THE MOON.

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more likely to occur iu different countries, whose clock timeswould vary according to the longitudes of their capitals, or oftheir principal observatories. The only way to secure the samedate would be to agree to fix it according to the occurrence ofFull Moon before, or after, the midnight of a given meridian.

But apart from this, it is also to be observed that the trueplace of the Moon is not used at all, but a hypothetical Moon is substituted, whose supposed position at any time may differby a day or two from that of the real Moon , and change anearly into a late Easter , or vice versd. The movements of thisimaginary moon are regulated in connection with certainordinances of Pope Hilarius , of the date a.d. 463,* and arearranged in relation to what is termed the Metonic cycle, andto the present regulation of the calendar by the periodicalintroduction and omission of leap years, so as, by a very com-plicated system of Golden Numbers, Sunday Letters, Epacts,etc., to* keep it from wandering too far away from the placeof the real Moon , and in a long course of time to maintaina sort of average agreement with it.

But it would surely be much better, and more convenientto all, and especially to those whose holidays, or whose religiousand other duties are connected with the date of Easter , if itcould for the future be associated with the Moon only as amatter of tradition and history, and, together with the otherfestivals dependent upon it, be made a jixed\ instead of amovable feast. The occurrence of Easter Day upon April25th, in 1886, the latest possible date, may perhaps awaken

by local time , at another place some distance to the east of the former,the full phase should occur 10 minutes later, or at 0 11 5"' a.m. on themorning of March 21st, and that day shoiiid be a Saturday, Easter Day would be on March 22nd, or thirty-five days sooner. Local time, however,not being thus used, Easter Day , according to present arrangements,never falls on April 26th, although it may be as late as April 25th.

* See Sir E. Beckett’s “ Astronomy without Mathematics,” p. 147 et seq.Also De Morgan in the “ Companion to the Almanac ” for 1845.

f That is of course with the limitation, according to the Nicasan ruleand the general practice of Christendom, that Easter Day be observedupon a Sunday. We mean that it might be the nearest Sunday to, or (ifit should be so preferred) the Sunday next before, or after, a certain fixeddate.