Let me here say that a Kabalism is not a mere play upon figures, nor is it a system which arises by necessity from our system of enumeration as some have sought to prove. It is fundamentally an expression of some cosmical law, whether it be that of planetary periods, or other divisions of time instituted by us from observation of certain cosmic factors, or yet the laws of crystallization, which involve the fact of form in relation to sound vibrations. Thus we may have a lunar kabalism depending on the numbers 4, 7 and 28, another of the same nature depending on the numbers 3, 9, and 27: another solar kabala which arises from the numbers 18, 54, and 72. If those who seek to show that the decimal system was originated by the use of the ten fingers, called “digits,” would only have the patience to examine their theory, they would find that the facts are entirely against them. For if counting on the fingers reduced men to the decimal system, this system should be prevalent among the aboriginal peoples. It is, however, an ugly fact for the theorists that the very first system of enumeration that we come across is the duodecimal system of the Chinese and the Hebrews. In the first place we find that the Chinese had twelve signs or months, each of thirty days, which was the antediluvian value of the year, afterwards rectified (2355 B.C.) by the intercalation of seven months in the course of nineteen years. The cycle of years was twice 60, or 120, arising out of the employment of ten roots and twelve branches. They appointed four chiefs to command the four gates or cardinal points and elected Twelve Patriarchs to govern local affairs. The duodecimal standard was instituted very early in the civilization of the Yellow Empire, as is evident from the Canon of Shun, wherein weights and measures were regulated by the Yellow Tube standard. This yellow tube was nine-tenths of a Chinese inch in bore circumference, and nine inches in length. It contained twelve hundred grains of millet which weighed twelve pennyweights, two pennyweights going to the ounce, sixteen ounces to the pound, thirty pounds to the quarter, and four quarters to the hundredweight. Thus the basis of the whole system of weights was regulated by sound, for there were twelve tubes, each of the same circumference but of different lengths, and these being struck gave the twelve notes of the Chinese musical gamut. The measures of length and capacity were also regulated by these tubes, and thus sound was at the root of all the Chinese mensuration. The fact that there were twelve sounds in the scale shows that the whole system was duodecimal.