Show I RECURRENCE OF SEVEN L Lea Leading Pl ce i Literature Music and Religion Hippocrates declared ta that te the sep tenar number by it Its occult virtues lends Jends to te the accomplishment of al all things and is tE the dIspenser of life Ufe and foundation of al all it its changes says Chamber Chambers LIke the numb number r three seven seyen has from time immemorial hel held a conspicuous and sacred place In te the scheme of thing things Just exactly why this should be so it is difficult to deter determine determine mine because although we a def definite nite reason in Iii many cases In others It would to be purely accident accidental 01 al Human nature moreover when keenly set on establishing a theory is ever prone to look around in al all directiOns t ns pIckIng up everything that seems to ft fit the mosaic Tat That the ancient ancients consid considered red uneven numbers to have hae speCial force and efficacy there Is abundant prof proof Shepherds of ancient Greece were especially enjoined to see ee that the number of their sheep be not even Tat That tere there were seven sages or of ancient Greece and just seven seyen won wonders wonders ders of the ancient world savors very much of chance or coincidence Al Although though three was wan considered most at ac to the gds gods ArIstote Aristotle tells how because weakly infant infants commonly died before thIs date the seventh day was therefore honored wih with the solemn festival of namIng a child Even I in inthis this twentieth century the luck in odd alone largely belIeved as frequent frequently ly Iy as tre three and as recently as last year a wise Ise woman of te the Emerald Isle seriously asserted that there was no cure for a certain childs complaint unless the seventh son of a seventh son could be discovered for the deed But a curious old rhyme respecting magpies seem to contradict th thIs s magic potency of s seven en enOne One for sorrow two for truth three for a wedding four for a a birth Five for heaven six for heI hell Seven Seyen for the own sel seP Mrs Hemans i in apostrophizing an cent cleat Rome thus refers reters it will be re remembered remembered to her unique position On thy seven seven his hills of yore Thou a queen Another cassi classic instance similarly curious may be rec recalled U d Seven wealthy towns toS contend for Ho Homer Homer mer dead Trough Through which the living Homer begged his brEad History records many more more One m in evIdence just now is that long secretly guarded Chapel of te the dedicated b by Edward the Confessor to St St Peter Perer and on this account obviously only entered even In later years by those stately officers of state when seven huge keys had unfastened Us its heavy door I It is to be regretted that little now remains of the orIginal locality where here famed S1 St Gies Giles ancient limits spread and whee an inri d column reared Is its lofy lofty head Here to seven street streets seven dials count the day And from each other catch te the circling ry ray but the name of Seven Dils DIals Is in Itself sufficient to one more honor laId to this typical number That folk folks were In olden times oc occasionally scared out ot of their seven senses early eady indicates the number of senses at the time recognIzed sup supposedly supposedly un under er the influence of the seven planets On this anc ana other the te ores cries the ancIent Hebrews Egyptians Persians and founded their re respect respect and reverence for the number seven The seven bodies of alchemy may be appropriately referred to her here One of the he more promInent proofs of the orl original nal significance of seven seen In use at the present day is a seven year years lease Instituted because life was supposed to be in danger dager ad and un undergo undergo dergo a change eyer every seven years Hence we have haye Shakespeare following up thIs supposition and affirming in lines those lne And nd one man In his plays many part parts His acts being seven ages Closely aled allied of o course Is the seven years and that dread ed even seven y years r penal servitude made so conspicuous in te the cae case of Adolf when te the sin mer merit merIts it Its such severt severity twice and thre three times seven I It may be observed In passing pasing tat that seven witnesses were required by the Hebrews to attest an oath Theone The one instance probably when seven judges were deputed to sIt in judgment was that or of those appointed by the justice lovIng though Maria Marla Car Carolie Caroline olie oline of Naples for the Junta of State over persons accused of poison polson The deadly sins of the CathOlic church were strange to sa say formerly eIght until somewhere in te the Middle Ages tere there dawned a happier day and the monKs in a lenIent mood and with witha a leaning toward te the mystical number enacted tat that there should be only seven Duma Dumas in his Isabel of Bavaria refers to an an ancIent lent privilege which authorized the deputes deputies of te the six mer merchant merchant chant bodies to accompany the kings and queens of Fance Prance upon their entry into ParIs from the gate of Sf St Denis Deniso to o te the pala palace e followed on this occasion by te the representatives ot of the different manufacturing bodies clothed to rep represent represent resent the seven seten capital sins and by way ot of contrast the seven Chris Christian tian virtues The recognized sins and virtues appear to have varIed slightly at periods of religious history seven though in number usually KIngley Kingsley it wl will be remembered says Ever Every duty which Is bidden to wat wait returns wih with seven fresh dutes duties at it its back back The beleve in an angel who before recordIng mas mans 11 ill deeds wait waits seven hours peradventure lie he may seek pardon To b be in the seventh heaven of de delight light is a qualitative term sti still in use for superlative expression and may be traced to te the cabalistic belief in seven heavens although Ptolemy recognized only five te the Hebrews three and and other systems nine of tee these states To refer agin again