COMMON THINGS TIME. 



departure must be agreed upon for each clironometric unit ; and 

 this, as will be seen, is a subject upon which much disaccord has 

 prevailed, and the establishment of which, with all the aids 

 afforded by the advanced state of astronomical science, has been 

 a matter of the greatest difficulty and delicacy. 



The Jews, the ancient Athenians, the Chinese, and other 

 Oriental nations, as well as the Italians, fixed the commencement 

 of the day at sunset. According to the Italians, even to the pre- 

 sent times, the day is divided into twenty-four successive hours, 

 reckoned continuously from sunset to sunset. Thus, at an hour 

 before sunset, it is said to be twenty-three o'clock, at two hours 

 before sunset it is twenty- two o'clock, and so on. 



According to this system, the hour of sunrise varies from day 

 to day, and from season to season, but the hour of sunset is con- 

 stant, being 24 o'clock or o'clock. At the equinoxes, the sun rises 

 at twelve o'clock. From the spring to the autumnal equinoxes, it 

 rises before twelve, and from the autumnal to the spring equinoxes, 

 it rises after twelve. 



It is evident that a clock to indicate such time must be set from 

 day to day, or at least from week to week, since the hour of sunset 

 would be constantly later during one half-year, and constantly 

 earlier during the other. 



14. At some places in Italy, and more particularly at Eome, 

 public clocks are set according to this system, and others placed 

 near them according to the common system, the indications of the 

 one being called ITALIAN, and those of the other, FRENCH TIME. 



The system of Italian time has been defended upon the ground 

 of the convenience it affords, of always telling the hour of sunset, 

 so as to show to travellers and those who are occupied in out- door 

 employments the time they have at their disposition before night- 

 fall. Against this convenience, such as it is, however, is to be 

 considered the constant necessity from day to day of setting all 

 the watches and clocks an operation called by the Italians 

 TOCCAKE IL TEMPO to touch the time. There are other obvious 

 inconveniences, however, attending such a system, such as the 

 constant variation of the hours of meals, of going to bed and rising, 

 of all descriptions of regular labour, the hours of opening and. 

 closing all public offices, of commencing and terminating all public 

 business, &c. Nevertheless, such is the force of established custom, 

 that this mode of reckoning time still prevails to a great extent in 

 the Italian peninsula. 



The Babylonians, Syrians, Persians, the modern Greeks, and 

 the inhabitants of the Balearic Isles, took the moment of sunrise 

 for the commencement of the day. 



15. Whether the commencement of the day be fixed at sunset 

 120 



