Murray, chiefly green, chequed with black, purple, and red. Urquhart-chiefly green, with black, purple, white, and red. Rose-chiefly red, with small cheques of purple, green, and white. Colquhoun-green, purple, black, red, and white. To this list the names of other Scottish families who have adopted a peculiar set of tartan as a cognisance could be added, and probably the entire number of tartans now fabricated for indiscriminate sale is not fewer than a hundred. One of the most commonly ased patterns of tartan is that adopted by the 42d regiment-dark-green, chequed with purple. Some of what are called fancy tartans are gaudy, but not in good harmony or contrast of colour. As modernised and improved by the Highland regiments, the "belted plaid," worn as the philibeg or small kilt, with a separate drapery depending from the shoulder in imitation of the ancient garb, is one of the most picturesque and graceful costumes to be seen in any part of the world; and although it leaves the legs bare at and a short way above the knee, we are assured that it is by no means too meagre an attire for cold weather. A gentleman in Edinburgh informs us that he never catches cold when dressed in the kilt and bunting among his native Highland hills; but that he is always unwell after returning to town and donning the dress of the Lowlanders. Anciently, the Gael wore shoes or garments for the legs. The feet were only en occasions covered with pieces of hide, tied with a thong, called brogs, which, though slender, were very lasting, and were well suited for walking or running on heathy mountains. The introduction of shoes, and also hose, formed from the same tartan cloth as the kilt, is comparatively modern. The hose of the common men in the Highland regiments are still not knitted or wove like stockings, but cut from the web and sewed. It appears that even in ancient times the Celtic tribes d not always wear the loose garments we have described; but that they also, or at least some of them, wore the triughas or trius, a species of vestment "formed of tartan cloth, nicely fitted to the shape, and fringed down the leg. They were sometimes merely striped, and were fastened by a belt around the loins, with a equare piece of cloth hanging down before. It required considerable skill to make the trius. The measure was stick, in length one cubit, divided into one finger and a half. There is preserved a Gaelic saying respecting this garment, by which we are given to understand that there were two full nails to the small of the leg, eleven from the haunch to the heel, and three to the breech, a measure inapplicable to few well made men."* The coat, in which the upper part of the body and arms of the Highlanders are now invested, is of course quite modern, having come into use when the old form of the plaid dress was laid aside. Made, as it usually is, with short skirts and small round buttons, it cannot be considered in harmony with the rest of the attire; but it is nevertheless convenient, and could not well be improved. The bonnet has for ages been a part of the Highland costume, as it was formerly also of the Lowlanders, and, we may add, the English, previous to the introduction of felt hats. The haet of the Anglo-Saxons must have been little else than a thick woollen cap or bonnet. "In England, it was ordained in 1571, that every person above seven years of age should wear, on Sundays and holidays, a cap of wool knit, thickened and dressed in the country by cappers, under the penalty of 3s. 4d. for every day's neglect; lords, knights, gentlemen of twenty marks' lands, such as have borne offices of worship, gentlewomen, ladies, and wards being excepted."* The English gave up bonnets sooner than the Scotch; and ultimately the cry that "the blue bonnets had come over the border," was equivalent to saying that a party of Scotch marauders had entered England on one of their usual hostile excursions. The Highlanders, with whom the bonnet has remained longest as a part of ordinary dress, have adopted very many shapes and modes of ornamenting their head-gear. The heavy plume of black feathers used in the army is quite modern, and in exceedingly bad taste, besides being totally upconformable to the idea of a primitive and light costume. The true bonnet of the Highlands is small, either round or peaked in front, dark blue or grey in colour, and without any tartan or chequering. In fancy dress, as for example in the adjoining cut, the bonnet is somewhat larger, and occasionally has a band of tartan. Highland chiefs were distinguished by three pinion feathers of the native eagle stuck in the bonnet; and those who enjoyed the rank of gentlemen were entitled to wear a single feather. It was customary also for the members of each clan to wear in the bonnet a peculiar badge formed of some