[The number _seven_ has been a subject of particular speculation with
some old writers, and every department of nature, science, literature,
and art has been ransacked for the purpose of discovering septenary
combinations. In the Year 1502 there was printed at Leipsic a work
entitled _Heptalogium Virgilii Salzburgensis_, in honour of the number
seven. It consists of seven parts, each consisting of seven divisions.
But the most curious work on the subject of numbers is the following,
the contents of which, as might be expected, are quite worthy of the
title: _The Secrets of Numbers according to Theological, Arithmetical,
Geometrical, and Harmonical Computation; drawn, for the better part,
out of those Ancients, as well as Neoteriques. Pleasing to read,
profitable to understande, opening themselves to the capacities of both
learned and unlearned; being no other than a key to lead men to any
doctrinal knowledge whatsoever._ By William Ingpen, Gent. London, 1624.
In chap. ix. the author has given many notable opinions from learned
men, to prove the excellency of the number _seven_:--"First, it neither
begets nor is begotten, according to the saying of Philo. Some numbers,
indeed, within the compass of ten, beget, but are not begotten; and
that is the unarie. Others are begotten, but beget not; as the
octonarie. Only the septenarie, having a prerogative above them all,
neither begetteth, nor is begotten. This is its first divinity or
perfection. Secondly, this is an harmonical number, and the well and
fountain of that fair and lovely _Digramma_, because it includeth
within itself all manner of harmony. Thirdly, it is a theological
number, consisting of perfection. (See _Cruden_.) Fourthly, because of
its compositure: for it is compounded of one and six; two and five;
three and four. Now, every one of these being excellent of themselves
(as hath been remonstrated), how can this number be but far more
excellent, consisting of them all, and participating, as it were, of
all their excellent virtues."--ED.]
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