ANCIENT DIVISIONS OF THE DAY.
(For the Mirror.)
"See the minutes how they run:
How many makes the hour full compleat,
How many hours bring about the day,
How many days will finish up the year,
How many years a mortal man may live."
Shakspeare.
The Chaldaeans, Syrians, Persians, and Indians began the day at sun-rise, and divided both the day and night into four parts. This division of the day into quarters was in use long before the invention of hours.
The Chinese, who begin their day at midnight, and reckon to the midnight following, divide this interval into twelve hours, each equal to two of ours, and distinguished by a name and particular figure.
In Egypt the day was divided into unequal hours. The clock invented by Ctesibius, of Alexandria, 136 years B.C. was so contrived as to lengthen or shorten the hours.
The Greeks divided the natural day into twelve hours—a practice derived from the Babylonians.
The Romans called the time between the rising and setting sun, the natural day; and the time in the twenty-four hours, the civil day. They began and ended their civil day at midnight, and derived this practice from their ancient jurisprudence and rites of religion, established long before they had any idea of the division into hours. The first sun-dial seen at Rome was brought from Catania, in Sicily, in the first punic war, as part of the spoils of that city; and after this period, they divided the day into twenty-four hours. An officer, called accendus, used to proclaim the hours; and at the bench of justice (says Kennett) gave notice every three hours what it was o'clock.
Throughout the Turkish empire, time is reckoned by certain portions of the natural day, resembling the vigils of the ancient Jews and Romans. Public clocks not being in use, these divisions of time are proclaimed from the minarets.
P.T.W.