to Shakespeare he on more than one ohe occasion showed considerable preference rence for sven seven convinced seemIngly of te the divinity i in odd numbers He speaks of tears salted seven times His prophetic wIsh that there shall be In England seven halfpenny loave loaves sold for a penny assuredly came from a kindly hert heart as wen well a as tat that thought thoughtful ful reflection of the good lurk lurking lurkIng ing in seven hundred pounds and pos poe In an age so geedy greedy of gold goldas as the present the same came could hard hardly be expressed in less than seven figures while in the eye eyes of the see sec ton tion of these money minded morals mortals perhaps perhaps pounds is barely ade adequate adequate quate for designation of bliss Space will not permit perIt the enumeration ton tion of al all the Instances in which seven Is preeminently set forth In the Scrip Scriptures Scriptures tures I It Is interwoven wih with almost every Biblical stor story BeginnIng with te the creaton creation we e find that the seventh day wa was consecrated to rest Noah had seven days warning waring of the food flood and by command took fowls of the air and clean beat beasts by sevens The ark touched gound ground on the seventh month and after seven days a dove was se sent t tout out and agin again after seven days more moreOn moreOn On the seventh day of the seventh month a holy observance was ordained to the children of Israel The seventh year wa was a Sabbat Sabbath of rest for al all things At the end of seven times seven began the grand jubilee Every seventh yer year the land lay fallow Every seventh year saw a gand grand re release lease from al all debts Jacob served seven and yet seven yeas years for Rachel Rachel Pharaohs drea dream predicted seven seen years of plenty and seven of famIne When the sluggard Is spoken of a as wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason the number would seem seem to be selected without any specIal special cIal purpose The fer fiery furnace for Shadrach Meshach and Abednego was heat heated d s seven ven times hotter than usual wih with rather more significance just as the old law bade men forgive his brother sven seven times seven and the newer law seventy times seven At Atte Atthe te the destruction o of Jericho seven is curiously emphasized Seven priest priests bore seven trumpets seven da days and andon andon on the seventh d the walls seven times Balam Balaam when sacrificing prepared seven altars Turning to Job we see his frIends sitting wit with hIm seven days and seven night nights and offering seven bullocks and seven seTen rams as atonement King in the Seventh year of his reig reign feasted seven days and on te the seventh directed seven chamberlains rains to find a queen who was allowed seven maidens to at attend tend her For leprosy seven seen dips in Jordan were enjOined lne upon Naaman The lamps of the numbered I seven Seven different persons are brought back to life Enoch was wae the seventh after Adam and Christ also translated te the From te the cross he spoke seven tires times He appeared seven times Umes Another striking instance is when Christ cst cast out seven devis devils Frequently seven appear appears to be typical of thoroughness and completeness The Apocalypse likewise r revels vels in inthIs inthis thIs revered number I It may also be benote note noted that the apostles planted seven churches in Asia ad and tat that the sacred book books or Bibles of the world are sven seven in our Christan Christian BI B BIble ble bIe te the Korn Koran tle the Edda Eddas of te the Scan Scandinavians Scandinavians the Five KIng Kings ot of the Chi Chinese Chinese nese the ot of the Buddhist Buddhists the Vedas of the and the ZendA vesta of the Persians Continually as we the moon seldom do we heed the fact that she has seven phases and some sometimes tIe times forget that the rainbow too is In character Yet Vet our an ancestors ancestors gave serious albeit possibly superstitious regard to these circum circumstances stances But in te the mystic realm of music seven notes confront us far too constantly to be callously overlooked i ad and th that t t 5 seventh vent Is perpetually giving particular evidence of It Itself itself self Wyn Wynn W Westcott points out tat that seven pipes are seep seen In the i Instrument strument played upon by the older deIty Pan DIce though of ancient ori origin in and tou f u d dl in vir erfy tombs er were not originally numbered This evolution of a considerably later pe period nod obviously keeps te the gambler al alsa perpetually lY in mind of seven Ancient Anciently ly the symbol of the universe was a ship wih with s sven en pilots Conspicuous in the feld field or of fiction is that that attractive old Syrian legend whIch tells tofe thoe seven Christan Christian youths of Ephesus fed fled from the rage of Decius and lived in a cave until die hovered then when great stones wee were by the enemy rolled bet before re Is Its mouth mouth they fel fell asleep th stor says for tor years car to waken once more living test testimonies monies of a resurrection from the deac dea deaThe Te The Island of the Seven Cities s is an another another other curious legend a faim fabulous bus lous land otle the Atlantic which gye gave refuge to a body of of ChrIstans Christians In flight from the Saracen n conqueror conquerors wo who had at the of their seven bish bishOps ops committed themselves to the merc mercy of the sea sea I It issom is what sIn sIngular singular gular consIdering te the preeminent i po position this number has forages for ages occupied occupied pied that the who at a memorable m able epoch of English al hIstory so stouty stoutly st stOod od on their trIal for or freedom should have numbered net nei neither thor ther more nor npr less ess than s seven ven Was thIs one or of those cases one ought to set down to ta nce Wether Whether or not wherever one turns one stumbles on seven One more instance wIll i suf suffice fice of the poet who te Seven hours to law To soothing slumbers seven Ten to the world allot And aU all to he heaven yen |