[The writer of the following interesting communication does not appear
to be aware that he is obliging us and a correspondent D. Y., who had
asked (Vol. iii., p. 168.) for an explanation of the phrase _Denarius
Philosophorum_, in the Bishop's Monument.]
Our local antiquaries have long been puzzled by an inscription in the Lady
chapel of our cathedral. It stands on the monument of Bishop Thornborough,
and was prepared by himself fourteen years before his decease in 1641, at
the age of ninety-four. He was addicted to alchymy, and published a book in
1621, entitled [Greek: Lithotheôrikos], _sive_, _Nihil aliquid_, _omnia_,
_&c._ In the course of some recent studies in the Pythagorean philosophy,
my attention was accidentally engaged by this {300} inscription; and it at
once struck me that it was _thence_ that the explanation was to be derived.
The epitaph is as follows: on one side,
"Denarius Philosophorum, Dum Spiro, Spero."
on the other,
"In Uno, 2^o. 3^o. 4^{or} 10. non Spirans Spera_bo_."
The latter letters are now effaced.
It is well known that the Pythagoreans found all the modes of space in the
relations of numbers.
The monad, or unit, was not only the _point_ whence all extension proceeds,
but it further symbolised the First Principle, the origin of all. The duad
represented the line, as being bounded by two points or monads. The triad
stood for surface as length and width. The tetrad for the perfect figure,
the cube, length, depth, and width. The decad, or denarius, indicated
comprehensively all being, material and immaterial, in the utmost
perfection: hence the term _decas_, or _denarius_, was used summarily for
the whole science of numbers, as in the title of Meursius's tract _De
Denario Pythagorico_, which was published four years after the date of the
inscription, and when the philosophy was attracting much attention among
European scholars. To be as concise as possible then, I presume that the
old bishop intended that the tomb on which his effigy lies was his access
to that perfection of existence which philosophers had designated by the
_decas_, or _denarius_. During the present life he was hoping for it, "Dum
Spiro, Spero."--On the other side: "In Him, who is the source, the
beginning, the middle, and the end of all existence and perfection (in Uno,
2^o. 3^o. 4^{or} 10. non Spirans Sperabo), though I breathe no more, yet
shall I hope."
Such is probably the meaning of his pious conceit, and I offer it as a
solution of what has long served for a riddle to the visitors of our
cathedral. Beyond this, your readers and myself may be equally indifferent
to such cabalistical quaintness. But let us treat it with charity, as the
devout consummation of an aged alchymist.