bour. Hour into fo many Parts. So the Inhabitants of Cataja (which the Ancients called Serica) and the Subjects of the great Cham of Tartary divide the Year into 24 equal Parts; fo that every part contains 15 days and 2084 Particles, and ten thousand of thefe Particles every one of which they call a Fenack) anfwer to one day according to them; Of which more elfewhere. CHA P. II, Concerning Hours. RULES. 1. An Hour is commonly called the 24th part of a Day. 2. Hours are either equal, or unequal. 3. Equal Hours, which the Greeks call onμepivai, are thofe by which the whole time of Night and Day is divided into 24 equal Parts. 4. Unequal Hours, which they call Kaigiai, are those by which the time of the natural day is divided into 12 Parts, and the Night into as many. The Deri- S. 1. A Lthough fome will have the Word Hour, in Lavation of tin, Hora, to be derived from the Greek Word the Word gile, which fignifies to limit or bound ; because it limites or bounds Times; yet the moft common Opinion is, that its Original is owing to the Egyptians becaufe Macrobius, Saturn. l. 1. c. 21. and from him many others obferve, that the Sun with them was called Horus, of which Opinion Paufanias was alfo long fince. What it §. 2. But the Word Hour has not always been of fignified the fame fignification; for in ancient times an Hour formerly. did indefinitely exprefs a fhort fpace of time; in which fenfe the LXX Interpreters have fometimes ufed it, and Ulpian in Athenaus (not without Reason) doubteth whether it be ufed for a Definite or fet part of the Day in the Writings of the Ancient Greeks. Certain it is in St. Luke ch. 14. v. 17. Begs far, is used for Supper-time. Befides, Homer calls aegs Cæli jani trices; to which Ovid alludes, bringing in Janus faying, Prafideo foribus cæli cum mitibus Horis. I believe that heretofore the four Seafons of the Year, wherein the Sun finisheth its Annual Courfe, had the Name of HOURS, as ancient Writings do teftifie. Some would have the Reafon hereof to be, because Horus inftituted a certain Year confifting of 3 Months, upon which the Ancients called Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, Hours, and the Year it felf Horus; of which fome Footsteps appear in this, that the Greeks called their Annals Hori, and the Writers of them Horographi. And others there are who think that the Greeks called the time when the Dogftar rifes an Hour, whence Galen in his Book de Alimentis calls thofe Horean Fruits which grow at the time of the Dogftars rifing. See likewife Horace lib. 3. Od. 13. Finally the Ancients by the word Hour were Wont to denote the time of mens Age, and by the 12th Hour, Old Age, as in that Dialogue between M. Craffus and King Deiotarus. Craffus fays to him, What mean you? your 12th Hour is even at hand, and do you go on to build a new City? ', 9. 3. Herodotus 1. 2. relates that the Grecians recei- Why the ved from the Egyptians the Pole, the Gnomon, and the ancients twelve parts of the Day: and Pierius Valerianus Hiero- divided the glyph. 1. 6. fays, that the Original of thus dividing day the day among the Egyptians was derived from 12 parts. their Priefts having obferved that the Cynocephalus did 12 times in a day make a very great howling, and voided Urine as often. Nay both Cicero and Marius confirm the fame tradition, in faying that Trismegistus obferv'd the fame thing, as practifed by a facred Animal, that was confecrated to Serapis. Galen remarks of this Number, that the Romans used it not only for their Hours, but alfo in Weights, Mea fures, &c. as being a Number divifible into many aliquot Parts. §.4. Tho 'tis certain the Aftronomers were in fome mea. What fure acquainted with the equal hours that are measured hours the the motion of Equator, yet it is apparent that the an- Ancients tients afed the unequal more than equal Hours. St. John bad fays The Anti inta bours. faysc. 10.v.9. are there not 12 hours of the day? Which Otia, Prifce, brevi poteris donare libello; s. 5. It is not known at what time the Custom of quity of dividing the Days into Hours began among the Egypbe Divifitians, but doubtless it is but of fhort ftanding aon of Days mongst other Nations, and chiefly the Romans; whence Cenforinus de die nat. l. 23. argues that the Word Hour was not known amongst the Romans 300 years after the building of the City, by reafon there is not any mention made of it in the 12 Tables, as the other Laws after that time do, before which the Divifions were only before and after Noon. How the Turks di vided theirs. The Anci 5. 