native shrub. Authorities differ as to the precise shrubs worn for this purpose. According to Logan, the Buchanans used a sprig of bilberry; the Camerons, crowberry; the Campbells, fir-club-moss; the Forbeses, broom; Frasers, yew; Macleods, juniper; Robertsons, fine-leaved heath, &c. The full dress of Highland chiefs and gentlemen has always been liberally ornamented with sword, baldrick, dirk, large brooches, buckles, shot pouch, and purse. The purse or sporan is a most important part of the costume; it is formed of the skin of a wild animal with the hair on, and tied to the waist by a band, hangs down in front, so as to fall easily upon the lap, and not incommode the legs in walking. It is usually ornamented with silver tags or tassels, and a flap covering the mouth of the purse is sometimes decorated with the vizard of a fox. "In many cases," says Logan, "the purse is composed of leather, like a modern reticule. It is formed into several distinct pockets, in which the Gael carried their money, watch, &c., and *Logan's "Scottish Gael." sometimes also their shot; but anciently they bore a similar wallet or builg at the right side, for the shot, or for a quantity of meal or other provision. This was termed dorlach, and was the knapsack of the Highland soldier; and small as that of the present military is, among the Gael it was still more portable. Those of the English who visited our camp,' says an author quoted by Jameson, did gaze with admiration upon those supple fellows, the Highlanders, with their plaids, targets [shields], and dorlachs.' The purse admits of much ornament, but according to my taste, when too large, it hides the beauty of the kilt." After a period of indifference to the preservation of this beautiful national costume, there has latterly sprung up a better tone of feeling on the subject, both among Lowlanders and Highlanders. Encouraged by prizes liberally awarded by the Caledonian Society of London, a public exhibition takes place triennially at Edinburgh, at which there is a competition of skill in playing the Highland bagpipes, dancing, &c., and taste in dressing in proper holiday costume. A hundred or more men generally attend from all parts of the Highlands in their respective clan tartans; and the exhibition, as a surviving relic of manners and customs the most ancient in the world, is one of the most interesting which can be witnessed. The last exhibition was in the summer of 1841. In conclusion, with respect to the ancient Highland dress, it is proper to mention that it is upon the whole little worn in the present day in the Highlands, into which the modern garb of jackets and trousers of plain woollen cloth has been generally introduced, and is worn on all ordinary occasions. In short, except as a fancy costume, it is seldom seen any where in Scotland. Lowland Costume.-As already observed, the costume of the Lowland Scotch is at the present day the same as that which has for ages been common in England and France. Among the peasantry, however, in unsophisticated districts of the country, there remains a few traits of a past state of things. The Lowland small farmer of eighty years since was dressed in strong woollen clothing, perhaps home made, of a grey or light-blue colour, the legs below the knee being enveloped in coarse grey stockings. The Anglo-Saxon smock shirt does not appear ever to have been used in Scotland, where the garments both of men and women were for the most part of woollen or plaiden. The hat eighty years since was rare. The class of peasants we allude to still wore the blue bonnet, which differed, however, from the Highland bonnet in shape; it was flat like a bannock, droop ing on the neck or projecting over the countenance, and was ornamented on the top with a small tuft or cherry of red worsted. If to this humble attire we add a grey woollen plaid, worn when the weather or old age required such a means of protection, and place in the hand a snuff-mull, or box, in the form of a crooked horn, we have a complete picture of the Lowland Scot in full costume, as he existed about the year 1760. As late as thirty years since, we remember of seeing many such; and even yet they have not entirely disappeared. While the flat blue bonnet has generally given way to the modern hat, or only survived in the degenerate form of a small round Kilmarnock bonnet worn pretty generally by carters, ploughmen, and boys of the humbler ranks, the grey chequed plaid has withstood all innovations. This garment, which is still universally worn by shepherds and other persons in rural distris of the country, may be viewed as the only relie of the ancient variegated attire of the Lowland Scotch. The chequering is very simple, consisting only of small com bars of white and black, and the general effect is gray. The plaid is made