit ; but 

 the motions that concern us are those that take place within the solar 

 system, that lend themselves to observation and calculation, and that 

 affect more or less the conditions of human life. We live in an envi- 

 ronment to which we are adapted : absolute truth lies beyond us, but 

 relative truth is within our grasp. The poet says that " things are not 

 what they seem," but things are (to us) what they seem. What else 

 can they be ? And it is our duty to deal with them as we find them, 

 with a constant view to the realizing of higher and higher harmonies 

 in life. Some notes we have already attuned, but there are discords 

 yet, many and harsh, to be subdued. Then let us set our faces stead- 

 fastly forward, not to " confront a void," for there is no void to con- 

 front nothing has fallen out of the universe that ever was in it but 

 with a determination to conquer more and more of moral freedom, 

 and, by our conscious efforts, to aid that unconscious labor of the 

 ages by which better and better conditions are ever being won for the 

 human race. 







TIME-KEEPING IK LONDON. 



By EDMUND A. ENGLEE, 



WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY, ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI. 



I. 



IT is proposed in this paper to describe some special features of the 

 instruments by which time is kept at the Royal Observatory, 

 Greenwich, the means for correcting them, and the methods and in- 

 struments by which time-signals are distributed from the observatory 

 to London and elsewhere. 



The primary standard time-keeper of England is a sidereal clock 

 kept in the basement of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. This 

 clock is of the best construction, and is, moreover, provided with the 

 most approved apparatus for compensation and correction. 



Experience has shown that the best results are obtained when the 

 connection between the driving-weight and the pendulum of a clock 

 is as slight as possible. This has been accomplished in the Greenwich 

 clock by the use of an elegant escapement, the details of which are 



