THE WEEK OF SEVEN' DAYS. 387 



no such obvious suggestion as ten, and no such recommendation of 

 practical convenience as twelve ; nevertheless, it is quite as truly a 

 favorite number as either ; perhaps, in some sense, it is more so. Its 

 early occurrence in the book of Genesis might be adopted at once as 

 an explanation of its prominence among numbers ; this course of 

 treatment, however, would not fall in with the intentions of this 

 essay, and I shall therefore, in the first place, treat the subject in the 

 most general manner possible, putting out of mind for the moment all 

 thought of the references to the institution of the week which can be 

 found in the Bible. 



Adopting this course, we have to deal with the fact that the 

 division of days by seven is both ancient and widespread. If, as 

 has been held by good authorities, the method be of Chaldean origin, 

 the notion that the number seven is connected with the heavenly 

 bodies at once presents itself to our minds as probable ; in fact, when 

 we remember that to the early observers of the heavens the planets 

 were seven in number — namely, the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, 

 Mars, Jupiter, Saturn — and that the names of these planets were in 

 divers countries connected with the several days of the week, the con- 

 clusion that the measuring of days by sevens took its rise from the 

 physical fact that seven planetary bodies are visible to the naked eye 

 must seem to be almost irresistible. 



The reader may be referred upon this subject to a lucid article, 

 s. v. " "Week," in Smith's " Dictionary of the Bible." The writer says : 



Whether the week gave its sacredness to the numher seven, or whether the 

 ascendency of that number helped to determine the dimensions of the week, it 

 is impossible to say. The latter fact — the ancient ascendency of the number 

 seven — might rest upon divers grounds. The planets, according to the astron- 

 omy of those times, were seven in number ; so are the notes of the diatonic scale ; 

 so also many other things naturally attracting observation. 



And again : 



So far, then, the week being a division of time without ground in Nature, 

 there was much to recommend its adoption. "When the days were named from 

 planetary deities, as among first the Assyrians and Chaldees, and then the Egyp- 

 tians, then, of course, each period of seven days would constitute a whole, and 

 that whole might come to be recognized by nations that disregarded or rejected 

 the practice which had shaped and determined it. But, further, the week is a 

 most natural and nearly exact quadri-partition of the month, so that the quar- 

 ters of the moon may easily have suggested it. 



The argument contained in these passages is somewhat weakened 

 by the mixture of other considerations with those of an astronomical 

 origin. The reference to the diatonic scale, for example, appears to be 

 anything but a help — the more so, as the diatonic scale was unknown to 

 the ancient people of the world, and is unrecognized in the East at the 

 present time. Still more injurious is the indefinite reference to " many 

 other things naturally attracting observation." The connection of the 