longer than broad, to enable the wearer to wrap one end round his body and shoulders, and allow the other to hang gracefully down the back The right arm is generally left disengaged. The very general use of this simple kind of plaid has led to fre quent reference in the lyrical pieces of the Seattl bards: thus Burns, in his usually descriptive language says in one of his songs "I'll tak my plaid and out I'll steal, The only other variety of costume worthy of in connexion with the Lowlands of Scotland, is th of a remarkable community of fishers on the east e the Firth of Forth, near Edinburgh. At Newtare, a village westward from Leith, and at Fisherrow, a suburb of Musselburgh, these fishers have from u immemorial possessed a monopoly of supplying the metropolitan market with their perishable wares, pre cured often at no small personal risk on the bo of the adjacent firth. The dress of the males din little from that of fishermen generally, and the pe arities we have to mention are confined entirely to women, married and unmarried, whose exclusive cheerfully performed duty it is to sell the fish in t market and streets of Edinburgh. These fishwives, as they are termed, are of ceedingly robust frame and constitution, and carry loads of from one to two hundredweight p their backs, in creels or willow baskets, and eve masculine degree of strength, which is not a panied by manners equally masculine. These sup Amazons dress themselves in a style which, if co must also not be uncostly. They are unable to any head-dress, excepting a plain muslin cap or and on the front of this is loosely placed a col kerchief, to lessen the pressure of a broad belt wi crosses the forehead, a must be slipped ont head every time they down their merchand They usually wear a luminous mass of p coats, with a jerk blue cloth, and seven fine napkins enclosing th neck and boson. T numerous pettic of different qualities colours, but groenly striped red, or yel blue; and it is custom while two or them ha down to the call of t leg, to have as many m bundled up over haunches, so as a singularly bolly sturdy appearance to the figure. Thirty or farty ago, they wore no shoes or stockings, but be impeached with that defect, so often imped Scottish women by travellers. The cries of the wives are well known to visiters, of Edinberg being musical, and far from unpleasing. It las conjectured that the fisher community to which belong, and which admits of no mixture from departments of the population, is descended fr colony of settlers from the coast of the Netherla but of this there is no evidence, and their nars language do not materially differ from what are mon in other parts of Mid-Lothian. Printed and published by W. and R. Chambers, Edbla Sold also by W. 8. Onn and Co. Ledes CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF CHAMBERS'S NUMBER 88. NEW AND IMPROVED SERIES. TIME-CHRONOLOGY-TIME MEASURERS. SPACES OF TIME. TIME is the general relation of events and successive existences to each other-a thing of duration, involving the past, the present, and the future. It is very obvious that for the measurement of time we can have no standard of the same tangible nature with a pound, a yard, or a pint measure. We must have recourse to the lapse of time involved in some continued or reiterated motion, as to which we have all the proof possible in the nature of the thing, that, on the whole, it requires the same period of time for its recurrence on one occasion as on every other. Such motions, as the measure of periods or portions of time not less in duration than a single day, are those of the rotation of the earth on its axis, the revolution of the moon round the earth, and that of the earth and moon round the sun. Of such as shall constitute the measure of periods less in duration than a single day, or day and night, there are no explicit natural standards; and hence the atality and necessity of mechanism of human invention, the motions of which, mathematically adjusted and numbered, shall measure and record such briefer and more arbitrary periods of time as those we term seconds, minutes, and hours. In accordance, therefore, with what is the common practice of mankind in applying such a scale of time to the general routine and purposes of life, especially in ts more civilised condition, we propose to treat here, briefly, of the measurement of time by days, months, years, and cycles, considered with special reference to their respective natural and artificial subdivisions and accumulations. DAYS AND HOURS. The day is that portion of time which elapses while the earth turns once completely round on its axis-each half of its circumference passing, alternately, through the light of the sun on the one hand, and through the darkness of the starry heavens on the other-thus producing, to those