The times of day are often given by reference to the position of the sun. In northern countries, where the length of the daily course of the sun varies so greatly, points on the horizon are sought out as an aid. Both these methods of indicating the times of day may seem to afford a foundation for a continuous reckoning, but this is not the case, since they always refer only to the position of the sun at the immediate moment: they are--to adopt a grammatical term--‘aoristic’. The discontinuity is further shewn in the fact that it is only later and in an imperfect fashion that the complete day and the year are joined together in continuous circles. Day and night were combined so late into the period of the complete day of 24 hours that most languages are without a proper word to express this idea. In the same way the reckoning was often long carried out in half-years, winters and summers, or the years were of shorter duration than the solar year (agricultural years, etc.). The means of accurately determining the times and occupations of the year is afforded by the phases of the stars, which always recur at the same time of the year or at a time subjected to only slight variations due to the conditions of observation. A time-indication from phases of stars is properly of the discontinuous and ‘aoristic’ order, since a definite phase of a star belongs theoretically to a certain day and practically is also kept within very narrow limits. It is only with great difficulty and some violence that the phases of the stars can be systematised,--and that at a far-advanced stage: signs of the zodiac, moon-houses--since they are distributed very unequally over the year, this being due more particularly to the limitation in practice to certain specially prominent stars. _The pars pro toto counting of the periods._ The regular recurrence of the periods at once impresses itself upon the notice of man: he may also feel the necessity of counting the periods. As he always directs his attention to the single phenomenon in itself, and not to its duration as given by the limitations imposed by other phenomena, so he does not reckon the periods of time as a continuous whole, but only counts an isolated phenomenon recurring but once in the same period. When he has seen ten harvests, he is ten years old: when nine new moons have risen after conception, the nine months of pregnancy are at an end: whoever has slept six nights on the way has undertaken a six days’ journey. As counting-points the times of rest--the nights and the winters--are especially employed. Linguistically this method of counting still exists, as when in most languages the complete day of 24 hours is expressed by the word ‘day’, which also means day opposed to night, or as in the Hebrew word for month, which really means ‘new moon’. Popularly and in the language of poetry this usage is still farther extended.