They
called therefore Sunday the first day, Monday the second, Tuesday the
third, and soon to Saturday, which was of course the seventh. They used
no other names but these, either in their conversation, or in their
letters.
Upon the same principles they altered the names of the months also.
These, such as March and June, which had been so named by the ancient
Romans, because they were sacred to Mars and Juno, were exploded,
because they seemed in the use of them to be expressive of a kind of
idolatrous homage. Others again were exploded, because they were not the
representatives of the truth. September, for example, means the
[44]seventh month from the storms. It took this seventh station in the
kalendar of Romulus, and it designated there its own station as well as
the reason of its name. But when it[45] lost its place in the kalendar
by the alteration of the style in England, it lost its meaning. It
became no representative of its station, nor any representative of the
truth. For it still continues to signify the seventh month, whereas it
is made to represent, or to stand in the place of, the ninth. The
Quakers therefore banished from their language the ancient names of the
months, and as they thought they could not do better than they had done
in the case of the days, they placed numerical in their stead.
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