carried round with it, the succession of day and night, and the apparent phenomenon of a diurnal revolution of the sun from one point in the illuminated atmosphere back again to the same point, or nearly so. PRICE 14d. and was held to last throughout the whole of the ensuing daylight and darkness (an arrangement better adapted to countries near the tropics than elsewhere, as the sun there rises more nearly about the same time throughout the year); the Jews, Turks, Austrians, and others, with some of the Italians and Germans, have begun their day about sunset; the Arabians theirs at noon, as do astronomers and navigators of all nations; the ancient Egyptians, and most of the modern Europeans and Americans, on the other hand, as well as the modern Chinese, beginning theirs at midnight, which is evidently the most convenient plan, since it throws all the waking and active part of the day under one date. The subdivision of the day into morning, forenoon, mid-day, afternoon, evening, and night, is natural, though somewhat indefinite, and may be conceived to have always been more or less marked by man, even in his rudest state; and at all events the ancient Chaldeans, Syrians, Persians, Indians, Jews, and Romans, divided the day and the night into four parts; but there is nothing obvious in the natural changes or motions of the sun, moon, earth, or stars, which could point out the division of days into hours, hours into minutes, or minutes into seconds. These divisions are entirely artificial and arbitrary, unless, indeed, we conceive the second to represent that minutest portion of time which, to the human mind, constitutes its natural unit or rudiment, as particles constitute the units of a mass; but even seconds have been subdivided into thirds, and still it is evident that, after all, these are no more the minutest elements of time than are what our chemists term molecules the minutest elements of masses. In the civilised part of the world, it is now customary to divide the day, and reckon the minuter portions of time, by instruments to be afterwards described, in seconds, sixty of which constitute a minute; in mi nutes, sixty of which constitute an hour; and in hours, twenty-four of which constitute a day. Most nations have these instruments marked for only twelve hours, the computation being twofold, like the day itself; but the Italians, Bohemians, and Poles, run them on from the first to the twenty-fourth-from one o'clock to twenty-four o'clock. The Chinese, on the other hand, divide the day into twelve hours only, each being, therefore, twice the length of ours. In the decimal system adopted by the French, the day was divided into ten hours. The succession of day and night would undoubtedly constitute the first great natural period reckoned by the human race-involving, as it does, not only the most familiar and most strikingly contrasted phenomena within the bounds of man's experience, but phenomena The length of time which elapses while any given point peculiarly adapted to the great necessities of his nature on the earth's surface passes from a similar point in -those of vigilance and sleep. Yet the precise point the starry firmament and returns to the same point, is at which the day should be held to begin and terminate called the sidereal day, and is found, when measured must have been a matter much less easily settled; and by the motions of the ordinary instruments invented accordingly we find, that while, amongst ancient nations for the purpose of pointing out its subdivisions—namely, -the Babylonians, Persians, Syrians, Greeks, and al-time-keepers-to consist of, or be equal to, 23 hours, most all the nations of Asia-the day began at sunrise, 56 minutes, 3 seconds, and (to be still more exact, as astronomers require to be) 4 thirds a third being the sixtieth part of a second. But although the distance of any fixed star in the firmament is so immense that the whole orbit of the earth is but as it were a point itself in comparison, and the motion of the earth in that orbit therefore cannot alter or affect the length of the sidereal day to any appreciable extent, it is otherwise with the solar or natural day, which is that portion of time elapsing between the arrival of the sun at the meridian, or mid-day, on two consecutive days. The mean length of this period of time is 24 hours, nearly 3 minutes 56 seconds on the average being required, in consequence of the earth's motion in its orbit, to bring the sun up to the same meridian on every successive day. The present inclination of the plane of the earth's equator to the plane of its orbit, however, which is diminishing, though with extreme slowness, and the unequal rapidity of the motion of the earth in its orbit, which is also diminishing as slowly, with the diminution of the eccentricity of