Date

“ Now we came away from the date-tree as long ago as one o'clock, and came here and slept, till now it is ten, are those dates to wait for us? Every day people sleep under the date-tree, and the bird comes and eats the dates, and goes away. ”

“ A clock of the second type yields what is called a relative date, placing an event as before or after another event, but does not tell us exactly how far they are apart in time nor how long ago they occurred. ”

“ The dates at which supreme events occurred in the celestial evolution are immeasurably more remote than any other dates which we are ever called upon to consider in other departments of science. The time of the story on which we are to be engaged is earlier, far earlier, than any date we have ever learned at school, or have ever forgotten since. ”

“ In the matter of dates alone a difficulty meets one at first sight. Many books dated one year were issued several months before the previous Christmas, and are consequently advertised and reviewed in the year before the date which appears upon their title-page. ”

“ How did Peter find the strange little old man? When and where did he receive the more wonderful ring? What were his three wishes on Christmas morning? [39]
30. Writing Dates
If you were asked to write on a slip of paper your name and the date of your birth, could you do it? Of course you know how to write your name. Some time ago you learned to write the names of the months. Now you are to learn how to write dates. You will need to know this when you begin letter writing, which will be soon.
Written Exercise. 1. Here are two dates:
The first date is that of a New Year's Day some time ago. ”

“ Among the annoying inconveniences of our present calendar are the changing of the dates in each year at which the respective seasons, months and weeks begin, causing various holidays and other special days to be movable as regards the day of the week and often to be postponed to a new date, upon the day following, when they happen to occur on Sunday. ”

“ A dictionary of a given date is in the full sense a contribution to the history of language, a fact the full significance of which philologists have now realized. The idea of tracing that history by means of quotations successive in date belongs wholly to to-day. In few things is the dictionary before us more instructive than with regard to the growth of accents. ”

“ Everything faded away into a shadow-world in which, finally, even the date of the year had become uncertain. ”

“ We do not know the length of the interval separating any two events not recorded in history, nor are we possessed of any natural chronometer by which to fix a date in the historical sense. We are dealing merely with time relative, and not time absolute. ”

“ The reminiscences of your correspondent SENEX concerning the riots of London in the last century form an interesting addition to the records of those troubled times; but in all these matters correctness as to dates and facts are of immense importance. The omission of a date, or the narration of events out of their proper sequence, will sometimes create vast and most mischievous confusion in the mind of the reader. ”

“ By the Roman law The Date.every act must be dated by the day and the year of execution. Yet in the middle ages, from the 9th to the 12th century, a large proportion of deeds bears no date. In the most ancient charters the date clause was frequently separated from the body of the deed and placed in an isolated position at the foot of the sheet. From the 12th century it commonly followed the text immediately. Certain classes of documents, such as decrees of councils, notarial deeds, &c., began with the date. ”

“ Adding 7790 days or 21 years and 125 days to the previous date, 1 Cib 14 Kankin, it will bring us to 4 Cimi 14 Uo in the thirty-fifth year of the annual calendar, and we find this date expressed in the inscription in the glyphs D 5 and C 6. ”

“ We will next proceed on the supposition that these indicate the months. In that case the dates given in the present example will be 9 Oc, 9 Ik, 9 Ix, 9 Cimi, and 9 Ezanab of the 15th month (Muan) . In this the feast, religious ceremony, or whatever the date refers to, occurs always in the same month, and so far agrees with what is left on record in reference to religious ceremonies and observances. As only the day and month are given, it is possible, as heretofore stated, to find four dates to each day. ”

“ Though every day be a New Year's Day, still the alteration in our dates and our calendars should set us all thinking of that continual lapse of the mysterious thing—the creature of our own minds—which we call time, and which is bearing us all so steadily and silently onwards. ”

“ The next day he sent for dates, which cured him of the pain of his reins.
Since, I have learned that dates are an admirable medicine for the stone, from old Captain Tooke of K—. Take six or ten date-stones, dry them in an oven, pulverize and searce them; take as much as will lie on a six-pence, in a quarter of a pint of white wine fasting, and at four in the afternoon: walk or ride an hour after: in a week's time it will give ease, and in a month cure. ”

“ To all who in history look for the true connexion between causes and effects, chronology is not a dry and mechanical compilation of barren dates, but the explanation of events and the philosophy of facts. ”

“ The days marked in the calendars are those of the saints’ deaths (vid. ante, p. 213) ; but the days on which their relics were translated to some particular church are also marked as festivals in the calendar of the church in question. When in different calendars different days are given to the same saint, the date in the calendar belonging to the church where he died [347] is usually to be regarded as the day of his death; the others are days on which his relics were translated. ”

“ Hence we may be permitted to suspect that in some other regions, where we have no such means at our command for testing the exact date of certain movements, the time of their occurrence may be far more modern than we usually suppose. ”

“ The Calendar Round, as we have seen, determined the position of a given day within a period of only 52 years. Consequently, in order to prevent confusion of days of the same name in successive Calendar Rounds or, in other words, to secure absolute accuracy in dating events, it was necessary to use additional data in the description of any date.
In nearly all systems of chronology that presume to deal with really long periods the reckoning of years proceeds from fixed starting points. ”

“ In historical research, it appears as chronology, the number-structure of dates and statistics which, alien though number is to the essence of becoming, is so thoroughly woven around and into the world of historical forms that it is never felt to be intrusive. ”

