SOURCE: “The Persistence of a Relic” and “Astronomical Facts and Human Failings,” in The World's Work and the Calendar, Richard G. Badger, 1933, pp. 11-16, 22-32.

In the following excerpt, Stiles explores the difficulty of measuring time and the origins of the calendar.

The Persistence of a Relic

Does it not seem strange that whereas our civilization has established fixed systems for computing the three dimensions of Space and the force of Gravity, it has failed to provide for ordinary use a fixed system for computing Time? Why has the application of good sense to Time measurement been neglected in the progress of human affairs?

Only astronomers compute Time in a rational manner. They have a number for every day in an era of nearly 8000 years. Thus they keep the reckoning of celestial events. They disdain the use of the constantly changing system of months and weeks employed for...