Smyrna times., 1870-04-27
.MiSceIIU2 2s e OUS.
Number Seven.

Number Seven is more favored in the world |
than any other igit. 1t is true that, in a Ger
tain conventional sense, Number One is said
to occupy more Of each man ) attention; but
this selfish ASPECT set aside, the palm must GER
tatny be given in all other respects to Num-
Der Seven. The favorltism Of this number is
variOusiy explained lngpeu, in 1924. salts
fed himself OF the superexceIlence OF Number
Seven IN the tOll"wng Ingenious way 1t is
compounded OF one and six, two and five, three
and iour Now, every one of these being ex-
celieuI ri themselves (a> hath been demOnStra-
tedl how can this uu ber but lie far more ex-
ceicI,t. n-lstlng them all, aud participating
| 1t wer', of all their excellent virtues p
Number Seven was largely used 10y the He
brew Blhllca writers, both IN the plain OrGina-
ry scn>e and III "a typical or hguratve manner.
Is >de> the seven days of the week, there
were JEWISH f asst or festivals connected with
d perb,d Of seven weeks; seven times seven
years constituted jubilee or period of rejnic
ing ; the cHndiestick OF Muses. had seven branch.
es, etc. Then there are the many passages re-
| lating in various ways and at different eraS in
| the Biblical narrative, TO the Seven Churches
OF Asia the Seven Wise Men, the Seven Gifts
of the Holy Ghost, the Seventh Day of the
Seventh Mouth, the freeing of bOndmen in the
Seventh Year, the Seven Mysterious Seals,
the Seven Symbolical Trumpets, the Seven
| is rich III Number Seven, in doctIin and in
ritual. There are the Seven Deadly Sins, the
Seven Sacrament>, the Seven CanOnica Hours,
the Seven JOYS and Seven SORROWS of the Vir-
gin Mary, and the Seven Penitential Palms.
The canUncal hours here mentioned are the
times fixed Tor divine services in the churches !;
they divide the ecciesiasiical' day into seven
parts; aud, besides, having a mystical relation
to certain sacred occurrences, they are regard
lad ,h,,l,1. 81,
the seven times "a day that the lust man falls,
the seven graceS OF the Holy Spirit, the seven
divisions Of the Loid'> Prayer, aud other ap
plicatlOns OF Number Seven. There is in Lam
beth Palace library a manuscript about four
centuries old, in which the seven hours are
connected with the seven periods of man life
as follows: Morning, infancy; midmorrow
childhood undern, school age; midday, tht
knghtly age; nOnes or high noon, the kingly
age mid.ovetnoOn, elderly; evenSon, drcn
ing 1t Is interesting to compare this will
e Shakespeare Seven Ages of Man, as depicted
by melancholy Jaques in "As You Like Its
There is a still older MS. illustrated in an elab
, crate manner. 1t represents a wheel cut int
. seven rays, and composed Of seven cOncentri
cordons, which, with the rays form seven time
seven compartments; seven of these cOmpart
E. nenls contain the Seven Petitions of the Lord
We Prayer; seven Others, the Seven Sacraments
IN en- others, the Seven Virtues; seven other.
the Seven Gifts OF the Holy Ghost-al beaut
fully written and painted
> Departing from these serious matters W
er find Number Seven in favor in all sorts of mur
ce dane and social affairs. There were the Sew
en- Stones OF the Arabs, and the Seven Tripod
OF ARamemmOn. There were the Seven Wor
ders OF the World, and the Seven Hills on whic
- more than one celebrated city is said to /
\ built. There were the Seven Planets and th
q Seven Stars-the former, cruelty disturbed
number aud put out Of joint by modern astron,
mical discoveries the latter, applicable eth,
to the seven principal stars in Orion, or to tho,
in the Great Bear, or to the beautiful lit
A Pleiades. There were the Seven Sleepers
''y Ephe,u u.s. whuse sound nap lasted two hundre
les and twenty-nine years, and who have had con
Wy panions in the Seven Mohammedan Sleepe
ID of the North. We are told that there are Sc
ms en- liberal arts, senses, seven notes in mi
sic, and seven cOlors In the rainbow Meth,
or more nor less. For some special inouri
there is jury of seven natrons There use
- to be, more frequently than at present, pel
cd of seven years apprenticeship; and many
lDalefactor has had occasion to know that Sc
Il, EN- Years was frequent duration for a senten
Z of transportation. Some years ego there was
Septuagenarian Club proposed. in which eve
member was to be seven times ten years old
upward all young fellows between sixt
five and seventy entering it simply as cadet
Seven Oaks have, as We know, given a name
a pleasant place 10 Kent; and Dean Stanl
describes seven oaks standing in a line, at
particular spot in Palestine, associated in d
minds of the natives with a very strange legen
I, When Cain 1.-THE legend runs) killed his brot
. er Able, he was punished by being COMPEL
tel TO carry the dead body during the long peri
of five hundred years, and to bury it in Il