SECTION III. 227 are 'wanting yearly to make up a complete day of 24 hours, are accounted for in the new style by leaving out a whole dayonce in 133 or 134 years.* And it is the neglect of accounting for these odd minutes in the old style above a thousand years back- wards, that has made the differencebetween the old style and the new to be at,present eleven days. Note, The zodiac is fancied as a broad belt spreading about 7 or.8 degrees on each side of the ecliptic, so wide as to con- tain most of those stars that make up the 12 constellations or signs. The inner edge of the wooden horizon is divided into 360 degrees, or 12 ttitnes 30, allowing 30 degrees to every sign or constellation, the figures of which are usually drawn there. The next circle to these on thehorizon contains an almanack of the old style which begins the year eleven days later ; and the next circle is an almanack of the new style which begins so much sooner; and these shew in what sign the sun is, and in' what degree of that sign he is every day in the year, whether you count by the old style or the new. Note, One side or edge of the brazen meridian is also di-" vided into 360 degrees or 4 times 90 ; on the upper semicircle whereof the numbers usually begin to be counted from the equa- tor both ways toward the poles : On the under semicircle they begin to be counted from the poles both ways toward the equator for special uses, as will afterward appear. And it should be re- membered that it is this edge of the brass circle, which is gradu- ated or divided into degrees, that is properly the meridian line. The equator and the ecliptic are -called unchangeable circles, because wheresoever we travel or change our place on the earth these circles are still the same. SECT. III. Of the Lesser Circles. THE lesser circles divide the globe into two unequal parts, and are these four, all parallel to the equator, (viz.) the two tro- pics, and the two polar circles. I. The tropic of cancer just touches the north part of the ecliptic, and describes the sun's path for the longest day in sum- mer : It is drawn at 231 degrees distance from the equator toward the north. And it is called the tropic of cancer, because the sun enters into that sign the 21st of June, the longest day in the year. it This was contrived to be done by Pope Gregory in the year 1582, in this manner. Since three times 133 years make near 400years, be ordered the addi- tional day to be omitted at the end of three centuries successively, and to be re- tainedat the 400th year or 4tlt century. But in this reformation of the calendar he looked back no farther than the Council of Nice. This order almost all foreign nations observed r Great Britain did not observe atilt the year 1152, when it wasintroduced and established by act of parliament. P Yi
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