Richmond Enquirer

LEGISLATURE OF MASSACHUSETTS.

House of Representatives, Jan. 17.

NEW CALENDAR.

Mr. Willis, of New Bedford, moved that a committee be raised to report on the expediency of fixing legal names to the days of the week, and months of the year, (as is now customary with the Society of Friends.)

Mr. W. briefly explained the motive which induced him to make this motion; which was, to endeavor, in this Christian land, to abolish the intermixture of the names of Heathen Deities in the language of the worship of the True God.—The day set apart, he said, for His divine worship, derives its name from the heathenish worship of the Sun on that day: and the days on which our annual fasts and thanksgivings are celebrated (Thursdays, bear the name of the Heathen God Thor.—(Referred to Messrs. Willis, Channing, of Boston, and Hale, of Castine.)

Boston, Jan. 21.—A motion has been made in the legislature of this commonwealth, containing a proposition for establishing by law names for the days of the week, as substitutes for the present names, which are said to be derived from certain Heathen Gods. We would suggest such an amendment of the proposition as will provide for a new appellation for the official record of the proceedings of the House, the word journal, Dies or Nous, the Greek name of the God Jupiter—from Dies is derived the Latin word diurnus, which in the Italian becomes giorno, in the French jour, and in English journal. This amendment, perhaps, ought to have the precedence, as the derivation is much more clearly traced than that of some of the names proposed to be abolished.