Note 21 — LETTER XXVIII.
Reading edition
The number five, which Mr. MacLeay assumes for one basis of his system as consecrated in Nature, seems to me to yield to the number seven, which is consecrated both in Nature and Scripture. Metaphysicians reckon seven principal operations of the mind; musicians seven principal musical tones; and opticians seven primary colours. In Scripture the abstract idea of this number is—completion—fullness—perfection. I have a notion, but not yet sufficiently matured, that Mr. MacLeay's quinaries are resolvable into septenaries.