HISTORY OF EUROPE. [221 



motions and appearances in the 

 heavenly bodies : but the grand 

 sera of a century appears to be de- 

 rived from a different origin. — The 

 measurement of time by centuries 

 is made use of by our most ancient 

 historian, Moses. The grand jubilee 

 of the Jewish nation was a period of 

 one hundred years, though it wasre- 

 duced by the catholic church to fifty 

 years, and afterwards to twenty-five. 

 It was of course in u se before the time 

 of Moses: for if the idea of a century 

 had not been used formerly, and fa- 

 miliar to his cotemporaries, but a 

 new mode of reckoning time, he 

 would have announced and ex- 

 plained the reason for adopting that, 

 rather than any other number. It 

 was no doubt in use among the 

 patriarchs. It is not to be presumed 

 that the good patriarchs adopted 

 the centenary number from any 

 astronomical calculations, but from 

 the most simple and natural indica- 

 tions, suggestedby the most familiar 

 of all objects. In short, the patri- 

 archs were induced to adopt the 

 centenary number in the computa- 

 tion of large spaces of time, just as 

 we find the Africans and Indians of 

 America have been, from counting 

 their ten fingers. The number 

 ten multiplied ten times makes a 

 century. These observations on the 

 prevalence of decimal numbers are 

 not indeed any new discovery ; the 

 general use of the decimal and decu- 

 ple number, and the origin of that 

 general use, have been noticed by 



Ovid,* by Vitruvius,t and by Plu- 

 tarch.^ 



There is a question, not a little 

 agitated, whether the century was 

 completed at the beginning, or not 

 till the end, of the year 1800: 

 that is, whether, in reckoning' 

 time from the birth of Christ, a 

 year of the century is supposed to 

 have passed at the nativity, or only 

 to have begun. — We are araong^ 

 those who incline to the last opinion. 

 But the decision of that question is 

 of no manner of importance on the 

 present subject : we leave it wholly 

 to tlie priests and the poet-laureats, 

 on whom it is no doubt incumbent 

 to fix, with as much precision as 

 possible, the true period of the 

 jubilee, and the carmen scculare. 



It is natural, on the expiration of 

 any period of time, to pause, and 

 look back upon its most prominent 

 features, or events : — those that re- 

 cur oftenest to the mind, on the sur- 

 vey, stand forward on the canvas, 

 and throw other occurrences in the 

 back ground. The justest and most 

 complete representation of any pe- 

 riod of time, would no doubt be a 

 j ust and complete eii umeration of all 

 its vicissitudes and events. But this 

 is the business of continuous narra- 

 tion and description : — it will rea- 

 dily be understood, that the cha- 

 racter of an age is to be taken from 

 as many of the leading events, as 

 may be arranged in such a picture 

 as maybecontenyplated atone view, 

 without distraction, without diffi- 



• Hie numerus magno tunc in honore fuit, 

 Scu quia tot digiti, per quos numerare solemus, &c. 



Ovid. Fasti, Lib. III. 

 -f- Ex manibus denarius digitorum numerus. 



ViTKuv. Lib. I. Cap. i. 

 { Plutarch, speaking of the progress of the decuple number, says, that it was ia 

 UM, not only among the Greeks, but among all the barbarians. 



