were invented so recently as the year 1658, either by Dr. HOOKE our countryman, or M. HUYGENS. A watch was presented to our Charles IId. with this inscription: "ROBERT HOOKE invent. 1658. T. TOMPION fecit, 1675." Some watches are now executed with such great perfection, as to vary but a few seconds in the course of a year. Those constructed with the greatest possible accuracy, and intended for astronomical or nautical observations, are called Chronometers.

Repeaters which by the pressure of a spring, strike the hour and quarters, were invented by Mr. BARLOW, who first applied the contrivance to clocks in 1676, though not to watches until the reign of James IId. when he obtained a patent.

Calendar or Kalendar.

The Registers successively invented, to note the order of our divisions of Time, are called Calendars or Kalendars; and sometimes also Diaries and Ephemerides..

The Kalendar or Calendar of the Romans-in Latin calendarium-is supposed to have been so termed, from the monthly books of accounts, or registers kept by them of their money let out at interest. The Latin word calo to call or proclaim, is derived from the Greek xax, whence some spell Calendar with a K.

The calends, or first days of each month, were proclaimed on the appearance of every new moon, until the year of Rome 450, when Č. FLAVIUS, the curule ædile, ordered the Fasti, or Ca

lendar, to be affixed upon the walls of public

To these were added two other divisions, without names, one consisting of 33, the other of 23 days, so as to make the year contain 360 days, or 12 lunations, agreeably to the division of time before the deluge. NOAH, reckoned by months of 30 days each and from him that mode of computing the year was adopted by the Chaldeans, Egyptians, &c.

ROMULUS the Founder of Rome formed

The Roman Calendar,

and brought the months back, nearly to the equality of the sacred division.

Supplementary days were used to complete the solar year, with all the accuracy then practicable; but they had neither name, nor determinate number..

SCALIGER says, that the Roman year never comprized fewer than 12 months: but the tes

timonies of MACROBIUS, VARRO, OVID, CENSORINUS, and others, are against him.

NUMA POMPILIUS, the successor of ROMULUS, formed the supplementary days into two additional months, and made the year to commence on the 1st of January. He afterwards added another day to the first month of the new Calendar.

NUMA intercalated 22 days every 2d,

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every 4th, 22 every 6th, and 23 every 8th year. But this regulation failing of its object, he afterwards added only 15 days every 8th year, instead of 23.

The Fasti calendarii, which in some degree resembled our almanacs, were placed under the controul of the PONTIFEX MAXIMUS, who suffered the year to degenerate into great irregularity..

NUMA changed the order of the ten months of ROMULUS, but without altering their names. Hence, the apparent absurdity of the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th months in his Calendar, bearing the names of the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th, which they still retain.

The Roman Calendar continued to be governed by NUMA's regulation, until the DECEMVIRS threw it into perplexity, by a fresh alteration,

Many authorities however maintain, that the Decemvirs merely made February the Second month of the year instead of the last, in which order it had been placed by NUMA.

Julian Calendar.

The year ran on with increasing confusion, until JULIUS CAESAR'S third consulship, when it was found to have anticipated its real station, 67 days. To correct an evil of such important and growing magnitude, that great man resolved to intercalate, at once, this entire number of days, which was accordingly effected between the months of November and December. This year, which was the one to which NUMA's appropriated 23 days were added, was thus made to consist of 445 days, or 15 months: viz.

This year, which immediately preceded the commencement of the Julian period, has been distinguished by the name of "the year of con

fusion" CENSORIUS and SUETONIUS thus explain the matter :

"CESAR finding that the PONTIFFS of ROME, whose business it was to intercalate the years which were to be lunæ solar years, had abused their authority, and managed this intercalation with a regard to their own conveniency, or to oblige their friends, according as they were inclined to keep the magistrates in their places a longer or shorter time upon a view of these abuses took the resolution to redress the growing corruption."

Julius Cæsar having thus rectified the accumulated errors of the old computation, endeavoured to put the calendar upon such a basis, as should obviate the recurrence of future irregularity. With this view, he called to his assistance SOSIGENES, a celebrated Egyptian astronomer and mathematician, who ascertained the annual course of the Sun to consist of 365 days, and about 6 hours. Upon the basis of this computation, a new Calandar was formed by FLAVIUS a scribe, entitled

To correct the excess of six hours in each year, it was ingeniously provided, that one day should be intercalated every fourth year, between the 23d and 24th of February—thus making that year to consist of 366 days. This practice of reckoning the 23d day of February twice, was adopted in our own country by the Statute De

* Altered to Julius after the death of Cæsar, by Marc Anthony.