The ampampquotSepher Yetzirahampampquot although this name means ampampquotThe Book of Formationampampquot is not in any sense a narrative of Creation or a substitute Genesis but is an ancient and instructive philosophical treatise upon one aspect of the origin of the universe and mankind an aspect at once archaic and essentially Hebrew. The grouping of the processes of origin into an arrangement at once alphabetic and numeral is one only to be found in Semitic authors. Attention must be called to the essential peculiarity of the Hebrew language the inextricable and necessary association of numbers and letters every letter suggesting a number and every group of letters having a numerical signification as vital as its literal meaning.