finger tip
to finger tip as his length when erect from head to feet, namely, eight
times the length of his head. Now eight heads, if divided into halves,
give four as the measure of throat and thorax; and four heads to the
length of the leg from the acetabulum to the heel, divided themselves
into two heads going to the thigh and two heads to the shank; while in
the cross measurement two heads equal the breadth of the chest, and
three measure the length from the shoulder to the middle finger. These
measures--a mere rough rule of thumb in our eyes--contained to this
mediaeval mind the promise of some great mystery. To him, accustomed to
hear all the occurrences of Nature, and all human concerns referred to
astrological calculations, and conceiving the universe as governed by
spirits--in shape, perhaps, like the Primum Mobile, the Mercurius and
Jupiter of Mantegna's playing cards, crowned with stars and poised upon
globes--it was as if the divining rod were turning pertinaciously to one
spot in the earth, where, had he but the necessary tools, he must strike
upon veins of the purest gold, or cause water to spirt high in the air.
This number _eight_, and the pertinacity of its recurrence, puzzled him
intensely. It seemed to point so clearly, much as in music the sensitive
seventh points to the tonic, to a sort of resolution on the number nine.
And if only nine could be established, it would seem to explain so
much.... For five being man's numeral in creation (and is not the
measurement of his face also _five eyes_?), it makes, when added to
four, the number of the material elements over which he dominates,
_nine_, which would thus represent the supremacy or perfection of man.
Man's power of reproduction being represented by three, its multiple
nine would be still more obviously important. How to turn this eight
into nine became Domenico's study, and he took measurement after
measurement for this purpose. At length he remembered that man's body
is a unity, therefore represented by the number one, and that will,
judgment, and supremacy are also comprised in the unit. Now one and
eight make nine beyond all possibility of doubt, and the formula--"man's
body is a unity--or one"--composed of harmonies of eight, would give
the formula _nine_ meaning _man's supremacy is expressed in his body_.
The importance of working round to this famous nine will be clear when
we reflect that, according to the Kabbala and the lost sacred book of