honour of this discovery. The priests informed him, he says, “that the Egyptians were the first men who discovered the year, dividing it into twelve equal parts; and this they asserted that they discovered from the stars." Each of these parts or months consisted of 30 days, and they added 5 days more at the end of the year, "and thus the circle of the seasons comes round." It seems, also, that the Jews, at an early period, had a similar reckoning of time, for the Deluge which continued 150 days (Gen. vii. 24,) is stated to have lasted from the 17th day of the second month (Gen. vii. 11) to the 17th day of the seventh month (Gen. viii. 4,) that is, 5 months of 30 days.

A year thus settled as a period of a certain number of days is called a Civil Year. It is one of the earliest discoverable institutions of states possessing any germ of civilization; and one of the earliest portions of human systematic knowledge is the discovery of the length of the civil year, so that it should agree with the natural year, or year of the seasons.

Sect. 3.-Correction of the Civil Year. (Julian Calendar.)

In reality, by such a mode of reckoning as we have described, the circle of the seasons would not come round exactly. The real length of the year is very nearly 365 days and a quarter. If a year of 365 days were used, in four years the year

would begin a day too soon, when considered with reference to the sun and stars; and in 60 years it would begin 15 days too soon, a quantity perceptible to the loosest degree of attention. The civil year would be found not to coincide with the year of the seasons; the beginning of the former would take place at different periods of the latter; it would wander into various seasons, instead of remaining fixed to the same season; the term year, and any number of years, would become ambiguous; some correction, at least some comparison, would be requisite.

We do not know by whom the insufficiency of the year of 365 days was first discovered; we find this knowledge diffused among all civilized nations, and various artifices used in making the correction. The method which we employ, and which consists in reckoning an additional day at the end of February every fourth or leap year, is an example of the principle of intercalation, by which the correction was most commonly made. Methods of intercalation for the same purpose were found to exist in the new world. The Mexicans added 13 days at the end of every 52 years. The method of the Greeks was more complex; (by means of the octaëteris or cycle of 8 years;) but it had the additional object of accommodating itself

14 Syncellus (Chronographia, p. 123), says, that according to the legend, it was King Aseth who first added the 5 additional days to 360, for the year, in the eighteenth century B. C.

to the motions of the moon, and therefore must be treated of hereafter. The Egyptians, on the other hand, knowingly permitted their civil year to wander, at least so far as their religious observances were concerned. "They do not wish," says Geminus 15, "the same sacrifices of the gods to be made perpetually at the same time of the year, but that they should go through all the seasons, so that the same feast may happen in summer and winter, in spring and autumn." The period in which any festival would thus pass through all the seasons of the year is 1461 years; for 1460 years of 365 days are equal to 1461 years of 365 days. This period of 1461 years is called the Sothic period, from Sothis, the name of the dog-star, by which their fixed year was determined; and for the same reason it is called the canicular period1.

Other nations did not regulate their civil year by intercalation at short intervals, but rectified it by a reform when this became necessary. The Persians are said to have added a month of 30 days every 120 years. The Roman calendar, at first very rude in its structure, was reformed by Numa, and was directed to be kept in order by the perpetual interposition of the augurs. This, however, was, from various causes, not properly done; and the consequence was, that the reckoning fell into utter disorder, in which state it was found by 15 Uranol. p. 33.

Julius Cæsar, when he became dictator. By the advice of Sosigenes, he adopted the mode of intercalation of one day in 4 years, which we still retain; and in order to correct the derangement which had already been produced, he added 90 days to a year of the usual length, which thus became what was called the year of confusion. The Julian Calendar, thus reformed, came into use, January 1, B. C. 45.

Sect. 4.-Attempts at the Fixation of the Month. THE circle of changes through which the moon passes in about thirty days, is marked, in the earliest stages of language, by a word which implies the space of time which one such circle occupies; just as the circle of changes of the seasons is designated by the word year. The lunar changes are, indeed, more obvious to the sense, and strike a more careless person, than the annual; the moon, when the sun is absent, is almost the sole natural object which attracts our notice; and we look at her with a far more tranquil and agreeable attention than we bestow on any other celestial object. Her changes of form and place are definite and striking to all eyes; they are uninterrupted, and the duration of their cycle is so short as to require no effort of memory to embrace it. Hence it appears to be more easy, and in earlier stages of civilization more common, to count time by moons than by years.

The words by which this period of time is designated in various languages, seem to refer us to the early history of language. Our word month is connected with the word moon, and a similar connexion is noticeable in the other branches of the Teutonic. The Greek word unv in like manner is related to μýn, which, though not the common word for the moon, is found in Homer with that signification. The Latin word mensis is probably connected with the same group".

The month is not any exact number of days, being more than 29 and less than 30. The latter number was first tried, for men more readily select numbers possessing some distinction of regularity. It existed for a long period in many countries. A very few months of 30 days, however, would suffice to derange the agreement between the days of the months and the moon's appearance. A little further trial would show that months of 29 and 30 days alternately, would preserve, for a considerable period, this agreement.

17 Cicero derives this word from the verb to measure; 66 quia mensa spatia conficiunt menses nominantur:" and other etymologists, with similar views, connect the above-mentioned words with the Hebrew manah, to measure, (with which the Arabic work almanach is connected.) Such a derivation would have some analogy with that of annus, &c., noticed above: but if we are to attempt to ascend to the earliest condition of language, we must conceive it probable that men would have a name for a most conspicuous visible object, the moon, before they would have a verb denoting the very abstract and general notion, to

measure.