between mid-day and sunset. On January 20th the time to begin the
anticipation of hours was 2.15 p.m., but on June 8th the anticipation
was not to begin till 4 p.m.

Nowadays, the first opinion is held almost universally. The principal
_internal_ argument for this opinion is the teaching that the
anticipation may begin from the public hour of first vespers, and these
may be recited publicly according to present-day custom at 2 p.m.
Therefore, this time, 2 o'clock p.m., is the beginning of the
ecclesiastical day, and can be taken as the time for private
anticipation of Matins and Lauds. The _external_ argument in favour of
this opinion is the authority of theologians. In 1905, the Sacred
Congregation of Rites was asked the question "_Utrum in privata
recitatione Matutinum sequentis diei incipi possit, 2da pomeriddiane_?".
The reply was, "_Consulantur probati auctores_" (_Acta Sanctae Sedis_
XXXVII., p. 712). Now many approved authors (e.g., Lehmkuhl, II., 793;
Ballerini-Palmieri, IV. 515; Slater I., p. 609) hold that it is lawful,
privately, to anticipate Matins and Lauds at 2 o'clock, p.m. Lehmkuhl,
who previously favoured a stricter view, was compelled, in the latest
editions of his _Moral Theology_, to say of this opinion which allows
anticipation to begin at 2 o'clock, p.m.: "_Quae sententia hodie a
multis usque gravissimis viris tenetur et observatur, ut, spectata
consuetudine, extrinseca saltem probabilitas negari nequit_." We
conclude, accordingly, that always and everywhere the private
anticipation of Matins and Lauds may begin at 2 p.m. (_cf. Irish
Ecclesiastical Record_, Fifth Series, Vol. I., No. 541).

Doubts have arisen in connection with time changes made by various
States in Europe. The various schemes of new time, of daylight saving,
of co-ordinations of time, uniformity of time all through certain