The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, Volume 2Browne, Thomas, Sir
Religion
The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, Volume 2
Browne, Thomas, Sir
Christianity; Ethics; Religion and medicine
As for the divisions of the year, and the quartering out this remarkable
standard of time, there have passed especially two distinctions; the
first in frequent use with Astronomers, according to the cardinal
intersections of the Zodiack, that is, the two Æquinoctials and both
the Solstitial points; defining that time to be the Spring of the year,
wherein the Sun doth pass from the Æquinox of Aries unto the Solstice of
Cancer; the time between the Solstice and the Æquinox of Libra, Summer;
from thence unto the Solstice of Capricornus, Autumn; and from thence
unto the Æquinox of Aries again, Winter. Now this division although it
be regular and equal, is not universal; for it includeth not those
latitudes which have the seasons of the year double; as have the
inhabitants under the Equator, or else between the Tropicks. [SN:
_Between the Tropicks two Summers in a year._] For unto them the Sun is
vertical twice a year, making two distinct Summers in the different
points of verticality. So unto those which live under the Æquator, when
the sun is in the Æquinox it is Summer, in which points it maketh Spring
or Autumn unto us; and unto them it is also Winter when the Sun is in
either Tropick; whereas unto us it maketh always Summer in the one. And
the like will happen unto those habitations, which are between the
Tropicks and the Æquator.
A second and more sensible division there is observed by _Hippocrates_,
and most of the ancient _Greeks_, according to the rising and setting of
divers stars; dividing the year, and establishing the account of seasons
from usual alterations, and sensible mutations in the air, discovered
upon the rising and setting of those stars, accounting the Spring from
the Æquinoxial point of Aries; from the rising of the Pleiades, or the
several stars on the back of Taurus, Summer; from the rising of
Arcturus, a star between the thighs of Bootes, Autumn; and from the
setting of the Pleiades, Winter. Of these divisions because they were
unequal, they were fain to subdivide the two larger portions, that is of
the Summer and Winter quarters; the first part of the Summer they named
θέρος, the second unto the rising of the Dog-star, ὤρα, from thence unto
the setting of Arcturus, ὀπώρα. The Winter they divided also into three
parts; the first part, or that of seed time they named σπόρετον, the
middle or proper Winter, χειμὼν, the last, which was their planting or
grafting time φυταλίαν. This way of division was in former ages
received, is very often mentioned in Poets, translated from one Nation
to another; from the _Greeks_ unto the _Latines_ as is received by good
Authors; and delivered by Physitians, even unto our times.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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