TIME-RECKONING. 105 
position be specified as an important element of the date, there can 
be no absolute certainty with regard to time, as we at present note 
it in ordinary civil affairs. 
The day is a purely local phenomenon. It begins and ends at 
every spot on the circumference of the globe at different instants in 
absolute time. From its very nature, there are as many different 
local days as there are points differing in longitude ; and in order to 
make any comparison of the dates of different countries with each 
other, it is necessary, as in astronomical caleulations, to make addi- 
tions or deductions for the longitude of the places of observation. 
It need scarcely be argued that this process must become an exceed- 
ingly troublesome matter in the ordinary business of the world, 
especially when rapid and frequent intercourse between remote 
sections becomes general. 
I need not further refer to the objections urged against the modes 
of keeping time, handed down to us from bygone centuries. It is 
clear from all experience that the customs which we still cling to, are 
indifferently adapted to the circumstances of the age, and that some 
better means of reckoning and verifying dates will soon be, if they 
are not already, urgently demanded. 
A remedy for the evils to which your attention is directed may 
not generally be felt to be a pressing necessity; but the problem is 
obviously of no limited importance to the generation which is to 
succeed us, and it is not now too soon to seek for its solution. The 
minor inconveniences alluded to may be overcome in independent 
localities, as necessity dictates some arbitrary compromise; but if 
each country spontaneously adopted its own remedy, a want of uni- 
formity of system, it is to be feared, will result, and increase the 
confusion. 
The major difficulties to which I have referred are more general 
in their character, and in seeking for a remedy, uniformity of system 
is held to be of first importance, and consequently the broadest cos- 
mopolitan view should be taken. 
It is to be feared that no immediate solution to the problem may be 
possible ; but a general inquiry into the science of chronometry may 
suggest means by which the difficulties may in some degree be met. 
NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL DIVISIONS OF TIME. 
Time is determined in nature by the motions of the heavenly 
bodies, The great natural divisions are three in number: the year, 
