Three, Seven, and Thirteen.
Strange Persistence in Nature of These Mystic Numbers, Each of Which Has Ever Been Regarded as Deeply Significant by the Various Races at Different Periods of History, and Especially in Religious Observance.
Strange Persistence in Nature of These Mystic Numbers, Each of Which Has Ever Been Regarded as Deeply Significant by the Various Races at Different Periods of History, and Especially in Religious Observance.
Strange Persistence in Nature of These Mystic Numbers, Each of Which Has Ever Been Regarded as Deeply Significant by the Various Races at Different Periods of History, and Especially in Religious Observance.
Superstition of some sort or other has been attached to certain numbers from time immemorial, but the numbers three, seven, and thirteen have been particularly favored, and three and seven have figured very prominently in mythology, scriptural history, and elsewhere. Three is called the perfect number, seven is regarded as lucky, and thirteen as unlucky.
It was Pythagoras who termed three the “perfect number,” because it expressed “the beginning, the middle, and the end,” signifying a perfect whole.
On this account he made it a symbol of the Deity, and the “Holy Trinity” is now, and doubtless will be always, the most potent symbol of Christianity. The world was supposed to be under the rule of three gods: Jupiter (heaven), Neptune (sea), and Pluto (Hades). Jove is represented carrying three-forked lightning. Neptune carries a trident, and Pluto is accompanied by a three-headed dog.
There are three Fates, three Furies, and three Graces. The Harpies are three in number; there are three Sibylline books, and the fountain in Mysia, from which Hylas drew water, was presided over by three nymphs. The pythoness sat on a tripod; the Muses are three times three. Both Man and the World are threefold—the former, body, soul, and spirit; the latter, earth, sea, and air. The enemies of Man are the world, the flesh, and the devil; the kingdoms of Nature are animal, vegetable, and mineral. The cardinal colors are red, yellow, and blue.
In almost all countries new laws have to pass three bodies. In the United States, State laws pass the Assembly, the State Senate, and the Governor. Federal laws pass the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the President. In England there are the Commons, the Lords, and the King to be reckoned with.
Concerning the church there were the “Three Chapters,” otherwise three books on the subject of the Incarnation and the two natures of Christ, which caused a great controversy during the reign of Justinian and the popedom of Vigilius. In 553 these books were condemned by the General Council at Constantinople. One was written by Theodore, of Mopsuestia; one by Theodoret, of Cyprus; and the third by Ibas, Bishop of Edessa.
It was the “three bishoprics” of France that passed to the German rule after the Franco-Prussian War. They were Metz, Verdun, and Lorraine, each of which was once under the lordship of a bishop. In early days the churches were usually provided with what was known as a “three decker.” This structure consisted of the clerk’s desk, the reading-desk, and the pulpit, one above the other. Then again, Epiphany or Twelfth Day is sometimes known as “Three Kings’ Day,” as it is supposed to commemorate the visit of the three kings, or wise men, to the infant Jesus.
The three estates of the realm are the nobility, the clergy, and the commonalty in England, the sovereign being in a class by himself. One of the collects in the English prayer-books thanks God for preserving “the king and the three estates of the realm.” It was Burke who designated the press of the country “the fourth estate.”
Mention must also be made of the “three R’s” of education: reading, ’riting, and ’rithmetic; and the Bible is composed of three parts: Old Testament, New Testament, and Apocrypha.
Seven always has been a holy number, and that may be why it is considered lucky. The creation occupied seven days; there are seven spirits before the throne of God. There are seven days in the week; seven divisions of the Lord’s Prayer; seven ages in the life of man; and the just are supposed to fall “seven times a day.”
The moon has seven phases, every seventh year was sabbatical for the Jews, and seven times seven years was the “jubilee.” The three great feasts of the Jews lasted seven days, and seven weeks elapsed between the first and the second of these.
Levitical purifications lasted seven days. In the Bible are mentioned seven candlesticks, seven trumpets, seven stars, and seven horns. The Lamb had seven eyes. Ten times seven Israelites went into Egypt, and the exile lasted ten times seven years. There were ten times seven elders, and Pharaoh, in his dream, saw seven ears of corn and seven kine.
The bibles or sacred books of the world are seven in number: the Bible of the Christians; the Eddas of the Scandinavians; the Five Kings of the Chinese; the Koran of the Mohammedans; the Tri Pitikes of the Buddhists; the three Vedas of the Hindus; and the Zendavesta of the Persians. Incidentally, the Koran dates from the seventh century.
The seven churches of Asia were founded in the following cities: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. Strangely enough, each of these churches, which were founded by the Apostles themselves, are now Mohammedan, and the cities in which they stand, with the exception of Smyrna, are more or less insignificant.
