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EVEN letters of the alphabet, together with certain numbers, have been made to represent the feven days of the week, in the following order, A. o., Sunday; G. 1., Monday; F. 2., Tuesday; E. 3., Wednesday; D. 4., Thursday; C. 5., Friday; and B. 6., Saturday: each letter in turn being the Year-Letter, when indicating the initial day of the year.

The Calendars will ferve perpetually, with the Julian or Gregorian form of year, and have been constructed in the following manner. The months which commence with the fame day of the week, we have brought together in groups at the head of a column of 31 days, fo that the initial day of each month fhall fall, in due order from the initial day of the year, indicated by the YearLetter, according to the above order; obferving always that form of year which begins with January and ends with December.

It happens that the Year-Letters for the commencement of the year, and the Dominical Letters, are identical, although produced by two different systems.

The fyftem by which the Dominical* or Sunday letters are produced, is this.-The days of the year are marked with the letters A, B, C, D, E, F, and G; recurring until the end of the year [except in a Leap-Year, when both the 24th and 25th of February have the letter "F"]. The Ift of January having always the letter "A" year after year the Sundays fall to different letters in retrograde order, until the cycle of 28 years [the Solar Cycle] has been run out.

The other system by which the initial letter of the year-called the Year-Letter-is produced, is, according to the rule by which the days of the week have fixed to them the letters A, G, F, E, D, C and B, already noticed at the commencement of this article.

The special advantages of Perpetual Calendars are these.

I. Calendars being at hand for any years of the Julian form, before and after 1 A.D. for the Old Style, and from 1582 A.D. for the New Style, documents dated with a Saint's day, can be chronologically arranged, with ease and precifion. For as it was the practice in England, before the reformation of the Church in the reign of Henry VIII., to date with a Saint's day, it is obvious that Calendars are indispensable to enable one to determine the day of the week of any date in any year, before the correct date can be affigned to any document dated on or before a Saint's day [fee lift of Saints' days for the date when the festivals were usually celebrated].

II. When the date of an event is known approximately, the exact year can often be determined if the day of the

*Dominica, being the Latin for Sunday, the derivation of the term "Dominical" is obvious.

week be known. For example:-To find the year of an event which took place on "Tuesday, 23 June," it is only neceffary to obferve the Year-Letter which will be required for fuch a combination of day and date.

Thus,-between the years 1648 and 1658, Tuesday falls on the 23rd of June only in the year 1657, with "D" for the Year-Letter.

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With reference to the Gregorian or New Style of writing dates, which was first introduced at Rome and in France, Spain, &c. A.D. 1582, and in England in the year 1752, the following illuftration of the mistakes which have been made by overlooking the fact that the New Style was adopted later in fome countries than in others, will ferve to fhow the importance of ascertaining the dates of the adoption of the New Style in each country.

Some writers ftate that both Cervantes and Shakspeare died on the fame day, because they both died on the 23rd of April, 1616, one in Spain and the other in

England; but there was a difference of ten days at the time, between dates written in Spain and those written in England.

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, the author of "Don Quixote" died on the 23rd of April, 1616, at Madrid, on Saturday, Year-Letters C B, New Style.

William Shakspeare died on the 23rd of April, 1616, at Stratford-on-Avon, on Tuesday, Year-Letters G F, Old

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Eras of Nations.

The account of time, from any particular date or epoch.

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ATIONS having occafion to record events connected with their own history, have ufually fixed upon fome remote period, in order to embrace in their annals as large an extent of time as practicable. The creation of the world has therefore naturally prefented itself to many minds as a fit date; but, as opinions vary, we have above one hundred and forty different dates given for the Mundane era.

Several nations have adopted fome event clofely connected with their religion, thus, the Chriftians of the Eaft dated from the perfecution of the early Christians under the Emperor Diocletian [fee Era of Martyrs]: the Christians of Europe and America at the prefent time, reckoning from I Anno Domini, which is the fixed point in time, determined by Dionyfius Exiguus A. D. 532, for the commencement of the Chriftian Era. Although almost all Eras have now been adjusted to that fixed point in time, I A.D., yet the reduction of any given date in the hiftory of a particular nation, to the corresponding

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