37 



OUR CHIEF TIME-PIECE LOSING TIME. 



A DISTINGUISHED French astronomer, author of one 

 of the most fascinating works on popular astronomy 

 that has hitherto appeared, remarks that a man 

 would be looked upon as a maniac who should speak 

 of the influence of Jupiter's moons upon the cotton- 

 trade. Yet, as he proceeds to show, there is an 

 easily traced connection between the ideas which 

 appear at first sight so incongruous. The link is found 

 in the determination of celestial longitude. 



Similarly, What would be thought of an astronomer 

 who, regarding thoughtfully the stately motion of the 

 sidereal system, as exhibited on a magnified, and 

 therefore appreciable, scale by a powerful telescope, 

 should speak of the connection between this move- 

 ment and the intrinsic worth of a sovereign ? The 

 natural thought with most men would be that f too 

 much learning ' had made the astronomer mad. Yet, 

 when we come to inquire closely into the question of 

 a sovereign's intrinsic value, we find ourselves led to 

 the diurnal motion of the stars, and that by no very 

 intricate path. For, What is a sovereign ? A coin 

 containing so many grains of gold mixed with so many 

 grains of alloy. A grain, we know, is the weight of 

 such and such a volume of a certain standard sub- 

 stance that is, so many cubic inches, or parts of a 

 cubic inch, of that substance. But what is an inch ? 



