COMMON THINGS THE ALMANACK. 



A similar circumstance occurred with respect to Moore's 

 Almanack, of which the sale was reduced in amount by the 

 omission of the column which assigned the effects produced by 

 the signs of the zodiac on human members. 



Another of the early almanacks which owed its immense circu- 

 lation to the same cause, was one published at Liege, under the 

 name of Matthew Laensberg, a canon of that city. " When we 

 speculate on human credulity," observes Arago, speaking of this 

 almanack, " we may be confident of success. It is in yain that, 

 from year to year, the events are in flat contradiction to the 

 predictions. The public does not the less resort to the famous 

 almanack, so true is the saying of La Fontaine : 



L'homme est de glace aux verites, 

 II est de feu pour le mensonge." 



Arago relates a curious accidental coincidence which gave the 

 Laensberg Almanack prodigiously increased vogue. In the Alma- 

 nack for 1774, there appeared a prediction that " one of the most 

 favoured ladies would play her last part in the month of April." 

 Now, it so happened, that in the month of April, Louis XY. was 

 attacked at Versailles with the small-pox, and the notorious 

 Madame Dubarry was expelled from the palace.* 



5. The religious anniversaries indicated in the calendar, con- 

 sisting principally of the days consecrated by the Church to the 

 commemoration of saints and martyrs, necessarily vary in different 

 Christian countries, according to the varying forms of the faith. 

 The personages recognised as saints in the Roman Church are at 

 least six times as numerous as the days of the year ; and 

 although the Greek Church does not recognise exactly the same 

 collection, their list is equally abundant. A selection has been 

 made by each branch of the Church, and the name of a saint 

 or martyr is appropriated to each of the three hundred and 

 sixty-five days ; and to such an extreme is this carried, that a 

 saint is even given to the intercalary day in bissextile years. 

 Thus, in the Roman Church, the intercalary day is appropriated 

 to St. Damien, and in the Greek branch to St. Cassian. 



The identification of the days of the year severally with the 

 names of canonised personages, will explain the familiar allusions 

 to the " Saints of the Calendar." 



In Protestant States, and more especially in England, this long 

 list of saints is greatly curtailed, all those whose canonisation 

 took place subsequently to the imputed corruption of the Church 

 being rejected. In Catholic countries, however, the names regis- 



* For a more recent specimen of the effect of such an accidental coinci- 

 dence occurring among ourselves, see our Tract on "Weather Prognostics." 

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