THE QUINARY SYSTEM. 
liii 
etymology of the word seven signifies fulness and perfection.* We 
accordingly read of seven cliiirclies,” “ the seue/i golden candle- 
sticks,” the ‘‘lamb with seven horns,” the seven animals,” “the 
seven spirits of God,” &c. From this source, indeed, it is probable 
that Pythagoras, who studied in Egypt and Phoenicia,f derived his 
opinion that the number seven was “venerable, perfect, and accom- 
modated to things sacred.”J But with all these authorities in its 
favour, and hundreds more which could easily be mustered, Mr. 
MacLeay says, “the idea of this number is, however, imme- 
diately laid aside, on endeavouring to discover seven primary di- 
visions of equal degree in the animal kingdom ;§” one reason, 
among many others, which would make me reject his number Jive, 
or any other invariable number, inasmuch as there has been shown 
nothing to warrant this in nature. To use the words of Mr. Mac 
Leay, “the interests of science, and that love of truth which every 
scientific man ought to possess, require that we should not allow 
ourselves to be dazzled by the seeming simplicity of rules, so far 
as to overlook the cases where these rules interfere with the evident 
order of nature.” |1 The Quinary system, though lauded as a 
system, the “ groups” of which, as well as “ the arrangement of 
these groups,” “are almost mathematically proved to be natural, 
appears to me to be no less artificial than any of the numerous 
other systems erroneously called natural. Mr, MacLeay, 
speaking of the French systematists, says, that, “ by suppos- 
ing nature to have been absolutely governed by a set of 
rules, which they themselves laid down, they have done little 
more by their innovations, than given to the world an addi- 
tional artificial system”** — a remark which applies, I think, 
forcibly to the Quinary system. “ According to Linnaeus,” 
^ To ixvsTiKov Twv ’aTravraxv ^^KKKrjcnoov a'qjj.aivwv . Andreas Ccesariensis on 
Apoc, cli. i. V. 4. Uiiiim Spiritum dicit Septifonnem, quae est perfectio et 
plenitiido. Beda on Apocalyp. ch. iv. v. 5. Philo styles the Number Seven, 
Te\ea'(popos, 
t Porphyrins, Vit. Pythag. ; Jamblichus, Vit. Pythag. ; and Slmckford, Con. 
Sacr. and Prof. Hist. Pref. 
I Woodhouse, Annot. p. 13. § Linn. Trans, xiv. 57, Note. 
II Horae Entomologicae, p. 6. 
^ Dying Struggle, p. 128. See also Aiinulosa Javanica, p. 1, 
** Horae Entomologicae, p. 12. 
