also the Mexican, which they divided into eighteen months of 20 days each. Scaliger de emend. temp. p. 225.

From this detail, it is evident that the primitive year every where throughout the ancient world, consisted only of 360 days, for many ages after the deluge.

II. The beginning of the year was various among different nations the ancient Chaldeans, Babylonians, Medes, Persians, Armenians, and Syrians, began their year about the vernal equinox; and the Chinese in the East, and Latins and Romans in the West, originally followed the same usage. The Egyptians, and from them the Jews, began their Civil year about the autumnal equinox. The Athenians and Greeks in general began theirs about the summer solstice; and the Chinese, and the Romans after Numa's correction, about the winter solstice.

At which of these, the primæval year, instituted at the Creation, began, has been long contested among Astronomers and Chronologers. Philo, Eusebius, Cyril, Augustine, Abulfaragi, Kepler, Capellus, Simpson, Lange, and Jackson, contend for the vernal equinox; and Josephus, Scaliger, Petavius, Usher, Bedford, Kennedy, &c. for the autumnal. The weight of ancient authorities, and also of arguments, seems to preponderate in favour of the former opinion.

1. All the ancient nations, except the Egyptians, began their Civil year about the vernal equinox: but the deviation of the Egyptians from the general usage, may easily be accounted for, from a local circumstance peculiar to their country; namely, that the annual inundation of the Nile rises to its greatest height at the autumnal equinox. According to Herodotus, B. 2, 19. "The Nile begins to increase about the summer solstice, and continues to rise for a hundred days; and then decreases for the same time, and continues low all the winter, until the return of the summer solstice." Diodorus, B. 1, 3. says, "Its inundation begins at the summer solstice, and increases till the autumnal equinox.”—And this is confirmed by the reports of modern travellers: According to Pococke, Vol. i. p. 256, the river began to increase at Cairo, in 1714, June 30; in 1715, July 1; in 1738, June 20; "And so precisely is the stupendous operation of its inundation calculated," says Bruce, Vol. iv. p. 359, "that on the 25th of September, only three days after the autumnal equinox, the Nile is generally found at Cairo, to be at its highest; and begins to diminish every day after.”—Moses, therefore, by bring

ing back the Sacred or Ecclesiastical year to the vernal equinox, while the Israelites still retained the Egyptian Civil year, which began at the autumnal equinox, only retrieved the primæval year, as well as the primeval Sabbath; which had been both disused and lost among the Israelites during their Egyptian bondage.

2. Josephus, the only ancient authority of any weight, on the other side, seems to be inconsistent with himself, in supposing that the deluge began in the second civil month, Dius, or Marheshvan, rather than in the second sacred month; Ant. 1, 2, 3. Because Moses, throughout the Pentateuch, uniformly adopts the sacred year; and fixed its first month by an indelible and unequivocal character, calling it Abib, as ushering in the season of "green" corn. And as Josephus calls the second month elsewhere Artemisius, or Iar, in conformity with Scripture, there is no reason why he should deviate from the same usage in the case of the deluge.

3. To the authority of Josephus, we may oppose that of the great Jewish antiquary, Philo, in the generation before him; who thus beautifully accounts for the institution of the sacred year by Moses. De Septenar. et Fest. p. 1190.

"This month, Abib, being the seventh in number and order according to the sun's course [or civil year, reckoned from the autumnal equinox] is virtually the first, and is therefore called the first month," in the sacred books. And the reason, I think, is this because the vernal equinox is the image and representative of the original epoch of the creation of the world. Thereby GOD notified the Spring, in which all things bloom and blossom, to be an annual memorial of the world's creation. Wherefore this month is properly called the first in the Law, as being the image of the first original month, stampt upon it, as it were, by that archetypal seal."

4. Virgil also, that profound Antiquary, gives some powerful physical arguments in favour of the creation of the world in Spring: Georg. 2, 332.

Such were the days, the seasons were the same,
When first arose this world's all-beauteous frame;
The sky was cloudless, balmy was the air,

And Spring's mild influence made young Nature fair;
And Cattle first o'er new-born pastures spread,
And Man, an iron race, uprear'd his hardy head;
When Beasts through pathless brakes began to prowl,
And glittering Stars through heaven's blue concave roll.
Nor could this infant world sustain the extremes
Of piercing Winter, and the dog-days' beams,
Did not kind HEAVEN, the fierce excess between,
Bid gentler Spring's soft season intervene."

מקץ ימים lambs: and this was done

PITT.

5. The first sacrifice on record seems to decide the question. The time of the sacrifice of Cain and Abel, evidently appears to have been Spring; when Cain, who was a "tiller of the ground," brought the first fruits of his tillage, or a sheaf of new corn; and Abel, who was "a feeder of sheep," "the firstlings of his flock," "at the end of days," or at the end of the year;" which is the correct meaning of the phrase*; and not the indefinite expression, " in process of time," as in our public translation of Gen. iv. 3. It is a remarkable proof of the accuracy of Moses, and a confirmation of this explanation, that he expresses the end of the civil year, or "ingathering of the harvest," by different phrases, пn x“ at the going out of the year," Exod. xxiii. 16; and nɔwn niipa

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The word ", " days," is frequently rendered "a year," or "years,” in the sense of, a year; signifying an annual system of days. Thus, " David abode in the country of the Philistines a year and four months." 1 Sam. xxvii. 7; where our translation renders it "a full year and four months." Again, "at the end of two years, Pharaoh dreamed, &c." Gen. xli. 1; where our translation renders," at the end of two full years.”—“ Elkanah went up out of his city to sacrifice unto THE LORD in Shiloh, D'P'A D'P', “year by year," or "yearly," as our translation renders the phrase. 1 Sam. i. 3. And he did so, I NIW, “year by year." 1 Sam. i. 7. Whence, D'D' nai, is justly rendered, “the yearly sacrifice." 1 Șam. ii. 19. And the phrase in question is more fully expressed and explained by ''D, “from year's end to year's [end]," or "at every year's end," as it is rendered in our translation. 2 Sam. xiv. 26.

