SEVEN

Hokitika Guardian, 16 October 1929, Page 8

SEVEN

(By A Doctor in .Sydney “ News.”)

Most people believe that the body changes every seven years. Perhaps it does; but not in the popular sense. This particular period has been picked for two reasons—the magic of numbers, and the coincidence of the recurring seven in certain life stages. Seven was always a favourite number. for spells and incantations, and similar superstitions.' “ Abraxas,” a numerical charm invented by Basilides, contains seven letters; from it, by the way, is derived the famous exorcising word “ Abracadabra.” The Book of Revelations is full of sevens—seven churches, seven angels, seven vials, and so forth; “seventy times seven” sounds familiar too. The. other point: children start school about seven. “Coming of age” is fixed at twenty-one. The psalmist’s span, seventy. No wonder the sevenyear period has acquired a special significance. *

Actually life is a semi-circle—half growth, half decline. We ascend the curve up to, say, thirty; and without a stop gradually, go down hill. There is no life without change, and from birth onwards tissue-cells grow, wear out, and are replaced by others—skin, hair, organs. No doubt in this way the whole body is renewed time af+ntime, but whether i£ takes five, seven, or ten years, is absolutely unknown. Sliaxespeare’s summary of the rise and fall oif the human body is a masterpiece; “ The infant mewling and puking.” . . . “ The whining schoolboy.” . . . “The lover sighing like a furnace.” . . . “ The justice in fair round belly.” . . . The lean and slippered pantaloon—sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.” Second childhood. A wonderful description!