160 THE FASCINATION OF NUMBERS

of humanity? For if there were no such increases, it must be
presumed that those individuals whose significant numbers
reduced to the roots of 10 or 11 would have no future at all!
It has even been seriously suggested that a person might be
able to change his fortunes merely by changing his name, or
by using initials instead of his full name, and thereby altering
his significant number. Modern numerology would appear
to involve a process of thought which compensates by its
adaptability for what it lacks in logic.
g The dangers inherent in any system which ascribes a mystic
significance to numbers may perhaps be best exemplified in
a modern hypothetical case—that of the number 999 which
is dialled on the English telephone services for emergency
e calls. This number has taken to itself a significance quite
divorced from its origin as a telephone number, and has now
come to be strictly identified with the police and legal pro-
, cesses, despite the fact that it is also used for emergency
‘ ambulance and fire service calls as well.

Perhaps we have here the seeds of a future belief that the
number 999 is a numerological symbol for the maintenance
of law and order against the powers of evil. Arguments of
the type normally forthcoming could easily be adduced to
support such a belief. The number 999 is odd and therefore
masculine and favourable; it consists entirely of the repetition
of the digit 9, a favourable number, and its digital root also
reduces to g; and, still more significant, it is the number of
the Beast upside-down!

All this in the centuries to come may be ‘proved’ about
a number, which really owes its significance to the very

i material fact that it consists of the repetition of the one digit
which occupies a particular position on a telephone dial and
may therefore be dialled in the dark, being located by the
sense of touch alone.

As a final thought we may consider that nine is not only
one less than fen; it is also equal to one over the eight and,
seen in this light, it is apt to lose much of its respectability.

3
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