as in the antient calendar. A popular notion had prevailed in England, that the alteration of the calendar, by the rulers of France, was founded in motives of profound and recondite policy; and among others imputed to the institution of the decade, instead of Sunday, was that of reducing the number of non-effective days, by which an eventual superiority in the productive labour of France was, by those who knew not the true character of that nation, seriously apprehended: But this last expedient of ROBESPIERRE dissipated the apprehensions of the manufacturers of the north of England, where this delusion chiefly prevailed, and at the same time refuted a powerful argument that had been built on the virtual increase of the days of labour in France, by the advocates of the French revolution. In the names of the French months, the authors of the new calendar could not even lay claim to the merit of invention, the epithets adopted, being, in fact, a close and almost servile Imitation of the designations of the antient months, applied from time immemorial, and then persevered in, by the Republic of Holland. And the real source of this plagiarism, will appear evident, by inspecting the following extract from the Dutch almanac, as published before, and even subsequently to, the French revolution. is called by Lauwmaand,....chilly or frosty month. January, {the Dutch, Sprokkelmaand,. vegetation month. " April,.... May, July,.... . Hooymaand, August, Oostmaand.. ..... harvest month. September, Herstmaand, October,. Wynmaand... November,...... Slagtmaand, slaughter month. December,... wine month. Wintermaand, .. winter month. The same in German, except the word 'maand,' which is called moand. These characteristic names of the months are the remains of the antient Gaulish titles, which were also used by our Anglo-Saxon ancestors, as will be seen by reference to the respective subsequent explanations of the different months, now, however, bearing the appellations first assigned to them by the Romans. Among other puerilities and absurdities of the French calendar may also be included the borrowed application of the titles of the months, intended as they were to be expressive of the various seasons of production, maturity, decay, and torpidity of the vegetable world. In a territory comprehending climates so diversified as France, the variations of the seasons must necessarily defy any description that can be universally appropriate; and an English wit, disgusted with the "namby pamby" style of the French calendar, ridiculed this new method of registering time in the following ludicrous translation of their months, as divided by them into seasons, considering it a critique more suitable to the insignificance of the subject, than argument or grave discussion. "AUTUMN,-wheezy, sneezy, freezy. WINTER,-slippy, drippy, nippy. SPRING,-showery, flowery, bowery. SUMMER,-hoppy, croppy, poppy. Almanac. Although the terms Calendar and Almanae are in general regarded as synonymous, there is, nevertheless, a material distinction betwen them. The calendar, strictly speaking, refers to time in general-the almanac to only that portion of time which is comprehended in the annual revolution of the earth round the sun, and marking, by previous computation, numerous particulars of general interest and utility; religious feasts; public holidays; the days of the week, corresponding with those of the month; the increasing and decreasing length of the day; the variations between true and solar time; tables of the tides; the sun's passage through the zodiac; eclipses; conjunctions and other motions of the planets; &c. &c.; all calculated for that portion of duration comprehended within the year. From this distinction between the terms calendar and almanac, it has been deemed proper to give the preceding In historical account of the alteration made in the supputation of time, under the head Calendar, as it would be absurd to speak of the almanac of ROMULUS, or even of the late fantastic innovation of the French, by that name. We may with propriety use calendar or almanac for any particular year; but, as allusive to time in general, calendar can alone be properly applied. speaking of an alteration in the French calendar, we are clearly understood to mean some general improvement or alteration in the calculation of time in France; while an alteration in the French almanac would be understood only as implying a new mode of arranging the different computations and notices adapted to one year. The calendar denotes the settled and national mode of registering the course of time by the sun's progress; an almanac is a subsidiary manual formed out of that instrument. NUMA marked the distinction between the calendar and the almanac by his invention of the fasti, of which our almanac is a close resemblance, in order to make known the annual routine of public and religious ceremonies, dependant on his regulation of the calendar: and although no private individual ever did, or could attempt to change the calendar, every person who thought proper could frame almanacs; and this privilege has been exerted to so great an extent, as to call forth public acts to regulate and limit their publication. We have also a more accurate and minute computation of time known by the name of an ephemeris, in which, as the name indicates, the daily variations in the planets, the apparent positions of the fixed stars, and other coelestial as well as terrestrial phenomena, are minutely recorded, for the especial purposes of navigation, and for facilitating the study of astronomy. JUDICIAL ASTROLOGY, or the pretended power of predicting future events, was professed at a very remote period; and almanacs,not calendars, -were made the principal medium of circulating its absurdities. So early as the year 1579, HENRY the third of France issued an edict, that "none of that tribe should for the future presume to publish predictions relating to affairs of the state, or of private persons, in terms either express or covert, &c." The planetary system was generally the ground-work or foundation of this abstruse species of plausible imposition; but the influence of the sun and moon being too sensibly felt to admit of mysterious deception, these pretenders to supernatural knowledge could not select those luminaries as objects for their impositions on the superstitious; hence the other planets, whose influence, if any, was not obvious to the senses, were made the foundation of this delusive art; and being named after deities of the heathen mythology, but little ingenuity was necessary to imbue the planets with powers and attributes ascribed to those objects of heathen |