CHRONOLOGY.

71;

of time from which historians begin to reckon ; ami these pointsor roots of time are called .'liras or Epochs. These form the thirdprincipal foundation of chronology. They are those fixed pointsin history that have never been contested, and of which there can,in fact, lie no doubt. Chronologers fix on the events that are toserve as epochs, in a manner quite arbitrary ; but this is of littleconsequence, provided the dates of these epochs agree, and thatthere is no contradiction in the facts themselves. The most re-markable eras are, those of the Creation, the flood, the GreekOlympiads, the building of Home, the era of Nabonassar, thedeath of Alexander, the birth of Christ, the Arabian Hegira, andthe Persian Jesdegird : all which, together with several others ofless note, have their beginnings lixed by chronologers to the yearsof the Julian period, to the age of the world at those times, and tothe years before and after the birth of onr Saviour. The vulgarera of Christ’s birth was never settled till the year 527, whenDionysius Kxiguus, a Homan abbot, fixed it to'the end of the4713th year of the Julian period, which was four years too late ;for our'Saviour was born before the death of llerud, And, ac-cording to the testimony of Josephus (3. xvii. ch. 8.) there was aneclipse of the moon in the time of Herod’s last illness; which eclipseappears by our astronomical tables to have been in the year of theJulian period 4710, March 13th, at .3 hours past mid-night, at Jeru-salem. Now, as our Saviour must have been born some monthsbefore Herod’s death, since in the interval lie was carried intoEgypt, the latest time in w hich we can fix the true sera of his birthis about the end of the 470pth year of the Julian period.

Of Ancient Medals, Coins, Monuments, Sfc.

Medals, monuments, and inscriptions, form the 4th and lastprincipal foundation, or assistant of chronology, it is scarcely morethan 150 years since close application has been made to the studyof these ; and we owe to the celebrated Spanheim the greatestobligations, for the progress that is made in this method : his ex-cellent work, De Prastantia el I'su Numismatum antiquorum, liasshewn the great advantages of it; and it is evident that these mo-numents are the most authentic witnesses that can be produced.The celebrated Mr. Addison too wrote an express treatise on thisimportant use of ancient medals. By the aid of medals M. Vail-lant has composed his judicious history of the kings of Syria, fromthe time of Alexander the Great to that of Pompey : they havebeen, moreover, of the greatest service in elucidating ail ancienthistory, especially that of the Homans ; and even sometimes thatof the middle age. Their use is more fully' spoken of under thearticle Medals. What we here say of medals, is to be under-stood equally', in its full force, of ancient inscriptions, and of allother authentic monuments that have come down to us.

Of the Uncertainty of Ancient Chronology.

Every reader of discernment will readily allow, that these fourfoundations of chronology afford clear lights, and are excellentguides to conduct us through the thick darkness of antiquity. Wemust confess, however, that these guides are not infallible, nor theproofs that they atlord mathematical demonstrations. In fact, withregard to history in general, and ancient historv in particular,something must he always left to conjecture and historic faith. Wemust not therefore pass over in silence those objections, which au-thors of the greatest reputation have made against the certainty ofchronology.

I. The prodigious difference there is between the SeptuagintBible ami the Vulgate, in point of chronology, occasions an em-barrassment, which is the more difficult to avoid, as we cannotpositively say on which side the error lies. The Greek Biblecounts, tor example, from the creation of the world to the birth'>f Abraham, 1500 years more titan the Hebrew or Latin Bi-bles, &c.

II. It is extremely difficult to ascertain the years of the Judgesof the Jew ish nation, in the Bible, or the succession of the kings ofJudah and Israel. The scripture never marks if the years arecurrent or complete. We cannot suppose that a patriarch, iiuLe,or king, hvod exactly 60, 90 , 100, or o(ig years, without any o°ldmonths or days.

