There is a work extant, though rather scarce, by Hevelius, under the title of Annus Climactericus, wherein he describes the loss he sustained by his observatory, &c. being burnt; which, it would appear, happened in his grand climacterick. Suetonius says, that Augustus congratulated his nephew upon his having passed his first grand climacterick, of which he was very apprehensive.
Some pretend that the climacterick years are fatal to political bodies, which perhaps may be granted, when they are proved to be so to natural ones; for it must be obvious that the reason of such danger can by no means be discovered, nor what relation it can have with any of the numbers above-mentioned. Though this opinion has a great deal of antiquity on its side; Aulus Gellius says, it was borrowed from the Chaldeans, who, possibly, might receive it from Pythagoras, whose philosophy turned much on numbers, and who imagined an extraordinary virtue in the number 7.
The principal authors on the subject of climactericks, are Plato, Cicero, Macrobius, Aulus Gellius, among the ancients; Argol, Magirus, and Salmatius, among the moderns. St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, Beda, and Bœtius, all countenance the opinion.
Lucky and Unlucky Days.
Astrologers have also brought under their inspection and controul the days of the year, which they have presumed to divide into lucky and unlucky days; calling even the sacred scriptures, and the common belief of Christians, in former ages, to their assistance for this purpose. They pretend that the 14th day of the first month was a blessed day among the Israelites, authorised therein, as they pretend, by the several following passages out of Exodus, c. xii. v. 18, 40, 41, 42, 51. Leviticus, c. xxiii. v. 5. Numbers, c. xxviii. v. 16. “Four hundred and thirty years being expired of their dwelling in Egypt, even in the self same day departed they thence.”
With regard to evil days and times, Astrologers refer to Amos, c. 5, v. 13, and c. vi. v. 3. Ecclesiasticus, c. ix. v. 12. Psalm, xxxvii. v. 19. Obadiah, c. xii. Jeremiah, c. xlvi. v. 21, and to Job cursing his birth day, chap. iii. v. 1 to 11. In confirmation of which they also quote a calendar, extracted out of several ancient Roman catholic prayer books, written on vellum, before printing was invented, in which were inserted the unfortunate days of each month, as in the following verses;—
January.—Prima dies mensis, et septima truncat ensis.
February.—Quarta subit mortem, prosternit tertia fortem.
March.—Primus mandentem, disrumpit quarta bibentem.
April.—Denus et undenus est mortis vulnere plenus.