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Page:Colson - The Week (1926, IA weekessayonorigi0000fhco).djvu/75

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the week? The obvious answer is that something happens on one or more of them. If by some means or other we lose count in the course of the week, Sunday is unmistakable, even if personally we have no religious feeling about the day. So, too, school half-holiday or early-closing days force themselves on the notice of those who are not directly affected by them. But if nothing happens it is very doubtful whether a weeksequence could maintain, much less establish, itself. I have not had any opportunity of finding out what is the experience of parties or individuals, such as explorers or hunters, if they are cut off from civilization for any length of time. But I observe that writers of fiction which deals with this type of adventure have felt that week-keeping would be a difficulty. Both Robinson Crusoe and that pious Protestant pastor the hero of the Swiss Family Robinson were strict Sabbatarians. But even they missed a Sunday or two, though I think they took steps later to prevent a recurrence of this.

But in the planetary week nothing, so far as we know, happened. Nothing in the heaven above: the planets rolled on their courses regardless of the days assigned to them. Nothing on the earth below: there was, as we have seen, no official or civil recognition, and outside Jew, Christian and possibly Mithraist, we know of no formal rite or meeting. We can only suppose that the plain man who did not belong to these