COMMON THINGS TIME. 



accumulation of the effects of the erroneous length assigned to the 

 year, the Russian legal equinoxes are now twelve days in advance 

 of the real equinoxes. 



113. The influence which long continued usage exercises upon 

 the mind is such that we are always disposed to think, that what 

 has been long established has been so by the nature of things, 

 and therefore of necessity, and not at all by the arbitrary appoint- 

 ment of local and temporary authorities, or by the voluntary 

 choice of the people. Thus, who does not imagine that it is for 

 some natural and necessary reason that the year begins on the 

 1st of January ? January is the first of the series of twelve months, 

 and what can be more natural than to take its first day as the 

 commencement of the year? But why is January the first 

 month ? It is marked by no peculiar or universally observable 

 phenomenon. If the sun, on its first day, were seen to occupy 

 any remarkable position, as, for example, that which it has at 

 the equinox, or if the sun and moon were always found together 

 on that day, or if a conspicuous eclipse, or any other striking 

 phenomenon periodically presented itself on that day, a reason 

 would be found why January is the first month, and why 

 its first day is the first day of the year. But neither the month 

 nor the day is signalised by such phenomena, nor by any which 

 can be supposed to mark it by nature as the commencement of a 

 chronometric period. 



It might be imagined that at all events the first day of some 

 montli would be selected as the commencement of the year. No 

 reason, as it would appear, could induce people to begin the year 

 in the middle of a month, so that one part of that month should 

 be in one year and the remainder in the other. Nevertheless, 

 obvious as these considerations now appear, it is certain that they 

 have had no weight with mankind. Other considerations of 

 another order, exercising over the mind much more potent 

 influences, have predominated, and years, accordingly, with 

 different nations and in different ages, have had their commence- 

 ment fixed upon days whicli have no reference either to astro- 

 nomical phenomena, or the order or limits of the months. 



114. Religious anniversaries, as might naturally have been 

 expected, have played a prominent part in this chronological 

 element. Christmas Day, Easter Day, and the Festival of the 

 Annunciation, commonly called Lady Day, have been, in different 

 countries and at different ages, selected as the first day of the 

 year. Among the French, at the time of Charlemagne, the year 

 commenced on Christmas Day. It commenced on Faster Day 

 among the same people under the Capet monarchs, and this prac- 

 tice was very general in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In 



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