| Show THE CALENDARS from the most casual glance at a or celestial globe one is led to associate the noble and sublime science of astronomy with shepherd life in the pastures of the newly created world the first human beings have very tory little society and all they saw from day to day y was their flocks grazing and frisking about them there abere were several signs however by means of which it if they were only observant observing vint they could have roughly calculated the flight of time thus the departure of the birds in the autumn and the fall of the leaves warned them of the approach of winter tal and ado fixed an epoch recurring with periodic regularity but in their wanderings in search of now new pastures the necessity of an unerring guide became of paramount importance and naturally the heavenly bodies came to be adopt adopted d as it a great compass or wondrous directing and date marking machine maoli lne fixing the regular periodic sow flow of time thus the hel heliacal lacal cisine of one certain star heralded the advent bithe of the shearing season while the appearance pe arance of the pleiades in thelast the east the seedtime and thus two gates dates of the utmost importance to a primitive and pastoral people came to be fixed and as in this simple astronomy we the shepherds traced the annals of the stare among their flocks and herds so go to in like manner they traced the history history of their flocks among the st stars arill thus the course couo of the sun came to lie amid sheePfold sheep told ill and ings at one time of they the year earthe the zodiacal odia oal constellation taurus the bull tee she lord of the herd marked where the be tether father of day was located at another time tile the ram the rooster master of the fold served to designate his position A the lion the terror of herdsmen was also placed in the sky together with the dreaded scorpion and besides these concomitants of the life of a shepherd he placed above hin him still dearer as aa 81 s such mob as the children of his household gemini gamin the virgin virgo theeart the ear of corn baioa virginia anu nu aft instruments of husbandry the plough and the flae sickle the b best po possible proof of how far the stars had entered into the life of man may be found in the worship of the sabiano of antiquity who adored the starry hosts boats as an infinito infinite god but this evoch boch of mystery evidently preceded the dawn of observation and the most important period in connection with the subject of time ceasur ing commenced when men began to turn the celestial sphere into a mighty rustic habitation modeled on the basis of their own immediate surroundings roun dings even the dog the type of watchfulness was trani translated slated to the abe geavene he avene the bright star sirius whose hella heliacal cai rising in the days of ancient egypt presaged the ovet overflowing flowing of the nile a periodic event of the greatest national importance thus from the earliest times the heavenly bodies in their seasons have been regarded as grand time measures but long before the stars stare had been observed for astrological or other purposes ahe the suh sun and moon more intimately con acted with mans existence came to be regarded as aa time marking ma chines and it is on the motions of these two celestial indies that all calendars have been based it would be reasonably expected that the su SUB a which to is the great source and supporter of life upon the earth and the regulator of the spasms seas ins would be generally adopted as a measurer of time but men were also struck by the constant and aad regular return ot of the phases of the moon and from this his fact they were led to use the moon as the basis for their calendar the year is purely lunar and consists of the period embraced by twelve revolutions of the moon around the earth or three hundred and fifty four and one third days the lers israelites elites never adopted the solar year not even when they lived so long in the land of egypt for we find them so go soon as they settled to la the promised land using the lunar u aar month and the lunar year the ancient jew lab ish year had only three hundred and fifty four days twelve days were added sometimes at the end of the year and sometimes a month of thirty days after the month adar in order to bring it into agreement with the solar year but the jewish calendar received a reform in the furth fourth century after the christian era and I 1 it to is this improved calendar which is used by the jews of our day for fixing their festivals and religious ceremonies it is extremely ingenious and is based on the course of the moon the year is composed of twelve lunar douthe mouthe when oom com monand of thirteen lunar mouths months when and these years yearn succeed each other in such a way that after a period of nineteen years the commencement of the jewish year arrives at the same epoch as the solar year the jewish year la Is therefore a lunar solar year and the civil year of this remarkable people in common with all oriental nation soom manceo with the new moon of september and the year of the now new moon in march the egyptians egyptian who reached a high state of civilization in the dim twilight of remote antiquity calculated the year as consisting of three hundred and sixty days day or twelve months month of thirty days ID in the pursuit of astrology that vain attempt to evolve the secret of the supposed mystic connection between the celestial bodies and the destiny of man the egyptians were unconsciously laying the groundwork of jhb sublime science of astronomy and ina in a period of continued observation they found that the year of three hundred and sixty days fell short of a true solar year by five days thin thia new year came into force and corn com menoid on the of february B 0 and this day was the beginning of the era of Na abon bonassar amr the year of three hundred and sixty five days was followed for a period of seven hundred and twenty three years but in the year 26 25 33 BO 0 a supplementary day was addea every four years and this year of three hundred and sixty five and ont one fourth days became a fixed year and was adopted by the romans when they conquered egypt this year was also adopted by the colts copts and the first year of the era of the martyrs commenced on the of august A D the greeks greek the he most cultured of the nations of antiquity were rather slow to turn their powers of tion to the sky they employed at first arro b diug frum from the egyptians and the babylonians the year of three hundred and sixty five days divided into twelve months of thirty days each month consisted of three decades deca desand and this is ib the sole example in ancient history of a week of ten days meton melon of athen 1 ein ing observed the summer solstice found that a period of nineteen solar years contained two hundred and thirty five lunati lu nations one exactly and that at the end of this period the sun and the moon returned to the same point in the heavens this discovery was eit so go important that an account of it was carved in letters of gold upon the temple of minerva and hence the origin of what is generally known as the tee golden number for the purposes of chronology the greeks counted the years by means of olymp lads the first olympiad occurred B C and the last in the year of the Car era the roman year as instituted by numa and regulated by the moon consisted of three hundred and fifty five days divided into twelve months of unequal length but this year of three hundred and fifty five days did not correspond to the periodic return of the in the time of julius casar the roman calendar had fallen into great disorder to correct this confusion csezar sought the assistance of Sool genes a distinguished astronomer of alexandria and it was decided that the civil year should con slat of three hundred and sixty five days six hours in other words that there should be three consecutive years of three hundred and sixty five days day and that the fourth contain three hundred and sixty six days the tb extra day being intercalated between the and the ot of february and as the was the sexto calen calendar das six cays prior to the first of march the additional any was called bis bia sexto calen calendar dap hence the origin of our word bissextile this change took place in the year 44 B 0 and to correct the disorders in the calendar it was necessary that the previous year should consist of tour lour hundred and forty five days the julian fearls year is still actually followed ay y the russians greeks and some oriental christians christiana the year as fixed by julius camar being fully eleven minutes longer than the true solar year another change was made in the 3 ear 1582 when pope gregory XIII ordered that thursday the ath of october 1582 should be followed by friday the of october chist this as it has been called the new style w was not adopted in england till the year 1752 the quarter days are christmas lady day midsummer and sol so when the new style came into operation these days were advanced so to speak eleven day dagand da yand thus became the ath of january april and july and the loth of october most moat important days in connection with stock and annuity business |
