ted], TO LIFT
UP, and [Greek omitted], TO OPEN, were fitly taken from that opening and
lifting up of the lips when his voice is uttered. Thus all the names of
the mutes besides one have an Alpha, as it were a light to assist their
blindness; for Pi alone wants it, and Phi and Chi are only Pi and Kappa
with an aspirate.

Hermeas saying that he approved both reasons, why then (continued I) do
not you explain the proportion, if there be any, of the number of the
letters; for, in my opinion, there is; and I think so, because the
number of mutes and semi-vowels, compared between themselves or with the
vowels, doth not seem casual and undesigned, but to be according to the
first proportion which you call arithmetical. For their number being
nine, eight, and seven, the middle exceeds the last as much as it wants
of the first. And the first number being compared with the last,
hath the same proportion that the Muses have to Apollo; for nine is
appropriated to them, and seven to him. And these two numbers
tied together double the middle; and not without reason, since the
semi-vowels partake the power of both.

And Hermeas replied: It is said that Mercury was the first god that
discovered letters in Egypt; and therefore the Egyptians make the figure
of an Ibis, a bird dedicated to Mercury, for the first letter. But it
is not fit, in my opinion, to place an animal that makes no noise at the
head of the letters. Amongst all the numbers the fourth is peculiarly
dedicated to Mercury, because, as some say, the god was born on the
fourth day of the month. And the first letters called Phoenician from
Cadmus are four times four, or sixteen; and of those that were afterward
added, Palamedes found four, and Simonides four more. Now amongst
numbers, three is the first perfect, as consisting of a first, a middle,
and a last; and after that six, as being equal the sum of its own
divisors (1+2+3). Of these, six multiplied by four makes twenty-four;
and also the first perfect number, three, multiplied by the first cube,
eight, make the same.

Whilst he was discoursing thus, Zopyrion the grammarian sneered and
muttered between his teeth; and, as soon as he had done, cried out that
he most egregiously trifled; for it was mere chance, and not design,
that gave such a number and order to the letters, as it was mere chance
that the first and last verses of Homer's Iliads have just as many
syllables as the first and last of his Odysseys.