The parts that time is distinguished into, are _Days_, _Hours_, _Weeks_, _Months_, and _Years_. A Day is either natural or artificial. [Sidenote: _Natural_ and _Artificial Day_.] A _Natural Day_ is the space of time elapsed while the Sun goes from any meridian or horary circle, ’till he arrives to the same again; or, it is the time contained from noon, or any particular hour, to the next noon, or the same hour again: An _Artificial Day_ is the time betwixt the Sun’s rising and setting; to which is opposed the _Night_, that is, the time the Sun is hid under the horizon. [Sidenote: _Hours_, &c.] [Sidenote: _Equinoxes._] [Sidenote: _Vernal_ and _Autumnal Equinox_.] [Sidenote: _Solstices._] [Sidenote: _Summer_ and _Winter Solstices_.] The _Natural Day_ is divided into 24 _Hours_, each hour into 60 _Minutes_, each minute into 60 _Seconds, &c._ The _Artificial Days_ are always unequal to all the inhabitants that are not under the equator, except when the Sun is in the equinoctial points ♈ and ♋, which happens (according to our way of reckoning) about the 21st of _March_, and the 23d of _September_; at those times the Sun rises at six and sets at six to all the inhabitants of the Earth. These days are called the _Equinoxes_, or _Equinoctial Days_; the first of which, or when the Sun is in the first point of _Aries_, is called the _Vernal Equinox_, and the latter is called the _Autumnal Equinox_. In all places where the Sun descends below the horizon, excepting under the equator, the days continually lengthen or shorten, and that faster or slower, according as the Sun is nearer to, or further from the equinoctial, until he arrives to either of the _Solstitial Points_ ♋ or ♑. At those times the Sun seems to stand still for a few days, and then begins to return with a slow motion towards the equinoctial, still hastening his pace as he comes nearer to it: The Sun enters the tropics of ♋ and ♑, about the 21st of _June_, and the 22d of _December_, which days are sometimes called the _Solstices_; the first of which we call the _Summer Solstice_, and the latter the _Winter Solstice_. [Sidenote: The different beginning of the day.] All nations do not begin their day, and reckon their hours alike. In _Great-Britain_. _France_, and _Spain_, and in most places in _Europe_, the days is reckoned to begin at midnight, from whence is counted twelve hours ’till noon, then twelve hours more ’till next midnight, which makes a compleat day; yet the _Astronomers_ (in these countries) commonly begin their day at noon, and so reckon 24 hours ’till next noon, and not twice twelve, according to the vulgar computation. [Sidenote: _Babylonish Hours._] [Sidenote: _Italian Hours._]