Chapter XXXVII: Part 37

Like most Spanish dramatists, Calderón wrote too much and too speedily, and he was too often content to recast the productions of his predecessors. His _Saber del mal y del bien_ is an adaptation of Lope de Vega's play, _Las Mudanzas de la fortuna y sucesos de Don Beltran de Aragón_; his _Selva confusa_ is also adapted from a play of Lope's which bears the same title; his _Encanto sin encanto_ derives from Tirso de Molina's _Amar par señas_, and, to take an extreme instance, the second act of his _Cabellos de Absalón _is transferred almost bodily from the third act of Tirso's _Venganza de Tamar_. It would be easy to add other examples of Calderón's lax methods, but it is simple justice to point out that he committed no offence against the prevailing code of literary morality. Many of his contemporaries plagiarized with equal audacity, but with far less success. Sometimes, as in _El Alcalde de Zalamea_, the bold procedure is completely justified by the result; in this case by his individual treatment he transforms one of Lope de Vega's rapid improvisations into a finished masterpiece. It was not given to him to initiate a great dramatic movement; he came at the end of a literary revolution, was compelled to accept the conventions which Lope de Vega had imposed on the Spanish stage, and he accepted them all the more readily since they were peculiarly suitable to the display of his splendid and varied gifts. Not a master of observation nor an expert in invention, he showed an unexampled skill in contriving ingenious variants on existing themes; he had a keen dramatic sense, an unrivalled dexterity in manipulating the mechanical resources of the stage, and in addition to these minor indispensable talents he was endowed with a lofty philosophic imagination and a wealth of poetic diction. Naturally, he had the defects of his great qualities; his ingenuity is apt to degenerate into futile embellishment; his employment of theatrical devices is the subject of his own good-humoured satire in _No hay burlas con el amor_; his philosophic intellect is more interested in theological mysteries than in human passions; and the delicate beauty of his style is tinged with a wilful preciosity. Excelling Lope de Vega at many points, Calderón falls below his great predecessor in the delineation of character. Yet in almost every department of dramatic art Calderón has obtained a series of triumphs. In the symbolic drama he is best represented by _El Principe constante_, by _El Mágico prodigioso_ (familiar to English readers in Shelley's free translation), and by _La Vida es sueño_, perhaps the most profound and original of his works. His tragedies are more remarkable for their acting qualities than for their convincing truth, and the fact that in _La Niña de Gomez Arias_ he interpolates an entire act borrowed from Velez de Guevara's play of the same title seems to indicate that this kind of composition awakened no great interest in him; but in _El Médico de sa honra_ and _El Mayor monstruo los celos_ the theme of jealousy is handled with sombre power, while _El Alcalde de Zalamea_ is one of the greatest tragedies in Spanish literature. Calderón is seen to much less advantage in the spectacular plays--_dramas de tramoya_--which he wrote at the command of Philip IV.; the dramatist is subordinated to the stage-carpenter, but the graceful fancy of the poet preserves even such a mediocre piece as _Los Tres Mayores prodigies_ (which won him his knighthood) from complete oblivion. A greater opportunity is afforded in the more animated _comedias palaciegas_, or melodramatic pieces destined to be played before courtly audiences in the royal palace: _La Banda y la flor_ and _El Galán fantasma_ are charming illustrations of Calderón's genial conception and refined artistry. His historical plays (_La Gran Cenobia, Las armas de la hermosura_, &c.) are the weakest of all his formal dramatic productions; _El Golfo de la sirenas_ and _La Púrpura de la rosa_ are typical _zarzuelas_, to be judged by the standard of operatic libretti, and the _entremeses_ are lacking in the lively humour which should characterize these dramatic interludes. On the other hand, Calderón's faculty of ingenious stagecraft is seen at its best in his "cloak-and-sword" plays (_comedias de capa y espada_) which are invaluable pictures of contemporary society. They are conventional, no doubt, in the sense that all representations of a specially artificial society must be conventional; but they are true to life, and are still as interesting as when they first appeared. In this kind _No siempre lo peor es cierto, La Dama duende, Una casa con dos puertas mala es de guardar_ and _Guárdate del agua mansa_ are almost unsurpassed. But it is as a writer of _autos sacramentales_ that Calderón defies rivalry: his intense devotion, his subtle intelligence, his sublime lyrism all combine to produce such marvels of allegorical poetry as _La Cena del rey Baltasar, La Viña del Senor_ and _La Serpiente de metal_. The _autos_ lingered on in Spain till 1765, but they may be said to have died with Calderón, for his successors merely imitated him with a tedious fidelity. Almost alone among Spanish poets, Calderón had the good fortune to be printed in a fairly correct and readable edition (1682-1691), thanks to the enlightened zeal of his admirer, Juan de Vera Tassis y Villaroel, and owing to this happy accident he came to be regarded generally as the first of Spanish dramatists. The publication of the plays of Lope de Vega and of Tirso de Molina has affected the critical estimate of Calderón's work; he is seen to be inferior to Lope de Vega in creative power, and inferior to Tirso de Molina in variety of conception. But, setting aside the extravagances of his admirers, he is admittedly an exquisite poet, an expert in the dramatic form, and a typical representative of the [v.04 p.0986] devout, chivalrous, patriotic and artificial society in which he moved.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--H. Breymann, _Calderon-Studien_ (München and Berlin, 1905), i. Teil, contains a fairly exhaustive list of editions, translations and arrangements; _Autos sacramentales_ (Madrid, 1759-1760, 6 vols.), edited by Juan Fernandez de Apontes; _Comedias_ (Madrid, 1848-1850, 4 vols.), edited by Juan Eugenio Hartzenbuch; Max Krenkel, _Klassische Buhnendichtungen der Spanier_, containing _La Vida es sueño, El mágico prodigioso_ and _El Alcalde de Zalamca_ (Leipzig, 1881-1887, 3 vols.); _Teatro selecto_ (Madrid, 1884, 4 vols.), edited by M. Menéndez y Pelayo; _El Mágico prodigioso_ (Heilbronn, 1877), edited by Alfred Morel-Fatio; _Select Plays of Calderón_ (London, 1888), edited by Norman MacColl; F.W.V. Schmidt, _Die Schauspiele Calderon's_ (Elberfeld, 1857); E. Günthner, _Calderon und seine Werke_ (Freiburg i. B., 1888, 2 vols.); Felipe Picatoste y Rodriguez, _Biografia de Don Pedro Calderón de la Barca_ in _Homenage á Calderón_ (Madrid, 1881); Antonio Sánchez Moguel, _Memoria acerca de "El Mágico prodigioso"_ (Madrid, 1881); M. Menéndez y Pelayo, _Calderón y su teatro_ (Madrid, 1881); Ernest Martinenche, _La Comedia espagnole en France de Hardy á Racine_ (Paris, 1900).

