CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



constitute an hour ; and in hours, twenty-four of 

 which constitute a day. Most nations have these 

 instruments marked for only twelve hours, the 

 computation being twofold, like the day itself ; but 

 the Italians, Bohemians, and Poles run them on 

 from the first to the twenty-fourth from one 

 o'clock to twenty-four o'clock. The Chinese, on 

 the other hand, divide the day into twelve hours 

 only, each being, therefore, twice the length of 

 ours. 



It is here necessary to observe, that as the earth 

 rotates from west to east, every meridian has its 

 own natural day ; and any place east or west of 

 that meridian has a corresponding earlier or later 

 sunrise. The earth, of 360 of longitude, turns in 

 twenty-four hours ; consequently every hour is 

 equal to 15 ; and every degree equal to four 

 minutes of time. Thus, taking Greenwich as the 

 normal meridian, Alexandria being 30 east, is 

 two hours earlier, or has it twelve o'clock when it 

 is ten at Greenwich ; Bengal is 90 east, and it is 

 there twelve at noon when only six in the morning 

 at Greenwich. So New York is 74 west, or 4 

 hours 56 minutes ; and consequently, when noon 

 at Greenwich, it is only four minutes past seven 

 in the morning at New York. As with these large 

 distances, so with every other difference of longi- 

 tude, however minute ; and it is thus that we 

 speak of our clocks being earlier or later than 

 Greenwich time, according as we are situated east 

 or west of that meridian. Ipswich, for example, 

 being east of Greenwich, is about five minutes 

 before, or earlier ; Edinburgh, being west, is 

 about twelve and a half minutes behind ; and 

 Dublin, being still farther west, is about twenty- 

 five minutes late. Hence the necessity, in these 

 days of rapid transit, of keeping by one uniform 

 standard of time, or at least of having a table of 

 differences for the principal stations throughout 

 the country. In most cases, it would be preferable 

 to have our clocks furnished with two minute- 

 hands one to indicate Greenwich time, and the 

 Other the natural time of the locality. 



MONTHS AND WEEKS. 



After the day, the next distinct natural measure 

 or division of time marked out by the heavenly 

 bodies in their time-keeping revolutions, is the 

 month. The lunar month, or synodic month, is 

 the period between two consecutive new or full 

 moons, and is equal to 29 days 12 hours 44 

 minutes 3 seconds (see ASTRONOMY). The 

 month came ultimately to be disconnected from 

 the lunar and terrestrial revolutions, as will be 

 afterwards more particularly noticed, and civil 

 or calendar months, accommodated to the year, 

 were substituted ; these also, as well as the names 

 given to them in their annual order, will fall to 

 be noticed while treating of the year itself and its 

 subdivisions. 



The subdivision of the month into weeks of 

 seven days is very ancient, but is far from having 

 been universal, as is sometimes assumed. It was 

 probably first instituted as corresponding roughly 

 to the four quarters of the moon. It is found as 

 a civil institution among the Hindus, Assyrians, 

 and Persians from the earliest times ; it is only 

 among the Jews that we see a religious signification 

 given to the concluding or seventh day of the 

 period. Whether the Egyptians borrowed it from 



290 



the Jews, or the Jews from the Egyptians, it is 

 certain that the latter at an early period counted 

 seven periodical days, naming them after the seven 

 planets of the old astronomy. The application of 

 the names of the planets to the days of the week 

 in the order they now stand, originated in this 

 way : It was an astrological notion that each 

 planet in order presided over an hour of the day, 

 the order, according to their distances from the 

 earth, being, on the geocentric system, Saturn, 

 Jupiter, Mars, the sun, Venus, Mercury, the moon. 

 Assuming Saturn to preside over the first hour of 

 Saturday, and assigning to each succeeding hour 

 a planet in order, the 22d hour will fall again to 

 Saturn, the 23d to Jupiter, the 24th to Mars, and 

 the first hour of the next day to the sun ; in the 

 same way, the first hour of the following day falls 

 to the moon, and so on. From Alexandria, this 

 seven-days week was imported, together with the 

 names of the individual days, to the Greeks and 

 to the Romans, about the time of Christ. The 

 Greeks had previously divided the civil month 

 into periods of ten days. The Roman month was 

 anciently divided into three periods Calends, 

 Nones, and Ides. The calends were at the begin- 

 ning of the month ; the ides at the middle of the 

 month, on the I3th or I5th; and the nones (novem, 

 nine) were the ninth day before the ides, counting 

 inclusively. From these three terms the days 

 were counted backwards in the following manner : 

 Those days comprised between the calends and 

 the nones were denominated days before the nones; 

 those between the nones and ides, days before the 

 ides ; and those from the ides to the end of the 

 month, days before the calends. The Greeks had 

 no calends ; hence the Roman phrase, Grcecce 

 calendce, or ' never,' corresponding to the English 

 ' Latter Lammas,' and the Scotch ' Morn come 

 never.' 



The Jews, as well as the early Christians, had 

 no special names for the single days, but counted 

 their number from the previous Sabbath, beginning 

 with Sunday, as the first after the Sabbath, and 

 ending with Friday, as the sixth after the previous, 

 or as the eve (Ereb] of the next Sabbath. After 

 a very short time, however, Christianity had to 

 fall back again upon the old heathen names, 

 previously introduced in Gaul, Germany, &c. by 

 the heathen Romans. The Sunday, or dies Solis, 

 alone was changed in many of the Romanic lan- 

 guages in accordance with the new creed. It was 

 called Kyriake, dies Dominicus or Dominica, the 

 Day of the Lord, a term which in Italian became 

 Domenica, in Spanish Domingo, and Dimanche in 

 French. It is very curious to notice how the 

 names of the five days of the week which followed 

 those named after the sun and moon, became 

 Germanised, as it were, or the names of the origin- 

 ally imported gods translated into those of the 

 Germanic divinities. Thus, the day of Mars be- 

 came that of Ziu. Mercury became Wodan ; and 

 the fourth day was called after the latter, in Dutch, 

 English, and Scandinavian ; while in Germany it 

 was simply called the middle of the week Mitt- 

 woch. The day of Jupiter became the day of 

 Thor Thursday, Donnerstag; while the Dies 

 Veneris was transformed into the day of Freya 

 (Friday). The day of Saturnus, retained under 

 this name in some northern tongues, became a 

 laugardage, or bathing-day, in others ; while in 

 Upper Germany it remained a Sunday-eve or 



