The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1890-03-27
ALMANACS OF LONG AGO.
SOME OF THE MILE POST REC
ORDS OF ANCIENT HISTORY.

Their Origin and Growth-Dating Back
Over Three Thousand Years-Early Styles
and Devices-Built to Suit the Tastes of
the Day.
The invention of the almanac was the
beginning of history, in the sense that
history is philosophy teaching by ex-
ample. Previous to that important and
convenient revelation, there was practi-
cally no basis Of comparison, no process
of marking the course of time, no means
of connecting the past with the present
and the present with the future.
The art of calculation, the whole great
system of mathematics, had its origin in
the pebble device, used to count sheep
by dropping a pebble in a basket for
each one as it passed until an entire
flock got by, then enumerating another
flock in the same way, and finally de-
termining the relative numbers of the
two by alternately taking pebble from
each basket until one was exhausted.
Next came the chalk marks, or straight
lines in blocks of five, the last being
drawn across the other four at an angle,
which plan is still largely employed
then the plan of two notched sticks-the
first double entry idea-was evolved
then came the digit system, or counting
in fives and tens with the fingers; and
finally the Arabic notation, with its ten
symbols or figures, superseded all other
methods.
PEBBLES AND CHALK MARKS.
1t is easy to understand that, while
the world was thus slowly learning how
to count, it could have no history. There
was no way to record events or to ad-
just and combine facts. The pebbles and
chalk marks and notched sticks only an
swered the crude purposes of life that
took no account of yesterday or to NOR
row. 1t was not possible for the aver
age mind to have any conception OF
dates or periods, distances or localities.
The relation of what was to what had
been and what might be did not enter
into the prevailing order of thought and
feeling. One day was as thousand
years, and thousand years as one day.
There was no intellectual growth, nc
permanent escape from the right of saw
agery, SO long as the gift of measuring
space and time was absent: men began
to be men only when they acquired that
advantage, and were able to connect the
experiences of one generation with the
necessities of the next, or, ia other words
to grasp the doctrine of accumulation
which is the source of all development
| When they came to see that the whole
was greater than any part, and that a
part was nothing unless rooted to the
whole, they We're placed in the way OF
harmonizing themselves with their en-
vironment and accomplishing sane and
useful results. Time was invested with
appreciable value, and the procession OF
the days took on a practical purport
Wings were provided for intelligence.
The Gagged reason of the race secured the
soaring privilege, and its horizon widened
with every effort. First the pebbles were
cast away, then the notched sticks, then
the digital device; and thus the dawn oi
history slowly but surely approached.
EARLY ALMANACs.
The first almanacs-that is to say
the first histories-were of Arabian ori
gin, and reflected the local genius of the
people in very striking way. They
served as models in other countries fol
hundreds of years. The oldest known
copy of such work is preserved in the
British Museum, and dates back to the
time of Rameses the Great, of Egypt
who lived 1,200 years before the birth OF
Christ. 1t is written ON papyrus, in red