IV. MONTH's are either Aftronomical or Civil. The Aftronomical Month is either Lunar or Solar. The Lunar Month is that Space of Time which the Moon takes up in performing its Course through the Zodiac. The Solar Month is that Space in which the Sun goes through one Sign, or 30 Degrees of the Zodiac. The Civil or Kalendar Month confists of a certain Number of Days, according to the Laws or Cuftoms of different Countries. The English, and most other European Nations, make 12 Months in a Year, viz. January, February, March, April, May, June, July, Auguft, September, October, November, December. The Number of Days in each Month is found by the following Canon. Thirty Days hath September, for Saturn, merely because of the like founding of the Name. Vid. Verftegan's Reftitution of decayed Intelligence, V. YEARS V. YEARS are again either Aftronomical or Civil. The Aftronomical Year is either Solar or The Solar Year is Siderial, or Tropical. The Siderial Year is the Space that flows while the Sun is paffing from any fixed Star, to the fame again. It confifts of 365 Days, 6 Hours, 9 Minutes, 14 Seconds. The Tropical Year is the Space that flows while the Sun paffes from either Tropic, or from any Point of the Ecliptic, to the fame again. This is fomewhat fhort of the Siderial Year, because every Point of the Ecliptic goes backwards about 50 Seconds of a Degree in a Year, (as was fhewed Part II. Chap. 3.) thereby meeting the Sun, as it were; which makes the Sun return to the fame Point of the Ecliptic, about 20 Minutes of Time before he arrives at the fame fixed Star, where that Point of the Ecliptic was when the Sun was in it a Year ago. The Tropical Year therefore is fhorter than the Siderial Year, and confifts of 365 Days, 5 Hours, 48 Minutes, 57 Seconds. The Lunar Year is either Wandering or The The Wandering lunar Year confifts of 12 lunar fynodical Months; which wants 11 Days of the folar Year. This Year is used by the Turks and other Mahometans ; so that the Beginning of their Year is per petually shifting through the several Seasons, and it revolves in 32 Years. The Fixed Lunar or Lunæ-folar Year confifts fometimes of 12 fynodical Months, fometimes of 13; as will be fhewn afterwards. The Civil Year is either Julian or Gregorian. The Julian is fo called from Julius Cafar, by whom it was fixed 40 Years before Chrift. It confifts of 365 Days; only every fourth Year, which is called Biffextile, or Leap Year, confifts of 366. The additional Day is now put to the End of February, so that February has that Year 29 Days: But in the ancient Roman Calendar the fixth of the Calends of March, answering to our 24th of February, was that Year reckoned twice over; from whence is the Name Biffextile. The Gregorian Year is fo called from Pope Gregory XIII. by whofe Order the Calendar was reformed A. D. 1582. It begins at prefent II Days before the Julian. Every centeffimal or hundredth Year from the Birth of Chrift, as 1500, 1600, 1700, &c. is Leap Year, according to the Julian Account; but according to the Gregorian, it is always a common Year, except when the Number of Centuries can be divided by 4 without a Remainder, for then it is Leap Year. Thus the Years 1600 and 2000 are Leap Years; but the intermediate centeffimal Years are common ones. So that the Gregorian Year, or New Style, which is now generally used, gets before the Julian, or Old Style, 3 Days in 400 Years. * To know if it be Leap Year. Leap Year is given, when four will divide The Cent'ries compleat, or odd Years befide. T CHA P. II. Of CALENDAR s. HE Calendar (in Arabic All-Manach, from whence is the English word Almanack) is a Table, in which all the Days of the Year are fet down fucceffively; with Holy-Days, both ecclefiaftical and civil, Terms, &c. marked in their proper Places. This Table of Days is divided into 52 Weeks, of 7 Days each, and I Day over, by Means of the firft Seven Letters of the Alphabet A, B, C, D, E, F, G, perpetually recurring throughout the Year. A ftands against the ift of January. B against the 2d, and fo on to December the 31ft, which has A joined to it. The Letter which stands against all the Sundays of the Year, is called the Dominical or Sunday Letter, for that Year. If January the 1st be Sunday, A is the Dominical Letter, which ftands against every Sunday throughout the Year, except it be Leap Year; for then the Dominical Letter changes at the End of February, moving a Letter backwards: fo that G will be the Sunday Letter during the Remainder of the Year; for the Dominical Letter always fhifts backwards, as from A to G, from G to F, and from K 2 |