124 THE GREEK ASTRONOMY. 



have the conception of Time, and of Recurrence. 

 He naturally marks by a term such a portion of 

 time, and such a cycle of recurrence ; he calls each 

 portion of time, in which this series of appearances 

 and occurrences come round, a Day: and such a 

 group of particulars are considered as appearing 

 or happening in the same day. 



A Year is a notion formed in the same man- 

 ner; implying in the same way the notion of 

 recurring facts ; and also the faculty of arranging 

 facts in time, and of appreciating their recurrence. 

 But the notion of a Year, though undoubtedly 

 very obvious, is, on many accounts, less so than 

 that of a Day. The repetition of similar circum- 

 stances, at equal intervals, is less manifest in this 

 case, and the intervals being much longer, some 

 exertion of memory becomes requisite in order that 

 the recurrence may be perceived. A child might 

 easily be persuaded that successive years were of 

 unequal length ; or, if the summer were cold, and 

 the spring and autumn warm, might be made to 

 believe, if all who spoke in its hearing agreed to 

 support the delusion, that one year was two. It 

 would be impossible to practise such a deception 

 with regard to the day, without the use of some 

 artifice beyond mere words. 



Still, the recurrence of the appearances which 

 suggest the notion of a Year is so obvious, that we 

 can hardly conceive man without it. But though, 

 in all climes and times, there would be a recur- 



