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the button shall strike the glass , but it certainly is so conveyed . For if the string be held by a
pair of tongs or pincers , a vibration will ensue from the mutual attraction of the two bodies , but the button will not strike the glass at all .
Might not the closer investigation of this very interesting power of the pulse furnish the physician with some valuable data in
judging-of the state of the health ? And might not repeated experi - ments in various ways give us still farther insight into the body of man ?
When I think upon this fresh manifestation that we are wonderfully made , and compare with it the actual division of our time , I infer , that the ancients , by whom this division was made , were acquainted with a phenomenon , which Iras for near three thousand
years escaped the notice of the learned * It certainty was not by chance that our day was divided l > y them into twice twelve hours , rather than into twenty-four ; nor
was it by chance that each is made to contain sixty minutes ; nor that our reckoning is made to begin at one o ' clock . The equation of time , like the measures of space , were ordained from observations on the
body of man : the inch , from his thumb ) la pouce ; the foot , from his foot ; the yard , from his full stretch in walking ; the hours , as well us the choice of exactly
twelve , and no more , from the indication of change which the pulse discovers . We have here a demonstration , that the ancients , and those the most remote , were
wiser than we knew of . The origin of our present division of time is completely enveloped in dark-
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ness ; it stands so far removed from us , that no ray from the sun of history can reach it . The Romans were not acquainted with it till the second Punic war . The Greeks learned it from the Egyptians , according to Herodotus . But , although the people enjoyed the advantage of the division , they
-perhaps never knew the origin of "it . This was one © f the mysteries of the magicians , who enjoyed . a too profitable use of their knowledge of the occult powers of nature , to reveal them to the people - —and with them it may have died .
It strikes-me , that the question of " when does the century begin V may now be set to rest by an apipeal to the laws and commands of nature . One o ' clock does not begin till the pulse strikes one , the first hour therefore is not from
twelve to one , but from one to two ; apply this to the larger di - visions of our time , and we shall
discover that the first year begins January , 3 801 , and ends in December . It has been remarked , that , with respect to science , we are
only on the threshold of nature . But may not this be a mistake- ? In some branches of knowledge we have probably entered far into her temple , and taken an extensive view of her wonders . But
some of her chambers , which were open to the view of men in former ages of the world , are perhaps shut against ourselves ; and it may be reserved for those who succeed us , to discover the key that shall open them again . While many of those apartments , which we imagine are completely exposed to our view , contain corners yet unexplored ; and these apartments may in a few years be again enve-
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Qn the Revival of Knowledge long lost . 441
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voi . v . 3 L
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1810, page 441, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2408/page/17/
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