COMMON THINGS TIME. 



MEKCEDONITJS, consisting alternately of twenty-two and twenty- 

 three days. So far the expedient presented nothing very 

 singular, but the manner in which this supplemental bi-annual 

 month was introduced was most curious. It was decreed that 

 the progress of the month of February in every other year should 

 be suspended at the end of the twenty-third day, and that then 

 the month Mercedonius should commence, and that, when it was 

 completed, the month of February should be continued to its last 

 day ! Thus Mercedonius was wedged in between the 23rd and 

 24th of February. In these alternate years, the day after the 

 23rd February was the 1st Mercedonius, and the day after the 

 22nd or 23rd Mercedonius, as the case might be, was the 24tl 

 February, and the succeeding days the 25th, 26th, 27th, and 28tL 

 of February ! ! ! 



71. The term month has been used in different senses, one oi' 

 which is the interval during which the moon makes a complete; 

 revolution round the earth. 



Four weeks exceeding this interval by no more than sixteen 

 hours, that period of time has been also called a month. Accord- 

 ing to Blackstone, this is the legal sense of the term, unless 

 a different meaning be expressly given to it. A lease for twelve 

 months is a lease for forty-eight weeks.* 



VI. THE TEAK. 



72. This is the largest of the chronometric units, and is con- 

 sequently that by which all long periods are expressed. 



73. What is a TEAK ? To most persons it may seem that such 

 a question is superfluous, forasmuch as every one must very well 

 know what a year is. If we press for an answer, and sift such 

 as are given, the matter will not, however, prove to be so plain 

 and so easy. 



Some may reply that it is the interval of time during which 

 the sun makes a complete revolution of the heavens. 



Others will say that it is the interval determined by the 

 periodical recurrence of the seasons. 



The question would be stripped of part of its difficulty if these 

 two intervals were the same. But they are not. If it be replied 

 that their difference is not great, we may rejoin that the difference, 

 however small it may be, will become great by accumulation, and 

 that when the question relates to centuries it may be such as to 

 throw the two definitions into utter discordance. 



In explaining the circumstances attending the diurnal unit, we 

 showed that one essential condition attending it was, that it 

 should be invariable ; in other words, that every succeeding day 



* Blackstone, ii. chap. 9. 

 154 







