Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/475

* WEEK. 399 WEENIX. the forty-ninth hovir to the moon, and so for the rest. From Alexiuulria tliis week with its sys- tem of nonieneliiture eiime to the (ireeks and Ko- nians. The Greeks had previously divided each month into three (U'cades, while the Romans had had eight-day periods, the eight days or nundi- iiw heing primarily market-days and liascd on the changes of the moon. The week of seven days was not ollicially adopted, however, until the time of Constantine. In Greece the week had been introduced by Greek-speaking Jews from Alexandria, in Rome by Chaldrean astrologers about the beginning of our era. From Rome this system spread to the Teutonic and Celtic peo- ples conquered by the Latins, and the names of the days of the w'eek were translated, so that the Die's Joris (French jeudi, Italian r/invedi), 'day of ..Tupiter,' became the Icelandic ]>~irsdnrir, 'day of Thor,' the English Thtirsdaii. From tlie Greeks the week was imported to India, along with much other astronomical science, so that, since Brihaspati is the Sanskrit name for the planet Jupiter, lirhaspativara corresponds to Thursday. In India, however, the week is of little importance. Among the Iranians the month of thirty days was divided into quasi-weeks of 7, 7, 8, and 8 days each, although no special sanctity attached to the dividing days. The Islamitie peoples borrowed the week from the Jews, and like them number the days, as do also the Greeks, Slavs, Finns, and as did the French revolutionists, instead of naming them like the Latins (except the Portuguese, who retain the ecclesiastical enumeration, as qtiinta fer'xi, 'fifth day, Thursday'). Teutons, Celts, and Albanians. In the French Revolutionary calendar, officially decreed October 3, 179.3, and suppressed Decem- ber 31. 1805, the months, of thirty days each, were divided into three decades each, the tenth day of each decade being a holiday. Consult: Ideler, HandbucU dcr Chronoloriie ('2d ed.. Ber- lin, 1883) : Roesler. Ucher die Xainrn dcr Woch- entage (Vienna, 18fi.5) ; Schrader, ReaUexikon der iinloqermamschen Altertnmskunde (Strass- burg, moi). WEEKS, Fea.st of. A name commonly given among the Jews to the second of their great festivals, from its being the culminating point of the seven weeks after the Passover, the same idea being expressed by the Greek word Pente- cost (fifty). Its observance was connected with the supplication for divine blessing on the har- vest, and the day was in later times supposed to commemorate the giving of the law on Mount Sinai. When the day of Pentecost became one of the earliest of the Christian festivals, an analog)' was easily traced between this event and the formal organization of the Christian Church on that day. WEEKS, Edwix Lord (1849-1903). An American painter. He was born in Boston. JIass., and studied in Paris under Geriime and Bonnat. Early in his career he began a series of journeys to Egv'pt and Asia which led him to take the subjects of most of his paintings from the Orient. He received numerous French and German medals, the grand diploma of honor at Berlin in 1891, and a special medal and prize at the Empire of India Exhibition in London 1189(5). He was made chevalier of the Legion of Honor of France in 1896, and two years after- wards officer of the Order of Saint Michael of Bavaria. Ilis work is represented in the Cor- coran Gallery, Washington, and in the Phila- delphia Academy of Fine Arts. He will be re- meml)ered especially for the brilliancy and the purity of color which characterize his genre studies of the Orient. He published From the Black Hea Throiiyh Persia and India- (189.5) and Episodes of Mountaineering (1897). WEEMS, Mason Locke (e.1700-182.5). An Aiiicrican preaclier and wriUn', the author of a famous biography of George Washington. He was a native of Maryland, was educated for the Protestant Episcopal ministry in London, and in 1784, there being no bislKi|) of the Church of England in America, applied, but without suc- cess, to various bishops in England for admission to holy orders. An account of his difficulties in this respect may be found in McMaster's nis- tory of the People of the United States, vol. i. (Xew York, 1900). The incident has received considerable attention from .historians, as it was an important factor in Wie establishment in the United States of the Episcopal Church, distinct in organization from the Church of Eng- land. After Weems's return, he preached at various places, though he never seems to have had a regular rectorship, and about 1790 he became a book agent for Matthew Carey (q.v. ). In order to ingratiate himself with the people, he called into requisition his powers as a mimic and comedian, and his facility as a fiddler. Thus he frequently furnished the music at country dances and weddings, and sold a small book, W'rit- ten by himself, entitled The Drunkard's Looking (llass. Rrflcctinfi a Faithful Likeness of the Drunkard in sundry rert/ interesting Attitudes u'itli Lirehi Representations of the Many Strange Capers irhieh he cuts in different Stages of his Disease (6th ed. 1818). Weems is remembered, however, chiedy for his Life of Washington, one of the most popular and widely read books ever published in America, which has been largely responsible for the creation of the 'traditional Washington.' It was first published in 1800, and np to 1891 more than seventy editions had been issued. In the fifth edition (1806) first appeared various familiar anecdotes concerning Washington's youth, including that of the cherry tree and the hatchet, which have long been gen- erally discredited by historians. He was not, as he claimed, rector of Jlount Vernon Parish, as there was no such parish, but he probably preached occasionally in Pohick Church, though not until long after Washington had ceased at- tendance there. In addition to tlie works already mentioned, his pulilications inehnle: Life of Gen. Francis Marion (1805) ; The Philanthropist, or Political Peacemaker Between All Honest Men of Both Parties (10th ed. 1809) ; God's Revenge Against Gambling (3d ed. I8I6) : Life of Ben- jamin Franklin with Essai/s- (1817); Life of William Penn (1819) ; Hymen's Recruiting Ser- geant, or the Xeie Matrimonial Tat-too for the Old Bachelors (7th ed. 18'21); and The Bad 'Wife's Looking Glass, or God's Revenge Against Cruelty to Husbands (2d ed. 1823)-all of which are characterized by a stilted, turgid style, by a. profusion of anecdotes, by inaccuracy of state- ment, and by an abundance of cheap moralizing. WEENIX, va'niks. Jan (1640-1719). A Dutch animal painter, born at Amsterdam. He was the son and pupil of Jan Baptiste Weenix