COMMON THINGS THE ALMANACK. 



If, for example, the conjunction take place at 3 o'clock in the 

 afternoon, the interval of 15 hours since midnight belongs to the 

 old, and the remaining 9 hours, until the next midnight, to the 

 new moon. It is the custom, nevertheless, to call this the "first 

 day of the new moon," and not the "last day of the old moon." 

 Consequently, the "second day of the moon" is the day upon 

 which it completes the first twenty-four hours of its age and com- 

 mences the second twenty-four hours, and so on. 



It may be objected that this mode of expressing the moon's age 

 would lead to certain absurd consequences. It may happen, for 

 example, that the moment of new moon may be only a second 

 before midnight, in which case only one second of the entire day 

 will belong to the new moon, and the day will, nevertheless, be 

 called the " first of the moon." 



Notwithstanding this, the first day of the moon is the day upon 

 which the conjunction takes place, or the day upon which the new 

 moon commences, no matter how late in the day, no matter how 

 near its close the moment of such commencement may happen to be. 



20. By the day of "full" moon in the rule, is then to be 

 understood, not, as might be expected, the day upon which the 

 middle of the interval between new moon and new moon falls, but 

 the 14th day of the (ecclesiastical) moon's age ; that is, according 

 to what has been just explained, the day upon which that moon 

 terminates its 13th and begins its 14th, twenty-four hours. 



21. Thus it appears that the day of the full moon, by which 

 the date of Easter-day is fixed, is not only not that of the full 

 moon visible in the heavens, nor of the fictitious moon imagined by 

 astronomers to define the average place of the real moon, but it is 

 not even the day on which the fictitious ecclesiastical moon itself 

 is full. In fine, the use of the term " full" in the rule given in 

 the Book of Common Prayer is altogether incorrect, whatever 

 sense may be attached to the term moon, and the rule ought to be 

 expressed as follows : 



Find the day on or next after the list March upon which the 

 ecclesiastical moon attains the 14th day of its age. The Sunday 

 which next follows that day will be Easter-day. 



Now, provided that the ecclesiastical moon be understood, this 

 rule (after the explanation given above of the mode of expressing 

 the age of the moon) is clear and definite. 



It will be observed, that, according to the terms of the rule, if 

 the 14th day be Sunday, Easter-day must be the following 

 Sunday ; but the 21st of March may itself be the 14th day. 



It remains, therefore, only to explain the conditions which 

 define the fictitious object which we have here called the 



ECCLESIASTICAL MOON. 



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