"8S Mechanical Philosophy. [Chap. I. 



the several planetary bodies; and new light and 

 aid poured in on every side, from the geometrician 

 and the artist, as well as from the immediate in- 

 quirer in this sublime science. 



Under this head it is proper to mention the in- 

 troduction of the New or Gregorian Style of chro- 

 nology into Great Britain in 1752. In 1.582 pope 

 Gregory XIII, finding perplexity to arise in the 

 computation of time, from some errors in the 

 Julian Calendar, which, antecedently to that pe- 

 riod, had been used throughout Christendom, 

 thought proper to order the formation and adop- 

 tion of a new style of reckoning. The astronomers 

 and mathematicians whom he summoned to Rome 

 for this purpose, after spending several years in 

 investigating the subject, and adjusting the prin- 

 ciples of another system, produced what has been 

 since called the Gregorian Calendar. In form- 

 ing this method of computation ten days were an- 

 ticipated or taken away from the old Calendar, and 

 a plan attempted for maintaining a greater degree 

 of accuracy, by a proper distribution of Epacts 

 through the year. The Gregorian Style, thus 

 formed, was soon adopted by all the catholic 

 states, and in most of the protestant countries, be- 

 fore the commencement of the eighteenth century. 

 In Britain, however, and her dependencies, and in a 

 few other protestant states, the Julian or Old Style 

 was not given up for a number of years after- 

 wards. In 1 752, however, by an act of the British 

 parliament, the Gregorian Calendar was adopted ; 

 and, at the same time, the Ecclesiastical Year, 

 which had before commenced on the 25th of March, 



