, For this year the golden number is ((1840 + 1) / 19)_r = 17, and the
epact (Table III. line C) is 26. _2nd_, After the 7th of March the epact 26
first occurs in Table III. at the 4th of April, which, therefore, is the
day of the new moon. _3rd_, Since the new moon falls on the 4th, the full
moon is on the 17th (4 + 13 = 17). _4th_, The dominical letters of 1840 are
E, D (Table I.), of which D must be taken, as E belongs only to January and
February. After the 17th of April D first occurs in the calendar (Table
IV.) at the 19th. Therefore, in 1840, Easter Sunday falls on the 19th of
April. The operation is in all cases much facilitated by means of the table
on next page.

Such is the very complicated and artificial, though highly ingenious
method, invented by Lilius, for the determination of Easter and the other
movable feasts. Its principal, though perhaps least obvious advantage,
consists in its being entirely independent of astronomical tables, or
indeed of any celestial phenomena whatever; so that all chances of
disagreement arising from the inevitable errors of tables, or the
uncertainty of observation, are avoided, and Easter determined without the
[v.04 p.0998] possibility of mistake. But this advantage is only procured
by the sacrifice of some accuracy; for notwithstanding the cumbersome
apparatus employed, the conditions of the problem are not always exactly
satisfied, nor is it possible that they can be always satisfied by any
similar method of proceeding. The equinox is fixed on the 21st of March,
though the sun enters Aries generally on the 20th of that month, sometimes
even on the 19th. It is accordingly quite possible that a full moon may
arrive after the true equinox, and yet precede the 21st of March. This,
therefore, would not be the paschal moon of the calendar, though it
undoubtedly ought to be so if the intention of the council of Nice were
rigidly followed. The new moons indicated by the epacts also differ from
the astronomical new moons, and even from the mean new moons, in general by
one or two days. In imitation of the Jews, who counted the time of the new
moon, not from the moment of the actual phase, but from the time the moon
first became visible after the conjunction, the fourteenth day of the moon
is regarded as the full moon: but the moon is in opposition generally on
the 16th day; therefore, when the new moons of the calendar nearly concur
with the true new moons, the full moons are conside