the orbit, really cause the solar or natural days to be of unequal length; so that, though averaging 24 hours each, they sometimes fall short and sometimes exceed that average. It is the former of these causes, too, which gives rise to the difference in the relative length of night and day, according to the seasons of the year. MONTHS AND WEEKS. After the day, the next distinct natural measure or division of time marked out by the heavenly bodies, in their time-keeping revolutions, is the month. The lunar month is the period during which the moon revolves once round the earth, and is equal to 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, 3 seconds. The solar month is the period during which the sun appears to pass through a twelfth part of his annual course, or through one of the twelve arbitrary signs of the zodiac, and is equal to 30 days, 10 hours, 30 minutes: it is not so distinctly pointed out by nature as the lunar month. The month came ultimately to be disconnected from the lunar and terrestrial revolutions, as will be afterwards more particularly noticed, and civil or calendar months, accommodated to the year, were substituted; these also, as well as the names given to them in their annual order, will fall to be noticed while treating of the year itself and its subdivisions. countries to calculate their time by years, for in the would even the most savage nation feel an interest & .. logous to that with which they had come to content-a the alternating distinction between day and night spring and autumn, too, would soon be stamped ▾ the impress of their sensibilities as natural pers respectively, of hope and fruition. But it is rather 2markable that the only distinctions in the seasons 2by the most ancient nations known were those a 17. mer and winter, as if these had been so extreme absorb all other distinctions. The distinction of the seasons would soon ben to depend upon the alternate approach and depar or elevation and depression, of the sun in the har at stated and regularly recurring intervals; bus. exact division of time into solar years could not ta been effected till astronomy had made some proge when it would immediately appear, in the ende at length made to measure the year by revoluti the moon, that as an exact number of days, or of the earth's rotation, is not contained in "a or lunar month, so an exact number of moors, even of days, is not contained in a year, or revol of the seasons. Such observations as these led wa thods of accommodating the one period to the or, in other words, to the ADJUSTMENT OF THE CALENDAR. The Chaldeans, Egyptians, and Indians, and in almost all the nations of antiquity, originally esta the year, or the periodical return of summer and ter, by 12 lunations; a period equal to 354 days, Uk -48 minutes, 36 seconds. But the solar year is + to 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 49 seconds; days, 21 hours, 13 seconds longer than the lunar an excess named the epact; and accordingly the sons were found rapidly to deviate from the part months to which they at first corresponded; so t in 34 years, the summer months would have bee the winter ones, had not this enormous aberration! corrected by the addition or intercalation of a fr days at certain intervals. Thus was the calendar 2 adjusted, and the solar year estimated to consist months, comprehending 365 days. But no acc was taken of the odd hours, until their accutada: « forced them into notice; and a nearer appraisa to the exact measurement of a year was made a 45 years before the birth of Christ, when Julius Cas being led by Sosigenes, an astronomer of his ti believe the error to consist of exactly 6 hours in year, ordained that these should be set aside, cumulated for four years, when, of course, they * amount to a day of 24 hours, to be accordingly a to every fourth year. This was done by doubing repeating the 24th of February; and, in order to mence aright, he ordained the first to be a "ym? confusion," made up of 15 months, so as to cover i 90 days which had been then lost. The "Julian and the "Julian era" were then commenced; ** practically useful and comparatively perfect v mode of time-reckoning, that it prevailed ge amongst Christian nations, and remained undisti“. till the renewed accumulation of the remaining e of 11 minutes or so, had amounted, in 1582 years a the birth of Christ, to 10 complete days; the equinox falling on the 11th instead of the 21st of Mar as it did at the time of the Council of Nice, 325 after the birth of Christ. This shifting of days caused great disturbances, by unfixing the times celebration of Easter, and hence of all the other able feasts. And, accordingly, Pope Gregory XIII deep study and calculation, ordained that 10 days s be deducted from the year 1582, by calling what, “ ing to the old