would perhaps be the most observable of such circumstances. Accordingly the TρоTai neλiolo, the turnings of the sun, are used repeatedly by Hesiod as a mark from which he reckons the seasons of various employments. "Fifty days," he says, "after the turning of the sun, is a seasonable time for beginning a voyage*." The phenomena would be different in different climates, but the recurrence would be common to all. Any one of these kinds of phenomena, noted with moderate care for a year, would show what was the number of days of which a year consisted; and if several years were included in the interval through which the scrutiny extended, the knowledge of the length of the year so acquired would be proportionally more exact. Besides those notices of the sun, which offered exact indications of the seasons, other more indefinite natural occurrences were used; as the arrival of the swallow (xeλidwv) and the kite (IKTIV.) The birds, in Aristophanes's play of that name, mention, as one of their offices, to mark the seasons; Hesiod similarly notices the cry of the crane as an indication of the departure of winter3. Among the Greeks the seasons were at first only summer and winter (θερος and χειμων), the latter 4 Ηματα πεντηκοντα μετα τροπας ἠελίοιο Ες τελος ελθοντος θέρεος. 5 Ideler, i. 240. Op. et Dies, 661. χειμων and including all the rainy and cold portion of the year. The winter was then subdivided into the eap, and the summer, less definitely, into epos and όπωρα. Twра. Tacitus says that the Germans knew neither the blessings nor the name of autumn, " Autumni perinde nomen ac bona ignorantur." Yet harvest, herbst, is certainly an old German word. In the same period in which the sun goes through his cycle of positions, the stars also go through a cycle of appearances belonging to them; and these perhaps were employed at as early a period as the sun in determining the exact length of the year. Many of the groups of fixed stars are readily recognised, as exhibiting always the same configuration; and particular bright stars are singled out as objects of attention. These are observed, at particular seasons, to appear in the west after sunset; but it is noted that when they do this, they are found nearer and nearer to the sun every successive evening, and at last disappear in his light. It is observed also, that at a certain interval after this, they rise visibly before the dawn of day renders the stars invisible; and after they are seen to do this, they rise every day at a longer interval before the sun. The risings and settings of the stars under these circumstances, or under others which are easily recognised, were, in countries where the sky is usually clear, employed at an early period, to mark the seasons of the year. 7 Eschylus makes Prometheus mention this among the benefits of which he, the teacher of arts to the earliest race of men, was the communicator. 8 Thus, for instance, the rising of the Pleiades in the evening was a mark of the approach of winter. The rising of the waters of the Nile in Egypt coincided with the heliacal rising of Sirius, which the Egyptians called Sothis. Even without any artificial measure of time or position, it was not difficult to carry observations of this kind to such a degree of accuracy as to learn from them the number of days which compose the year; and to fix the precise season from the appearance of the stars. A knowledge concerning the stars appears to have 1 Ουκ ἦν γαρ αυτοῖς ουτε χειματος τεκμαρ, * Ideler (Chronol. i. 242) says that this rising of the Pleiades took place at a time of the year which corresponds to our 11th May, and the setting to the 20th October, but this does not agree with the forty days of their being "concealed," which, from the context, must mean, I conceive, the interval between their setting and rising. Pliny, however, says, “Vergiliarum exortu æstas incipit, occasu hiems; semestri spatio intra se messes vindemiasque et omnium maturitatem complexæ. (H.N. xviii. 69.) The autumn of the Greeks, oπpa, was earlier than our autumn, for Homer calls Sirius ảστηp óñwpivos, which rose at the end of July. been first cultivated with the last-mentioned view, and makes its first appearance in literature with this for its object. Thus Hesiod directs the husbandman when to reap by the rising, and when to plough by the setting of the Pleiades". In like manner Sirius", Arcturus", the Hyades and Orion', are noticed. By such means it was determined that the year consisted, at least, nearly, of 365 days. The Egyptians, as we learn from Herodotus', claimed the honour of this discovery. The priests informed These methods were employed to a late period, because the Greek months, being lunar, did not correspond to the seasons. Tables of such motions were called παραπηγματα.—Ideler, Hist. Untersuchungen, p. 209. 13 ii. 4. 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 |