3 88 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



number seven as determining the division of time with celestial phe- 

 nomena comes with a much greater air of probability when presented 

 pure and simple : the rising and setting of the sun determined the 

 days ; the waxing and waning of the moon determined the months ; 

 and the position of the sun among the fixed stars divided the years. 

 So that when it is suggested that the number of planetary bodies set- 

 tled the length of the week, it is impossible to deny that the proposal 

 comes before us with much a priori probability. 



It is not necessary to refuse all sanction to the notion that the 

 happy fact that 4X 7 = 28, or that four weeks, each of seven days, 

 roughly constitute a month, and that so, the artificial division of weeks 

 had a convenient relation to the natural division of months, had some- 

 thing to do with stamping the number seven as the basis for the count- 

 ing of days. Nor would it, perhaps, be possible to entirely deny the 

 position of one who should argue that this convenient quadri-parti- 

 tion of the month was first in order of time, and that the dedication 

 of the seven days of the week to the seven heavenly bodies followed 

 afterward. I do not suspect that this actually was so ; yet if it were 

 asserted to be the more probable course of things, I do not know that 

 the assertion could be positively disproved. But, whichever may have 

 been the actual order of proceeding, what I desire now to enforce is 

 equally true, namely, that the two astronomical considerations, namely, 

 the number of planetary bodies known to the ancients and the period 

 of the moon, may be regarded as co-operative, and as tending together 

 to fix more distinctly the number of days in the week. 



It would be entirely in accordance with the spirit of ancient relig- 

 ion, or superstition, to connect the days of the week, when once set- 

 tled down to the number seven, with the thought of dedication to dif- 

 ferent deities, rather than with the mere fact of the existence of seven 

 planetary bodies ; and this state of things we find in the days of the 

 week as used in the Roman Empire and among our Norse and Saxon 

 ancestors. One may perhaps venture to guess that such an adaptation 

 as this would naturally take place in any polytheistic country, which 

 adopted the division of the days by seven ; the more so, as several of 

 the seven planets are not conspicuous as phenomena ; and so the num- 

 ber seven, as derived from the heavens, would commend itself chiefly 

 to the few who carefully observed, and would not be deeply impressed 

 upon the people at large. The few would observe the planets, and 

 dedicate the days to planetary deities ; the many would know nothing 

 about the planets, would regard the days as sacred to their gods. 



Having thus far dealt with the week on general grounds, I now 

 pass on to make some remarks upon it in connection with Holy 

 Scripture. 



In the first place, as has been remarked by the commentators, and 

 as is apparent to careful readers, it would seem that some notion of 

 the week of seven days was current among the people whose history 