(J. F.-K.)

CALDERWOOD, DAVID (1575-1650), Scottish divine and historian, was born in 1575. He was educated at Edinburgh, where he took the degree of M.A. in 1593. About 1604 he became minister of Crailing, near Jedburgh, where he became conspicuous for his resolute opposition to the introduction of Episcopacy. In 1617, while James was in Scotland, a Remonstrance, which had been drawn up by the Presbyterian clergy, was placed in Calderwood's hands. He was summoned to St Andrews and examined before the king, but neither threats nor promises could make him deliver up the roll of signatures to the Remonstrance. He was deprived of his charge, committed to prison at St Andrews and afterwards removed to Edinburgh. The privy council ordered him to be banished from the kingdom for refusing to acknowledge the sentence of the High Commission. He lingered in Scotland, publishing a few tracts, till the 27th of August 1619, when he sailed for Holland. During his residence in Holland he published his _Altare Damascenum_. Calderwood appears to have returned to Scotland in 1624, and he was soon afterwards appointed minister of Pencaitland, in the county of Haddington. He continued to take an active part in the affairs of the church, and introduced in 1649 the practice, now confirmed by long usage, of dissenting from the decision of the Assembly, and requiring the protest to be entered in the record. His last years were devoted to the preparation of a _History of the Church of Scotland_. In 1648 the General Assembly urged him to complete the work he had designed, and voted him a yearly pension of £800. He left behind him a historical work of great extent and of great value as a storehouse of authentic materials for history. An abridgment, which appears to have been prepared by himself, was published after his death. An excellent edition of the complete work was published by the Wodrow Society, 8 vols., 1842-1849. The manuscript, which belonged to General Calderwood Durham, was presented to the British Museum. Calderwood died at Jedburgh on the 29th of October 1650.

CALDERWOOD, HENRY (1830-1897), Scottish philosopher and divine, was born at Peebles on the 10th of May 1830. He was educated at the Royal High school, and later at the university of Edinburgh. He studied for the ministry of the United Presbyterian Church, and in 1856 was ordained pastor of the Greyfriars church, Glasgow. He also examined in mental philosophy for the university of Glasgow from 1861 to 1864, and from 1866 conducted the moral philosophy classes at that university, until in 1868 he became professor of moral philosophy at Edinburgh. He was made LL.D. of Glasgow in 1865. He died on the 19th of November 1897. His first and most famous work was _The Philosophy of the Infinite_ (1854), in which he attacked the statement of Sir William Hamilton that we can have no knowledge of the Infinite. Calderwood maintained that such knowledge, though imperfect, is real and ever-increasing; that Faith implies Knowledge. His moral philosophy is in direct antagonism to Hegelian doctrine, and endeavours to substantiate the doctrine of divine sanction. Beside the data of experience, the mind has pure activity of its own whereby it apprehends the fundamental realities of life and combat. He wrote in addition _A Handbook of Moral Philosophy, On the Relations of Mind and Brain, Science and Religion, The Evolution of Man's Place in Nature_. Among his religious works the best-known is his _Parables of Our Lord_, and just before his death he finished a _Life of David Hume_ in the "Famous Scots" series. His interests were not confined to religious and intellectual matters; as the first chairman of the Edinburgh school board, he worked hard to bring the Education Act into working order. He published a well-known treatise on education. In the cause of philanthropy and temperance he was indefatigable. In politics he was at first a Liberal, but became a Liberal Unionist at the time of the Home Rule Bill.

A biography of Calderwood was published in 1900 by his son W.C. Calderwood and the Rev. David Woodside, with a special chapter on his philosophy by Professor A.S. Pringle-Pattison.

