Part XI,

proper right of its whole— for it contains body and foul ; for the body confills of four elements, and is endowed with four qualities : alfo, the number three refpects the foul, by reafon of its threefold power, viz. rational, irafcible, and concupifcible. The number feven, therefore, becaufe it confifts of three and four, joins the foul to the body ; and the virtue of this number relates to the generation of men, and it caufes man to be received, formed, brought forth, nourifhed, live, and indeed altogether to fubfift : for when the genital feed is received in the womb of the woman, if it remains there feven hours after the. effufion of it, it is certain that it will abide there for good ; then the firft feven days it is coagulated, and is fit to receive the lhape of a man ; then it pro- duces mature infants, which are called infants of the feventh month, i. e. be- caufe they are born the feventh month ; after the birth, the feventh hour tries whether it will live or no— for that which will bear the breath of the air after that hour, is conceived will live ; after feven days, it calls off the relics of the navel ; after twice feven days, its fight begins to move after the light ; in the third feventh, it turns its eyes and whole face freely 5 after feven months, k breeds teeth ; after the fecond feventh month, it fits without fear of falling ; after the third feventh month, it begins to fpeak ; after the fourth feventh month, it Hands ftrongly and walks ; after the fifth feventh month, it begins to refrain fucking its nurfe ; after feven years, its firlt teeth fall, and new are bred, fitter for harder meat, and its fpeech is perfected ; after the fecond fe- venth year, boys wax ripe, and then it is a beginning of generation ; at the third feventh year, they grow to men in ftature, and begin to be hairy, and become able and ftrong for generation ; at the fourth feventh year, they ceafe to grow taller in the fifth feventh year, they attain to the perfection of their Hrength ; the fixth feventh year, they keep their lirength •, the feventh feventh year, they attain to their utmoft difcretion and wifdom, and the perfebf age of men but when they come to the tenth feventh year, where the number feven is taken for a complete number, then they come to the common term of life— the Prophet faying, bur age is feventy years. The utmoft height of a man’s body is feven feet. There are, alfo, feven degrees in the body, which com- plete the dimenfion of its altitude from the bottom to the top, viz. marrow, bone, nerve, vein, artery, flelh, and fkin. There are feven, which, by the
Greeks,
Chap. XXII. TALISMANIC MAGIC. 119
Greeks, are called black members : the tongue, heart, lungs, liver, fpleen, and the two kidnies. There are, alfo, feven principal parts of the body : the head, bread, hands, feet, and the privy members. It is manifeft, concerning breath and meat, that, without drawing of the breath, the life doth not remain above feven hours ; and they that are ftarved with famine, live not above feven days.* The veins, alfo, and arteries, as phyficians fay, are moved by the ie- venth number. Alfo, judgments in difeafes are made with greater manifefta- tion upon the feventh day, which phyficians call critical, i. e. judicial. Alfo, of feven portions God creates the foul ; — the foul, alfo, receives the body by feven degrees. All difference of voices proceeds to the feventh degree, after which there is the fame revolution. Again, there are feven modulations of the voices : ditonus, femiditonus, diatefferon, diapente with a tone, diapente with a half tone, and diapafon. There are alfo, in celeftials, a moft potent power of the number feven ; for feeing there are four corners of the Heaven diame- trically looking one towards the other, which indeed is accounted a moft full and powerful afpeft, and confifts of the number feven ; for it is made with the feventh fign, and makes a crofs, the moft powerful figure of all, of which we fhall fpeak in its due place ; — but this you mult not be ignorant of, that the number feven hath a great communion with the crofs. By the fame ra- diation and nujnber the folftice is diftant from winter, and the winter equi- no6tium from the furnmer, all which are done by feven figns. There are alfo feven circles in the Heavens, according to the longitudes of the axle-tree. There are feven ftars about the Artie Pole, greater and leffer, called Charles Wain ; alfo feven ftars called the Pleiades ; and feven planets, according to thofe feven days conflituting a v/eek. The Moon is the feventh of the planets, and next to us, obferving this number more than the reft, this number difpenfing the motion and light thereof ; for in twenty-eight days it runs round the com- pafs of the whole Zodiac ; which number of days, the number feven with its feven terms, viz. from one to feven, doth make and fill up as much as the
*■ There have been Tome exceptions to this affirmation, one of which fell under my notice of late years : Do&or Edward Spry, of Plymouth Dock, Philofopher, Cabalift, and Phyfitian, lived upwards of two years upon a. goofeberry a day in furnmer, and an oat cake and three .glaiTes of white wine the reft of the feafon, per day : this gentleman was particularly abftemious in his diet.
feveral
120
TALISMANIC MAGIC.