50 UNIVERSAL OR COSMIC TIME. 
there any signs of any attention being paid to the resolution adopted 
in Antwerp, where it was agreed that in maritime charts the Meri- 
dian of Greenwich should be used. Custom so enslaves common 
sense that we admit as natural, things which are most ridiculous, and 
we are not even prompted to smile at the absurdity. Thus here in 
Madrid we receive telegraphic despatches from the Philipine Islands 
hours, and sometimes even the day previous to that on which the 
events referred to therein have taken place. The same happens in 
England respecting the despatches from Australia. I remember an 
example in point; at three in the morning of the Ist October, 1880, 
they received in London the news of the opening of the Universal 
Exhibition at Melbourne at one o’clock in the afternoon of that day. 
What argument is advanced for the continuation of a state of 
things which becomes more and more indefensible ? 
I confess I have never seen one plausible reason given for the pre- 
sent system. 
Antiquity is the claim made by those who favor the Meridian of 
Teneriite and Hierro. 
The security of direct observation is the boast of the partisans of 
each Meridian held by their particular observatory. 
The division of the continents into two hemispheres is advocated 
by those whose sympathies are with the same Meridian of Hierro, 
or with the Meridians contiguous to Behring Strait, as the initial 
circle would result in being anti-meridians of Greenwich, Christiania, 
Naples and Paris. 
The great Laplace has said: “It is desirable that all the nations 
of Europe, in place of arranging geographical longitude from their 
own observatories, should agree to compute it from the same Meri- 
dian, one indicated by nature herself, in order to determine it for all 
time to come. Such an arrangement would introduce into the sci- 
ence of geography the same uniformity which is already enjoyed in 
the calendar and the arithmetic, and, extended to the numerous ob- 
jects of their mutual relations, would make of the diverse peoples 
one family only.” 
The disadvantages and confusion resulting from the multiplicity of 
the zeros of longitude, are so great that the whole world ought to 
proclaim the necessity of one universal Meridian, but still there are 
those who do not seem to recognize it. There are others who oppose 
the adoption of an international Meridian on the ground of the difh- 
culty of determining with absolute precision the difference of longi- 
tude between two places, although situated on the same continent, 
and in support of their arguments they cite the discrepancies in the 
results of modern observatories as compared with ancient ones, 
although the former are made from observatories so favourably situ- 
ated as those of Paris, Greenwich, Washington, &e. 
