Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1860-03-03
Mean Year.


days this year leap year occurs every fourth
year, and is so called because it leaps over a
day more than does any other year. 1t is al
so called bisextile, from the Latin Lfs, twice,
and seFtas, sixth--meaning that the sixth of
the calends of March Corresponding to the
24th of February) was reckoncd twice every
| fourth year by the intercalution of day.
The necessity for leap year arises from the
fact that the solar year docs not correspond
exactly with the civil year, in consequence of
its not ending exactly with q given day, but
with fraction of day. If it were not for
this arrangement Christmas in course of time
would be in midsummer and the fourth of July
in the depth of winter.
The true year consists of the time it takes
for the earth to make one revolution around
the sun, which is determined by its coming
back to the same point in the zodiac from
which it started, aud this is accomplish
ed in three hundred and sixty-Gve days and
nearly Sl& hours; butas the calendar must
consist of complete days, these six hours arc
/ omitted; and in four years they make up
! whole day, which one is added to the year,
! making what is called leap year This,
! however, is not strictly correct; for it is as
ccrtaincd by accurate calculations that solar
year is exactly 365 days, hours, 4S mmu-.
Y,
! ting on the six hours we add | 1lminutes 124
! seconds in four years. This in the course of
! 1881 years would amount to twcnty-four houls,
| or complete day. Every year the number
! of which is divisiblc by four without n remain
der leap year, except the last year of the
century, which is a leap year only when divi-
slblc by 400 without remainder. Thus the
year 1900 will not be leap year.
| The Roman year originally had but ten
months, as may be seen in the meaning of the
name December, which is "tenth month'-
! March was the first month of the year in tho
time of Romulus, and December was the last;
but Numa Pompilas who know astronomy bet
ter, added January and February.
! While Rome's great founder made the times his
care,
Ten months he chose to constitute the year.
/ But Numus, better skilled in astral lore,
To ROmulus months adjoincd two more.
The Egyptians were the first who approxi-
mated to the full length of the year, which
they made to consist of three hundred and
SIXTY days. Afte wards they added Ave days,
as was done by Thalcs one OF the seven wise
men of the Greeks, Jews, Syrians, Ethiopl-
ans, Romans, PersianS, and Arabs all had
years Of different lengths.
The day on which the year commences is
also different in different countries, but in all
it is held in great vCncration. Nhe Jewish
historical year commences with the now moon
near the vornnl equinox, (Alarch b. and tn,
civil year with the new moon near the autum-
nal equinox The Mahomcdans begin their
year on the day when the sun enters Aries
the Pcrsians in the month which answers to
our June; the Chinese and Indians with the
first new moon which happens in March and
the McXicans on the 23d of February at
| which time the verdWc in that country be-
gins to appear. William the Comqucror hav-
ing been crowned the first day of January,
gave occasion to the English to begin their
year on that day, in order to make it cores
pond with the most remarkable date in their
history.
/ Though the historical years begin in Eng
land on the festival of the Circumcision, or
the first day of January, on which day the
German aud Italian year begins, yet the civil
! or legal year did not commence till the day
of the Annuncation of the Virgin, the Goth
of March. The part of the year between
those terms was usually expressed in both
these ways either 1880 or 1880. But
by the act altering the style, the civil year now
begins with the LIST of January. The old
style followed the Julian method of commit
ing the year by the calendar established by
Julius Caesar, in which every fourth year con
slsts OF 366 days and the other years of 365
This Julian arrangement of time makes, as
We have seen, eleven minutes and some sec
onds in year too much. Pope Gregory XIII
reformed the caendpr by retrcnrhiMg ten days
A III October, 1882, in order to bring back the
vernal equinox to the same day as at the Coun-
Gil of Nice, A. d., 325 The Reformation
was adopted by act of Parliament in Great
Britain in l75l, by which eleven days in Sep
tcmbcr, l7o2, were rctrenchcd, and the third
day was reckoncd the fourteepth This mode
OF reckoning is called new style.
A FEARFUL CALCULATIONS his work
on unfulfllcd prophecy, Mr. Labaugh advan-
ces the theory that the inhabitants of the new
earth are not to be sick, and that they are to
live generally 900 years, and to increase ac-
cordngly. Some patent mathematical gent
us, taking this as a basis of calculation, est-
mates at the end of one thousand years the
Jews alone would number "more than ,024,-
900 900, 600, 900 900 900, 900, 600 900 which
would be more than 3,410,000, 900, ,000,0O0,- ;
100000 on each square mile of the earth 5
surface or 5,0U0,0U0, 600, 900 ,00UOUU on
each acre, and more than 900, 900, ,000,000,-
900 on each square yard"
BY the time Mr. Labaugh is able to read
the above figures he Will probably find reason
to abandon his theory. The total number of
Jews is now but from four to six millions, or
less than one hundred and fftieth of the
oarth's inhabitants. If we make a corrcspon-