The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1853-01-21
LOCAL MATTERS.

LECTURE wing to the inclemency of the wealth
or on Tuesday evening, and the attraction OF oie
| Bulls Concert the audience In attendance upon
| Professor Alex ander's second lecture was very
small The subject of the lecture was the relations
of Time and Space. In the last lecture, the Fro
lessor said he had to deal with created things, es
pecslly az regarded their vastness and distance.
| This evening he had to treat of the relation OF
things: for many truths In which we were con
cerned had not so much to do with things as with
| the relations of things. mans name was not
thing, although it belonged to him individually The
distance from Richmond to'Wsshington was nota
thing, it was relation of both places So time
and space not things but the relation OF beings
and things. We occupied space and spent our hVes
| in time. DR.. Franklin, through one oil oio hicn
| ards sayings, once ssid dost love life, DO not
ssuander time for time is the staff of which lie Is
| made" The speaker would go farther and as
certain what was the material of which time Itself
was constituted. This in the largest sense oi the
| term, was duration space was that wherein there
| was room for the whole material creation, ana IN
space bodies existed apart-so in duration, meta
phorcally speaking, there was room for events TO
| happen. or if we knew how they happened, to &C.
cur or If they happened more than once TO recur-
vasessential to space, that its parts should be
dvarse in oositiop. and it was essential 10 dura-
ton that its portions should exist in succession.
TWAS this constant fow of duration, by portions
which constituted absolute time Duration was
| the stuff of which time was made. Relative
| time was TINA determined By events, The ma
| tural measure of time, was found In the sue
cession of our thoughts Iffor instance, we were
| attending dull lecture, time during its deiive
| ", might seem to pass slowly, but when we
came to recur to it, the only sensation was, show
| tired we were during its delivery" So we could
not very well realize pain, after enduring IT, we
could only well remember that it was very trouble
some.
What was essential to good and correct meas
| ure of timer Three qualities-it must be accessi
| bic, convenient in size and mode of application
and must not vary. The lecturer here illustrated
these three positions in the motions of the earth
| by which time could be measured. The diagrams
| were freely used by way of illustrating principles
and motions, and report of this portion of the ec-
ture would of course be imperfect without these il
| llstrations
Relative time, Mr.. A. proceeded TO say, had its
relative limits determined by events. What was
meant by limit Take a round block OF wood,
|
not of the blocksomephat, because the block occu-
pied space the outside or limit of the block as it
did not occupy space, was only somewhere. 1t
was just where the block ended that space begun,
| and it only divided space Also, line penetrating
space, If cut off at certain point the point cut of
was not somewhat but only somewhere. SO, when
calculating the limit of time, say ia a week, the
last end of Tuesday and the beginning of Wednes-
day was not somewhat, but only somewhere. A
| moment was just little bit Of dura&on, very
small portion of it, but the instant was part of
| duration. The limits of time were the ending of
certain fixed periods, perhaps marked by particu
| lar events In measuring the duration of time, we
had the great natural chronometer of the earths
| rotation, by which to make our calculations. The
lecturer explained this point. He then entered int q
| an explanation of local tme-detailed the arrange
ment of time, narrated the origin of celendar-the
origin of the names and leng hs of the days, months
aad years; also the origin of old style and new
style, finally contending that the Persian mode of
measuring the year waa superior to the Julian cal,
endar, or Pope Gregory amesdatory calender
Russia still adhered to the old style calendar, be-
tween which and the new style calendar, there was
| difference of twelve days-the ditierekce being
later the part of Russia. Mr.. A. here psrteu-
larized
Time was calculated by epochs, as for instance
By durstions. The world was not yet sufficiently
old to render necessary tenure applicable to
| longer periods of time.
The period of the ending of these epochs had
been settled by Diomonetius, the Younger who
arranged the chronology of the world and settled
the fact that the first year had elapsed when it had
| ended, the frat century had elapsed when it had
ended, and the year 1900 had elapsed when the
| year 1900 had ended. But was there no room for
more shana calculation of century. There was, he
cause in duration there really was no limit The
Professor concluded his somewhat bstruse logica
lecture, with brief portraiture of eternity, past
present and future illustrating, of course, in but
shadow manner, by means of an en- less line, II
never-beginnins, never-ending ipe,.od of eternity
He will deliver his last lecture thi. evening, up-
on the results and light which the investigations of
science have thrown upon an sn,ecedent state of
| things.
| No