CALEB (Heb. _k[=e]leb_, "dog"), in the Bible, one of the spies sent by Moses from Kadesh in South Palestine to spy out the land of Canaan. For his courage and confidence he alone was rewarded by the promise that he and his seed should obtain a possession in it (Num. xiii. seq.). The later tradition includes Joshua, the hero of the conquest of the land. Subsequently Caleb settled in Kirjath-Arba (Hebron), but the account of the occupation is variously recorded. Thus (_a_) Caleb by himself drove out the Anakites, giants of Hebron, and promised to give his daughter Achsah to the hero who could take Kirjath-Sepher (Debir). This was accomplished by Othniel, the brother of Caleb (Josh. xv. 14-19). Both are "sons" of Kenaz, and Kenaz is an Edomite clan (Gen. xxxvi. 11, 15, 42). Elsewhere (_b_) Caleb the Kenizzite reminds Joshua of the promise at Kadesh; he asks that he may have the "mountain whereof Yahweh spake," and hopes to drive out the giants from its midst. Joshua blesses him and thus Hebron becomes the inheritance of Caleb (Josh. xiv. 6-15). Further (_c_) the capture of Hebron and Debir is ascribed to Judah who gives them to Caleb (Judg. i. 10 seq. 20); and finally (_d_) these cities are taken by Joshua himself in the course of a great and successful campaign against South Canaan (Josh. x. 36-39). Primarily the clan Caleb was settled in the south of Judah but formed an independent unit (i Sam. xxv., xxx. 14). Its seat was at Carmel, and Abigail, the wife of the Calebite Nabal, was taken by David after her husband's death. Not until later are the small divisions of the south united under the name Judah, and this result is reflected in the genealogies where the brothers Caleb and Jerahmeel are called "sons of Hezron" (the name typifies nomadic life) and become descendants of JUDAH.

Similarly in Num. xiii. 6, xxxiv. 19 (post-exilic), Caleb becomes the representative of the tribe of Judah, and also in _c_ (above) Caleb's enterprise was later regarded as the work of the tribe with which it became incorporated, _b_ and _d_ are explained in accordance with the aim of the book to ascribe to the initiation or the achievements of one man the conquest of the whole of Canaan (see JOSHUA). The mount or hill-country in _b_ appears to be that which the Israelites unsuccessfully attempted to take (Num. xiv. 41-45), but according to another old fragment Hormah was the scene of a victory (Num. xxi. 1-3), and it seems probable that Caleb, at least, was supposed to have pushed his way northward to Hebron. (See JERAHMEEL, KENITES, SIMEON.)

The genealogical lists place the earliest seats of Caleb in the south of Judah (1 Chron. ii. 42 sqq.; Hebron, Maon, &c.). Another list numbers the more northerly towns of Kirjath-jearim, Bethlehem, &c., and adds the "families of the scribes," and the Kenites (ii. 50 seq.). This second move is characteristically expressed by the statements that Caleb's first wife was Az[=u]bah ("abandoned," desert region)--Jer[=i][=o]th ("tent curtains") appears to have been another--and that after the death of Hezron he united with Ephrath (p. 24 Bethlehem). On the details in 1 Chron. ii., iv., see further, J. Wellhausen, _De Gent. et Famil. Judaeorum_ (1869); S. Cook, _Critical Notes on O.T. History, Index_, s.v.; E. Meyer, _Israeliten_, pp. 400 sqq.; and the commentaries on Chronicles (_q.v._).

(S. A. C.)

CALEDON (1) a town of the Cape Province, 81 m. by rail E.S.E. of Cape Town. Pop. (1904) 3508. The town is 15 m. N. of the sea at Walker Bay and is built on a spur of the Zwartberg, 800 ft. high. The streets are lined with blue gums and oaks. From the early day of Dutch settlement at the Cape Caledon has been noted for the curative value of its mineral springs, which yield 150,000 gallons daily. There are seven springs, six with a natural temperature of 120° F., the seventh [v.04 p.0987] being cold. The district is rich in flowering heaths and everlasting flowers. The name Caledon was given to the town and district in honour of the 2nd earl of Caledon, governor of the Cape 1807-1811. (2) A river of South Africa, tributary to the Orange (_q.v._), also named after Lord Caledon.

CALEDONIA, the Roman name of North Britain, still used especially in poetry for Scotland. It occurs first in the poet Lucan (A.D. 64), and then often in Roman literature. There were (1) a district Caledonia, of which the southern border must have been on or near the isthmus between the Clyde and the Forth, (2) a Caledonian Forest (possibly in Perthshire), and (3) a tribe of Caledones or Calidones, named by the geographer Ptolemy as living within boundaries which are now unascertainable. The Romans first invaded Caledonia under Agricola (about A.D. 83). They then fortified the Forth and Clyde Isthmus with a line of forts, two of which, those at Camelon and Barhill, have been identified and excavated, penetrated into Perthshire, and fought the decisive battle of the war (according to Tacitus) on the slopes of Mons Graupius.[1] The site--quite as hotly contested among antiquaries as between Roman and Caledonian--may have been near the Roman encampment of Inchtuthill (in the policies of Delvine, 10 m. N. of Perth near the union of Tay and Isla), which is the most northerly of the ascertained Roman encampments in Scotland and seems to belong to the age of Agricola. Tacitus represents the result as a victory. The home government, whether averse to expensive conquests of barren hills, or afraid of a victorious general, abruptly recalled Agricola, and his northern conquests--all beyond the Tweed, if not all beyond Cheviot--were abandoned. The next advance followed more than fifty years later. About A.D. 140 the district up to the Firth of Forth was definitely annexed, and a rampart with forts along it, the Wall of Antoninus Pius, was drawn from sea to sea (see BRITAIN: _Roman_; and GRAHAM'S DYKE). At the same time the Roman forts at Ardoch, north of Dunblane, Carpow near Abernethy, and perhaps one or two more, were occupied. But the conquest was stubbornly disputed, and after several risings, the land north of Cheviot seems to have been lost about A.D. 180-185. About A.D. 208 the emperor Septimius Severus carried out an extensive punitive expedition against the northern tribes, but while it is doubtful how far he penetrated, it is certain that after his death the Roman writ never again ran north of Cheviot. Rome is said, indeed, to have recovered the whole land up to the Wall of Pius in A.D. 368 and to have established there a province, Valentia. A province with that name was certainly organized somewhere. But its site and extent is quite uncertain and its duration was exceedingly brief. Throughout, Scotland remained substantially untouched by Roman influences, and its Celtic art, though perhaps influenced by Irish, remained free from Mediterranean infusion. Even in the south of Scotland, where Rome ruled for half a century (A.D. 142-180), the occupation was military and produced no civilizing effects. Of the actual condition of the land during the period of Roman rule in Britain, we have yet to learn the details by excavation. The curious carvings and ramparts, at Burghead on the coast of Elgin, and the underground stone houses locally called "wheems," in which Roman fragments have been found, may represent the native forms of dwelling, &c., and some of the "Late Celtic" metal-work may belong to this age. But of the political divisions, the boundaries and capitals of the tribes, and the like, we know nothing. Ptolemy gives a list of tribe and place-names. But hardly one can be identified with any approach to certainty, except in the extreme south. Nor has any certainty been reached about the ethnological problems of the population, the Aryan or non-Aryan character of the Picts and the like. That the Caledonians, like the later Scots, sometimes sought their fortunes in the south, is proved by a curious tablet of about A.D. 220, found at Colchester, dedicated to an unknown equivalent of Mars, Medocius, by one "Lossio Veda, nepos [ = kin of] Vepogeni, Caledo." The name Caledonia is said to survive in the second syllable of Dunkeld and in the mountain name Schiehallion (Sith-chaillinn).

