Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1872-11-23
MisesIIaneons
ANCIENT TYMEKEEPERs.

ANCIENT TYMEkEEPERS.
In al Ioli Scripture II ID not expressed
hi bidding counsellng or bi chi ensaumb-
ling of person that man schude
use clocks for TO knowe the honris of the
dai and night for thou in celdst daies
and thou in Scripture mensioun is maad of
orlogiCs, schowing the houris of the dai bi
schadew maad hi the sune in cerce, GER
tis neuerc saue in late daies was cny clok
telling the houris of the dai bi pcise and b
stroke al d open it is that nCuwhcre in Holi
Scripture is eXpresse mensioun mad of eny-
suche. u -REGINAULD PERCY, of Chches-
ter, 14SG (?)
"What O'Clock is it ?" asked Emmanuel
Swedenborg, upon his death bed. Being
told, he answered, "It's well 1 thank you
may God bless you," and the pure spirit of
the venerable teacher passed away "What
O'Clock is it ?'' ask little children rs they
blow off the feathered sced-vessels of the
dandelon, and tell the hour by the number
that remains upon the stalk.
Civilized men everywhere, from the era
die to the grave, repeat this question often
er than any other. Were all things at rest
it could never be answered. Motion alone
enables us to measure time. Motion is
best eXemplilied in the heavenly bodies,
animal never asks. what o'sun, - but sim
ply, what O'Clock % He has brought arti-
ficial time keepers to such perfection that
they are the most wonderful of his mechan-
ical achievements, the things most alive
and human in the entire range of his han
diwork.
Many n railway engineer says of his
watch "llow beautifully she goes ?" hever
he and seldom it, A clock would have
made Robinson Crusoe less lonely upon his
desert island. Children, lunatics, and
poets, of imagination all compact, trans
late its tickings into articulate speech. To
little Paul Bombey, the great clock in Dr.
Blimber's hall repeated so distinctly "How
is my little friend ?n that he replied to it
rather than to the doctor, VERY well, |
thank you, Sir" Only the other evening
saw Young America Of six. holding papa's
watch TO his ear, and keeping time with
tongue and nodding head. as he cEanted,
"AlmOst-time-to-go-to-bcd,n - over and over
again. Divisions Of lime have varied with
different ages and nations. The fraction
Of the solar year above 305 days-(i hours.
As minutes, and 40.7 second) so confused
the ancicnts, that in the reign Of Julius C9.
sar the calendar indicated summer when
the season was actually spring. Cesar
rectilied the date, and introduced the Julian
Calendar, which added an extra day to ev-
cry fourth year, by repeating our 23d of
February. The Romans counted that as
the sixth day before the calends (irst) of
March, and called the tweve-month, an
swering to our leap year, the BsseXtile
year, because it had two of these sixth
days. solar year, however, does not
contain 3654 days, but lacks III minutes
OF IT,. This made confusion again, and in
hn Il hnl Il
Then Pope Gregory XIII once more cor
rected the date, by changing the fifth OF Oc-
tober to the fifteenth, and introduced sys-
tenn which omits leap year three times in
every four hundred years. Under it 100,
$500 and 1900 are not leap years, but a. ID.
1000 is, Great Britain held out until 1862,
when the difference had increased to
ii days. Then by act of Parliament she
also adopted the Gregorian Calendar, or
New Style, which changed the third ofSep-
tember TO the fourteenth, in all her posses
sions, including the American colonies. 1t
was done against violent opposition, the
people fancying they were cheated out of
eleven days. Russia, reluctant to accept
calandar established by the Papacy, yet ad-
heres to the old style; and the passing of
another hundred years has now left her
twelve days behind the rest of the world
All her foreign correspondence, diplomatic
and private, is therefore double Dated as
"St' Petersburg, Jan. 20, 1869" .
BabylOnians, Persians and Syrians be-
gan the day of "a hours at sunrise Athe-
mans began at sunset, q practice yet in
vogue iu portions of Italy. SO did Jews in
Difference to the record, And the evening
and the morning were the first day" The
habit of commencing the Sabbath at sun
set on Saturday and ending it at sunset on
Sunday, still adhered to by some descend
ants of the Puritans, is based upon the
same text. The Jews ultimately adopted
the Roman method of dividing the day pro-
per into twelve hOurs-5 O'Clock n. m. be-
ginning the first hour, noon the seventh,
and p. m. the twelfth-and the night in
to four watches of three hours each. The
modern japanese divide their day into
twelve hours instread of "a, and the Brah-
Minis of India divide theirs into 60.
In the childhood of the race, life was full
of omens. One that has come down to us
is the call of little beetle TO his mate,
which sounds like the rapid ticking of
watch. Tennyson sings;
81 did not hear the dog howl, mother, nor the
death icdteh beat"
and millions of English speaking people yet
shudder at the faint ticking in the darkness,
aud when it is heard for three successive
nights, regard it as the sure precursor ofan
early death.
Primitive man had little need of artificial
timekeepers. The opening and closing OF
flowers the voices OF birds, beasts and iu-
sects the positions of sun, moon and stars