That verse in _Virgil_ translated out of _Homer_ [SN: Τρὶς μάκαρες Δαναοὶ καὶ τετράχις.], _O terque quaterque beati_; that is as men will have it, 7 times happy, hath much advanced this number in critical apprehensions; yet is not this construction so indubitably to be received, as not at all to be questioned: for though _Rhodiginus_, _Beroaldus_, and others from the authority of _Macrobius_ so interpret it, yet _Servius_ his ancient commentator conceives no more thereby then a finite number for indefinite, and that no more is implied then often happy. _Strabo_[SN: Lib. 10.] the ancientest of them all, conceives no more by this in _Homer_, then a full and excessive expression; whereas in common phrase and received language, he should have termed them thrice happy; herein exceeding that number, he called them four times happy, that is, more then thrice. And this he illustrates by the like expression of _Homer_, in the speech of _Circe_; who to express the dread and terrour of the Ocean, sticks not unto the common form of speech in the strict account of its reciprocations, but largely speaking, saith, it ebbs and flows no less then thrice a day, _terque die revomit fluctus iterumque resorbet_. And so when it is said by _Horace_, _fælices ter et amplius_, the exposition is sufficient, if we conceive no more then the letter fairly beareth, that is, four times, or indefinitely more then thrice. But the main considerations which most set of this number, are observations drawn from the motions of the Moon, supposed to be measured by sevens; and the critical or decretory daies dependent on that number. As for the motion of the Moon, though we grant it to be measured by sevens, yet will not this advance the same before its fellow numbers; for hereby the motion of other Stars are not measured, the fixed Stars by many thousand years, the Sun by 365 daies, the superiour Planets by more, the inferiour by somewhat less. And if we consider the revolution of the first Movable, and the daily motion from East to West, common unto all the Orbs, we shall find it measured by another number, for being performed in four and twenty hours, it is made up of 4 times 6: and this is the measure and standard of other parts of time, of months, of years, Olympiades, Lustres, Indictions of Cycles, Jubilies, etc. [Sidenote: _What a Solary month is._]