Elementary arithmetic, with brief notices of its history... by Robert Potts.

10

ON TIE DIVISIONS AND MEASURES OF TIME.

The dates recorded of some important events in the most ancient
histories are uncertain. In different writings the same events are
referred to different dates, and even in different copies or versions
of the same history, errors in numbers have crept into the records,
whether from design or the inaccuracy of copyists, it is impossible to
affirm. According to the genealogies in the manuscript copies of the
Hebrew Pentateuch, the deluge happened 1656 A.M. The Samaritan
text places this event 1307 A.M.; but the Greek Septuagint makes it
2262 A.M., and Josephus 2256 A.M. The date adopted in England is
that of the Hebrew Pentateuch. Dr. Lloyd, Bishop of St. Asaph,
fixed the epoch of the creation at 4004 B.c., differing by four years
from that of Archbishop Usher, who fixed it at 4000 B.c.
The earliest mode of reckoning periods of time was by generations,
or the times which intervened between the birth of a father and his
first son. The periods from the creation to the deluge, and from the
deluge to the birth of the patriarch Abraham, the head of the Hebrew
race, are defined in this manner in the fifth and eleventh chapters of
the Book of Genesis.
The periods of the reigns of kings were in course of time employed,
where communities had adopted the kingly form of government, The
periods of the reigns of the Hebrew kings, and after the disruption of
the kingdom, of the kings of Israel and Judal, were adjusted in this
way, until the captivity of the former kingdom by Shalmaneser, 721
B.C., and of the latter by the king of Babylon, 588 B.c.
The time of the appearance of the new moon which happens near
the vernal equinox became at a very early period a remarkable epoch,
and by divine command was reckoned the first day of the year of the
Hebrews. It was the day of their deliverance from bondage in Egypt,
and was ordained to be observed in successive generations as a
memorial of that event. Their departure from Egypt began on the
night of the full moon, on the 14th day of that month. The fourteenth day of the moon "at even" was the evening of the full moon,
or the evening preceding it. This first month of their year always
began with that new moon which came nearest to the vernal equinox,
and this new moon would fall sometimes before, and sometimes after,
the equinox.
This epoch regulated all their festivals and religious observances,
while they retained the epoch of the beginning of the year at the
autumnal equinox for the regulation of civil affairs. The Hindus
reckon by lunar years the times for religious purposes, and by solar
years for civil purposes.
vii. 50), need occasion no surprise. These phenomena being regarded as portending
the overthrow of armies and the revolution of states, were carefully observed. But
notions of planetary influence were not confined to ancient times. The rebellion in
1745 in Scotland was supposed by many to have been foretold by a comet that
appeared the preceding year. The hieroglyphics of some almanacs, regarded by
many as infallible adumbrations of the future, are striking proofs that the science
of astrology, whence the materials for prognostications are professedly obtained, is by
no means consigned to oblivion. In England, Queen Elizabeth seems to have been
so fully satisfied of the truth of astrology, that she caused the Parliament to enact
a law (23 Eliz., c. 2), ordaining the penalty of death to any person found guilty of
casting her Majesty's nativity. The science, so-called, of judicial astrology (or
rather superstition) has had many admirers since her days, and still survives,
though chiefly in the persons of crafty and ignorant pretenders, who, dealing in
imposture and casting nativities, impose upon the ignorance and credulity of the
simple.