Page 143 - Foundations

NATURE

We see the same law at work in various departments of nature. Sometimes one number is the
dominant factor, sometimes another. In nature seven is found to mark the only possible mode of
classification of the mass of individuals which constitutes the special department called science. We
give the seven divisions, with examples from the animal and vegetable kingdoms. The one specimen
of an animal (the dog) and one specimen of a flower (the rose).

I. KINGDOM Animal Vegetable

II. SUB-KINGDOM Vertebrata Phanerogamia

III. CLASS Mammalia Dicotyledon

IV. ORDER Carnivora Rosiflorae

V. FAMILY Canidae Rosaciae

VI. GENUS Dog Rosa

VII. SPECIES Spaniel Tea-rose

PHYSIOLOGY

offers a vast field for illustration, but here again the grand impress is seen to be the number seven.
The days of man's years are "Three-score years and ten" (7x10). In seven years the whole structure
of his body changes: and we are all familiar with "the seven ages of man."

There are seven Greek words used to describe these seven ages, according to Philo:—

1. Infancy (paidion, child).
2. Childhood (pais boy).
3. Youth (meirakion, lad, stripling).
4. Adolescence (neaniskos, young man).
5. Manhood (aner, man).
6. Decline (presbutes, old man).
7. Senility (geron, aged man).

The various periods of gestation also are commonly a multiple of seven, either of days or weeks.