AUTHORITIES.--Tacitus, _Agricola_; Hist. Augusta, _Vita Severi_; Dio lxxvi.; F. Haverfield, _The Antonine Wall Report_ (Glasgow, 1899), pp. 154-168; J. Rhys, _Celtic Britain_ (ed. 3). On Burghead, see H.W. Young, _Proc. of Scottish Antiq._ xxv., xxvii.; J. Macdonald, _Trans. Glasgow Arch. Society_. The Roman remains of Scotland are described in Rob. Stuart's _Caled. Romana_ (Edinburgh, 1852), the volumes of the Scottish Antiq. Society, the _Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, vol. vii., and elsewhere.

(F. J. H.)

[1] This, not Grampius, is the proper spelling, though Grampius was at one time commonly accepted and indeed gave rise to the modern name Grampian.

CALEDONIAN CANAL. The chain of fresh-water lakes--Lochs Ness, Oich and Lochy--which stretch along the line of the Great Glen of Scotland in a S.W. direction from Inverness early suggested the idea of connecting the east and west coasts of Scotland by a canal which would save ships about 400 m. of coasting voyage round the north of Great Britain through the stormy Pentland Firth. In 1773 James Watt was employed by the government to make a survey for such a canal, which again was the subject of an official report by Thomas Telford in 1801. In 1803 an act of parliament was passed authorizing the construction of the canal, which was begun forthwith under Telford's direction, and traffic was started in 1822. From the northern entrance on Beauly Firth to the southern, near Fort William, the total length is about 60 m., that of the artificial portion being about 22 m. The number of locks is 28, and their standard dimensions are:--length 160 ft, breadth 38 ft., water-depth 15 ft. Their lift is in general about 8 ft., but some of them are for regulating purposes only. A flight of 8 at Corpach, with a total lift of 64 ft., is known as "Neptune's Staircase." The navigation is vested in and managed by the commissioners of the Caledonian Canal, of whom the speaker of the House of Commons is _ex officio_ chairman. Usually the income is between £7000 and £8000 annually, and exceeds the expenditure by a few hundred pounds; but the commissioners are not entitled to make a profit, and the credit balances, though sometimes allowed to accumulate, must be expended on renewals and improvements of the canal. They have not, however, always proved sufficient for their purposes, and parliament is occasionally called upon to make special grants. In the commissioners is also vested the Crinan Canal, which extends from Ardrishaig on Loch Gilp to Crinan on Loch Crinan. This canal was made by a company incorporated by act of parliament in 1793, and was opened for traffic in 1801. At various times it received grants of public money, and ultimately in respect of these it passed into the hands of the government. In 1848 it was vested by parliament in the commissioners of the Caledonian Canal (who had in fact administered it for many years previously); the act contained a proviso that the company might take back the undertaking on repayment of the debt within 20 years, but the power was not exercised. The length of the canal is 9 m., and it saves vessels sailing from the Clyde a distance of about 85 m. as compared with the alternative route round the Mull of Kintyre. Its highest reach is 64 ft. above sea level, and its locks, 15 in number, are 96 ft. long, by 24 ft. wide, the depth of water being such as to admit vessels up to a draught of 9½ ft. The revenue is over £6000 a year, and there is usually a small credit balance which, as with the Caledonian Canal, must be applied to the purposes of the undertaking.

CALENBERG, or KALENBERG, the name of a district, including the town of Hanover, which was formerly part of the duchy of Brunswick. It received its name from a castle near Schulenburg, and is traversed by the rivers Weser and Leine, its area being about 1050 sq. m. The district was given to various cadets of the ruling house of Brunswick, one of these being Ernest Augustus, afterwards elector of Hanover, and the ancestor of the Hanoverian kings of Great Britain and Ireland.

CALENDAR, so called from the Roman Calends or Kalends, a method of distributing time into certain periods adapted to the purposes of civil life, as hours, days, weeks, months, years, &c.

Of all the periods marked out by the motions of the celestial bodies, the most conspicuous, and the most intimately connected with the affairs of mankind, are the _solar day_, which is [v.04 p.0988] distinguished by the diurnal revolution of the earth and the alternation of light and darkness, and the _solar year_, which completes the circle of the seasons. But in the early ages of the world, when mankind were chiefly engaged in rural occupations, the phases of the moon must have been objects of great attention and interest,--hence the _month_, and the practice adopted by many nations of reckoning time by the motions of the moon, as well as the still more general practice of combining lunar with solar periods. The solar day, the solar year, and the lunar month, or lunation, may therefore be called the _natural_ divisions of time. All others, as the hour, the week, and the civil month, though of the most ancient and general use, are only arbitrary and conventional.

