decessors of prehistoric man.

Deception in the world of reality is very different from make-believe,
and a terrible thing. To the child--deception in regard to real
things, whatever excuses adults may put forward in its defence, is
well-nigh unforgivable. To be one who never says "it is" when it is
not, nor "it will be" when it will not be--that is to be a friend on
whom a child rests in perfect trust and happiness.

What have these thoughts to do with the New Year? Merely this, that it
is not only with and for children that we make-believe at this
season--we all of us, more or less, indulge in a make-believe about
the New Year. As the clock strikes its twelve notes at midnight on
December 31st, and all the bells of a great city are heard hovering in
the air, sending forth their sweet sounds from far and near into the
fateful night, there are few of us who have not a feeling that a great
event has occurred. A physical change has set in--the Old Year is dead
and gone, and the New Year, something tangible, which you can let in
at the door or the window--has just come into being, and is there
waiting for us. We are, of course, indulging in "make-believe," for
there is no New Year, with any natural, noteworthy thing to mark its
commencement, starting at midnight on December 31st. New Years begin
every day and hour, and it is by no means agreed upon by all nations
of the earth to pretend that the 1st of January is the critical day
which we must regard as that portentous epoch, the beginning of the
New Year. This choice of a day was made by the Romans, and that
wonderful man Julius Caesar had a great deal to do with it; modern
Europe adopted his arrangement of the year or calendar. But the Jews
have their own calendar and their own New Year's Day, which varies
from year to year, from our September 5th to our October 7th. It is,
however, to them always the first day of the month Tishri, and the
first day of their new year. The Mahomedans took the date of the
flight of Mohammed from Mecca to Medina--the night of July 15th, 622
A.D.--as the commencement of their "era," and its anniversary is the
first day of their month Muharram and the first day of their
year--their New Year's Day. As, although they reckon twelve months to
the year, their months are true lunar months, and are not corrected as
are those in use by us (as I will explain below); their year consists
of 354 days 8 hours, and so does not run parallel to our year at