639. The names of the 12 moons, or months, are derived from the Latin, as under: January, from Janus, the god of new-born infants, March, from Murs, the god of war, the first month of the Roman year. April, from Aperto, signifying to open the year, or the blogoms, May, from Mata, the mother of Mercury. June, from Juno, the wife of Jupiter, July, from Juling Cresar, the Roman Emperor. August, from Augustus Cæsar, the Roman Emperor, September, from Neptem, the seventh month of the Itoman year, which began in March, October, from Octo, the eighth month of the Roman year, November, from Novem, the ninth month of the Roman year, December, from Decem, the teuth month of the Homan year. 640. It will readily be supposed, that owing to the various lengths of years, and the diffe rent modes of calculation practised by different nations, great differences of opinion have ex isted in regard to the date of past events, The great difficulty has been, to fix the period of certain great events, as a sort of land-marks, from which to ascertain and correct others: these are- • According to Cassar, the mother of Mars was Jugo, and fairys was a feast of atonement, held in the mouth of February, whank thenes re-eived its bame. Obs.---The preceding dates should be accurately va membered by every one, who would talk and reason es historical facts. But there is an art of short memory, worthy of being known, by which, all numbers and dates may be converted into syllables, and added to the word to which the date belongs. For this purpose, a set of vowels and diphthongs, and a set of consonants, ate assigned to every one of the digits, and in forming a date into a syllable, either vowels or consonauts may be taken at pleasure; thus, In the vowel-line, the five first digits are represented by the five vowels, and 6, 1, and 9, are diphthongs, formed from combining vowels that make up their nonbere, Ei are the two first letters of the word eight, and y for 10, is the occasional vowel, In the consonant line, b is the first consonant, and 1, , 9, and n, are the first letters of their respective digits d is the first letter of duo, two; 1 stands for 5 or 501 p stands for 7, from its full sound in septem, seven ; and i is the last letter in the alphabet, As the year of the Creation can never be forgotten hy the lowest intellect, I shall begin with the Deluge, and dropping age, affix a syllable to Del, corresponding with 2, 5, 4, 8. Looking to the table, and taking d for 2, i for 3, f for 4, and k for B, 1 make the syllable dijk, which added to del, makes deldifh, Or, to vary the ex ample, I can make a different termination by taking o for 2, 1 for 3, o for 4, and k for 8, which added to del, make deletok, either of which may be easily remem bered but the former is to be preferred, because only one syllable, It is, therefore, an easy task for the student to miske syllabic terminations to all the preceding dates, and then commit the whole to memory. He may, alsó, ez. tend the art to other dates, distances, and numbers, and or 300, such will easily be recollected through life. 041. History is one of the most agreeable 1 tudies; but unhappily, there are few authentic gistories. alat blow of The causes of political events are often unknown; and the real characters of those who direct the affairs of mankind, are generally perverted by prejudice, falsehood, or flattery. It will however be useful, in many respects, to be acquainted with the revolutions of empires; and for this object, recourse must be had to general and particular histories.-See Robinson's Grammar of History; and also his Ancient and Modern History... a 042. It has been already observed, that the frst families, or tribes, were shepherds or hunters: The quarrels of these led to wars; vars to conquest; and conquest to increased dominion, and to empire. The first conqueror, according to holy writ, was Nimrod, a powerful hunter; who built Babylon, and laid the foundation of the Assyrian Monarchy. He was succeeded by his son Ninus; who built Nineveh, and extended his dominions all over Asia, from India to the Mediterranean. 643. Ninus was succeeded by his wife Semiramis; who, for a length of time, wore a man's habit, and extended her empire over Egypt, Ethiopia, and other countries of Africa. Her son Ninins succeeded her; and he had thirty successors, during a period of 1300 years," when Sardanapalus burnt himself in his palace at Nineveh, and the Assyrian monarchy was divided into the Chaldean and Persian empires. 644. These empires continued separate, about 200 years; when both were united by Cyrus, (Cy-les) who established the second universal empire, called the Persian empire, which lasted more than 200 years. It was then conquered by Alexander the Great, king of Macedon, who, in his own person, established, for a few years, the third universal empire, called the Macedo nian empire; which included Greece, Asia from he Mediterranean to the Indies, and Egypt in Africa, 645. On the death of Alexander, which took place at Babylon in the 38d year of his age. owing to a fever brought on by intoxication, his vast dominions were divided by his generals, who desolated the world by their mutual wars for many years afterwards, During these ages, civilization was confined 10 a few countries of Asia and Africs, and to Greece: the rest of the world was in a state of barbarism; and nothing is known of its history. 646, Soon after the death of Alexander,the Great, in 323, (Alexau-tet) a new power arose more to the west, the ambition of which in time, spread its dominions over barbarous, as well as civilized, nations, This was the Roman empire; which com menced from the city of Rome, built by Romulus, in 753 (Rom-put) before Christ. By degrees it spread itself over Italy; thence to Greece and Africa; afterwards over the civilized parts of Asia (except China and India); aud, |