76 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 
But the new system can only be gradually introduced. The 
majority of mankind have firmly fixed ideas with regard to the passage 
of the day and the numbers of the hours by which their social habits 
are regulated. A proposal suddenly to change the old familiar suc- 
cession of the hours will be misunderstood. The influence of custom 
is always powerful under any aspect. It is anticipated that this influ- 
ence will be the one serious obstacle to be overcome. The belief, 
however, may be permitted that the change will be rendered easy 
when men understand that the numbers of such hours have been arbi- 
trarily chosen ; that there is no necessary connection between them 
and the position of the sun in relation to the earth in its daily rota- 
tion, and that whatever numbers may distinguish the twenty-four 
divisions of the day, the recurring phenomena of light and darkness 
will always regulate sleeping, waking, eating, and working, and 
all the routine of life in every locality. Noon has heretofore been 
associated in our minds with the hour of 12, but among the Jews. 
noon was the 6th hour, and astronomers have almost invariably recog- 
nized it as the 24th hour. For a year back throughout the United 
States and Canada the agreement between 12 o’clock and precise 
noon has been atan end. It may be said that, except on four or five 
meridians, 12 o’clock is nowhere coincident with mean solar noon. 
This departure from an old usage must tend to unloosen the tradi- 
tional idea that the mere numbers of the hours have any necessary 
connection with the position of the sun in the heavens. If this 
innovation has any effect it must help to pave the way for still farther 
and more important changes than have yet been introduced. The 
meridians by which time is regulated in North America are 5, 6, 7 
and 8 hours of longitude west from the Prime Meridian. It will only 
be necessary to move forward our clocks 5, 6, 7, and 8 hours respec- 
tively to bring them all into agreement with the time of the Prime 
Meridian which is Cosmic Time, and thus obtain complete uniformity. 
It cannot, however, be looked for that Cosmic Time will at once be 
adopted in ordinary affairs. A generation probably will pass away 
before it will obtain general acceptance. The difficulties to be over- 
come cannot be ignored, and we may assume that it will only be step 
by step that the change will be made, the more advanced nations 
taking the lead. On this continent positive progress has been 
made, to be succeeded before long, I do not doubt, by another 
advance in public opinion, and a general acceptance of the principles 
