Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 June 1889 — COUNTING TIME. [ARTICLE]

COUNTING TIME.

Why Sixty Seconds Make a Minute —The Division of Time. Why is our hour divided into 60 minutes, ea.h minute into 60 seconds, etc.? Simply and solely because in Babylonia there existed, by the side of the decimal system of notation another system, the sexagesimal, which counted by sixties. Why that number should have been chosen is el ear enough, and it speaks well for the practical sense of those ancient Babylonian merchants. There is no number which has so many divisors as 60. The Ba bylonian’s divided the sun’s daily journey into 24 parasangs or 720 stadia. Each parasang or hour was divided into 60 minu es. A parasang is a German mile, and Babylonian astronomers compared the progress made by the sun during one hour at the time es the equinox to the progress made by a good walker daring the same time, both accomplishing one parasang. The whole course of the sun during the 24 equinoctial hours was fixed at 25 parasangs, or 720 stadia, or 360 degrees. The system was nanded on to the Greeks and Hipparchus, the great Greek philosopher, who lived about 150 B. C., introduced the Babylonian hour into Europe.— Ptolemy, who wrote about 150 A. T>.. and whose name still lives in the systam of astronomy gave still wider currency to the Babylonian way of reckoning time. It was carried along on the quiet stream of traditional knowledge ■through the middle ages, and, strange to say, it sailed de *n safely over the Niagara of the French revolution. For the Freneh, when revolutionizing weights, measures, coins and dates, and subjecting all to the decimal system of reckoning, were induced by some unexplained motive to respect our clocks and watches, and allowed our dials to remain sexigesimal, that is, Babylonian, each hour consisting of sixty mit utes. — Here you see again the wonderful coherence of the world, and how what we cad knowledge is the result of an unbroken tradition of a teachixg dr l enling from father to son. Njt more than ab >ut 100 arms would reach from us to the builders of the palaces of Babylon, and enable us to shake hands with the founders of the oldest pyramids and to thank them for what they have done for us.—Max Muher in Fortnightly Review.

Shall We Know Each Other There? We often read and hear discusaions ou the question “whether we shall recogize our friends hereafter?” How can we ever doubt it? If love abides, are we not to know those whom we love? What would immortality be if we were to go there alone, separated from all the loved ones, the knowledge of whom has made the very essence and sweetness of nut human life? Would that be immortality if we left behind us the richest part of our souls? Am Ito go into the other world poor, lonely, homesick, alone? Am Ito Qonsole myself by being an unembodied spirit, wandering solitary among the stars or filling space, with no home, no society, uo brotherhood? I do not so understand the lessons of experience or the facts of observation. When all other memory fades from the mind of the dying, when his other tho’ts are bewildered, the other impressions of time effaced, he still shows by a faint pressure of the hand, by a feeble sign of his hea'‘, that his love remains. The last look of the dim eyes seeks the faces of those he lovjs. The last faint whisper of the failing voice is a murmur of blessing on thos* dear ones. Love is stronger than death; will it not survive the grsve? Yps; when I open my eyes on a new world. I expect to come once more into the eompany of those who have been my inspiration, my comfort, my joy in this lite. 1 shall learn what ihes- years have been teaching them, and they shall be again my friendly ompanions and helpers. I shell see again the parents and the dear vhildran whose love has sweetened my life. I shall be a little child onee more myself Yes, ad 1 hop* io come very near tonry Maste . .J-sus, and to have my er; o s cur e and , b? flight .th? ’■ ■ truth• Not all : - for the laws of g. lion an,.’ : . ftatiou will a* .h-re. j But if faith and hope and love I

abide, then there will be always mor* of knowledge, more of work, and more of love in that divine bevond. With such views as these, we can be better consoled for the loss of those who leave our side. We can be more ready io go ourselves when the time comes. —Rev. James Freeman Clark.