TIME-BECKONING. 105 



position be specified as an important element of the date, there can 

 be no absolute certainty with regard to time, as we at present note; 

 it in ordinary civil affairs. 



The day is a purely local phenomenon. It begins and ends at 

 every spot on the circumference of the globe at different instants in 

 absolute time. From its very nature, there are as many different 

 local days as there are points diffei'ing in longitude ; and in order to 

 make any comparison of the dates of different countries with each 

 other, it is necessary, as in astronomical calculations, to make addi- 

 tions or deductions for the longitude of the places of observation. 

 It need scarcely be argued that this process must become an exceed- 

 ingly troublesome matter in the ordinary business of the world, 

 especially when rapid and frequent intei^course between remote 

 sections becomes general. 



I need not further refer to the objections urged against the modes 

 of keeping time, handed down to us from bygone centuries. It is 

 clear from all experience that the customs which we still cling to, are 

 indifferently adapted to the circumstances of the age, and tliat some 

 better means of reckoning and verifying dates will soon be, if they 

 are not already, urgently demanded. 



A remedy for the evils to which your attention is directed may 

 not generally be felt to be a pressing necessity; but the problem is 

 obviously of no limited importance to the generation which is to 

 succeed us, and it is not now too soon to seek for its solution. The 

 minor inconveniences alluded to may be overcome in independent 

 localities, as necessity dictates some arbitrary compromise; but if 

 each country spontaneously adopted its own remedy, a want of uni- 

 formity of system, it is to be feared, will result, and increase the 

 confusion. 



The major difficulties to which I have referred are more general 

 in their character, and in seeking for a remedy, uniformity of system 

 is held to be of first importance, and consequently the broadest cos- 

 mopolitan view should be taken. 



It is to be feared that no immediate solution to the problem may be 

 po.ssible ; but a general inquiry into the science of chronometry may 

 suggest means by which the difficulties may in some degree bo met. 



NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL DIVISIONS OF TIME. 



Time is determined in nature by the motions of the heavenly 

 bodies. The great natural divisions are three in number; the year, 



