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OF THE REFORMATION

LETTER XIV.

Of the Reformation of the Calendar.

HE first care of every society, after pro-

-fi- viding for its most pressing wants and ne-cessities, has always been to establish some uni-form method of reckoning time. Withoutsuch a standard to refer to, as occasion requires,the administration of public affairs, and thecommon concerns of life, would be subject toperpetual confusion. A well regulated calendaris, therefore, a matter of the most extensiveutility and importance. It is by this means,that we are able to ascertain the returns of theseasons, and to point out the proper times forcultivating the earth; to adjust the observanceof civil and ecclesiastical institutions, and totransmit to posterity the dates of such events asare worthy of remembrance.

A computation of time by certain regularperiods, is a custom that has been observed byall nations, where arts and sciences have beencultivated; but as nature has afforded us no fixedor permanent measure of duration, the mannerof estimating those periods has been various anduncertain. In some countries the natural dayis supposed to commence with the rising of thesun, and in others with his setting; some begin

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