COMMON THINGS THE ALMANACK. 



Number. 26. Epact. 27. Used to determine the date of Easter. 

 28. Amount of separation of fictitious from real moon. 29. Limits 

 of variation of date of Easter. 30. Earliest possible. 31. Latest 

 le. 32. Paschal Moon. 



1. OF all books the Almanack is the most indispensable. So 

 constant is the need for it, that, unlike other books, it is not 

 deposited on the shelf, but lies ready at hand on the table. 

 This general and constant utility, which ought to have exempted 

 it from fiscal restriction, was precisely the circumstance which 

 marked it out for the fatal visitation of the Stamp Office, and 

 raised, thereby, for many years a barrier against its improvement. 

 The moment of its emancipation from the Chancellor of the 

 Exchequer having, however, at length arrived, it was indefinitely 

 multiplied, assumed a thousand shapes, was offered at prices 

 suiting all pockets, in dresses suiting all tastes, with accessories 

 and appendages adapted to the exigencies of all avocations, and 

 was sometimes even given gratuitously as a convenient vehicle for 

 the commercial announcements which accompanied it. 



One might imagine that a book thus so universally necessary 

 would be as universally understood ; nevertheless it may be fairly 

 questioned whether one in ten thousand of those who daily 

 consult it have any clear or definite notions of the import of even 

 those parts of it to which they refer, and it is beyond all doubt 

 that of many other parts they have no notion whatever. It has, 

 therefore, appeared to us that some explanatory notice of its 

 contents will not be unacceptable to our numerous readers. 



ALMANACK, or ALMANACK, is an Arabic term derived from the 

 word MANAH, to reckon. 



2. In the almanack the CALENDAR holds a prominent place, 

 so prominent indeed that the terms are sometimes used inter- 

 changeably. Nevertheless, Calendar has a more special and 

 limited application. The first day of the Roman months was 

 called CALENDS, and hence a table showing the successive days 

 of each month, and indicating the festivals and anniversaries 

 civil or religious, which fell upon them, came to be called THE 

 CALENDAR. 



It has been already explained in our Tract on " Time," that 

 the word MONTH has various senses. It may mean the moon's 

 periodic time, that is, the time it takes to make a complete revo- 

 lution round the earth. It also expresses the time which elapses 

 between two successive new moons. This is called a LUNAR. 

 MONTH, and sometimes a SYNODIC MONTH. In law, four weeks 

 are taken to be a month. The year consists of twelve unequal parts, 

 which are called CALENDAR MONTHS. These are the months which 

 have received the names with which every one is familiar. 



