Page:British Weights and Measures - Superior to the Metric, by James W. Evans.djvu/60

52 country, but Spencer, fearing that the agitation might be renewed, decided to publish the letters he had written in pamphlet form, and it is this pamphlet to which he refers in his will.

The principle of the metric system, in Spencer's opinion, "is essentially imperfect, and its faults are great and incurable. Professedly aiming at introducing uniformity of method, the system, he said, cannot be brought into harmony with certain unalterable divisions of space, nor, with the artiﬁcial divisions of time which have been adopted by man. The earth and moon are, by an astronomical accident, opposed to the decimal system. It happens that there are twelve full moons during the earth's journey round the sun, and consequently twelve calendar months. Then there is the circle with its 360 degrees, "I suppose," says Spencer, "you will divide the circle into 100 degrees, each degree into 100 minutes, and each minute into 100 seconds. But astronomical observations throughout a long past have been registered by the existing mode of measurement, and works for nautical guidance are based upon it. It would be impracticable to alter the arrangement." The year of 365 days, Mr. Spencer points out, does not admit of division into tenths, and if we altered it we should run counter to custom again. But with all his rooted objections to the metric principle Spencer nevertheless admitted the short-comings of our existing systems.

[Mr. Spencer published a further series of four articles in The Times on March 28, April 4, 8, and 13, 1899, in reply to criticisms upon the pamphlet mentioned. These will all be found in the 1900 edition of his "Various Fragments."]