148 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book If. 



ufe, each of a certain number of days : Whereas the Greeks, dividing 

 the year into twelve lunar months of about 29 days each, were 

 obliged, in order to adjuft their year to the motions of the fun, to 

 intercallate a month every third year *. And among the Romans, 

 Niima for the fame reafon intercallated a month of 22 days every 

 two years f. But notwithftanding this reformation made by Numa» 

 the Roman callendar went into fuch diforder, that Julius Caefar, in 

 order to redify it, was obliged to intercallate, firft 23 days, and then Sj^ 

 making altogether an intercallation of no lefs than go days % ; and 

 having thus adjufted the year to the courfe of the fun, in order to 

 prevent its going into diforder again, he adopted the Egyptian year 

 as above defcribed. This reformation of the Roman callendar, Ju- 

 lius made by the diredions of Sofigenes, an Egyptian aftronomer, 

 who cam.e from Alexandria ; and it is this year which is now ufed 

 all over Europe, with a fmall alteration made in it, in the i6th cen- 

 tury, by Pope Gregory XIII. What made this alteration neceffary 

 was, that the 6 hours added, as faid is, to the 365 days, exceeded the 

 folar year by 1 1 minutes. This excefs, in the courfe of fo many cen- 

 turies, made a difconformity betwixt the folar and civil year, which 

 was redified by that Pope ; and it is faid, that Julius Csefar, if he 

 had lived longer, would have made that amendment himfelf, by the 

 diredion, no doubt, of the fame Sofigines. So that the Egyptians 

 knew the true folar year to a minute ; and thus it appears, that to 

 them we owe, among many other thing?, the difcovery of the 

 folar year, and the divifion of it into months, which are adapt- 

 ed to the feafons of the year; fo that the fame months are always 

 vernal, fummer, autumnal, and winter months. 



The Egyptians had another divifion of time, unknown to the 



Greeks 



* Herodotus, uM /upra, 

 t Gebelin, vol. IV. p. 153. 

 X Ibid. p. 163. 



