Many years ago, while engaged in teaching, the writer of this little volume was in the habit of bringing to the attention of his pupils a few simple rules for finding the dominical letter and the day of the week of any given event within the past and the present centuries; further than this he gave the subject no special attention.

A few years ago, having occasion to learn the day of the week of certain events that were transpiring at regular intervals on the same day of the same month, but in different years, he was led to investigate the subject more thoroughly, so that he is now able to give rules for finding the dominical letter and the day of the week of any event that has transpired or will transpire, from the commencement of the Christian era to the year of our Lord 4,000, and to explain the principles on which these rules rest. When the investigations were entered upon he had no thought of writing a book; but having been laid aside from active labor by ill health, he found relief from the despondency in which sickness and poverty plunged him by pursuing the study of the calendar, its history, and the method of disposing of the fraction of a day found in the time required for the revolution of the Earth in its orbit about the Sun.

He became so much interested in the study of this subject that he frequently spoke of it to friends and acquaintances whom he met. On one occasion, while speaking to Hon. H. W. Williams about some of the curious results of the process by which the coincidence of the solar and the civil year is preserved, it was suggested to him that he should put the story of the calendar, its correction by Gregory, and the theory and results of intercalation, in writing. It was urged that this would give increased interest to the study, help the writer to forget his pains, and probably enable him to realize a little money from the sale of his work to meet pressing wants. Acting upon this suggestion, an effort has been made to put into this little volume some of the most interesting facts relating to the origin, condition, and practical operation of the calendar now in use; together with rules for finding the day of the week on which any given day of any month has fallen or will fall during four thousand years from the beginning of our era.

The writer does not claim absolute originality for all that appears in the following pages; on the contrary, he has made free use of all the materials that came within his reach relating to the history of the calendar and the work of its correction by Gregory. These materials, together with his own calculations, he has arranged in accordance with a plan of his own devising, so that the outline and the execution of the work may be truly said to be original. Of its value the world must judge. It has been prepared in weakness of body and in suffering, which have been to some extent relieved by the mental occupation thus afforded, but which may have nevertheless left their impress on the work. But let it be read before pronouncing judgment upon it. Cicero could infer the littleness of the Hebrew God from the smallness of the territory he had given his people. To whom Kitto replies: “The interest and importance of a country arise, not from its territorial extent, but from the men who form its living soul; from its institutions bearing the impress of mind and spirit, and from the events which grow out of the character and condition of its inhabitants.” So the value of a book does not consist in the size and number of its pages, but from the knowledge that may be gained by its perusal.

The Author.