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And this will enable us to correct some passages of our public translation. The same phrase should be rendered, "And it came to pass, at the end of the year, that the brook dried up," because it ceased to rain in Spring. 1 Kings xvii. 7. The phrase 'D' O should be rendered "one year," Gen. xxvii. 44; xxix. 20; instead of a few days." And the phrase y N D'D' should be rendered “a year, or ten [months].” Gen. xxiv. 55. For surely it would be idle in Rebecca's friends to ask a respite for her departure to Canaan with Abraham's steward, for "a few days, at the least ten," with our translation.

"at the revolution of the year," Exod. xxxiv. 22; as those phrases may more critically be rendered.

III. But in process of time, it was found that the primæval year of 360 days was shorter than the tropical year; and the first discovery was, that it was deficient five entire days, which therefore it was necessary to intercalate, in order to keep up the correspondence of the civil year to the stated seasons of the principal festivals.

How early this discovery and intercalation was made is no where recorded. It might have been known and practised before the deluge. The apocryphal book of Enoch, which probably was as old as the Septuagint translation of the Pentateuch, stated that "the archangel Ariel, president of the stars, discovered the nature of the month and of the year to Enoch, in the 165th year of his age, and year of the world 1286." And it is remarkable, that Enoch's age at his translation, 365 years, expressed the number of entire days in a tropical year.

This knowledge might have been handed down to Noah and his descendants; and that it was early communicated indeed to the primitive Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Chinese, we learn from ancient tradition.

1. Plutarch de Isid. et Osir. p. 355, states, from an old mythological tradition among the Egyptians, that the five supernumerary days of the year were discovered by the second Hermes, the secretary and chief counsellor of Osiris, or Menes, the first king of Egypt, whose reign, according to the ensuing rectification of Egyptian Chronology, commenced about B.C. 2412; and that these days were dedicated to Osiris himself, Isis, his wife, Horus, or Apollo, his son, Typhon, his brother, and Nephthe, or Venus. And Syncellus, Chronograph. p. 123, further relates, that these five days were inserted in the Egyptian Calendar during the reign of Assis, or Asith, the last of the Shepherd kings, which began about B.C. 1948. Herodotus also ascribes this discovery to the Egyptians, and says, that "by inserting them at the end of their civil year of 360 days, they rendered the revolution of time equable and constant;" B. 2. or brought their Civil year to correspond with the Solar or Tropical. And Diodorus Siculus mentions an ancient king, Osymandes, in whose magnificent sepulchre at Thebes there was a circle of gold, a cubit thick, [or rather, broad] and 365 cubits in circumference, which was divided into so many parts, or compartments, representing the

days of the year; and in each division was marked the Heliacal risings and settings of the stars, and the astrological observations deduced from them. This circle, or zodiac, is reported to have remained till the conquest of Egypt by Cambyses, who carried it away to Persia. From the whole of this description of the sepulchre, in Diodorus, taken from Hecateus, who wrote an Egyptian history about B. C. 300, Jackson has abundantly proved, that it could have belonged to no other than the famous Sesostris, under the title of Osymandes, who began to reign about B.C. 1308. See Jackson, vol. ii. p. 396–402.

2. The most ancient and authentic of the Chinese annals, Xu-kim, relates, that the emperor Yao, or Yau, in the 70th year of his reign, B.C. 2269, by the assistance of two skilful astronomers, Hi and Ho, reformed the Chinese Calendar, and adjusted the lunar to the solar year of 365 days, by the intercalation of seven months in the course of 19 years. Jackson, vol. ii. p. 66.

3. These Egyptian and Chinese accounts tend strongly to corroborate the Babylonian or Chaldean astronomical observations of the risings and settings of the stars, reaching back from Alexander's capture of Babylon, B.C. 330, for 1903 years, which were sent to Aristotle by his relation Callisthenes, who attended Alexander on that expedition, according to Porphyry. This series of observations, therefore, began B.C. 2233, about the accession of Belus II. who repaired the primitive tower of Babel, and built an observatory thereon. It therefore is more than probable, that the length of the solar year, 365 entire days, was known so early, at least, to the Chaldeans, if it did not originate from them to the neighbouring nations.

And this is confirmed by two remarkable circumstances: 1. That the five supernumerary days were intercalated alike by the Chaldeans, Medes, Persians, Egyptians, Grecians, Romans, and even Mexicans, at the end of their civil year; and 2. That they were celebrated among all these nations with great mirth and feasting. Such were the Σακεα, οι Σακεαι ήμεραι, among the Babylonians, or " days of ebriety," from the Persic Sakia, "compotatio," or the Hebrew Sakah, "bibit," during which, according to sacred and profane history, Babylon was surprised and taken by Cyrus, as foretold by Jeremiah, xxv. 26; li. 39–57; and recorded by Herodotus, B. 1; and Xenophon, Cyropæd. B. 7. These circumstances evidently indicate a common origin. 4. From the Chaldeans and Egyptians, the knowledge of the