THEIR MYSTICISM. 309 



fire were pyramids, because they are sharp, and 

 tend upwards; those of earth are cubes, because 

 they are stable, and fill space ; the particles of air 

 are octahedral, as most nearly resembling those of 

 fire ; those of water are icositetrahedron, as most 

 nearly spherical. The dodecahedron is the figure 

 of the element of the heavens, and shows its in- 

 fluence in other things, as in the twelve signs of 

 the zodiac. In such examples we see how loosely 

 space and number are combined or confounded by 

 these mystical visionaries. 



These numerical dreams of ancient philosphers 

 have been imitated by modern writers; for instance, 

 by Peter Bungo and Kircher, who have written 

 De Mysteriis Numerorum. Bungo treats of the 

 mystical properties of each of the numbers in 

 order, at great length. And such speculations 

 have influenced astronomical theories. In the first 

 edition of the Alphonsine tables 13 , the precession 

 was represented by making the first point of Aries 

 move, in a period of 7000 years, through a circle 

 of which the radius was 18 degrees, while the circle 

 moved round the ecliptic in 49,000 years; and 

 these numbers, 7000 and 49,000, were chosen pro- 

 bably by Jewish calculators, or with reference to 

 Judaical Sabbatarian notions. 



3. Astrology. Of all the forms which mysticism 

 assumed, none was cultivated more assiduously 

 than astrology. Although this art prevailed most 

 13 Montucla, i. 511. 



