Excerpt from Catholic Life, or the Feasts, Fasts and Devotions of the Ecclesiastical Year The observance of religious feasts goes back to the cradle of humanity. Before the fall of Adam life was a continual feast, which was to be exchanged, without death, for the eternal joys of Heaven. All this was changed, but the remem brance of it and its Divine Author caused Adam and his family to devote certain times to adora tion, praise, and thanksgiving, as we learn from the sacrifices of Cain and Abel. When the number of families increased, the Patriarchs, or heads, made these festivals more definite, and finally the Almighty, through Moses, regulated their number and ceremonial. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.