Before the throne of God stand seven angels. They are Michael, Gabriel, Lamael, Raphael, Zachariel, Anael, and Oriphel. The Deity is endowed with seven spirits: the Spirit of Wisdom, the Spirit of Understanding, the Spirit of Counsel, the Spirit of Power, the Spirit of Righteousness, the Spirit of Knowledge, and the Spirit of Divine Awfulness.
In the life of the Virgin Mary there were Seven Joys and Seven Sorrows. The former were the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Nativity, the Adoration of the Magi, the Presentation in the Temple, the finding of Christ among the Doctors, and the Assumption. The sorrows were: Simeon’s Prophecy, the Flight into Egypt, the unexplained absence of Christ, the Betrayal, the Crucifixion, the Descent from the Cross, and the Ascension, when Mary was left alone. In the picture “Our Lady of Dolors” she is represented with her breast pierced with seven swords emblematic of her seven sorrows.
The Seven Champions of Christendom were: St. George, of England, who was imprisoned seven years; St. Denys, of France, who lived seven years in the form of a hart; St. James, of Spain, who was dumb for seven years out of love for a Jewess; St. Anthony, of Italy, who was released from his enchanted sleep by St. George’s sons, who quenched seven lamps; St Andrew, of Scotland, who delivered six ladies who had lived seven years as white swans; St. David, of Wales, who was released from a seven years’ enchanted sleep by St. George; and St. Patrick, of Ireland.
The Seven Sages of Greece and their mottoes were: Solon, of Athens: “Know thyself.” Chilo, of Sparta: “Consider the end.” Thales, of Miletos: “Who hateth suretyship is sure.” Bias, of Priene: “Most men are bad.” Cleobulos, of Lindos: “The golden mean,” or “Avoid extremes.” Pittacos, of Mitylene: “Seize time by the forelock.” And Periander, of Corinth: “Nothing is impossible to industry.”
There are seven bodies in alchemy, each having its planet. They are: gold, the sun; silver, the moon; iron, Mars; quicksilver, Mercury; lead, Saturn; tin, Jupiter; and copper, Venus.
The Seven Deadly Sins are pride, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, avarice, and sloth; while the Seven Virtues are faith, hope, charity, prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance.
Ancient teaching had it that the soul of a man was composed of seven properties, each under the influence of a planet, thus: fire animates, earth gives the sense of feeling, speech is gained from water, air gives taste, sight comes from mist, flowers give hearing, and the south wind gives smelling. Here are the seven senses, and then, too, as the boys at school are fond of saying, there are seven holes in one’s head: two ears, two eyes, two nostrils, and the mouth.
The Seven Sleepers were seven youths of Ephesus who fled from persecution to a cave and slept therein for many years. Their names were Constantine, Dionysius, John, Maximian, Malchus, Martinian, and Serapion.
There are two groups of Seven Wonders of the World. The antique group consisted of the Pyramids, Babylon’s Hanging Gardens, Mausolus’s Tomb, the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, the Colossus of Rhodes, Jupiter’s Statue by Phidias, the Pharos of Egypt, and the Palace of Cyrus (which was cemented with gold).
The seven wonders of the Middle Ages were the Colosseum, the Catacombs at Alexandria, the Great Wall of China, Stonehenge, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Porcelain Tower of Nankin, and the Mosque of St. Sophia at Constantinople.
Thirteen is regarded as unlucky by a great many people who claim that they are not superstitious about other things, and there are thousands of tales of unfortunate occurrences supposedly due to that number.
The origin of the superstition is very generally supposed to be the “Last Supper,” at which the Lord and His Twelve Apostles were present. As a matter of history, the belief in the “hoodoo” antedates Christianity by centuries. Norse mythology deemed it unlucky to sit down thirteen at a banquet table, because at such a feast in the Valhalla, Loki, the spirit of evil and the god of strife, once intruded. Balder, the god of peace, was killed by the blind war-god Hoder, at the instigation of Loki.
The Turks so dislike the number that the word indicating it has become almost expurged from their vocabulary. The Italians never use it in making up their lotteries, and in Paris no house bears the number; and there is in existence there a profession the members of which make their living attending dinner parties in order to make the fourteenth at table.
At a discussion of superstitions recently one young man ventured the remark that he knew of hundreds of buildings in New York that had no thirteenth story.
“How is that?” he was asked.
“They are only twelve stories high,” was the reply.
Nevertheless, there are several skyscrapers in the metropolis in which the number thirteen is skipped both in numbering the floors and in numbering the rooms. The Kuhn-Loeb Building, at the corner of Pine and William Streets, is an example, and the building at the corner of William and Wall Streets has a twelfth floor and a fourteenth floor, but no floor in between.