calendar, would have been rechased 5th of October the 15th of October 1582. In Spain, It would undoubtedly be this marked alternating dis-tugal, and part of Italy, the pope was exactly abey tinction which would first lead the attention of every In France the change took place in the same ve rude but progressing nation not inhabiting tropical calling the 10th the 20th of December. In the L The subdivision of the month into weeks of seven days is very ancient, having, from the most remote period of history, been in use among the Hindoos and other nations in the East, including the Chaldeans and Jews. According to an early practice, the days of the week in various countries received names from planets with which they were imagined to be connected, or from certain deities reverenced by Pagan nations. Thus the French, at the present day, following the practice of the Romans, name the days from Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, &c., while the English adopt Saxon appellations derived from the deities of northern Europe, and from the Sun and Moon. Hence our term Sunday is from the Sun; Monday, the Moon; Tuesday, Tuesco; Wednesday, Woden; Thursday, Thor; Friday, Friga; and Saturday, Seater. (See article SUPERSTITIONS.) YEARS AND SEASONS. The year, properly so called, or the solar or astronomical year, is that portion of time which elapses while the sun passes through the twelve signs of the zodiac, or rather while the earth revolves once completely round the sun in its orbit; and while, from the parallelism of the axis of the earth's rotation to itself, combined with its inclination to the axis of the orbit, each hemisphere is turned alternately, once toward and once from the sun; thus constituting, at least in the extra-tropical regions, the distinction between summer and winter. Countries the change was from the 15th December to the 25th, but was resisted by the Protestant part of the community till the year 1700. The Catholic nations in general adopted the style ordained by their sovereign pontiff, but the Protestants were then too much inflamed against Catholicism in all its relations to receive even a purely scientific improvement from such hands. The Lutherans of Germany, Switzerland, and, as already mentioned, of the Low Countries, at length gave way in 1700, when it had become necessary to omit eleven instead of ten days. A bill to this effect had been brought before the Parliament of England in 1585, but does not appear to have gone beyond a second reading in the House of Lords. It was not till 1751, and after great inconvenience had been experienced for nearly two centuries, from the difference of the reckoning, that an act was passed (24 Geo. II., 1751) for equalising the style in Great Britain and Ireland with that used in other countries of Europe. It was enacted, in the first place, that eleven days should be omitted after the 2d of September 1752, so that the ensuing day should be the 14th; and, in order to counteract a certain minute overplus of time, that " the years 1800, 1900, 2100, 2200, 2300, or any other hundredth year of our Lord which shall happen in time to come, except only every fourth hundredth year of our Lord whereof the year 2000 shall be the first, shall not be considered as leap years." A similar change was about the same time made in Sweden and Tuscany; and Russia is now the only country which adheres to the old style; an adherence which renders it necessary, when a letter is thence addressed to a person in another country, that the date should be given thus:-Month); to the 18th June was Prairial. (Pasture 1 June 26 April or Charles I., of which the above is the usual appearance of the date, occurred in the year 1648 or 1649; it in reality occurred in the year which, by our present uniform mode of reckoning, would be called 1649. The present mode of reckoning time has experienced no interruption, in its leading features, for many years, except under the French republic. In September 1793, the French nation having resolved that the foundation of their new system of government should form their era, instead of the birth of Christ, whose religion they had in a great measure shaken off, resolved also that a calendar should be adopted on what were termed philosophical principles. The Convention, therefore, having decreed, on the 24th November 1793, that the common era should be abolished in all civil affairs, and that the new French era should commence from the foundation of the republic, namely, on the 22d September 1792, on the day of the true autumnal equinox, ordained that each year henceforth should begin at the midnight of the day on which the true autumnal equinox falls. This year they divided into twelve months of thirty days each, to which they gave descriptive names, as follow:-From the 22d of September