Evening star., 1935-12-29
Continued From First pase.)

mess that years would be required TO
untangle them.
CUPERFICIALLY, 1t all seems sim
~ pie and prosaic today. without the
perspective of the past. But with this
perspective the calendar hanging on
the wall-due to the labors OF the
astronomers of the Naval Almanac Of
fice-becomes one of the supreme ac-
complishments of the human intellect.
It is a little difficult that there are
not always years Of some sort-other-
wise than in retrospect. But there Is
grave doubt whether even such an ad-
vanced human type as the Gro
Magnon cave dweller, who inhabited
Western Europe not much more than
10000 years ago, actually was aware
that there was any orderly procession
of the seasons-at least such as could
be predicted In advance.
Admid the comparative luxury Of the
semi-Arctic Summer of the late Ice
Ages the elders Of q tribe probably
had a cynical suspicion, based on
years of experience, that the warm
sunshine and lush pastures where the
mammoth herds were grazing would
not last forever. Sooner or later, when
1t suited his cruel and capricious
fancy, the demon Of snow and ice
would blot 1t all out and there would
be time of cold and hunger. A wise
old Cro-Magnon might have shaken
his head sadly at the overconfidence
and wastefullnesS of the young folks.
But he never would have presumed to
predict when the demon would play
his ghastly prank. He probably did
not have the slightest idea in Mid
summer that after number Of dark
nesses equal to nine times the number
of fingers on his two hands-that Is,
three months-the frosts he had
known of old would return again. He
couldn't have counted that high. II
he could have made such prediction,
on the basis of the facts at his dis
posal, he would have been one Of the
greatest intellects the human race has
known. He was in about the position
of a present day economist trying to
predict the times Of economic depres-
sions and revivals. Only on an en-
pirical basis could he have predicted
that darkness would follow light on
any particular day. But 1t had hap
pened so often in his experience that
he was rather confident about 1t.
In the course of few hundred gen.
erations man made great progress,
still on purely empirical basis. Cen
tury after century it was observed
that there not only was regular oc-
currence of Summer and Winter, but
that the madness producing moon
lady led very orderly life. There
were new moons at regular intervals,
which appeared beyond the power OF
the magicians to regulate. and the
changes of the seasons were related
to the intervals between these slender
crescsnts.
GO CRUDE moon calendars were
constructed. Such, more or less
refined, are the calendars Of nearly
all primitive peoples. The North
American Indian was living by moon
calendars when white men first came
in contact with him. Europe was on
moon time, for the most part, until
well after the start Of the Christian
era. The events Of the Old Testa-
ment were dated by moontime-a very
refined and exact moontime, most
critics now agree. In fact, the whole
basic structure Of human culture was
built up In framework Of moontime.
Had it been otherwise the task Of
DR.. Robertson and his associates would
be much simpler today. But history
has been written and traditions es-
tablished in terms of moontime, and
there's not much to be done about
it at this late date.
The moon, however, was bad time
piece-a sort of celestial tin watch.
1t was good enough for q generation
or so, but over q period Of centuries
there was such cumulative error
that the seasons became all messed
up and 1t might be Midsummer by
the calendar while the snowdrifts Of
mid-January were piling up outside.
So, as human observation became
more and more exact, calendar makers
turned to more accurate timekeepers.
These were the sun and the nearer
stars. The concept Of the year as a
fixed period during which the sun
traversed certain path in the
heavens-rather than as the period
in which there were so many new
moons-arose. We owe 1t to the
Egyptians and the sun-worshipers Of
Asia Minor.
Nobody thinks Of q moon year any
more. Nineteen thirty-stx will be just
an ordinary sun year, its recurrent
phenomena and the exact instantS
Of its birth and death taken for
granted. But, like the vermiform ap-
pendix, or the buttons on q mans
sleeve, there are innumerable vestiges
of the old moon year incorporated
in it and there Is very little the as
tronomers can do to get them out.
TAKE, for example, Easter. 1t Is q
moon-dated festival, partly be-
cause the event it commentaries was
moon dated event. Easter is the
first Sunday after the fourteenth day
of the calendar moon, which falls on
or after the vernaT equinox, March 81.
But sometimes the fourteenth day Of
this moon is itself Sunday, In which
case it gives rise to strange comph-
cations. The date of Easter, in order
to reduce the occasions for such dis
putes to a minimum, Is determined, !,
not by the actual moon, but by the
so-called ecclesiastical moon," with
slight Irregularities In the actual moon
movements, which cannot be exactly
predicted from year to year, elm
mated in the calculations.
This sometimes leads to strange re-
suits. In 1923, for example, the
Christian world was celebrating the
festival of resurrection before the sup
posed anniversary of the crucifiMon
as determined by calculations Of the
movements Of the real as opposed to
the fictitious moon. In 1885 there is
almost a months leeway, with Easter
rr1