Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-02-13

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and If any one can finish the quotation,
it is more than the present writer can!
No. Julius Caesar was a sensible man,
whatever may be said of his morals.
In the Julian calendar. promulgated
January |. b. e.. Is, the months con-
sisted alternately OF thirty-one and
thirty days, except February which. in
non-leap years, had twenty-nine. The
additional day, every four years. was
obtained by repeating the 25th tsexto
calendas-siXth day before the Calends
of March, whence the name "bisex-
tile" given to The year of 500 days.
BY the way, the irtercalary day still,
appears in the Ecclesiastical calendar
itself 4 fearful and wonderful affair
in its oil place. between the oath and
18th of February. Tor the jingle afore-
said we have to thank Augustus, who.
noting that the month Quintilis had
been renamed July in honor of his I'M
Gle. insisted tina. the next month
ScNtiliS-should be named August, and
alas for human VGnity.-that 1t
should contain a like number of days.
comLlon sense to the contrary not
outstanding. For. by this rearrange-
ment, he not only upset the orderly
sequence Of the calendar but left him
self with a superiluous day on his
hands, which With grim humor. he alb
stracted from February. the month
that could least afford it-thereby eX-
employing a faVliliar seriptural die
tum.
rs for the internal ARA rgement Of
the Roman monta, he left it as he
TO- a
matter, with three land marks. Cal
ends, Nones and Ides the date being
calculated with reference to its posi-
ton anterior 70 one of these points,
rs seen above in the Roman equiva-
lent for February %. These land
marks, how ever. varied in the different
months. as every Schoolboy used to
know-thc past tense is used advisedly
by virtue of the stirring rhyme:
March, July, October, May
Make Nones the seventh, Idcs the fif-
tcenth day.
In the other months MONIES fell on the
fifth and ldes on the thirteenth. The
Calen1s were always the first.
GREGORY'S CORRECTION.
julius Caesars year was a vast inn
provement on those that had gone be-
fore. 1t was however, too long by IL
minutes II seconGs-a small matter
per Sc, ana one the results of which
the Russians stjll acquiesce In without
perceptitle Inconvenience. But as
tronomers are fussy folk, and when,
in 1852. the error had resulted in a ret
repression of the equinox to the extent
of ten days. they decided something
XII took the matter in hand. Times
had changed since his namesake, Saint
Gregory. had SO suppressed learning in
Rome that Paul !, in answer to a re-
quest of Pepin for books. had sent
what he could find"-to wit, an anti
pional. a grammar, and the works OF
Donysius Areopagiticus. The Refor-
nation had stirred even the Roman
curia. and the CIR egorian Calendar was
introduced with its notifications in
the matter of leap year. which re-
duced the error in the solar year to one
day in $500 years-at which rate it Will
last our time. as Louis Nv cynlcally
remarked of iancien It CINE.
To the laynan it would seem that
the Gale NEAR is net bad institution
as it stands-wasn't it Mohammed who
said that all innovation is error, and
all error leads to hell fire? Eut the
MohamaeGans still use lunal calcn-
oar, with chaotic results. SO let the
astronomers have their fling, and it is
to be hoped that cur posterity in the
ycs.r 5000 A. d. may be properly CRATE
ful. In the meantime. If they succeed
il putting Thirty days hath Septem-
NJ of
they will--pace Augustus of blessed
memory-place their contemporaries
under a debt Of gratitude which the
most hardened laudator temporis aeti
VIII hardly DISPUTE or depreciate.-Ju
han de Kestel- Haakin in \. \. Even
ing Post.