to the 21st of October was Vendémaire (Vintage Month); to the 20th November was Brumaire (Foggy Month) to the 20th December was Frimaire (Sleety Month); this completed the autumn quarter: to the 19th January was Nivose (Snowy Month); to the 18th February was Pluvoise (Rainy Month); to the 20th March was Ventose (Windy Month), which completed the winter quarter: to the 19th April was Germinal (Budding Month); to the 19th May was Floréal (Flowery Month); here ended the spring quarter: to the 18th July was Messidor (Harvest Month); to the 17th August was Fervidor or Thermidor (Hot Month); to the 16th September was Fructidor (Fruit Month), which terminated the period of summer. In ordinary years there are five extra days, namely, from the 17th to the 21st of our September, inclusive: these the French called Jours Complementaires, or Sanscullotides, and held as fervals; the first being dedicated to Virtue, the second to Genius, the third to Labour, the fourth to Opinion, and the fifth to Rewards. At the end of every four years, forming what they called a Franciade, occurred a leap-year, which gave a sixth complementary day, styled La Jour de la Revolution, The commencement of the year, till a comparatively and employed in renewing the national oath to live free very recent period, was the subject of no general rule. or die. The week, though not exclusively a Christian The Athenians commenced it in June, the Macedonians or Jewish period of time, they also abjured. The in September, the Romans first in March and after-thirty days of the month were divided into three parts wards in January, the Persians on 11th August, the Mexicans on 23d February, the Mahometans in July, and astronomers at the vernal equinox. Amongst Christians, Christmas day, the day of the Circumcision, the 1st of January, the day of the Conception, the 15th of March, and Easter day, have all been used at various times, and by various nations, as the initial day of the year. Christmas day was the eccleAtastical beginning of the year till Pope Gregory XIII., on reforming the calendar, ordered it, in 1582, to begin thenceforward on the 1st of January. In France and England the same practice commenced about the atne time; but, in the latter country, it was not till 1752 that legal writs and instruments ceased to conder the 25th of March as the beginning of the year. In Scotland, New Year's day was altered both for his torical and legal purposes, from the 25th of March to the 1st of January, by a proclamation of King James VI., in the year 1600. The English plan was found exceedingly inconvenient; for when it was necessary to express a date between the 1st of January, which was the commencement of the historical year, and the 25th of March, which opened the legal one, error and confusion were sure to occur, unless it were given in the following awkward fashion-January 30, 1648-9, or 164. Even this was apt to lead to mistakes; and it is perhaps, even to this day, a matter of doubt with some intelligent persons whether the execution of The twelve calendar or civil months were so arranged by Julius Cæsar, while reforming the calendar, that the edd months the first, third, fifth, and so on, should contain 31 days, and the even numbers 30 days, except in the case of February, which was to have 30 only to what has been improperly termed leap year, while on other years it was assigned 29 days only; a number which it retained till Augustus Cæsar deprived it of another day. of ten days each, called Decades; of which the first nine (called Primidi, Duodi, Tridi, Quartidi, Quintidi, Sextidi, Septidi, Octidi, Nonidi) were working or common days, while the tenth, styled Decadi, was observed as a kind of Sabbath, though not exactly in the Jewish sense of the word. The French, however, in indicating any particular day, either by word or writing, generally mentioned only the number of the day of the month. The Republican Calendar was first used on the 26th of November 1793, and was discontinued on the 31st of December 1805, when the calendar used throughout the rest of Europe was resumed. CYCLES. A cycle is a perpetual round or circulating period of time, on the completion of which certain phenomena return in the same order, the end being thus, as it were, brought back to the beginning. Under such a definition, the common practice of accumulating years into centuries has, of course, no title to be classed: it is merely an arithmetical computation, like the equally common mode of counting by tens-forming, indeed, part of the same system. The Solar Cycle is a period of 28 years, during which the day of the month, in every succeeding year, falls on a different day of the week from the first, till the cycle is completed; when the days of the month and week meet as at first, one cycle corresponding to an |