METRIC REFORM. 87 



measure of length. Nor does it at all, of its own force, tell how 

 long. 



Milli, the prefix, means a thousand ; but by explanation, not by its 

 own force, is made to indicate the y-gL-o part. After both these ex- 

 planations, leave the most learned man alone with it, and he is entirely 

 at a loss as to the actual length of the 10 1 00 part of a metre. He can 

 form an idea of a half, a fourth, or other like fraction, but of the 3-0V0 

 part none, unless by a long process, or by being told. 



Again, the nearer alike things are, the greater the difficulty of dis- 

 tinguishing them. Every one has observed how hard it is to recognize 

 people in uniform. Upon this obvious principle the unifokmity of the 

 metric names in sound and general aspect is a serious practical hin- 

 derance. To an Englishman they are like a party of foreigners : they 

 all look and jabber alike ; he can hardly tell them apart. 



It is unfortunate that in the metrical household every family has 

 the same Christian names. We can imagine some wag proposing mid- 

 dle names just to break up the monotony. When you hear deci, your 

 active mind, always anticipating, calls up a member of each family, and 

 you think of deci-gramme, deci-metre, deci-arc, deci-stere, and deci-litre. 



All this is diametrically wrong. Really, one is tempted to remark 

 that the metric nomenclature got, indeed, upon exactly the right road, 

 but took exactly the wrong end of it. It struck out toward the hard, 

 the learned, the abstract, instead of the easy, familiar, and concrete. 

 Observe how terse and expressive, and how perfectly distinct and un- 

 like, ordinary words are God, man, world each freighted with mean- 

 ing, and, in English, all frequently in one strong syllable. Take the 

 objects in this room desk, books, chairs, sofa, pen, ink, paper, knife 

 how thoroughly unlike, how instantly expressive, and nearly all mono- 

 syllables ! 



The great trouble with these metric words is that they will not 

 nick ; otherwise myriametre would cast a syllable a day, and soon be- 

 come short and easy. That is a way the English have. But these 

 words will not nick at either end, head or tail. Ingenious efforts for 

 niching have been devised by Prof. McVickar and others, which may 

 help men of learning ; but they presuppose too much familiarity already 

 for common people. 



And, after all, the true point has been missed, which is not same- 

 ness of words, the world over, but merely sameness of units ; the ob- 

 ject being not to save translation, but to save calculation. Even 

 natural units need translation, and the artificial units we devise might 

 be content to get on a footing with natural ones. How small a pur- 

 pose, indeed, would be served if the names of the measures were the 

 same, but of the numbers not the same, nor of the things measured ! 

 feuch are some, by no means all, of the incurable faults and defects of 

 the metric nomenclature. 



The obstacles to metric reform have been chiefly artificial. Like 



