7

An awkward remark turns up in Walton's 1914 book, where 7 is said to lack expression, on what is here a page about the Expression number. He adds that 7 is dark, conservative and hard to account for, and that its influence is poorly understood. Whatever a reader makes of that, it shows how far the old descriptions were from any fixed standard.

Cheasley in 1916 takes it differently and calls 7 the finished worker, with rest, reflection and a guarded private life. Balliett in 1905 draws on the shape of the figure, which she sees as a person with a pack on the back holding the memory of the past. Taylor in 1926 gives its letters G, P and Y a wish for perfection and wisdom.

To reach 7 every letter counts, as in Mina Dean, where Mina adds to 19 and reduces to 1, Dean adds to 15 and reduces to 6, and together they make 7. Modern popular books read this Expression as skill in study, analysis and work done away from a crowd, a kinder version than Walton's.