TIMK. 45 



CHAPTER IV. 

 Time. 



" The last white grain 



Fell through, and with the tremulous hand of age 

 The old astrologer reversed the glass ; 

 And, as the voiceless monitor wenf on, 

 Wasting and wasting with the precious hour, 

 He looked upon it with a moving lip, 

 And, starting, turned his gaze upon the heavens, 

 Cursing the clouds impatiently." Willis. 



WE have now determined the relative situation of our earth 

 with regard to the heavenly bodies, and its size compared with 

 them, and we are prepared to investigate the causes of some of 

 the changes which we witness upon its surface. Previous to this, 

 we will devote a few chapters to Time and the Calendar, for the 

 familiar expression of a day, or an hour, or a year, seldom conveys 

 to the mind the exact meaning which belongs to those terms. 

 We may consider time to be a definite portion, that is, a portion 

 which can be measured, of indefinite duration, or, as Young 

 poetically expresses it : 



" From old Eternity's mysterious orb, 

 Was Time cut off, and cast beneath the skies." 



Time was personified by the Ancients, under the figure of an 

 old man with scythe and hour-glass, and a single tuft of hair on 

 the forehead. The scythe was emblematic of that all-powerful 

 influence which cuts down every thing as it sweeps past. Man, 

 and his works, perish, and crumble before it, as the grain falls 

 before the mower's scythe. Nor is the emblem unappropriate. 

 The keen edge, while it sweeps through the field of ripe grain, 

 suddenly laying low the proud stalk, cuts down many a flower, 

 and tender stem. The hour-glass, held in the outstretched 

 hand, portrayed the passing moment, and the sand, in its cease : 

 less flow, marked the ebbing of the current of life. We cannot 



