2. HISTORICAL CHRONOLOGY.

OF EPOCHAS, AND ERAS.

HISTORICAL CHRONOLOGY, is the science of assigning dates of time to the events of history. A DATE, is a relative mark of time, reckoned from some fixed period.

The period, from which marks of time referable to events are reckoned, is called an EPOCHA.

The general reckoning of time from the epocha, is called the ERA of the epocha. The date, is the particular year of the era.

Hence it is manifest, that an epocha and an era differ from each other in Chronology, as a point in Geometry differs from a line which is drawn from it. It is therefore surprising, that Hume, Gibbon, and many other eminent authors, should have occasionally confounded the terms. epocha and era, by using the latter to signify the former; although the perversion of language is not less, than if they had used the word line to signify a point: a confusion, less excusable in

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professed historians, than in any other class of writers.

Without some fired point of time to reckon from, no distinct notion of time could be attached to any past event; which must be noted, by its relation to that fixed point.

The real use of Historical Chronology, is to afford a ready apprehension of the DISTANCE of PAST EVENTS from PRESENT TIME.

In order to which end, nations that have reached a state of civilization, have commonly fixed upon some event in their domestic transactions, from which to reckon the progress of time; making that event the period, or epocha, of their era, or reckoning of years. This has usually been the earliest period, to which they could refer with any authority, or security.

Of these EPOCHAS, the principal among the ancient heathen nations, were the three great epochas,

The first of these, was adopted by the Greeks;

the second, by the Romans; the third, by the Babylonians.

All time prior to those epochas, (which fall in the middle or end of the EIGHTH CENTURY before CHRIST,) was pronounced by VARRO, the great REFORMER of HEATHEN CHRONOLOGY, to be either fabulous, or wholly obscure; which two characters of of time he divided, by the intervening traditional event, of THE FLOOD: an arrangement, in which his penetration and sagacity are as conspicuous above those of all other heathen writers, as his ingenuousness, and the fidelity of his reason, are pre-eminent above those of many who have been denominated Christians.

BIRTHD

But the most important, and the most entirely useful, EPOCHA which has yet been found for reckoning time, is that great event, from which the whole CHRISTIAN WORLD now agreein computing time; namely, the BIRTH, or FIRST COMING of our blessed Lord and Saviour JESUS CHRIST: an epocha, which furnishes a two-fold era, retrograde and direct: retrograde, to the crea tion of the world; and direct, to the end of the world, or to HIS SECOND COMING. This singular and luminous era, forms one continued line of time, from the beginning, to the end, of our

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race; receiving and uniting all other eras, Sacred and Profane, and furnishing to the mind the readiest apprehension possible, of the DISTANCE of PAST events from PRESENT TIME: which is the perfection of Historical Chronology.

It is astonishing, that this great epocha did not suggest itself to the Christian church, for forming an era, until about the year of our Lord 526; when DIONYSIUS THE LITTLE, a Scythian monk, had the distinguished merit of first proposing it. It is still more astonishing, that having been once proposed, it was not generally adopted until the beginning of the ninth century, when it was established, under Charlemagne, in THE WESTERN Empire.

There is, however, a slight difference of 4 years, between the true epocha of our Lord's birth, and that assumed in the vulgar era; the true epocha having been found, upon examination, to be four earlier than the common reckoning supposes years it to be. So that the true date for the present year, 1812 of the vulgar Christian era, would be 1816.

The computation by Olympiads was continued in Greece until the year 312; when it was superseded, by authority of the Council of Nice, by computations of 15 years, constantly recurring, called the Cycle of the INDICTION: being the term of an

imperial tribute, established by Constantine the Great, and collected every 15 years. This method of computation commenced January 1, A. D. 313.

OF CYCLES, AND PERIODS.

It is important, now, to take a view of two cele brated compound periods of computation, which have been applied to history; namely, the Victorian, or Dionysian Cycle, of 532 years; and the Julian Period, of 7980 years.

A cycle, or period, is a certain space of time, or a revolution of a certain number of years, which being ended it begins anew.

The Victorian or Dionysian Cycle, employed by Victorius Aquitanus, and Dionysius Exiguus, or the Little, in the fifth and sixth centuries, is produced, by multiplying into each other the solar cycle of 28 years*, and the lunar

cycle of 19 yearst; the heads of which cycles