120 THE AKCIIAIC MATA INSCRIPTIONS. 



two broad states of mankind. The very attempt to construct one is the first step 

 toward evolution from savagery, and a completed calendar of any kind is proof that the 

 transition has been accomplished. In the savage state, where there are no business 

 obligations to be punctually discharged, no civic or religious ceremonies to be observed 

 at fixed times, no fiscal regulations, no registers, no history — nothing, in short, requiring 

 perfect accuracy of date — there is no necessity for more comprehensive or intricate 

 divisions of time than the natural system of new moons and seasons. But the affairs 

 of men will not forever conform themselves to the returns of the seasons or the changes 

 of the moon. With increasing intelligence there will arise occasion for marking sub- 

 or super-annual and inter-lunar dates, and of this necessity will in time be born an 

 artificial method of measuring time, more exact and systematic than the natural one. 

 The mere existence of such a method implies civilization. 



It would not be rash to assert that chronology enters more generally and extensively 

 into the lives and affairs of a people than any other single factor of their civilization. 

 Their actions are regulated by it throughout the whole range of economies — domestic, 

 industrial, social, religious, and political. Deprive the world of the hour-glass, sun- 

 dial, clock and chronometer, the common and nautical almanac, the counting-house, 

 chronological and church calendars, and there would quickly ensue a confusion that 

 would totally disorganize home life, labor, society, business, religion and government, 

 if it did not destroy civilization itself; for such a deprivation would be the loss of the 

 principal means by which mankind have worked their way up from savagery. 



Bearing in mind this conception of the vital importance of the calendar to a civilized 

 state, ought it excite our wonder that a people who probably realized that importance 

 more vividly than we, should have utilized temple and stela and altar to furnish the 

 public necessary chronological data and perpetuate a discovery so laboriously achieved % 

 On the contrary, considering all the conditions, I think we should regard it as the 

 most sensible and beneficent thing the rulers could have done. The result proves the 

 wisdom of their course, for without these inscriptions all knowledge of their calendar 

 would practically be lost, while the least reflection will reveal the utility of it. The 

 art of printing in any of its forms was unknown, and with their elaborate graphic 

 system books must have been of a cost precluding their purchase except by the very 

 wealthy — if indeed their possession was not forbidden to all but rulers and priests. 

 Hence, probably, there were few or no citizens outside the rich and privileged classes 

 who had almanacs or chronologies of their own. Yet the necessity for them w r as, to a 

 degree, the same as with us to-day. Housewives, husbandmen, merchants, travelers, 

 money-lenders, tax-gathers, priests, devotees, students, statesman, magistrates — every 

 one from the veriest peon to the supreme ruler — had each a special and all a general 

 interest in knowing the current day, month and year, when some certain other day 

 would occur or had occurred, what ahaus, katuns, or cycles had passed since some 

 specified event, or must pass before some stated conjuncture — and the thousand and 



