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 3651/4 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 fest