The difference of opinion respecting the true time of Easter, in the
year 1825, and the explanation at p. 416 of the error at p. 190, as to
the rule for finding this feast have occasioned various letters to the
editor, from which he selects three, in order to further elucidate and
close the subject. The first is a lively introduction.
_To the Editor of the Every-Day Book._
Sir,
In your fourteenth number, you accuse the almanac-makers of having
thought good to fix Easter-day on the 3rd of April instead of the 10th,
on which day, you say, according to the act of parliament and the rubric
of the church, Easter-day ought to be celebrated. This statement is
calculated to “unsettle the faith of thousands in their almanac-maker;”
for, sure enough, the almanac-maker appears to have made Easter-day fall
on the day of the full moon, instead of the week after; I therefore
fully acquit you of all intention to mislead your readers, and slander
the almanac-maker; and yet you most certainly have done both from not
sufficiently taking into your consideration the omnipotence of
parliament, especially in astronomical matters. You may possibly
recollect, that, even a few years back, parliament, for the purpose I
think of protecting game from poachers, declared that night should
commence, during the summer month, before the sun thought proper to set.
Now, in defiance of those matter-of-fact gentlemen, the almanac-makers,
the act of parliament for the uniformity of worship, has this year
appointed the paschal full moon for the 2d of April instead of the 3rd,
and thereby converted the 3rd into Easter Sunday. The statute of 14 Car.
II. says nothing about Easter Sunday, but it orders the Book of Common
Prayer to be joined and annexed to the act, so that the _rubric_ has the
force and omnipotence of an act of parliament to alter the course of the
moon, and to regulate its wane and increase.
The rubric exercises this power, by compelling you to look out for the
full moon in certain tables of _its own_ concocting, and does not allow
you to consult the almanac. The paschal full moon must be ascertained by
discovering the golden number of the year, (for which a rule is given,)
and the day set next that Golden Number (in the table before-mentioned,)
is, by the omnipotence of parliament, declared to be the full moon day.
The Golden Number for the present year is according to the rule 2, and
the day fixed against that number is April 2d, and is therefore the
paschal full moon in spite of the almanac-makers. The full moon being
fixed thus by government, Easter-day is ascertained by finding the
Sunday letter by another rule, according to which B is the Sunday
letter for the present year, and the day of the month affixed to the
first B, after the act of parliament full moon, is Easter Sunday;
unluckily this letter B has chanced to fall upon the almanac-maker’s
full moon, viz. the 3rd of April, but surely you are too reasonable a
man to blame them for that: remember, however loyal they may be, they
cannot compel the sun to set at eight o’clock on the longest day, nor
persuade the moon to attain her full a moment before it pleases her
variable ladyship.