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"The Olympic games were celebrated every fourth year, during the full Moon, next after the summer solstice and the year of the Greeks was so regulated as to make this full Moon the first month./ This purpose was effected by intercalations; but these were managed so injudiciously, that, in the time of Meton, the calendar and the celebration of the festivals had fallen into great confusion."

The ancient Romans computed their time by the Lustrum, a period of four years. They also reckoned by lunar years, as established by Romulus, till Julius Cæsar reformed the calendar, introducing the system of computation known as the Julian calendar to the present time. In this calendar three years were common, consisting of 365 days each. Every fourth year, the 24th day of February was twice reckoned, making it consist of 366 days. This, being the 6th of the calends of March, was called bis sextus dies, denominated by us bissextile. The intercalary day is now added to the last of February, and from it the year is called bissextile, or leap year. The Julian calendar long prevailed in Europe. But, from observations on the time of Easter, the civil year was found to be too long for the tropical, and another attempt was made to reform the calendar.

The vernal equinox fell on the 21st of March, at the time of the Council of Nice, 325 of the Christian era. In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII. observed, that the same equinox happened ten days earlier in the year than it had done at the time of the Nicene Council. To correct the style, he altered the calendar ten days, ordering, that the 5th day of October should be called the 15th. Thus amended, the style was called the Gregorian, or new style. Though adopted in several European countries, it was not received into England till the year 1752.) The Julian calendar, or old style, still prevails in Russia. In the present century, the difference between the old style and the new is twelve days, as before stated.

Pope Gregory stopped not at the alteration of the style. He endeavored to establish a principle, by which the civil year and the tropical would in future coincide. By this principle, bissextile is to be omitted three times in 400 years. When the centuries of the

Christian era are divided by four, if there be a remainder, the year at the end of the century is to be reckoned common; but if nothing remain, the leap year is to be retained, or the last year of the century is to be reckoned bissextile. Though the year 1800 would have been a leap year in the Julian calendar, yet it was considered common in all our almanacs on the Gregorian principle. Our computations, to the present time, are made on the same principle. Thus, at the end of the 19th century, the leap year is to be omitted, there being a remainder, when 19 is divided by 4; but the year 2000 will be considered bissextile ; because there is no remainder when 20 is divided by 4.

The omission of three bissextiles in 400 years does not bring the civil year exactly to coincide with the tropical, as computed by La Place. The former still exceeds the latter 20 seconds, 24 thirds. This excess will amount to a day in about 4236 years. The omission of one bissextile in 129 years, would bring the different computations to great nearness.

Months are the principal divisions of a year. These are lunar, solar, and civil. The sidereal lunar month is the time the Moon is passing from a point in the heavens to the same again; as from a star to the same star, as before stated. But the principal lunar month

lunation; or the time the Moon is passing from one change to another. This seems to have given the name to this division of time; or to be the foundation of months. The solar month is the time the Sun is passing one of the signs of the ecliptic, or the 12th part of a year.

Civil months are of two kinds. The weekly month,

always equally long, consists of four weeks. This is the true legal month. "A month, in law," says Blackstone," is a lunar month, or twenty-eight days, unless otherwise expressed; not only because it is one uniform period, but because it falls naturally into a quarterly division by weeks. Therefore a lease for twelve months is only for forty-eight weeks; but, if it be for a twelvemonth, in the singular number, it is good for the whole year.

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The other months are those in our calendar. They are Roman in their origin. The Latin names are retained, some of them assuming an English termination. The sixth month was called Sextilis, till the time of Augustus Cæsar. It was changed to Augustus, in honor of that emperor. To heighten the compliment, a day was taken from the last of February, and added to August Before that time, February, in a common year, consisted of 29 days, August of 30.*

A week, a well-known portion of time, and old as creation, undoubtedly had its origin in the resting of Jehovah from his work, and the establishment of the Sabbath. It consists of seven days.

Days are artificial or natural. The artificial day is continually varying in length in most latitudes, being the time the Sun is above the horizon. The natural day is the time in which any meridian of the Earth moves from the Sun round to the Sun again, being 24 hours. This is subject to a fractional variation at different seasons. The ancient Egyptians began their day at midnight. (This is the practice of the United States, and of most European nations. It is the_civil day with us, and is divided into two twelves. From

* The number of days in each month may be remembered by the following lines:

Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November;
All the rest have thirty-one,
Saving February alone.

common practice, it is too well known to need explanation. The Jews began their days at the setting of the Sun. They divided the night and the day each into 12 equal parts. As this was done at all seasons of the year, not only the days, but the hours, or divisional parts, must have been of unequal length; though not so unequal as such a division would be with us, Palestine being nearer the equator than most of the United States. The ancient Greeks also began their day at Sun-setting. The same practice is followed among the moderns, by the Bohemians, the Silesians, the Italians, and Chinese. The day was commenced at Sun-rising by the Babylonians, Persians and Syrians. This is the manner of computation by the modern (Greeks.)

The nautical, or sea day, commences (at noon,) 12 hours before the civil day. The first 12 hours are marked P. M., the last, A. M.) The astronomical day begins at noon, 12 hours after the civil day, and is reckoned, numerically, from 1 to 24.)

An hour is the 24th part of a natural day. This division of time is very ancient. "Herodotus observes, that the Greeks learned from the Egyptians, among other things, the method of dividing the day into 12 parts. The division of the day into 24 hours was not known to the Romans before the Punic war. Till that time, they only regulated their days by the rising and setting of the Sun." The day was divided by them into four watches, commencing at 6, 9, 12, and 3 of the clock. The night was divided, in the same manner, into four watches, each consisting of three hours.

The remaining divisions of time all proceed in the well-known sexagesimal order: the hour is divided into 60 minutes; the minute into 60 seconds; the second into 60 thirds; and so on to fourths and fifths.

The dominical letter is deserving a place in a work of this kind. The first seven letters of the alphabet were formerly placed in almanacs for the days of the

week,

Introduced by the primitive Christians, they were used instead of the nundinal letters of the Roman calendar. One of these, standing for the Sabbath, was written in capitals, and called the dominical letter, from Dominus, the Latin word for Lord The dominical letter is still retained in our almanacs, while figures are substituted for the other letters.

If 365, the days in a common Julian year, be divided by 7, the number of days in a week, 1 will remain. If there were no remainder, and no bissextile, each succeeding year would begin on the same day of the week. But, one remaining, when a common year is thus divided, each year will begin and end on the same day of the week. When January begins on Sunday, A is the dominical letter for that year. But the next year must commence on Monday; A, therefore, or the substituted figure, is set at that day. The Lord's day being the seventh of the month, G will be the dominical letter for that year. As the following year must commence on Tuesday, F is the dominical letter for that year. Thus the letters would follow, G, F, E, D, C, B, A, in retrograde order. At the end of seven years, the days of the week would return to the same days of the month as at the beginning. But, bissextile having 366 days, if this be divided by 7, there will be a remainder of 2. Thus there must be an interruption of the regular returns.

The letters were placed in such order, that A stood at the first day of January, B at the second, C at the third; thus on throughout the seven. The same were repeated in succession through the year. In each succeeding year, therefore, the same letters stood at the same days of the month. This always broughtC to the 28th of February. That this order might not be interrupted by leap year, C was placed at the 29th also; or, according to some tables, D was repeated. Thus the same letters were set to the days of the succeeding months in bissextile, as in common years. Let

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