CELESTIAL MEASURINGS AND WEIGHINGS. 179 



system of weights and measures, and introducing in its 

 stead the French metrical system. A bill was intro- 

 duced in the session of 1863 into Parliament with this 

 avowed object : and though withdrawn, after passing the 

 second reading, has been reintroduced in the present 

 (1864), and reached the same stage, with every prospect 

 of being passed.* It is true that the change immediately 

 proposed is permissive, not compulsory : but there can 

 be no doubt that the attempt, if successful, will be fol- 

 lowed up at no distant period by the introduction of a 

 compulsory measure ; one whose effect on the habits, 

 feelings, and interests of nine hundred and ninety-nine 

 out of a thousand persons in the whole community, this 

 is not the proper place to dilate upon. . 



(5.) As civilization extends, wants and desires of a 

 higher order than material gratifications arise ; and 

 among them that of extending knowledge for the sake of 

 knowing; the craving after a larger grasp, a clearer in- 

 sight, a more complete conception in all its relations of 

 the wondrous universe of which we form a part. Such 

 desires, when accompanied with the means of their grati- 

 fication, are included by the author of a recent work of 

 much interest on the subject of wealth (under the some- 

 what inappropriate title of Plutologyf ), among those 



* It has passed, and is now the law of the land. So far there is 

 no actual harm done, beyond unsettling opinions and creating un- 

 easiness ; but we trust the common sense of the nation will repudiate 

 any attempt to carry out to its designed completion a measure so 

 thoroughly retrograde. 



f By Professor Hearn, of Melbourne University, Australia. The 

 title ought to have been Aphnology. Aphnos, or Aphenos (a<pi/os, 



