196 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. 



vinities. According to Servius, "they assigned 

 the perfect number three to the Great God ; " and 

 the tetrad they looked upon as the greatest miracle, 

 a God after another manner than the triad, a mani- 

 fold, or rather every Divinity ; peculiarly applied 

 to Mercury, Vulcan, Hercules, and Bacchus ; and 

 they held that the power of the duad subsisted in 

 the four. Thus Pythagoras asks, ** How do you 

 count?" — Mercury. " One, two, three, four." — 

 Pyth. " Do you not see, that what are four to 

 you, are ten and our oath?" those 1, 2, 3,4, added 

 together forming ten, and four containing every 

 number within it. Four was particularly connected 

 with Mercury, as the Deity who imparted intel- 

 lectual gifts to man ; to Vulcan it was assimilated 

 as the demiurge, whence the rsrfxxxtvs was the 

 mystic name of the creative power ; and three 

 they looked upon as " embracing all human 

 things." * " Know God," says Pythagoras, *' who 

 is number and harmony ;" " the human soul," ac- 

 cording to that philosopher, was *' number moving 

 itself;" and some styled number '* the father of 

 Gods and Men." 



Many were the fanciful meanings attached to 

 numbers, by the Pythagoreans, which it is unne- 



(Eel. viii. 75.) " Numero Deus impare gaudet," applies to the same 

 number, as is shown by the preceding verses : — 



" Tcrna tibi haec prim urn trhpUci diversa colore 

 Licia circumdo, toque haec altaria circum 

 Effigiem duco : " 

 and by the " Necte tribus nodis ternos, . . . colores." Conf. ^n. vi, 229. 

 et alib. 



* " Tiavra ra ayOpwTrii'a avi'exc" 



