P

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When we consider the daily, and almost in-
cessant reference made to the CALENDAR by
most classes of the community, it may justly
excite surprise that so little should be known-
as unquestionably is the case of that which
is so frequently consulted. But, although most
persons are aware that it is the National Re-
gister of TIME, and the instrument whereby is.
regulated the Ecclesiastical Establishment of
the Nation; it is only by a very extensive
course of reading that the Calendar can be
clearly traced through its various gradations of
improvement, or that we can appreciate the
causes which gave rise to the division of our
Church Service, in the order that has been settled
by our Forefathers.

To Youth of both sexes, and to the general
Reader, it is therefore presumed that this Epi-
tome will be found eminently useful; and in
this opinion, the Author is confirmed by many
distinguished Teachers, whose recommendation
has been not his least inducement to its
publication.

The original Work having been adapted for
the year 1812, it has been deemed proper to
preserve the like arrangement in this Abridge-
ment but an INDEX is added, by which a

ready reference may be made to any particular, and there is ample information afforded, whereby the days, on which moveable FEASTS, &c. are held, may be known for the present, and for all future years.

Lower Kennington Green, Surrey, 14th March, 1814.

LIBHM

OF THE

UNIVERTY

CALIFORNIA TIME OF

Is a certain measure or portion of eternity, distinguished by the motion of the sun, or heavenly luminaries, by which the distances and duration of sublunary affairs are measured. It has also been defined "a succession of phenomena in the universe" better to be conceived than described; and of which, as Mr. Locke observes, we can only form an idea, "by considering any part of infinite duration, as set out by periodical measures." Other philosophers describe the nature of Time differently, though in meaning precisely the same.

The "measure" of such "part of infinite duration" depending upon motion, the heavenly bodies have, in every age, been selected for that purpose and the ancients distinguished their different seasons, by the appearance of particular constellations. The cosmical rising of the Pleiades, denoted the commencement of summer that of the Dog-Star its declination; and by the motions of the heavenly luminaries alone, ARISTOTLE marked the periods of the gestation and migration of animals. Mankind subsequently attained a more accurate method of tracing the course of Time: of which, different periods or divisions, have been distinguished by epochs, milleniums, cycles, centuries, years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, and mo ments seconds or instants.

B

Of the mechanical means that have been gradually discovered, for measuring and computing Time, the following concise account has been selected from various sources.

Sun Dial.

The motion of a shadow presents so obvious a method of ascertaining the hour of the day, that mankind cannot be reasonably supposed to have long remained practically unacquainted with the means, by which the daily progress of Time might be accurately marked.

Yet there is no mention of any instrument formed upon even this simple principle, until the reign of king AHAZ, who died about the year of the world 3278, or 726 years before the Christian æra. In the book of Hezekiah, king of Judah, there is direct reference to "the DIAL of Ahaz," his father, or as it is now termed, the SUN-DIAL.

The dial of AHAZ was described upon the steps of his palace, and the shade of a pillar, which served as a Gnomon, marked the progress of the hour. There is no account of any dial with a fixed gnomon, until the invention of MAXIMENES MILESIUS, about 160 years after the reign of HE

ZEKIAH.

It was not until 295 B. C, that the sundial of the East became known at Rome, where PAPIRIUS CURSOR first erected one in the court of the Temple of QUIRINUS. Previous to that time, the only means of ascertaining the hour in Rome, was by the appearance of the sun between the Rostrum, and what was called the Station of the Greeks. When the sun had reached