_Day._--The subdivision of the day (_q.v._) into twenty-four parts, or hours, has prevailed since the remotest ages, though different nations have not agreed either with respect to the epoch of its commencement or the manner of distributing the hours. Europeans in general, like the ancient Egyptians, place the commencement of the civil day at midnight, and reckon twelve morning hours from midnight to midday, and twelve evening hours from midday to midnight. Astronomers, after the example of Ptolemy, regard the day as commencing with the sun's culmination, or noon, and find it most convenient for the purposes of computation to reckon through the whole twenty-four hours. Hipparchus reckoned the twenty-four hours from midnight to midnight. Some nations, as the ancient Chaldeans and the modern Greeks, have chosen sunrise for the commencement of the day; others, again, as the Italians and Bohemians, suppose it to commence at sunset. In all these cases the beginning of the day varies with the seasons at all places not under the equator. In the early ages of Rome, and even down to the middle of the 5th century after the foundation of the city, no other divisions of the day were known than sunrise, sunset, and midday, which was marked by the arrival of the sun between the Rostra and a place called Graecostasis, where ambassadors from Greece and other countries used to stand. The Greeks divided the natural day and night into twelve equal parts each, and the hours thus formed were denominated _temporary hours_, from their varying in length according to the seasons of the year. The hours of the day and night were of course only equal at the time of the equinoxes. The whole period of day and night they called [Greek: nuchthêmeron].

_Week._--The week is a period of seven days, having no reference whatever to the celestial motions,--a circumstance to which it owes its unalterable uniformity. Although it did not enter into the calendar of the Greeks, and was not introduced at Rome till after the reign of Theodosius, it has been employed from time immemorial in almost all eastern countries; and as it forms neither an aliquot part of the year nor of the lunar month, those who reject the Mosaic recital will be at a loss, as Delambre remarks, to assign it to an origin having much semblance of probability. It might have been suggested by the phases of the moon, or by the number of the planets known in ancient times, an origin which is rendered more probable from the names universally given to the different days of which it is composed. In the Egyptian astronomy, the order of the planets, beginning with the most remote, is Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, the Moon. Now, the day being divided into twenty-four hours, each hour was consecrated to a particular planet, namely, one to Saturn, the following to Jupiter, the third to Mars, and so on according to the above order; and the day received the name of the planet which presided over its first hour. If, then, the first hour of a day was consecrated to Saturn, that planet would also have the 8th, the 15th, and the 22nd hour; the 23rd would fall to Jupiter, the 24th to Mars, and the 25th, or the first hour of the second day, would belong to the Sun. In like manner the first hour of the 3rd day would fall to the Moon, the first of the 4th day to Mars, of the 5th to Mercury, of the 6th to Jupiter, and of the 7th to Venus. The cycle being completed, the first hour of the 8th day would return to Saturn, and all the others succeed in the same order. According to Dio Cassius, the Egyptian week commenced with Saturday. On their flight from Egypt, the Jews, from hatred to their ancient oppressors, made Saturday the last day of the week.

The English names of the days are derived from the Saxon. The ancient Saxons had borrowed the week from some Eastern nation, and substituted the names of their own divinities for those of the gods of Greece. In legislative and justiciary acts the Latin names are still retained.

Latin. English. Saxon.
Dies Solis. Sunday. Sun's day.
Dies Lunae. Monday. Moon's day.
Dies Martis. Tuesday. Tiw's day.
Dies Mercurii. Wednesday. Woden's day.
Dies Jovis. Thursday. Thor's day.
Dies Veneris. Friday. Frigg's day.
Dies Saturni. Saturday. Seterne's day.

_Month._--Long before the exact length of the year was determined, it must have been perceived that the synodic revolution of the moon is accomplished in about 29½ days. Twelve lunations, therefore, form a period of 354 days, which differs only by about 11¼ days from the solar year. From this circumstance has arisen the practice, perhaps universal, of dividing the year into twelve _months_. But in the course of a few years the accumulated difference between the solar year and twelve lunar months would become considerable, and have the effect of transporting the commencement of the year to a different season. The difficulties that arose in attempting to avoid this inconvenience induced some nations to abandon the moon altogether, and regulate their year by the course of the sun. The month, however, being a convenient period of time, has retained its place in the calendars of all nations; but, instead of denoting a synodic revolution of the moon, it is usually employed to denote an arbitrary number of days approaching to the twelfth part of a solar year.

Among the ancient Egyptians the month consisted of thirty days invariably; and in order to complete the year, five days were added at the end, called supplementary days. They made use of no intercalation, and by losing a fourth of a day every year, the commencement of the year went back one day in every period of four years, and consequently made a revolution of the seasons in 1461 years. Hence 1461 Egyptian years are equal to 1460 Julian years of 365¼ days each. This year is called _vague_, by reason of its commencing sometimes at one season of the year, and sometimes at another.

The Greeks divided the month into three decades, or periods of ten days,--a practice which was imitated by the French in their unsuccessful attempt to introduce a new calendar at the period of the Revolution. This division offers two advantages: the first is, that the period is an exact measure of the month of thirty days; and the second is, that the number of the day of the decade is connected with and suggests the number of the day of the month. For example, the 5th of the decade must necessarily be the 5th, the 15th, or the 25th of the month; so that when the day of the decade is known, that of the month can scarcely be mistaken. In reckoning by weeks, it is necessary to keep in mind the day of the week on which each month begins.

