COMMON THINGS TIME. 



ber, 

 bion 



LSUO 



later; after another, three -quarters of a day later; and after four 

 years they would be an entire day later. Thus if spring began 

 in the first year on the 21st March, it would begin in the fourth 

 year on the 22nd March. In like manner it would begin in the 

 eighth year on the 23rd, in the twelfth, on the 24th, and so on ; 

 being one day later every fourth year. In 30 times four years 

 it would be a month later ; and in 182| times four years that is 

 in 730 years it would be just six months later, so that Spring 

 would commence on the 21st September, and Autumn on the 

 21st March. The first day of Summer would be 21st December, 

 and the first day of Winter would be 21st June. 



Such would be the ultimate effects ensuing from the adopti< 

 of a year of 365 days. ^^^^^~ 



The confusion, historical and chronological, which would ensue 

 from such a method of recording time must be obvious. If we 

 found any event recorded in remote times which might have been 

 affected by the season of the year at which it occurred, its date would 

 supply no immediate indication of that. For anything indicated 

 by the month in which it took place, it might have been in any 

 season whatever, Spring, Summer, Autumn, or Winter. It is true, 

 however, that the season might be discovered from the date, by 

 calculating backwards, and allowing a day for every four years. 



It is clear that after a period of four times 365 years that is 

 1460 years the seasons would return to the same days, having 

 in the interval commenced upon every day of the year from the 

 first to the last. 



76. This discordance between the year of 365 days and the 

 period of the seasons caused the former to be called the Vague 

 year ; the period of 1460 years, after which the seasons would 

 return to the same days, was called the SOTHIC TEEIOD, from 

 some supposed relation to the dog-star, called SOTHIS. 



77. However obvious were the objections attendant on the 

 adoption of the year of 365 days it was not without defenders 

 and partisans. The advantage claimed for it will, in our times, 

 appear curious. It was said that such a year would cause all the 

 festivals to fall successively upon every day in it, and would thus 

 sanctify the entire year ; just as if a Christian would at present 

 advocate it on the ground that Christmas would in the course of 

 fourteen or fifteen centuries fall upon every day in each season, of 

 spring, summer, autumn and winter ! 



78. The Greeks, as we have seen, first measured time by months 

 consisting alternately of 29 and 30 days, giving an average of 

 29| days, a very close approximation to the true mean length of a 

 lunation, and their year consisted of twelve such months. Such 

 a year, however, consisting of only 354 days, deviated from the 



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