“ A few examples of Calendar-round dating are given in figure 83 and plate 25. In figure 83, A, is shown a part of the inscription on Altar M at Quirigua. [233] In A1 B1 appears a number consisting of 0 kins, 2 uinals, and 3 tuns, that is, 3.2.0, and following this in A2b B2, the date 4 Ahau 13 Yax, and in A3b B3 the date 6 Ahau 18 Zac. Compare the month glyphs in B2 and B3 with q and r, and s and t, respectively, of figure 19. This has every appearance of being a Secondary Series, one of the two dates being the starting point of the number 3.2.0, and the other its terminal date. ”

“ The only calendar we men have is a calendar of dates, fitted to the movements of the sun and moon. God has a calendar, too, but it is a calendar of events, not of dates. The completion of His plans doesn't depend on so many revolutions of the earth about the sun, but on the faithful revolution of His followers in their movement around the earth telling men of Jesus. ”

“ As it is, I am no sooner in the streets than I am in Greece, in Rome, in the midst of the French Revolution. Precision in dates, the day or hour in which a man was born or died, becomes absolutely necessary. ”

“ When dates have been taken from computations of time other than the Christian era, it should be understood that the corresponding day has been made to conform to our own era, and consequently perfect accuracy can not be claimed for them. ”

“ These documents are all dated in such and such a month of such and such a year of some king’s reign; the months are the same (at first under their earlier Accadian names [3] ) as those we [5] find in the almanacs translated by Epping and Strassmaier, and we meet in them, and in other historical inscriptions, with the intercalary months, the second Elul, and the second Adar. It would seem, then, that it was the same calendar, worked in the same way, that held its place through these two thousand years. ”

“ For this there are more reasons than one. The zealous antiquaries who have made extracts from local records have not realized that precise dates might be of value, and have often named a year without indicating whether it represents the calendar year (Circumcision style) or the calendar year (Annunciation style) in which a performance fell, or the calendar year in which a regnal, mayoral, or accounting year, in which the performance fell, began or ended. ”

“ The Particular considers time in particular, demonstrating the certainty of Epocha's, and enumerating the Calendars of the several Nations.
The latter Author, considering with himself; that of the writers of Chronology, some have contented themselves to teach only the Precepts thereof; others, to reform the dates of it, and to marke the Characters of Times, without rehearing the considerable passages of them; others on the contrary confounding Chronology with History, have recited the remarkable Events, without much troubling themselves about the time, wherein they hapned ”

“ In countries, however, where continued clearness of the sky was not afforded, or where the necessity was urgently felt for a regular determination of future dates, the seers at length desired that they be permitted to calculate, upon the basis of the past determinations of the duration of the regular months, the recurrence of the phases of the moon for a certain time in advance, and therewith the regular succession of the months, and to publicly record the number and the method of counting the days of the single months. ”

“ A particular period of the Long Count, as Cycle 9, or Katun 14, etc.
2. The date which ends the particular period recorded, as 8 Ahau 13 Ceh, or 6 Ahau 13 Muan, the closing dates respectively of Cycle 9 and Katun 14 of Cycle 9; and
3. A glyph or element which means "ending" or "is ended," or which indicates at least that the period to which it is attached has come to its close.
The first two of these factors are absolutely essential to this method of dating, while the third, the so-called "ending sign," is usually, though not invariably, present. ”

“ The table of comparative chronology is designed to enable the reader to see at a glance the dates of the occurrences described in the book, side by side with those of important events in the world at large. It is always an advantage, when studying a particular piece of history, to have in mind other happenings of real consequence pertaining to the period under review. ”

“ What has a woman to do with dates—cold, false, erroneous, chronological dates—new style, old style, precession of the equinoxes, ill-timed calculation of comets long since due at their station and never come? ”

“ We also wish to call his attention to another fact which is becoming more and more apparent as we proceed—that the regularity of the intervals which seems apparent, whatever may be our final conclusion as to what the black numerals refer to, and the great number of dates as compared with the text, preclude the supposition that the work is historical. ”

“ And the practical difficulties attending the use of such a system for chronological purposes are obvious; isolated dates recorded in such a fashion cannot be allocated without some explicit clue to the centuries to which they belong. ”

“ It always moved straight to the floor; thus triumphantly vindicating universal gravitation!!!
We can think of a time system which would discard months, weeks and days. What is the meaning of the financial almanac in which the days are numbered from 1 to 365 or 366? Simply a step in the right direction, away from the months and weeks, so that the distance between any two dates may be seen at a glance. We would really be better without months and weeks. ”

“ This method has advantages, for such writers run little risk of having to confess that they have made miscalculations. On the other hand, the use of actual dates leads to clear thinking, and to gaining a vivid impression of the story, and since we have now good grounds for estimating such dates, (and I shall not be ashamed to own up if later discoveries prove my estimates to be incorrect) , I have adopted positive dates throughout, indicating where special uncertainty exists and the direction in which modification may be expected. ”

“ So far as possible, the text has been kept free of dates, because great men are of all time, and, compared with the deeds themselves, their dates are of minor importance. But a summary at the end of each chapter gives, for purposes of convenient reference, the principal dates in the lives of the men whose achievements are considered in it. ”

“ When I read the several dates of the tombs, of some that died yesterday, and some six hundred years ago, I consider that great day when we shall all of us be contemporaries, and make our appearance together. ”

“ Dates are hard to remember because they consist of figures; figures are monotonously unstriking in appearance, and they don’t take hold, they form no pictures, and so they give the eye no chance to help. Pictures are the thing. Pictures can make dates stick. ”

“ Every ancient nation has thus its calendar filled with joyful days. The worshippers of Jesus delight in their Christmas and their Easter; the Mahometans, in the Hegira of the Prophet. The year-book of mankind is thus marked all the way through with the red-letter days of history. And most beautifully do those days illuminate the human year, commemorating the victories of the race, the days of triumph which have marked the course of man in his long and varied, but yet triumphant, march of many a thousand years. ”