_When Easter ends._--Mr. H. Edwards, in this day's number (No. 31., p. 9.), asks when Easter ends. I fancy this question is in some degree answered by remarking, that it, together with other festivals of the Church, viz. The Nativity, &c., are celebrated for eight days, which is the octave. The reason, says Wheatley, of its
"Being fixed to eight days, is taken from the practice of the Jews, who, by God's appointment, observed the greater festivals, some of them for seven days, and one, the Feast of Tabernacles, for eight days. And therefore the Primitive Christians lengthened out their higher feast to eight days."
If this be true, Easter will end on the conclusion of the Sunday after Easter day; but whether our present Parliament is sufficiently Catholic to admit this, in the interpretation of the Act, is questionable.
In the Spanish Church Easter continues till the feast of Whitsuntide is past; and during this period all fasts are forbidden.
The Romish Church has ten high festivals having octaves.
I trust this slight sketch may in some way help Mr. Edwards to a conclusion.
_When does Easter end?_ (Vol. ii., p. 9.).--In the case stated, at 12 o'clock on the night of Easter Sunday.
_Holdsworth and Fuller._--In A. B. R.'s communication (Vol. i., p. 484.) some symptoms of inaccuracy must be noted before a satisfactory reply can be given to his Query.
1. He has erred in adopting the spelling of Holdsworth's name (viz. { 44} Holsworth) which appears in the title-page of _The Valley of Vision_. 2. This work is very incorrectly styled "the sermon," inasmuch as it consists of twenty-one sermons. 3. My copy bears date 1661, not 1651. 4. If Holdsworth's hand was "legible only to himself," we may sincerely commiserate the misfortune of his nephew, Dr. Richard Pearson, who had to prepare for the press 737 folio pages of his _Prælectiones Theologicæ_, &c.: Lond. 1661. 5. There is not the smallest reason for thinking it "probable" that Dean Holdsworth "preached other men's sermons." Respecting our great Caroline divines it would seldom have been right to say--
"Quos (Harpyiarum more) Convectare juvat prædas, et vivere rapto."
Now, as to what Dr. Holdsworth really wrote, and with regard to that for which he is not responsible, it is to be observed, that he was so averse to the publication of any of his works, that he printed but a single sermon (on Psalm cxliv. 15.), and that not until he had been three times urged to the task by his royal master King Charles I. The pagination of this discourse is quite distinct from that of the twenty unauthentic sermons which follow it in the quarto volume, and which commence at signature B. These are thus described by Dr. Pearson, _ad Lectorem_: "Cæteræ quæ prostant Anglicè venales, à prædone illo stenographico tam laceræ et elumbes, tam miserè deformatæ sunt, ut parum aut nihil agnoscas genii et spiritûs Holdsworthiani."