APRIL DAYS 83 
world. According to the Venerable Bede, the 
point was first accurately determined at a coun- 
cil held at Jerusalem about a. D. 200, when, 
after much profound discussion, it was finally 
decided that the world’s birthday occurred on 
Sunday, April 8,—that is, at the vernal equi- 
nox and the full moon. But April is certainly 
the birth-time of the season, at least, if not of 
the planet. Its festivals are older than Chris- 
tianity, older than the memory of man. No sad 
associations cling to it, as to the month of June, 
in which month, says William of Malmesbury, 
kings are wont to go to war, — “Quando solent 
reges ad arma procedere,” — but it contains the 
Holy Week, and it is the Holy Month. And 
in April Shakespeare was born, and in April he 
died. 
