[Transcribed by Ruth Hart ruthhart@twilightoracle.com]

[Transcriber's note: for this HTML edition I changed all the sidebarsto section headings. Also in the paragraph starting "Let it be minded..." Ichanged "Sex in Court Cards" to "Six in Court Cards".  All other spelling remains the same.]

THE SQUARE OF SEVENS

AN AUTHORITATIVE SYSTEM OF CARTOMANCY

WITH A PREFATORY NOTICE

BY E. IRENAEUS STEVENSON

NEW YORK
HARPER & BROTHERS
PRINTERS & PUBLISHERS
MDCCCXCVII

Copyright, 1896, by HARPER & BROTHERS

All rights reserved

TO JOHN DAVIS ADAMS

this new forth-setting of an old mystery is cordially offered.

Editorial Preface

"'Tis easy as lying."—Hamlet

It is safe to presume that even the most inquisitive book-hunters of thepresent day, and few of the fellowship during two or three generations past,have encountered the scarce and curious little volume here presented, as in afriendly literary resurrection—Robert Antrobus's "The Square of Sevens, and theParallelogram." Its mathematical title hardly hints at the amusement that thebook affords. With its solemn faith in the gravity of its mysteries, with itsuncertain spellings and capital-icings such as belong to even theEighteenth Century's early part, with its quaint phrases and sly observations(all the time sticking strictly close to business), it has a literary character,as well as me occult, that is quite its own.

Fortune-telling with cards and belief in fortune-telling with cards—like ahundred greater and lesser follies of the mind—were straws floating along thecurrent of British life, intellectual and social, during the reign of George theSecond. This was the case, in spite of the enlightening influences of religion,science, and philosophy. Modish society was addicted to matters over whichargument was hardly worth while—in which respect we find modish societythe same in all epochs. Our ancestresses particularly were often charming women,and almost as often sensible women; but, like the men of Athens, they were toosuperstitious. Often were they such in a fond and amusing degree. Lady Betty orLady Selina—for that matter, even Sir Tompkin and my lord Puce—might be spiritedmen and women of the world. But they did not repudiate the idea of ghosts. Theyabhorred a mirror's breakage. They disliked a Friday's errand. They shudderedover a seven-times sneeze or at a howling dog at midnight. And the gentle sex,especially, would and did tell fortunes almost as jealously as play quadrilleand piquet. Let us be courteous to them. Let us remember that EsotericBuddhism, Faith Healing, and Psychic Phenomena were not yet enjoying systematiccultivation and solemn propagandism; and that relatively few dying folk wereallowed to "go on with their dying" as part of a process of healing whichexcludes medicine and insists on the conviction that the invalids are not ill!

But to our "Square of Sevens"—with which even a Gallio may deign to bediverted—especially if in using it the air is found to be full of coincidences.The story of the book is already alluded to, as odd. The inquisitive reader maybe referred to "certain copies only." Therein, "inserted by Afterthought onthe Author's part" (and therefore in a mere fraction of whatever represented theextremely small edition of the work), may be sought the "Prefatory Explication,made for the Benefit of My Friends, Male and Female." In recounting the originof the manual, its author is candid, but at the same time too long-winded forquoting entire. Enough to say, as the substitute for a lengthy tale of facts,that prior to the year 1731 the author of "The Square of Sevens," Mr.Robert Antrobus, "a Gentlema