Chapter II: Preface: To the Revised Edition

Soon after the publication of the former edition of this work, it was suggested that a chapter be added on Easter; rules for fixing its date, and also church festivals that depended upon the date of Easter. It was suggested that this would add very much to the value of the work, if so presented as to be brought within the comprehension of ordinary minds. Knowing that the determination of Easter was an affair of considerable nicety and complication, and had had the attention of our best minds, and they had failed so to present it, that even among scholarly men, probably not one in a hundred was able to determine its date without referring to tables prepared for that purpose the author of this work felt as though he was hardly competent for the task. Nevertheless it was undertaken, and the work has been revised and enlarged by a Chapter on the Peculiarities of the Roman Calendar, another on fixing the date of events prior to the Christian era, and a third part on Easter, church festivals, and the Hebrew Calendar. In the opinion of the author, the rules for determining the date of Easter are so simplified by his new method that any person of ordinary intelligence may understand them. How well he has succeeded the public will decide.

G. N. P.

CONTENTS.

PART FIRST.

DEFINITIONS--HISTORY.

_Pages._

CHAPTER I.--Definitions 11

CHAPTER II.--History of the divisions of time, and the old
Roman Calendar 12

CHAPTER III--History of the reformation of the Calendar by
Julius Caesar 18

CHAPTER IV.--History of the reformation of the Julian Calendar
by Pope Gregory XIII 20

CHAPTER V.--Peculiarities of the Roman Calendar 26

PART SECOND.

MATHEMATICAL.

CHAPTER I.--Errors of the Julian Calendar 36

CHAPTER II.--Errors of the Gregorian Calendar 38

CHAPTER III.--Dominical Letter 39

CHAPTER IV.--Rule for finding the Dominical Letter 44

CHAPTER V.--Rule for finding the day of the week of any given
date, for both Old and New Styles 50

CHAPTER VI.--A simple method of finding the day of the week of
events, which occur quadrennially; the inaugural of
the Presidents, the day of the week on which they
have occurred and on which they will occur for the
next one hundred years 61

Some peculiarities concerning events which fall on
the 29th of February 64

CHAPTER VII.--Rule for finding the day of the week of events
prior to the Christian era 68

PART THIRD.

CYCLES--JULIAN PERIOD--EASTER.

CHAPTER I.--The Solar Cycle 73

CHAPTER II.--The Lunar Cycle 75

CHAPTER III.--The Lunar Cycle and Golden Number 77

CHAPTER IV.--Cycle of Indiction, and the Julian Period 79

CHAPTER V.--Easter 82

CHAPTER VI.--A new and easy method of fixing the date of Easter 88

CHAPTER VII.--Church feasts and fasts whose date depend on the
date of Easter 108

CHAPTER VIII.--Hebrew Calendar 124

APPENDIX 134

ERRATA 149

OUR CALENDAR.

PART FIRST.

DEFINITIONS. HISTORY.