many, involved in more than Cimmerian darkness, and, I believe, the ordinary nineteenth-century reader, who is unacquainted with the symbolic language of the Fathers, will readily assent to his assertion. After this remark he proceeds to clarify the darkness.

Eight is a mystical number, for two reasons: First, as St. Ambrose says, because many of the psalms are written for the octave; secondly, because we are commanded to give a portion to eight.

This is certainly mysterious enough. Let us see if perchance we can get some light and understanding from other passages of St. Ambrose.

The first reason of St. Ambrose is, that many of the psalms are written for the octave; for instance, the sixth and eleventh. By the octave is understood the resurrection of the Blessed, as appears from many passages of both Greek and Latin Fathers, and from passages of St. Ambrose himself. For instance, in commenting on St. Luke, ix., 28: "About eight days after these words, Jesus took Peter and James and John, and went up into a mountain to pray, and the shape of His countenance was altered." "Why does He say," asks St. Ambrose, "eight days after these words? Is it not perhaps because he who hears and believes the words of Christ will see the glory of Christ at the time of the resurrection? For on the eighth day the resurrection took place, whence also many of the psalms are written for the octave." Here St. Ambrose shows very clearly his doctrine in regard to the connection between the octave of the psalms and the resurrection.

That this interpretation of the first reason given by St. Ambrose in the Breviary is correct, appears from the words which he adds, "for the octave is the perfection of our hope." Surely, if anything is the perfection of our hope, it is the resurrection and our eternal beatitude, as symbolized in number eight, the day of Christ's resurrection.

This same thought is found in many places of St. Ambrose. Perhaps it may be of interest to cite one or two.

When commenting on St. Luke, xiii., 10-11: "And behold there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years," he

says: "In the infirm woman there is, as it were, a figure of the Church; when the Church shall have fulfilled the measure of the Law (No. 10), and of the resurrection (No. 8), she shall be elevated to the sublime height of perpetual rest, and shall no longer be able to suffer the oppression of our infirmity.

"This woman herself could not be cured except by the fulfilling of the Law and by grace; the Law in the commandments, grace in baptism, wherein being dead to the world, we rise again to Christ: for in the ten precepts is the perfection of the Law, in number eight is the plenitude of the resurrection."

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Speaking of the eighth encampment of the Israelites at the desert of Sin,' where there was question of the liberation of the children of Israel from the servitude of Egypt, he says: "So in the resurrection, which is understood by the octave, there will be question of our liberation from the servitude of corruption. Let us, therefore, pray God that we may come to the eighth encampment, or, rather, that it may come to us speedily." It seems pretty clear, therefore, by these passages, that St. Ambrose understands by "the octave" and "the perfection of our hope," as found in the Breviary, the resurrection and our beatitude, as symbolized in the eighth day, which was the day of Christ's Resurrection.

And now for the second reason of St. Ambrose, why eight is a mystical number. "We are commanded to give a portion to eight," "for the octave is the sum of all virtues." From the structure of the phrases in the passage cited in the Breviary these two seem to be correlative; that is, "we are commanded to give a portion to eight," and "the octave is the sum of all virtues," just as the other two phrases discussed above. "Many psalms are written for the octave," and "the octave is the perfection of our hope," appear to be correlatives. What, then, does St. Ambrose mean? "We are commanded to give a portion to eight." The commandment to which St. Ambrose refers is found in Ecclesiastes, xi. 2: "Cast thy bread upon the running waters: for after a long time thou shalt find it again. Give a portion to seven and also to eight: for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth." The commentator to whom I referred above, who attempts to clarify this passage, says that by eight is meant universality, as St. Jerome and several others have observed. Wherefore, octo benedictionibus partem dare is the same as to give 'one's self to the practice of all virtues. And this is why St. Ambrose adds that the octave is the sum of all virtues. The reason why he says "perhaps," "fortasse," is merely to indicate that this is a metaphorical meaning, since the passage in Ecclesiastes refers to almsgiving, or else to indicate that there is here a mystical representation of the Old and New Testament, as St. Ambrose himself declares often in other places. Thus far the commentator in question. According to this view, "to give a portion to eight" is another way of saying to practice all virtues.

How is this idea of universality found in number eight? This signification is attributed to it in many passages of the Fathers. It seems to be based on the notion of perfection and completeness which is found in the Resurrection. For after the resurrection and our consequent beatitude, there will be eternity, the plentitude and perfection, the crown and term of the period of this life. This

1 Num., xxxiii. II.

2 Tract de 42 Mansionibus Filiorum Israel.

idea is well brought out by St. Ambrose himself, in a letter to Horontianus, in which he explains the very passage of Ecclesiastes which we are discussing.

"The perfection of number eight was known to the writers of the Old Testament, for Ecclesiastes, xi., 2, says: 'Give a portion to seven, and also to eight.' The Hebdomas, seven, belongs to the Old Testament, the octave to the New, for it was in the New that Christ rose, and a day of new salvation dawned for all. It is for this reason that the Old Testament gave a portion to the octave in the solemnity of the circumcision."

Further on he continues thus: "Hippocrates, the father of medicine, divided man's life into seven ages; Solon into ten periods of seven years each. Therefore Hippocrates and Solon believed in seven ages or weeks of ages. In any case, seven is prominent in their theory. But eight introduces one, eternal age, in which we grow into perfect manhood, in the knowledge of God, in the plenitude of faith. It is the octave which hath renewed the whole man. Therefore the seventh age of the world is ended, the eighth has dawned upon us, the age of grace, which hath made man not of this world, but above the world.

