ITS EARLIEST STAGES. 119 



as the circle of changes of the seasons is designated by the word year. 

 The lunar changes are, indeed, more obvious to the sense, and strike a 

 more careless person, than the annual ; the moon, when the sun is ab- 

 sent, is almost the sole natural object which attracts our notice ; and 

 we look at her with a far more tranquil and agreeable attention than 

 we bestow on any other celestial object. Her changes of form and 

 place are definite and striking to all eves ; they are uninterrupted, and 

 the duration of their cycle is so short as to require no effort of memory 

 to embrace it. Hence it appears to be more easy, and in earlier stages 

 of civilization more common, to count time by moons than by years. 



The words by which this period of time is designated in various lan- 

 guages, seem to refer us to the early history of language. Our word 

 month is connected with the word moon, and a similar connection is 

 noticeable in the other branches of the Teutonic. The Greek word 

 \li)V in like manner is related to nr\vr], which though not the common 

 word for the moon, is found in Homer with that signification. The 

 Latin word mensis is probably connected with the same group. 17 



The month is not any exact number of days, being more than 29, 

 and less than 30. The latter number was first tried, fur men more 

 readily select numbers possessing some distinction of regularity. It 

 existed for a long period in many countries. A very few months of 

 30 days, however, would suffice to derange the agreement between the 

 days of the months and the moon's appearance. A little further trial 

 would show that months of 29 and 30 days alternately, would pre- 

 serve, for a considerable period, this agreement. 



The Greeks adopted this calendar, and, in consequence, considered 

 the days of their month as representing the changes of the moon : the 

 last day of the month was called kvt\ ical via, " the old and new, v as 

 belonging to both the waning and the reappearing moon : 18 and their 



17 Cicero derives this word from the verb to measure : " quia mensa spatia confi- 

 ciunt, menses nominantur ;" and other etymologists, with similar views, connect the 

 above-mentioned words with the Hebrew manah, to measure (with which the 

 Arabic word almanack is connected). Such a derivation would have some analogy 

 with that of annus, &c, noticed above : but if we are to attempt to ascend to the 

 earliest condition of language, we must conceive it probable that men would have 

 a name for a most conspicuous visible object, the moon, before they would have a 

 verb denoting the very abstract and general notion, to measure. 



18 Aratus says of the moon, in a passage quoted by G&minus, p. 33: 



y Ai£t <S' aWodtv uAAa xapaKklvovaa /xCToixa 

 "Eipri, h-ocrair] \it',voi TrtpiriXXtrat i/uj. 

 As still her shifting visage changing turns, 

 By her we count the monthly round of morns. 



