Works of Philo of Alexandria

Philo — Works Vol. I, Yonge — Section 84

IV. But nature delights in the number seven. For there are seven planets, going in continual opposition to the daily course of the heaven which always proceeds in the same direc- tion. And likewise the constellation of the Bear is made up of seven stars, which constellation is the cause of communica- tion and unity among men, and not merely of traffic. Again, the periodical changes of the moon, take place according to the number seven, that star having the greatest sympathy with the things on earth. And the changes which the moon works in the air, it perfects chiefly in accordance with its own configura- tions on each seventh day. At all events, all mortal tilings, as I have said before, drawing their more divine nature from the heaven, are moved in a manner which tends to their pre- servation in accordance with this number seven. For who is there who does not know that those infants who are born at the end of the seventh month are likely to live, but those who have taken a longer time, so as to have abided eight months in the womb, are for the most part abortive births ? And they say that man is a reasoning being in his first seven years, by which time he is a competent interpreter of ordinary nouns and verbs, making himself master of the faculty of speaking. And in his second period of seven years, he arrives at the perfection of his nature ; and this perfection is the power of generating a being like himself ; for at about the age of fourteen we are able to beget a creature resembling ourselves. Again, the third period of seven years is the termination of his growth ; for up to the age of one and twenty years man keeps on in- creasing in size, and this time is called by many maturity. Again, the irrational portion of the soul is divisible into seven portions ; the five senses, and the organ of speech, and the power of generation. Again, the motions of the body are seven , the six organic motions, and the rotatory motion. ON THE ALLEGORIES OF THE SACRED LAWS. 55 Also the entrails are seven — the stomach, the heart, the spleen, the liver, the lungs, and the two kidneys.