The Romans employed a division of the month and a method of reckoning the days which appear not a little extraordinary, and must, in practice, have been exceedingly inconvenient. As frequent allusion is made by classical writers to this embarrassing method of computation, which is carefully retained in the ecclesiastical calendar, we here give a table showing the correspondence of the Roman months with those of modern Europe.

Instead of distinguishing the days by the ordinal numbers first, second, third, &c., the Romans counted _backwards_ from three fixed epochs, namely, the _Calends_, the _Nones_ and the _Ides_. The Calends (or Kalends) were invariably the first day of the month, and were so denominated because it had been an ancient custom of the pontiffs to call the people together on that day, to apprize them of the festivals, or days that were to be kept sacred during the month. The Ides (from an obsolete verb _iduare_, to divide) were at the middle of the month, either the 13th or the 15th day; and the Nones were the _ninth_ day before the [v.04 p.0989] Ides, counting inclusively. From these three terms the days received their denomination in the following manner:--Those which were comprised between the Calends and the Nones were called _the days before the Nones_; those between the Nones and the Ides were called _the days before the Ides_; and, lastly, all the days after the Ides to the end of the month were called _the days before the Calends_ of the succeeding month. In the months of March, May, July and October, the Ides fell on the 15th day, and the Nones consequently on the 7th; so that each of these months had six days named from the Nones. In all the other months the Ides were on the 13th and the Nones on the 5th; consequently there were only four days named from the Nones. Every month had eight days named from the Ides. The number of days receiving their denomination from the Calends depended on the number of days in the month and the day on which the Ides fell. For example, if the month contained 31 days and the Ides fell on the 13th, as was the case in January, August and December, there would remain 18 days after the Ides, which, added to the first of the following month, made 19 days of Calends. In January, therefore, the 14th day of the month was called the _nineteenth before the Calends of February_ (counting inclusively), the 15th was the 18th before the Calends and so on to the 30th, which was called the third before the Calend (_tertio Calendas_), the last being the second of the Calends, or the day before the Calends (_pridie Calendas_).

+-------+------------+------------+------------+------------+
| | March. | | April. | |
|Days of| May. | January. | June. | |
| the | July. | August. | September. | February. |
| Month.| October. | December. | November. | |
+-------+------------+------------+------------+------------+
| 1 | Calendae. | Calendae. | Calendae. | Calendae. |
| 2 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| 3 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| 4 | 4 |Prid. Nonas.|Prid. Nonas.|Prid. Nonas.|
| 5 | 3 | Nonae. | Nonae. | Nonae. |
| 6 |Prid. Nonas.| 8 | 8 | 8 |
| 7 | Nonae. | 7 | 7 | 7 |
| 8 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 6 |
| 9 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| 10 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| 11 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| 12 | 4 | Prid. Idus.| Prid. Idus.| Prid. Idus.|
| 13 | 3 | Idus. | Idus. | Idus. |
| 14 | Prid. Idus.| 19 | 18 | 16 |
| 15 | Idus. | 18 | 17 | 15 |
| 16 | 17 | 17 | 16 | 14 |
| 17 | 16 | 16 | 15 | 13 |
| 18 | 15 | 15 | 14 | 12 |
| 19 | 14 | 14 | 13 | 11 |
| 20 | 13 | 13 | 12 | 10 |
| 21 | 12 | 12 | 11 | 9 |
| 22 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 8 |
| 23 | 10 | 10 | 9 | 7 |
| 24 | 9 | 9 | 8 | 6 |
| 25 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 5 |
| 26 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 4 |
| 27 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 3 |
| 28 | 5 | 5 | 4 |Prid. Calen.|
| 29 | 4 | 4 | 3 | Mart. |
| 30 | 3 | 3 |Prid. Calen.| |
| 31 |Prid. Calen.|Prid. Calen.| | |
+-------+------------+------------+------------+------------+

YEAR.--The year is either astronomical or civil. The solar astronomical year is the period of time in which the earth performs a revolution in its orbit about the sun, or passes from any point of the ecliptic to the same point again; and consists of 365 days 5 hours 48 min. and 46 sec. of mean solar time. The civil year is that which is employed in chronology, and varies among different nations, both in respect of the season at which it commences and of its subdivisions. When regard is had to the sun's motion alone, the regulation of the year, and the distribution of the days into months, may be effected without much trouble; but the difficulty is greatly increased when it is sought to reconcile solar and lunar periods, or to make the subdivisions of the year depend on the moon, and at the same time to preserve the correspondence between the whole year and the seasons.

_Of the Solar Year._--In the arrangement of the civil year, two objects are sought to be accomplished,--first, the equable distribution of the days among twelve months; and secondly, the preservation of the beginning of the year at the same distance from the solstices or equinoxes. Now, as the year consists of 365 days and a fraction, and 365 is a number not divisible by 12, it is impossible that the months can all be of the same length and at the same time include all the days of the year. By reason also of the fractional excess of the length of the year above 365 days, it likewise happens that the years cannot all contain the same number of days if the epoch of their commencement remains fixed; for the day and the civil year must necessarily be considered as beginning at the same instant; and therefore the extra hours cannot be included in the year till they have accumulated to a whole day. As soon as this has taken place, an additional day must be given to the year.

