
5 
indeed few, if any, were acquainted. Every nation had its own 
system of reckoning time, which was generally some vague and 
unsatisfactory attempt to reconcile the periods of the Moon and of 
the Sun, so that the number of days attributed to the year by one 
people, or at one time or place, would be quite different from that 
which might be found prevailing among a different people, or at 
another time. The inability of mankind to settle the matter by 
calculation, and the confusion often arising from that inability, are 
well illustrated by what we find was the practice among the 
Hebrews and by some passages, from the Greek Poets. The 
Hebraic year comprised 12 lunar months with an additional month 
occasionally intercalated, and their rule was as follows :—If at 
the end of the 12th month, which they called Abib and which 
corresponded with our April, there were in the barley fields to be 
found enough single ears of barley to make a sheaf, then that 
month was treated as the first month of the new year. Otherwise 
that month was reckoned as the 13th month of that old year, 
and was called Veadar. And as to Greek authors you will 
remember how Aristophanes makes the Moon complain to the 
Clouds,—lines 617—619. 
“« How she said the Gods in chorus showered reproaches on her head 
When in bitter disappointment they go supperless to bed 
Not obtaining festal banquets, duly on the festal day.” 
because the Athenians neglected to call to mind and observe the 
times and season proper for religious observances. 
These notices, which are only a small portion of the evidence 
in our possession, will, perhaps, suffice to enable us to recognise 
how pathetic a lack of astronomical knowledge prevailed 
throughout mankind, and how the human mind fretted at its 
inability to master this great natural problem. 
HOW STONEHENGE CAME TO BE BUILT. 
From all this it is easy to suppose that if there were a people 
whose empire was chiefly on the ocean and to whom, therefore, 
