koned, not from the astronomical conjunction with the sun, which
nobody sees except at an eclipse, but from the day of _first visibility_ of
the new moon. In fine climates this would be the day or two days after
conjunction; and the fourteenth day from that of first visibility
inclusive, would very often be the day of full moon. The following is then
the proper correction of the precept in the Act of Parliament:

Easter Day, on which the rest depend, is always the First Sunday after the
_fourteenth day_ of the _calendar_ moon which happens upon or next after
the Twenty-first day of March, _according to the rules laid down for the
construction of the Calendar_; and if the _fourteenth day_ happens upon a
Sunday, Easter Day is the Sunday after.

10. Further, it appears that Clavius valued the celebration of the festival
after the Jews, etc., more than astronomical correctness. He gives
comparison tables which would startle a believer in the astronomical
intention of his Calendar: they are to show that a calendar in which the
moon is always made a day older than by him, _represents the heavens better
than he has done, or meant to do_. But it must be observed that this
diminution of the real moon's age has {365} a tendency to make the English
explanation often practically accordant with the Calendar. For the
fourteenth day of Clavius _is_ generally the fifteenth day of the mean moon
of the heavens, and therefore most often that of the real moon. But for
this, 1818 and 1845 would not have been the only instances of our day in
which the English precept would have contradicted the Calendar.

11. In the construction of the Calendar, Clavius adopted the ancient cycle
of 532 years, but, we may say, without ever allowing it to run out. At
certain periods, a shift is made from one part of the cycle into another.
This is done whenever what should be Julian leap year is made a common
year, as in 1700, 1800, 1900, 2100, etc. It is also done at certain times
to correct the error of 1 h. 19 m., before referred to, in each cycle of
golden numbers: Clavius, to meet his view of the amount of that error, put
forward the moon's age a day 8 times in 2,500 years. As we cannot enter at
full length into the explanation, we must content ourselves with giving a
set of rules, independent of tables, by which the reader may find Easter
for himself in any year, either by the old Calendar or the new. Any one who
has much occasion to find Easters and mov