6. The Turks not having Clocks as we have, the Priefts in their ftead ftooping their Ears with their Fingers, proclaim with a very loud voice from the top of their Mosks the Cock-Crow, the Break of Day, Noon-tide, Three in the Afternoon, and Twilight, The fame Custom was in ufe among the old Romans, And in Atheneus mention is made of λαβάρους ώρας antis, a mercinary hour-teller; and alfo of oth pódeny, a Parafite that declared Supper-time. S. 7. Amongst the many inftruments the Ancients ents, their made ufe of to diftinguifh hours, the Sun-dial or Heletromanner of pium is certainly the most ancient. For in the Holy Scrip Mating the ture 2 Kings 20. Ifa. 38. we read of Abaz's Dial, where that great Miracle was wrought of the Sun's sbe day. going back ten Degrees; about which not only R. Solomon, but later Interpreters agree, that those degrees were the Indices of fuch parts of the day as are now called hours: Nor do we beleive that this fo publick Machine was only in ufe amongst Mathematicians and Fortune-tellers, as Salmafius fancies, against whom Dion. Petavius very well urgeth, that then it would not be the Custom to erect them to publickly in the Market Place. But the falfity of Salmafius's opinion will more e vidently vidently appear, if we confider that the Jews were prohi- Stertimus indomitum quod defpumare Falernum Roman §. 8. In confideration that we cannot be always fo 4 deferip happy as to have an exact measure of the fhadow caft tion of the by a fhining Sun upon the intervention of an Opaque Body; And in regard that the frequency of ftorms Clepfydra cramped the induftry of the Ancients; The Romans, or rather the Greeks (who have the beft title to that Honour, if we may credit Authors) made fome amends for the injuries of the weather, by an invention, that, confidering the genius of the Age, was truly ingenious. Pliny writes l. 7. c. 60. that Scipio Nafica firft ftarted the Notion; and Pancirolus gives the following defcription of the whole Invention. They took, fays he, a Veffel made of Glass, in the bottom of which was a narrow bele done about with Gold, left the Water Should wear it away. On the other part of the Veffel was drawn aright Line, having the twelve hours fet upon it; after which they filled the Veffel with Water which issued drop by drop out of a little hole; In the Water there was a Cork, with a little Pin Stick'd into it, and the point of that Pin turned to the first hour while the glass was full, and to the other hours in proportion to the gradual decreafe of the Water. This by a Greek derivation was called a Clepfidra, and with us an Hour-glass. §. 9. Natural hours are not every where unequal, Natural for that there cannot be any difference of Artifi- Hours nos cial and Natural Hours, as to the Quantity, with those every that live under the middle of the Torrid Zone, or under where un the Aquator, where the figns of the Zodiack afcend di equal. rectly. The fame is the cafe of those who live under the Tem Ισημερι Temperate Zones, if the Sun be in the Equinoctial points. S. 10. It is commonly thought that all the hours a, Hours of the day, which they call onusgival, are equal one Equal to another; not confidering, that the very Days from one with Noon to Noon are unequal; and then their parts another. can never be equal; But the inequality is fo inconfiderable that tho' a Mathematician ought to know it, yet in the way of life 'twould be inconvenient to mind it. Why un- S. 11. Unequal hours called Planetary; because equalbours Aftrologers have taught with greater Vanity and Superare called ftition than Certitude, that the feveral Planets rule in Planetary, feveral hours, beginning this order from the first hour on Sunday, and continuing it, as you may fee in the Table annext; in which it is fuppofed against all Aftronomick Reafon, that Venus and Mercury are always lower than the Sun, and that Mars is always above it, A Table |