The Hazlehurst signal., 1884-02-07
LEAP.YEAI.


The peculariiy of Lcap-Ycar Is the
peculiar length of the month OF Fcbru-
AIRY. so the history OF the origin of Leap
Year i closely connected with n history
oi February. and this takes III back al
most To the origin of the year itself.
AS year is the time of the earth :
revolution round the sun. il should con
tain j6j DAYS and a fraction Of n day.
The ancient. having great respect for
the moon. wanted the year tO be- ~ubdi-
Nided into parts corresponding with her
revolution round the earth. The dilli-
Guilty of thus adjusting the months or
moons revolutions, 81 ~ to lc together
equal 90 the carthS revolutions round
the sun. gave rise to Fc ruiry itself,
anil To many ot the change, which the
month has under one. he ore standing
at Is present number of DAYS. Rom
u'us division oi the year i the first
European one known. aud the one upon
which our own division is based. lie
had ten months. whose total lcngth was
3Oi DAYS. How he patched up tie year
with odd dayS, 81 ~ to make IL any
thing like correct, we can no, ,ay. In
decd, unlc we bear in mind the legcnd
OF his being sucklcd by awulf, IL i tilli-
cult tn understand how RomuluS could
have gone >o far OF the mark n sixty
ono dayS-an error which would have
soon landed him in hopeless confusion.
To remedy the mistake. Numa Pom
pilius. the second King of Rome, added
two months to the year. nancy, Janu-
AIRY and February. January, named
after the cod Janus. who presided over
tho beginning Of cycryth ne, was made
the first month Of the year. Ecbruarc
i. in Latin. To- cNpiatc. In this month
the cNpiatory sacrifices were performed;
and, as the sins of the year were, very
naturally. a'oucd for after they had been
committed. February was made the last
oi the months. Ii was brought 10 it,
present position of second month by
the DccemvriS, 200 years later. and for
reasons best known TO themselves.
But though February. rs well rs Jan
wary, had been added. the year was no;
long enough vet. Ills months Numa
made to correspond with the moons
revolutions, thus making the days in
the wear 3ji. or. in regard to the earth's
revolution, eleven days too short. The
canceling of this error lei to the first
change i'm February. Though the
Romans desire was To preserve. -
far Us possible, the months of
tie length OF the moons rcyo-
lu,ions, il was found necessary TO
alter one Of them. Why February was
chosen in particular for this pur-
pose is question which Is
wrapped in mystery. Perhaps. since
February was the deity ~ the dead. the
necessary laccratiOn was inflicted ON
February. because over II the Genius of
Death presided. February was, at all
events, changed, and the mode of alter
alton WAS rather clumsy one. Its
clumsiness may be- imagined when We
state that the alteration in the month
was made every alternate year by the
addition of whole month. called an
intcrcalayy month, and which waS
placed not at the end of February. but
between the 9th and 18th days of Feb
ruary. This addition was found to be
too great, rs the year. instead ot being
ten DAYS short, was now one day too
long. This latter mistake was also
rcctiicd. and by mode of correction
even more clumsy, II that were pos
siblc. than the On' just referred To.
After this. every error having been cor
rcctcd, the year was of almost Is correct
a length ~ il is now. that Is, aS correct
rs the average. for IL was of different
lengths at different times, but always
came round To the correct length every
twcuiy-four years. And ii every man
had done his duty no doubt this arrange
ment of the year would have been pre-
served till now. and there might be no
such Leap Year as we have at all. But
the alternating. clumsy and irregular
system would not work, and from its
ruins arose the present one.
The management OF The calendar was
i'm the hands of the Pontifls OF Rome.
They could alter the lengths of the in
icrcalary months as they pleased. aud
the possession of this power was found
10 be exceedingly convenient. They
heightened the extra month when they
wished themselves or their friends To
remain n little longer ia any magistc-
rial Office. and shortened the months II
they wanted To hasten the annual cleo
tiOns. They acted the more shamcfully
in this. because they betrayed trust
given them BY the ignorant common
pcople. who had no knowledge Of the
complicated calendar. and who could
not tell whether those in charge man
AGED IL rightly or not. To such an cx-
tent did these Pontiils carry their mis-
conduct that the calendar became utter
Ia confused. so that by Julius Caesars
time the winter months were In the au-
iumn and the autumn months in the
summer, and so on. Things had come
10 a or sis. something must be done. and
this was how matters were put right:
Between November and December oil
the current year Julius Caesar intro
duced two months-in addition To- the
intercalary month in the middle Of Feb
ruary-and made that year contain in
all four hundred and forty-iiye days.
The historical name Of this eNtraordi-
nary wear is 1.-The Year OF Confusion"
or, more properly. 1.-The Last Year OF
Confusion was the year II. I. 10.
This year of Cmsar's completely recti-
fed all former errors.
The difficulty now arose how to make
all subsequent years of the proper
length. and IL was Cesar's attempt to
do this that brought about the intro
duction of Leap-Year. Previous to this,
as we have noticed, the months wero
made to correspond rs nearly as possible
with the length Of the moons reyoiu-
tons. Cesar. however. being no luna
tic. abolished all reference TO the lunar
revolution. which reference had pro.
duced nearly all the confusion. and did
away with the intercalary months.
Tho mode Of arrangement which he
nov adopted was a very simple one;l