The civil calendar of all European countries has been borrowed from that of the Romans. Romulus is said to have divided the year into ten months only, including in all 304 days, and it is not very well known how the remaining days were disposed of. The ancient Roman year commenced with March, as is indicated by the names September, October, November, December, which the last four months still retain. July and August, likewise, were anciently denominated Quintilis and Sextilis, their present appellations having been bestowed in compliment to Julius Caesar and Augustus. In the reign of Numa two months were added to the year, January at the beginning and February at the end; and this arrangement continued till the year 452 B.C., when the Decemvirs changed the order of the months, and placed February after January. The months now consisted of twenty-nine and thirty days alternately, to correspond with the synodic revolution of the moon, so that the year contained 354 days; but a day was added to make the number odd, which was considered more fortunate, and the year therefore consisted of 355 days. This differed from the solar year by ten whole days and a fraction; but, to restore the coincidence, Numa ordered an additional or intercalary month to be inserted every second year between the 23rd and 24th of February, consisting of twenty-two and twenty-three days alternately, so that four years contained 1465 days, and the mean length of the year was consequently 366¼ days. The additional month was called _Mercedinus_ or _Mercedonius_, from _merces_, wages, probably because the wages of workmen and domestics were usually paid at this season of the year. According to the above arrangement, the year was too long by one day, which rendered another correction necessary. As the error amounted to twenty-four days in as many years, it was ordered that every third period of eight years, instead of containing four intercalary months, amounting in all to ninety days, should contain only three of those months, consisting of twenty-two days each. The mean length of the year was thus reduced to 365¼ days; but it is not certain at what time the octennial periods, borrowed from the Greeks, were introduced into the Roman calendar, or whether they were at any time strictly followed. It does not even appear that the length of the intercalary month was regulated by any certain principle, for a discretionary power was left with the pontiffs, to whom the care of the calendar was committed, to intercalate more or fewer days according as the year was found to differ more or less from the celestial motions. This power was quickly abused to serve political objects, and the calendar consequently thrown into confusion. By giving a greater or less number of days to the intercalary month, the pontiffs were enabled to prolong the term of a magistracy or hasten the annual elections; and so little care had been taken to regulate the year, that, at the time of Julius Caesar, the civil equinox differed from the astronomical by three months, so that the winter months were carried back into autumn and the autumnal into summer.

In order to put an end to the disorders arising from the negligence or ignorance of the pontiffs, Caesar abolished the use of the lunar year and the intercalary month, and regulated the civil year entirely by the sun. With the advice and assistance of Sosigenes, he fixed the mean length of the year at 365¼ days, and decreed that every fourth year should have 366 days, the [v.04 p.0990] other years having each 365. In order to restore the vernal equinox to the 25th of March, the place it occupied in the time of Numa, he ordered two extraordinary months to be inserted between November and December in the current year, the first to consist of thirty-three, and the second of thirty-four days. The intercalary month of twenty-three days fell into the year of course, so that the ancient year of 355 days received an augmentation of ninety days; and the year on that occasion contained in all 445 days. This was called the last year of confusion. The first Julian year commenced with the 1st of January of the 46th before the birth of Christ, and the 708th from the foundation of the city.

In the distribution of the days through the several months, Caesar adopted a simpler and more commodious arrangement than that which has since prevailed. He had ordered that the first, third, fifth, seventh, ninth and eleventh months, that is January, March, May, July, September and November, should have each thirty-one days, and the other months thirty, excepting February, which in common years should have only twenty-nine, but every fourth year thirty days. This order was interrupted to gratify the vanity of Augustus, by giving the month bearing his name as many days as July, which was named after the first Caesar. A day was accordingly taken from February and given to August; and in order that three months of thirty-one days might not come together, September and November were reduced to thirty days, and thirty-one given to October and December. For so frivolous a reason was the regulation of Caesar abandoned, and a capricious arrangement introduced, which it requires some attention to remember.

The additional day which occured every fourth year was given to February, as being the shortest month, and was inserted in the calendar between the 24th and 25th day. February having then twenty-nine days, the 25th was the 6th of the calends of March, _sexto calendas_; the preceding, which was the additional or intercalary day, was called _bis-sexto calendas_,--hence the term _bissextile_, which is still employed to distinguish the year of 366 days. The English denomination of _leap-year_ would have been more appropriate if that year had differed from common years in _defect_, and contained only 364 days. In the modern calendar the intercalary day is still added to February, not, however, between the 24th and 25th, but as the 29th.

The regulations of Caesar were not at first sufficiently understood; and the pontiffs, by intercalating every third year instead of every fourth, at the end of thirty-six years had intercalated twelve times, instead of nine. This mistake having been discovered, Augustus ordered that all the years from the thirty-seventh of the era to the forty-eighth inclusive should be common years, by which means the intercalations were reduced to the proper number of twelve in forty-eight years. No account is taken of this blunder in chronology; and it is tacitly supposed that the calendar has been correctly followed from its commencement.

Although the Julian method of intercalation is perhaps the most convenient that could be adopted, yet, as it supposes the year too long by 11 minutes 14 seconds, it could not without correction very long answer the purpose for which it was devised, namely, that of preserving always the same interval of time between the commencement of the year and the equinox. Sosigenes could scarcely fail to know that this year was too long; for it had been shown long before, by the observations of Hipparchus, that the excess of 365¼ days above a true solar year would amount to a day in 300 years. The real error is indeed more than double of this, and amounts to a day in 128 years; but in the time of Caesar the length of the year was an astronomical element not very well determined. In the course of a few centuries, however, the equinox sensibly retrograded towards the beginning of the year. When the Julian calendar was introduced, the equinox fell on the 25th of March. At the time of the council of Nice, which was held in 325, it fell on the 21st; and when the reformation of the calendar was made in 1582, it had retrograded to the 11th. In order to restore the equinox to its former place, Pope Gregory XIII. directed ten days to be suppressed in the calendar; and as the error of the Julian intercalation was now found to amount to three days in 400 years, he ordered the intercalations to be omitted on all the centenary years excepting those which are multiples of 400. According to the Gregorian rule of intercalation, therefore, every year of which the number is divisible by four without a remainder is a leap year, excepting the centurial years, which are only leap years when divisible by four after omitting the two ciphers. Thus 1600 was a leap year, but 1700, 1800 and 1900 are common years; 2000 will be a leap year, and so on.

