72. BEGINNING THE DAY AT MIDNIGHT.
By A. J. G.
When was the day first reckoned as beginning at midnight? It came to us through the Romans, though just at what time they thus began this, we do not know. It probably arose first from the custom of dividing the night into four watches. Hipparchus, a Greek astronomer, who lived in the second century before Christ, followed this method. Astronomers now begin the day at noon. The ancient Greeks began theirs at sunset, as the Bible puts it. Hesiod, the oldest Greek poet, in speaking of a period of time, places night first, as does the Bible. Our English sevennight and fortnight do the same thing. Dr. Hales (chronology, vol. 1, page 16) says: "The inconveniences resulting from a variable beginning of the civil day . . . induced several ancient nations, the Egyptians (according to Pliny), the Ansonians, the most ancient inhabitants of Italy, the Roman Pontifices, Hipparchus, the Grecian astronomer, and the Chinese astronomers of Cathai and Oighur, etc., to reckon their civil day from midnight to midnight, . . . and this usage has been adopted by most of the modern nations of Europe." But the very earliest traditions accord with the truth of the Scripture.