+30 +5 x 1000: + 900 + 90 +6462,035,996; as I found out by decyphering the original, p. 326.

VII. VIII. GREEK.

The Greek alphabet was originally derived from the Phonician, or Syriac; and retains the names and powers of the letters, with some slight variation. To preserve the analogy of notation, three additional symbols were introduced, in the seventh column, to supply the place of certain Syriac letters wanting in the Greek alphabet. 1. Eπionμov Bav," the symbol Bau," 5, to supply the place of Vau, 6. 2. KожTа, the symbol C, 90, corresponding to the Syriac Koph, reversed. 3. Zav II, or the symbol, 900; derived from the Samaritan Tsade reversed; and so denominated, perhaps, from the letter San, or Sigma reversed, including the letter Pi. This former symbol, C, is sometimes represented differently,, 90.

As far as 100, the Hebrew and Greek letters correspond in their values above it, the Greek got one step in advance. Resh in Hebrew, and Sigma in Greek, denote 200.

To denote thousands, &c. the letters recur again, and their values are determined by their place. Thus, ps, signifies 196; BK 29231. The last instance strongly resembles the algebraic notation of fractions.

α

The eighth column represents the more ancient and simple mode of Notation, by Uncial, or Capital letters; such as is employed in the Parian Chronicle Marbles; of which a specimen is given hereafter.

In that Inscription there are only six letters employed, with their combinations.

From the ancient Iç, for 'Eis," one."
From ПEVTE, "five."

From Aɛкα, "ten."
Δεκα,

From the ancient aspirate H, in HEKATON;

afterwards written, 'Ekarov, " a hundred." From Xilia," a thousand."

Χιλια,

From Mupia, " ten thousand."

The use of the aspirate H, marks the antiquity of the notation. Thus, the most ancient Greeks wrote, PHOME, Rhome; but afterwards, when the aspirate letter was abolished, 'Pwμn, Rome;

substituting the aspirate mark. And in the celebrated Amyclean Inscription, supposed to have been written 146 years before the destruction of Troy, alternately backwards and forwards," like the plowing of oxen," (Bovorpopndov) the first word is so written, MHENAAIA: Mhenalia. See Astle's Origin of Writing, p. 67, and 232, first edit.

That the letter H could not be intended for the Greek Eta, as in after times, which Astle imagined, writing the word Mŋevaλia, is evident from this, that the place of Eta, throughout the inscription, is supplied by two Epsilons; as in MATEEP, for Marno. The same is observable in the preceding word, PHOME, where the Omicron likewise is used for Omega.

The figure of this aspirate H, was probably borrowed from the Hebrew aspirate Hheth, which, upon ancient shekels, was written. See the Apparatus of the Polyglott Bible, cited before. Astle has also given a figure of the Greek aspirate in an oblique position, thus,, which strongly resembles the Hebrew. To express multiplication by 5, in the Parian inscription, the multiplicand is placed in the midst of an imperfect II. Thus, IA, 50; IH, 500, &c.

IX. ROMAN.

From the Greek uncial notation, in the eighth column, was derived the Roman, but with some variations. Their numeral

letters were:

=

5; X

10; L

=

50; C

=

100; D

=

I= 1; V 500; M = 1000; which are not so easily to be explained; the learned being much divided how to account for the numeral powers of V, X, L, and D. The general analogy, however, between both methods, is obvious: thus, the age of Homer, HAAAAIII, resembles the Roman arrangement, DCXXXXIII. Receding, however, from the Greek notation, a larger number is diminished by prefixing a smaller: thus, IV 5−1 = 4; XC, 100-10 = 90; XXC, 100-20 80.

The number 500, was originally expressed by placing a C reversed after I, thus: I: which, being written corruptly, was probably changed into D. And, in like manner, the number 1000, anciently written CIO, was changed into, and perhaps M.

By annexing more reversed C's, the number 500 was increased tenfold, IƆ, 5000; I, 50,000; which again were doubled, by prefixing as many; CCIO, 10,000; CCC, 100,000.

And to express 300,000, these last characters are thrice repeated by Cicero, pro Roscio. Pliny relates, that the famous Egyptian labyrinth in the Heroopolitan nome, or district, was first made IIIMDC, 3600 years before his time, 36, 13. Beverege, by an easy mistake, for nomo, substituting homo, has transferred it to the creation of the first man. P. 300.

Sometimes the numeral letters are raised to thousands by a horizontal stroke, I, 1000; V, 5000; X, 10,000, &c.

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DAYS.

The earliest measure of Time on record, is the Day. In that most ancient and venerable account of the Creation, by Moses, the process is marked by the operations of each day. The evening and the morning were the first day," &c. Gen. i. 5. &c. Here the word "day" denotes the Civil or Calendar day of 24 hours, including "the evening,” or natural night, and “the morning," or natural day; while the sun is either below or above the horizon of any place, in the course of the earth's diurnal rotation, between two successive appulses of the same meridian to the sun corresponding, therefore, to a solar day in Astronomy *.