As the Gregorian method of intercalation has been adopted in all Christian countries, Russia excepted, it becomes interesting to examine with what degrees of accuracy it reconciles the civil with the solar year. According to the best determinations of modern astronomy (Le Verrier's _Solar Tables_, Paris, 1858, p. 102), the mean geocentric motion of the sun in longitude, from the mean equinox during a Julian year of 365.25 days, the same being brought up to the present date, is 360° + 27".685. Thus the mean length of the solar year is found to be 360°/(360° + 27".685) × 365.25 = 365.2422 days, or 365 days 5 hours 48 min. 46 sec. Now the Gregorian rule gives 97 intercalations in 400 years; 400 years therefore contain 365 × 400 + 97, that is, 146,097 days; and consequently one year contains 365.2425 days, or 365 days 5 hours 49 min. 12 sec. This exceeds the true solar year by 26 seconds, which amount to a day in 3323 years. It is perhaps unnecessary to make any formal provision against an error which can only happen after so long a period of time; but as 3323 differs little from 4000, it has been proposed to correct the Gregorian rule by making the year 4000 and all its multiples common years. With this correction the rule of intercalation is as follows:--

Every year the number of which is divisible by 4 is a leap year, excepting the last year of each century, which is a leap year only when the number of the century is divisible by 4; but 4000, and its multiples, 8000, 12,000, 16,000, &c. are common years. Thus the uniformity of the intercalation, by continuing to depend on the number four, is preserved, and by adopting the last correction the commencement of the year would not vary more than a day from its present place in two hundred centuries.

In order to discover whether the coincidence of the civil and solar year could not be restored in shorter periods by a different method of intercalation, we may proceed as follows:--The fraction 0.2422, which expresses the excess of the solar year above a whole number of days, being converted into a continued fraction, becomes

1
-----
4 + 1
-----
7 + 1
-----
1 + 1
-----
3 + 1
-----
4 + 1
-----
1 +, &c.

which gives the series of approximating fractions,

1/4, 7/29, 8/33, 31/128, 132/545, 163/673, &c.

The first of these, 1/4, gives the Julian intercalation of one day in four years, and is considerably too great. It supposes the year to contain 365 days 6 hours.

The second, 7/29, gives seven intercalary days in twenty-nine years, and errs in defect, as it supposes a year of 365 days 5 hours 47 min. 35 sec.

The third, 8/33, gives eight intercalations in thirty-three years or seven successive intercalations at the end of four years respectively, and the eighth at the end of five years. This supposes the year to contain 365 days 5 hours 49 min. 5.45 sec.

The fourth fraction, 31/128 = (24 + 7) / (99 + 29) = (3 × 8 + 7) / (3 × 33 + 29) combines three periods of thirty-three years with one of twenty-nine, and would consequently be very convenient in application. It supposes the year to consist of 365 days 5 hours 48 min. 45 sec., and is practically exact.

The fraction 8/33 offers a convenient and very accurate method of intercalation. It implies a year differing in excess from the true year only by 19.45 sec., while the Gregorian year is too long by 26 sec. It produces a much nearer coincidence between the civil and solar years than the Gregorian method; and, by reason of its shortness of period, confines the evagations of the mean equinox from the true within much narrower limits. It has been stated by Scaliger, Weidler, Montucla, and others, that the modern Persians actually follow this method, and intercalate eight days in thirty-three [v.04 p.0991] years. The statement has, however, been contested on good authority; and it seems proved (see Delambre, _Astronomie Moderne_, tom. i. p.81) that the Persian intercalation combines the two periods 7/29 and 8/33. If they follow the combination (7 + 3 × 8) / (29 + 3 × 33) = 31/128 their determination of the length of the tropical year has been extremely exact. The discovery of the period of thirty-three years is ascribed to Omar Khayyam, one of the eight astronomers appointed by Jel[=a]l ud-Din Malik Shah, sultan of Khorasan, to reform or construct a calendar, about the year 1079 of our era.

If the commencement of the year, instead of being retained at the same place in the seasons by a uniform method of intercalation, were made to depend on astronomical phenomena, the intercalations would succeed each other in an irregular manner, sometimes after four years and sometimes after five; and it would occasionally, though rarely indeed, happen, that it would be impossible to determine the day on which the year ought to begin. In the calendar, for example, which was attempted to be introduced in France in 1793, the beginning of the year was fixed at midnight preceding the day in which the true autumnal equinox falls. But supposing the instant of the sun's entering into the sign Libra to be very near midnight, the small errors of the solar tables might render it doubtful to which day the equinox really belonged; and it would be in vain to have recourse to observation to obviate the difficulty. It is therefore infinitely more commodious to determine the commencement of the year by a fixed rule of intercalation; and of the various methods which might be employed, no one perhaps is on the whole more easy of application, or better adapted for the purpose of computation, than the Gregorian now in use. But a system of 31 intercalations in 128 years would be by far the most perfect as regards mathematical accuracy. Its adoption upon our present Gregorian calendar would only require the suppression of the usual bissextile once in every 128 years, and there would be no necessity for any further correction, as the error is so insignificant that it would not amount to a day in 100,000 years.