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bodies rose in the morning and passed the day with a definite consciousness that it was in some way or other under the influence of a particular one of the mysterious Seven.
One limitation must of course be made to this. When a usage like the planetary week has reached a certain point of acceptance, it is carried further by its own momentum. When a majority of the community, or perhaps even a large and solid minority has adopted it from conviction, the rest may accept it otiosely from mere convenience. If the customer thinks in weekdays, the shopman who ministers to his needs must at least learn to understand him. Some considerable time before the general acceptance, to which Dion testifies, had become a fact, the week-days had probably come to be taken for granted without much serious thought by a large body of people. But in the earlier stages when conviction not convenience was the only motive we must, I think, postulate some very strong driving-force, Glaube or Aberglaube, to maintain among widely isolated groups or persons this new form of time-measurement, which if once lost by a single lapse would be lost for ever[1].
The general nature of this driving-force has
- ↑ One would suppose that in Italy or Rome at any rate it must have required some strong influence to establish the planetary week of seven days against the Roman week of eight days. It must surely be difficult to keep two weeks going at the same