"The hebdomas has passed away, the octave has come; yesterday is no more, to-day has come, that to-day on which we have been warned to hear and follow the voice of God. Therefore, that day of the Old Testament has gone, and a new day has come, wherein the New Testament is consummated, concerning which the Lord speaketh:

"Behold the days shall come, saith the Lord, and I will perfect unto the house of Israel, and unto the house of Juda a new Testament. Not according to the testament which I made to their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. Because they continued not in my testament: and I regarded them not, saith the Lord."

St. Ambrose continues: "The priests of the Law, the tribunals of the Law have gone by, let us approach to the new priest, to the throne of grace."

Thus it is that St. Ambrose exalts the octave in the priesthood, resurrection, and grace of Christ, and for this reason he wishes us "to give a portion to eight"; that is, to give ourselves to that universal, high perfection of all virtue, which frees us from the bondage of this world, and which is symbolized in number eight. Thus the mystery of the passage we cited from the Breviary disappears: "Many of the psalms are written for the octave, and you are commanded to give a portion to eight, in which words,

1 Heb., viii., 8, 9.

2 Ad Horontianum, Epist., 45, 4.

perhaps, the beatitudes are referred to; for as the octave is the perfection of our hope, so the octave is the sum of the virtues."

By the octave and eight, St. Ambrose simply means all virtue and the future resurrection in beatitude.

From the preceding remarks and citations, which are little more than an imperfect outline of the doctrine of Scriptural numbers, one fact, in conclusion, is certain, that the Fathers made great account of the interpretation of numbers; and I think it can be said with safety that there is more meaning in the numbers than we imagine, especially when men of mighty intellect like Augustine speak of numbers as they do. This conclusion is strengthened when we reflect on the testimony of chemistry, astronomy and science in general, in regard to the marvellous numerical relations which have been shown to exist in regard to time, distance, the construction of bodies, and many other phenomena. If we go back to those early days, when perhaps numbers as well as words had their meaning, it would be rash on our part to hastily condemn as foolish a word meaning or a number meaning simply because it belongs to a language which, to us, is obsolete. If, therefore, such a language of numbers did exist, it is not improbable that the great Master, in teaching His disciples, adapted His lessons to the methods in use at the time of His teaching. At the present day the numbers tell us merely plain, blunt facts, numerically counted, without any deep mystical meaning, such as St. Augustine was wont to find in them. But if we read them in the light of those who were much nearer to the true Light than we are, we shall at least hesitate to condemn a method of interpretation which, to us, has become almost an occult art; and I think we shall be forced to admit one conclusion at least, that sometimes the numbers are of real exegetical value; and perhaps they may even extend farther, and be of personal value, for in searching out the fulness of the symbolism as taught us by the Fathers, we may derive new thoughts and new light on the mysteries of the Gospel.

WOODSTOCK.

JOSEPH H. ROCKWELL, S. J.

Scientific Chronicle.

ARTIFICIAL SILK.

BOMBYX MORI was born of poor but honest parents. At least we have no honest reason for suspecting the contrary, though none but a fabulist of the Darwin school would pretend to tell us who they were or whence they came. As far as can be made out from vague historic guesses, he seems to have made his first appearance, as a full-fledged being in his own right, in China. A certain air of probability is lent to this opinion by the very order of the constituent parts of his name; for Bombyx is not, as might at first sight have been carelessly suspected, his Christian name. On the contrary, it is his surname, and has, as such, remained in the family even to the present time. His front name, for it is evidently an anachronism to call it "Christian," was Mori, just as Craesi, Texor, Sinensis, Huttoni, Horsfeldi, etc., were all scions of the same old stock, BOMBYX. The pith of the evidence is in the fact that the same inversion holds good in the case of Chinese proper names in general. Innumerable examples might be cited, but one or two will suffice for our present purpose. Thus, the well-known name, "Wah Sing," does not, as has, in some quarters, been rashly asserted, mean "Washing," even though members of the family have been, and, to our certain knowledge, are still engaged in the laundry business.

A proper application of the principles of sound philology would have made it evident that, since the Chinese cannot pronounce the letter r, the original form of "Wah" was "War," and hence that the members of this family were formerly soldiers. The name, then, of the individual in question is, in plain English, "Sing War," indicating that he used to sing, or yell, or, what amounts to pretty much the same thing, make Chinese music in war, i.e., that he belonged to a military band. As another example, Hung Lam would be, according to our English way of writing it, Lamb Hung, since, as is well known, one of his remote ancestors stole a lamb and was hung for the theft, and in our idiom we prefer to put the cause first and the effect afterwards. One of Hung Lam's descendants was a butcher who made a specialty of dog's meat, and who consequently passed into history as "Hung Bow Wow" afterwards contracted into Hung Wow; they were all Hung anyhow.

"The internal evidence then agrees with tradition that the first Mr. Bombyx was either a Chinaman, or that he emigrated to China at an early age. Reliable tradition has it that he was already an elderly, honorable, rich, and therefore respectable, citizen of that land at least 5000 years ago. The more advanced, or retrograde, Chinese themselves however, claim anywhere from 50,000 to 500,000 years of ancestry for