88 The Earth considered as a Planet. 



The above 11 minutes 3 seconds, by 

 which the civil or Julian year exceeds 

 the solar, amounts to 11 days in 1433 

 years, and so much our seasons have fall- 

 en back with respect to the days of the 

 months, since the time of the Nicene 

 Council in A. D. 325, and therefore in 

 order to bring back all the fasts and fes- 

 tivals to the days then settled, it was re- 

 quisite to suppress 1 1 nominal days. And 

 that the same seasons might be kept to 

 the same times of the year for the future, 

 to leave out the bissextile-day in February 

 at the end of every century of years not di- 

 visible by 4 ; reckoning them only com- 

 mon years, as the 17th, 18th, and 19th 

 centuries, viz. the years 1700, 1800, 1900, 

 cc. because a day intercalated every 

 fourth year was too much, and retail, 

 the bissextile-day at the end of those cen- 

 turies of years which are divisible by 4, as 

 the 16th, 20th, and 24th centuries ; viz. 

 the years 1600, 2000, 2400, &c. Other- 

 wise, in length of time, the seasons would 

 be quite ^reversed with regard to thr 

 months of the year ; though it would 

 have required near 23,783 years to have 

 brought about such a totaj change. 



