ith corresponding new
moon festivals. But as the arrival of the moon at the _thirds_ of her
progress are not at all so well marked as her arrival at the quarters,
and as there is no connection between the number ten and the planets,
this arrangement was far less likely to be adopted than the other.
Accordingly we find that only one or two nations adopted it. Six sets of
five days would be practically the same arrangement; five sets of six
for each month would scarcely be thought of, as with that division the
use of simple direct observations of the moon for time measurement,
which was the real aim of all such divisions, would not be convenient or
indeed even possible for the generality of persons. Few could tell
easily when the moon is two-fifths or four-fifths full, whereas every
one can tell when she is half-full or quite full (the requisite for
weekly measurement); and it would be possible to guess pretty nearly
when she is one-third or two-thirds full, the requisite for the
tridecennial division.

My object in the above discussion of the origin of the week (as
distinguished from the origin of the Sabbath, which I considered in the
essay on astrology), has been to show that the use of the twelve
zodiacal signs was in every case preceded by the use of the twenty-eight
lunar mansions. It has been supposed that those nations in whose
astronomy the twenty-eight mansions still appear, adopted one system,
while the use of the twelve signs implies that another system had been
adopted. Thus the following passage occurs in Mr. Blake's version of
Flammarion's 'History of the Heavens:'--'the Chinese have twenty-eight
constellations, though the word _sion_ does not mean a group of stars,
but simply a mansion or hotel. In the Coptic and ancient Egyptian the
word for constellations has the same meaning. They also have
twenty-eight, and the same number is found among the Arabians, Persians,
and Indians. Among the Chaldaeans or Accadians we find no sign of the
number twenty-eight. The ecliptic, or "yoke of the sky," with them, as
we see in the newly-discovered tablet, was divided into twelve
divisions, as now, and the only connection that can be imagined between
this and the twenty-eight is the opinion of M. Biot, who thinks that the
Chinese had originally only twenty-four mansions, four more being added
by Chenkung, 1100 B.C., and that they corresponded with the twenty-four
stars, twelve to the north and twelve to the south, that m