Chapter C: C. C

_The Number Seven_ (Vol. v., p. 533.).--MR. HENRY EDWARDS is quite right in his conjecture that the number _seven_, so often used in the Old and New Testament, is generally put to mean "several," "many," or an indefinite number. Hence the number seven was esteemed a sacred, symbolical, and mystical number. There were seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, seven days in the week, seven sacraments, seven branches on the candlestick of Moses, seven liberal arts, seven churches of Asia, seven mysterious seals, seven stars, seven symbolic trumpets, seven heads of the dragon, seven joys and seven sorrows of the blessed Virgin, seven penitential psalms, seven deadly sins, seven canonical hours, &c. &c.

"Septenarius numerus est numerus universitatis," says J. de Voragine. See also, Bede, Duranti, and Rhabanus Maurus, on the mystical explanation of this number. A curious French MS. belonging to the latter part of the thirteenth century has a singular illustration of the number seven. It is a miniature: a wheel cut into seven rays, and composed of seven concentric cordons. The rays form seven compartments, divided into as many cordons, containing in each cordon one of the seven petitions of the Lord's Prayer, one of the seven sacraments, one of the seven spiritual arms of justice, one of the seven works of mercy, one of the seven virtues, one of the seven deadly sins, and one of the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost.

CEYREP.

_Commentators_ (Vol. v., pp. 512. 570.).--The original verses are Young's:--

"How commentators each dark passage shun,
And hold their farthing candle to the sun.
_The Love of Fame_, Satire vii.