The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-05-06
Number Seven.

certain conventional sense, Number One is
said to occupy more of each mans attention;
but this selfish aspect set aside, the palm
must certainly be given in all other respects
to Number Seven. The favoritism of this
number is variously explained. Ingpen, in
1924, satisfied himself of the superexcellencs
of Number Seven in the following ingenious
way:-'Tt is compounded of one and six,
two and five, three and four. Now every one
of these being excellent of themselves Gas
hath been demonstrated) how can this num-
ber but be far more excellent, consisting OF
them all, and participating as 1t were OF all
their excellent virtues?" Number Seven was
largely used by the Hebrew biblical writer's,
both in the plain and ordinary sense and
in typical or fgurative man
ner. Besides the seven days of
the week, there were Jewish feasts
or festivals connected with period of seven
weeks; seven times seven years constituted a
Jubilee or period of rejoicing; the candle
stick of Moses had seven branches, etc.
Then there are the many passages relating
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 Month, the freeing of bond
men in the Seventh Year, the Seven Myste-
teYious Seals, the Seven Symbolical Trumpets,
the Seven Heads of the Dragon, the Seven
Angels, the Seven Witnesses etc. The
Roman Catholic Church is rich in Number
Seven, in doctrine and in ritual. There are
the Seven Deadly Sins, the Seven Sacra-
ments, the Seven Canonical Hours, the Seven
JOYS and Seven Sorrows of the Virgin
Mary, and the Seven Penitential Psalms.
The canonical hours here mentioned are
the times fixed for divine service in the
churches; they divide the ecclesiastical day
into seven parts; and besides having mys-
tical relation to certain sacred occurrences,
they are regarded as symbolizing the seven
days of creation, the seven times day that
the Just man falls, the seven graces of the
Holy Spirit, the seven divisions of the Lords
Prayer, and other applications Of Number
Seven. There is in Lambeth Palace Library
a manuscript about four centuries old, in
which the seven hours are connected with the
seven periods of mans life, as follows
Morning, infancy; mid-morrow, childhood;
undern, school-age; midday, the knightly
age; nones or high noon, the kingly age;
midovernoon, elderly; evenson, declining.
1t is interesting to compare this with Shake
speares Seven Ages of Man, as depicted by
melancholy jacques in as You Like 1t. There
is still older MS. illuminated in an elabo-
rate manner. 1t represents a wheel cut into
seven rays, and composed of seven concen-
tic cordons, which with the rays form seven
times seven compartments; seven of these
compartments contain the Seven Petitions of
the Lords Prayer; seven others, the Seven
Sacraments; seven others, the Seven Spiritual
Arms of Justice; seven others, the Seven
Works of Mercy; seven others, the Seven
Virtues; seven others, the Seven Deadly
Sins; and the last seven, the Seven Gifts
of the Holy Ghost-all beautifully written
and painted.
Departing from these serious matters, we
find Number Seven in favor in all sorts of
mundane and social affairs There were the
Seven Stones of the Arabs, and the Seven
Tripods of Agamemnon. There were the
Seven Wonders of the World, and the Seven
Hills on which more than one celebrated city
is said to be built. There were the Seven
Planets and the Seven Stars-the former,
cruelty disturbed in number and put out of
joint by modern astronomical discoveries;
the latter applicable either to the seven prin-
cipal stars in Orion, or to those in the Great
Bear, or to the beautiful little Pleiades.
There were the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus,
whose sound nap lasted two hundred and
twenty-nine years, and who have had CON-
panions in the Seven Mohammedan Sleepers,
and the Seven Sleepers of the North. We
are told that there are seven liberal arts,
seven senses, seven notes in music, and seven
colors in the rainbow, neither more nor less. For
some special inquiries, there is jury of seven
matrons. There used to be, more frequently
than at present, period of seven years ap-
premiership; and many malefactor has had
occasion to know that seven years was fre.
quent duration for sentence of transporta-
ton. Some years ago there was a Septuage.
marian Club proposed, in which every mem.
Der was to be seven times ten years or up.
wards; all young fellows between sixty-fve
and seventy entering it simply as cadets
Seven Oaks have, as we know, given name
to pleasant place in Kent; and Dean Stanley
describes seven oaks standing in line at
particular spot in Palestine, associated in the
minds of the natives with very strange
legend. When Cain (the legend runs) killed
his brother Abel, he was punished by being
compelled to carry the dead body during the
long period of five hundred years, and tc
bury it in this spot he planted his staff tc
mark the spot and out of this staff grew uI
the seven oak trees.
Who can tell us anything about the Seven
Sisters, the name of seven elm trees at Tot
tenham, which have also given their name tc
the rosd from thence to Upper Holloway? II
Bedwells History of Tottenham, writer
nearly two hundred and forty years ago, he
describes Page-green by the side of the high
road at that village, and group of seven elm
trees in circle, with walnut tree in the
centre. He says:-"This tree hath this many
yeares stod there, and it is observed yearely
to live and beare leavs, and yet to stand at
stay, that is, to grove neither greater MOI
higher. This people do commonly tell the
reason to bee, for that there was one burn
upon that place for the profession of the Cos
pell." There was also some connecting linl
between the walnut tree and the Seven Sis
ters by which it was surrounded. There
we're seven elIns planted by seven sisters
one by each. The tree planted by the
most diminutive of the sisters was always
irregular and low in its growth But nov
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