ITS EARLIEST STAGES. 117 



By such means it was determined that the year consisted, at lc-;i~t, 

 rearly, of 365 days. The Egyptians, as we learn from Herodotus, 

 claimed the honor of this discovery. The priests informed him, lie 

 says, " that the Egyptians were the first men who discovered the y;ir, 

 dividing it into twelve equal parts ; and this they asserted that they 

 discovered from the stars." Each of these parts or months consisted 

 of 30 days, and they added 5 days more at the end of the year, " and 

 thus the circle of the seasons come round." It seems, also, that the 

 Jews, at an early period, had a similar reckoning of time, for the 

 Deluge which continued 150 days (Gen. vii. 24), is stated to have 

 lasted from the 17th day of the second month (Gen. vii. 11) to the 17th 

 ..lay of the seventh month (Gen. viii. 4), that is, 5 months of 30 days. 



A year thus settled as a period of a certain number of days is called 

 a Civil Year. It is one of the earliest discoverable institutions of 

 States possessing any germ of civilization ; and one of the earliest 

 portions of human systematic knowledge is the discovery of the length 

 of the civil year, so that it should agree with the natural year, or year 

 of the seasons. 



Sect. 3. Correction of the Civil Year. (Julian Calendar.) 



Ix reality, by such a mode of reckoning as we have described, the 

 circle of the seasons would not come round exactly. The real length 

 of the year is very nearly 365 days and a quarter. If a year of 365 

 days were used, in four years the year would begin a day too soon, 

 when considered with reference* to the sun and stars; and in 60 years 

 it would begin 15 days too soon : a quantity perceptible to the loosest 

 degree of attention. The civil year would be found not to coincide 

 with the year of the seasons ; the becrinuing of the former would take 



*/ o o 



place at different periods of the latter ; it would ivander into various 

 seasons, instead of remaining fixed to the same season ; the term yea); 

 and any number of years, would become ambiguous : some correction, 

 at least some comparison, would be requisite. 



We do not know by whom the insufficiency of the year of 365 days 

 was first discovered; 14 we find this knowledge diffused among all civil- 

 ized nations, and various artifices used in making the correction. The 

 method which we employ, and which consists in reckoning an addi- 



'3 Ib. ii. 4. 



14 Syncellus (Chronographia, p. 123) says that according to the legend, it was King 

 Ascth who first added the 5 additional days to 860, for the year, iu the eighteenth 

 century, B. c. 