III. rite different names that the Assyrians, Egyptians, Persians,amt Greeks, have given to the same prince, have also contributedn ot a little to embarrass all ancient chrouologv. Three or four

VOL. i.— no. 45.

princes of Persia have horn the name of Assuerus, or Ahasueru*,though they had also other names. If we did not know that Na-huchodonosor, Nabucodrosor, Nebuchadnezzar, and Nabucolassar,were names of the same man, we should scarcely believe it. Sal-on is Sennacherib ; Ozias is Azavias; Scdecias is Mattanias ;oachas is also called Salhim; Asaraddon, Esarhaddon or Asarluid-don, is called Asenaphar by the Cuthasans; and by an oddity ofwhich we do not know the origin, Sardanapalus is called by theGreeks Tenos Coneoleros.

IV. There remain to us but few monuments of the first mo-narchs of the world. Numberless books have been lost, and manyof those which have come down to us are mutilated or altered bytranscribers. The Greeks began to write very late. Herodotus,their first historian, was of a credulous disposition, and believed allthe fables that were related by ihe Egyptian priests. The Greeks'were in general vain, partial, and held no nation in esteem buttheir own. The Romans were still more infatuated with notions oftheir ow'ii merit and grandeur. Their historians w ere as unjust astheir senate, towards other nations, many of whom w ere far morerespectable.

V. The eras, the years, the periods and epochs, were not thesame in each nation ; and they, moreover, began at different se; -sons of the year. All this lias thrown so much obscurity o\erchronology, that it appears to be beyond all human capacity to-tally to disperse it. Christianity itself had subsisted near 1200'years, before they knew precisely how many years had passedsince the birth of our Saviour. They saw clearly that the vulgarera was defective, but it was a long tune before they could com-prehend, that it required four whole years to make up the true-period.

Abb6 Dionysius, who, in 532, was the first among the Chris-tians to form the era of that grand epoch, and to count the yearsfrom that time, to make their chronology altogether Christian,erred in his calculation, and led all Europe into his error. Chro-nologers enumerate many contrary opinions of authors concern n »the year in which the Messiah appeared. The Rev. WilliamHales, D. D. names 127 authors, and says his list might heswelled to at least 300. Among all these, however, there arenone who reckon more than 7000, or lesstlian 3000 year- from thecreation. But even this difference is enormous. ’The most mo-derate fix the birth of Christ in the 4000th year of the world.The reasons, however, on which they found their opinions are va-rious and arbitrary. Notwithstanding these uncertainties, Provi-dence has so disposed all things, that there remain sufiicient lightsto enable us nearly to connect the series of events; for in the first3000 years of the world, where profane history is defective, wehave the chronology of the Bible to direct us ; and after that pe-riod, where we find more obscurity in the chronology of the holyscriptures, we have, on the oilier" hand, greater lights from pro*fane authors. It is at this period that begins the time which Varrocalls historic: as, since the time of the Olympiads, the truth ofsuch events as have happened shines clear In historv. Chrono-logy, therefore, draws its principal lights from history’; and, in re-turn, serves it as a guide. See History, and the Chart an-nexed.

Problems in Chronology.

1. To find whether any given year be leap-year.

Pule. Divide the given year by 4 : if 0 remain, it is leap-year;but if 1, 2, 3, remain, it is so many veal's after.

But if the. year be an even hundred, divid. the even hundreds Ivy4 ; if nothing remain it is leap-year; hut if any thing remain, it isaccounted a common year.

Leap-year has 300 days in it, and February 29.

2. 1 o find the dominical letter after the year 1800.

Pule. To the given year add its fourth part, omitting fractionsand also the number 1 ; divide that sum by 7 : the remaindtvleaves the index of the letter in die common year’s reckoning.

12 3 4 5 0 7A G F E I) C B

But in leap-years this letter and its preceding one) in the retro-grade order which these letters take) are the dominical letters.

The dominical letter is that letter of the alphabet which pointsout in the calendar the Sundays throughout the year ; thence alsocalled the Sunday letter. Of these letters there are consequentlyseven before-mentioned, beginning w ith the first letter of theU T alphabet j