and annihilated distance.  The whole world is drawn into immediate neighborhood and near relationship, and we have now become sensible to inconveniences and to many disturbing influences in our reckoning of time utterly unknown and even unthought of a few generations back.  It is also quite manifest that, as civilization advances, such evils must greatly increase rather than be lessened, and that the true remedy lies in changing our traditional usages in respect to the notation of days and hours, whatever shock it may give to old customs and the prejudices engendered by them.

In countries of limited extent, the difficulty is easily grappled with.  By general understanding, an arrangement affecting the particular community may be observed, and the false principles which have led to the differences and disagreements can be set aside.  In Great Britain the time of the Observatory at Greenwich is adopted for general use.  But this involves a departure from the principles by which time is locally determined, and hence, if these principles be not wrong, every clock in the United Kingdom, except those on a line due north and south from Greenwich, must of necessity be in error.

On the continent of North America efforts have recently been made to adjust the difficulty.  The steps taken have been in a high degree successful in providing a remedy for the disturbing influences referred to, and, at the same time, they are in harmony with principles, the soundness of which is indisputable.

When we examine into time in the abstract, the conviction is forced upon us that it bears no resemblance to any sort of matter which comes before our senses; it is immaterial, without form, without substance, without spiritual essence.  It is neither solid, liquid, nor gaseous.  Yet it is capable of measurement with the closest precision.  Nevertheless, it may be doubted if anything measurable could be computed on principles more erroneous than those which now prevail with regard to it.

What course do we follow in reckoning time?  Our system implies that there are innumerable conceptions designated “time.”  We speak of solar, astronomical, nautical, and civil time, of apparent and mean time.  Moreover, we assign to every individual point around the surface of the earth separate and distinct times in equal variety.  The usages inherited by us imply that there is an infinite number of times.  Is not all this inconsistent with reason, and at variance with the cardinal truth, that there is one time only?

Time may be compared to a great stream forever flowing onward.  To us, nature, in its widest amplitude, is a unity.  We have but one earth, but one universe, whatever its myriad component parts.  That there is also but one flow of time is consistent with the plain dictates of our understanding.  That there can be more than one passage of time is inconceivable.

From every consideration, it is evident that the day has arrived when our method of time-reckoning should be reformed.  The conditions of modern civilization demand that a comprehensive system should be established, embodying the principle that time is one abstract conception, and that all definite portions of it should be based on, or be related to, one unit measure.