58 The Week 



there should be no exception. The fact that these excellent 

 fellow-citizens have hitherto had practically only five 

 working days a week to our six, is demonstrative proof that 

 six working days in seven are not indispensable. Four 

 working days in five are obviously a larger proportion by 

 3-35ths, than five in seven. But should the sect to which 

 I allude decline to adopt the quinary week which I propose, 

 were we to do so, there would still occur on every seventh 

 Goodday and fifth Sabbath, a synchronism of practice which 

 would surely promote a sympathy of feeling. The prospect 

 of the attainment of such objects is surely a strong ground 

 of recommendation of my scheme. 



I propose thus simply to have a week of five days, instead 

 of seven. This would give exactly 73 complete weeks in a 

 common year, and one day over in leap year. I also recom- 

 mend the allotment of an equal number (30) of days, or six 

 weeks, to each month, leaving over one festival week, say at 

 the new year, with an extra " Goodday" added every leap 

 year. I presume that an act of the Legislature would be 

 necessary to give effect to the proposal, but public opinion 

 must, of course, precede legislative action. I have thought 

 it better to make the suggestion first to this Society, in order 

 that it may be at once subjected to the skilled criticism of 

 those competent to say whether any inconvenience could 

 possibly result in connection with the calendar, so that 

 objections on that score, which is really of primary import- 

 ance, might be disposed at once one way or the other. When 

 no rational objection can be discovered to a proposal of this 

 kind, it is not unusual to allege that, however desirable it 

 may be in theory, it would nevertheless be bad in practice, 

 or that it would be impracticable* Such an argument of 

 course yields entirely the question of expediency, but is 

 itself obviously no better than the opposite simple assertion; 

 and if reasons be on the other hand advanced to show that 

 similar innovations have formerly been successfully made, it 

 stands refuted until at least the experiment be tried. But 

 in this case far more difficult innovations, even involving an 

 alteration of the calendar, have at different times been made 

 with perfect success by Julius Caesar, Pope Gregory XIII , 

 and others. But more, the week itself was actually altered 

 by the Romans, Greeks, and many other peoples ; and, in 



* For the refutation of this " Fallacy of Confusion," see Bentham's Booh 

 of Fallacies, ch. 9. 



