4-2 UNIVERSAL ERUDITION; 



"Which is of life in calculating the days, as 

 each letter or fign, that is once adopted to fig- 

 nify any particular day, conftantly denotes the 

 fame day throughout the year. 



VII. K folar month is the fpace of time that the 

 fun employs in pafilng through a fign of the Zo- 

 diac. The folar months are equal among them- 

 felves, and, according to the mean motion, each 

 folar month is equal to 30 days, 10 hours, 29 

 minutes, and 5 feconds. But this kind of month 

 cannot be ufed in the common affairs of life, as 

 we can there only count by whole days. A lunar 

 month is the fpace of time from one new moon 

 to another. The duration of a lunar month be- 

 ing 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, and 3 fe- 

 conds, cannot, for the fame reafon, be obferved in 

 common life. 



VIII. A folar year is the time in which the fun 

 runs through all the twelve figns of the Zodiac, 

 and is confequently compofed of twelve folar 

 months. But there are here two neceffary ob- 

 fervations to be made. The firft is, that the fo- 

 lar year, confiilingof 365 days, 5 hours, and 49 

 minutes, it cannot likewife be obferved in com- 

 mon life ; and great confufion would arife if 

 the year did not conftantly begin on the fame 

 day. The folar year, therefore, is reduced to 

 365 days only, and when the odd hours and mi- 

 nutes amount to a day, it is added to that year^ 

 which then con flits of 366 days. The fecond 

 pbfervation is, that when 365 is divided by 12, 



the 