It is remarkable, that the "evening," or natural night, precedes the "morning," or natural day, in the Mosaic account. Hence the Hebrew compound, pay, "Evening-morning," is used by the prophet Daniel, to denote a civil day, in his famous chronological prophecy of the 2300 days, Dan. viii. 14. And also the Greek compound, vvxonuɛpov, to denote the same. And hence Hesiod, the eldest of the Greek poets that have reached us, represents the occultation of the Pleiades as lasting vuкtaç TE Kаι ημата Tεσσαρaкоvта, "forty nights and days," i. e. calendar days. And following the primeval order, the ancient Gauls and Germans counted times and seasons by the number of nights, not of days; as we learn from Cæsar and Tacitus: a usage still retained by their descendants; for in old French, anuit signifies "to-day;" and in English, sevennight, fortnight, "seven days," "fourteen days." Thus is sacred history verified by primitive tradition,

* Naturalis dies est tempus ab oriente sole ad solis occasum; cujus contrarium tempus est nox, ab occasu solis usque ad exortum. Civilis autem dies vocatur, quod fit uno cœli eircumactu, quo dies verus et nox continetur. Censorinus de die nat. c. 23.

By an apparent incongruity, Keil, and other Astronomers, call the time from sun-rise to sun-set, the artificial day. Lect. 28.

handed down to the present times; "the night seeming to usher in the day*"

The natural day consisted of twelve hours, which are variable in all places but the equator, according to the seasons of the year; and equal, or of the mean length, only at the vernal and autumnal equinoxes: being longer in the summer half-year, and shorter in the winter. "Are there not twelve hours in the day?" saith our Lord, appealing to this ancient and long-established division, as a matter of public notoriety. John ix. 11. And among the Heathen nations, the same division prevailed. "What!" said M. Crassus to king Deiotarus, "What do you mean? Your twelfth hour is now at hand, and are you proceeding to build a city?"

The first hour of the day began at sun-rise; the sixth hour ended at mid-day, or noon; the seventh hour began at noon; and the twelfth ended at sun-set. In like manner, the first hour of the night began at sun-set; the sixth ended at midnight; and the twelfth ended at sun-rise.

Thus Pliny recommended, that apples, in autumn, should not be gathered ante horam primam, " before the end of the first hour;" or till they have had an hour's sun upon them, to dry up the dew. Nat. Hist. xv. 18.

He also says, speaking of a place under the tropic of Cancer, on the day of the summer solstice, sextâ horâ, umbræ in totum absumuntur," at the sixth hour the shadows totally vanish;" for the sun being then vertical, in the meridian, objects cast no shadows. Nat. Hist. vi. 34.

And so, Macrobius remarks, that the civil day of the Romans, a sexta noctis hora oriri," began from the sixth hour of the night," or from midnight. Saturnal. 1. 3.

Prudentius reckoned that at the ninth hour, three quarters of the day were elapsed, and only one quarter remained.

Nona submissum rotat hora solem,

Partibus vix dum tribus evolutis;
Quarta devexo superest in axe,

Portio lucis.-Hymn VIII. p. 34. Ed. Elzevir.

66

In the parable of the labourers hired to work in the vineyard, the last, hired" at the eleventh hour," worked only one hour," till "the evening," or sun-set, when they were paid their wages.

*Nec dierum numerum ut nos, sed noctium computant; sic constituunt, sic condicunt: Nox ducere diem videtur.-Tacitus, Germ. 11.

Matt. xx. 1-12. They worked therefore during the twelfth hour.

That the twelfth hour ended at sun-set, we learn from a law of Solon : ὁ ἥλιος επι των ορων, εσχατη ώρα εστω. "Let the sun, setting upon the mountains, be the last hour:" and this was copied in the laws of the twelve tables at Rome," Solis occasus suprema tempestas esto."

These instances (chiefly selected from Dr. Townson's works, vol. I. 263-269) are decisive to prove that the Ancients cited hours from their endings, rather than their beginnings; which Townson has not sufficiently marked, in the ambiguous phrase, "the first hour of the day was an hour after the sun rose; and the twelfth was when it set." Vol. i. p. 233. And this is the usage of the Moderns also. "At one of the clock," signifies an hour after mid-day, or midnight, &c. or at the end of the first hour after, &c. For removing this ambiguity, I am indebted to Archdeacon Churton's valuable communications.

The last hour of the day is denoted by a peculiar phrase, Luke xxiii. 54. Και ήμερα ην παρασκευη, και σαββατον επεφωσκε. The rescinded translation: "And it was preparation day [Friday] and the sabbath was going to dawn;" i. e. at the dawn of night, or evening twilight, p. 113, was founded on West's erroneous account of the limits of the sabbath day," from the first appearance of the stars on Friday, to their reappearance on Saturday:" Resurrection, p. 85, which is unsupported by Jewish authorities, and contrary to the law,-" from evening unto evening ye shall hallow your sabbath," Levit. xxiii. 32. The true spirit indeed of επεQwσкε is given in our public translation, "drew on," or approached; but the same literal expression, in the same sense, is found in a Syriac quotation, of Asseman's Bibliotheca Orientalis, tom. i. p. 213, "On the Sabbath, at the eleventh hour, as the first day of the week was beginning to shine;" here the eleventh hour corresponds to our fifth hour after noon, when the last hour began; or as paraphrased by Asseman, Sabbato exeunte, Dominicâ ineunte, " as Saturday was ending, and Sunday beginning." Here the Chaldee and Syriac verb, nahar, illuxit, properly denotes the morning twilight, or "break of day," 2 Sam. ii. 32; but is transferred to the moon at full, rising a little before sun-set, in consequence of the refractive power of the atmosphere, which elevates the luminaries above the horizon; so that the moon sometimes appears to