the great pyramid observatory, tomb, and temple

KNOWLEDGE L I BRARY

THE

GREAT PYRAMID

OBSERVATORY,TOMB,

AND TEMPLE

BY

RICHARD A. PROCTOR

EDITOR OF KNOWLEDGE '

AUTHOR OF‘SA

'

rURN AND ITS SYSTEM , ‘

THE SUN THE MOON’

‘OTHER WORLDS THAN OURS ’

ETC.

WVTH '

ILL US TKAJYONS

w

Eh'fifiiflfifi’m .

LONDON

LONGMAN& GREEN AND c a

AND NEWYORK : 1 5 EAST STREET

PREFACE.

THE mystery of the Great Pyramid res ides chiefly

in this : that whi le certain ly meant to b e a tomb ,

i t was obviouslyintended to se rve as an observa

tory,though duri ng the l i fet ime on ly of i ts bu i lder,

and was also assoc i ated with re l igious Obse rvances .’

l\

—

/Iinor d i fficu lti es ari se from the considerat ion o f

the other pyramids. I n thi s t reati se I show that

the re i s one theory, which, i nstead of confl i ct ing

with other theories of the pyramid , combines a l l

that i s sound in them with what has h i the rto been

wanting , a val id and su ffic ient reason (for men who

thought as the bu i lders of the pyramid certainly

d id ) for erecting structu res such as these,at the

cost of vast labou r and'

enormous expense . The

theory here advanced and discussed shows— (I) why

the Great Pyram id was an astronomical observatory

whi le Cheops l ived (2 ) why i t was regarded as use

vi PREFACE.

l ess as such after h is death (3) why i t was worth

h is whi l e to bu i ld i t ; (4) why separate st ructures

were requ i red for his brother,son, grandson, and

other members of hi s fami ly ; (5) why it would

n atu ral ly b e used for h is tomb ; and (6) why i t

would b e the scene of rel igious Observances. All

that i s n ecessary by way of postu late, i s that he

and h is dynasty bel i eved ful ly in astronomy as a

means ( I) of pred i ct i ng the future, and (2 ) of rul ing

the planets,i n the sense of s electi ng right t imes

for every action or enterprise. I f there is one

th ing certain abou t Oriental nat ions i n remote

past ages, i t i s that this bel ief was un iversal ly

prevalent.

The remain ing port ion of the work shows

how potent were those ancient superstit ions about

planetary influences— and their bearing first on

J ewish,and later on Christ ian festivals and cere

monial.

RICHARD A. PROCTOR.

CONTENTS.

THE GREAT PYRAMID.

CHAPTERI. H ISTORY OF THE PYRAM IDS

II. THE REL IG ION OF THE GREAT PYRAM ID

III. THE PROBLEM OF THE PYRAM IDS

Appendix A. Great Pyramid Measures, ana’ Di s/anew, e

fe.

qf Sun , Earth, and Moon

Excavations at the Pyramids

Note on theAbove

THE ORIGIN OF THE WEEK

SATURN AND THE SABBATH OF THE JEWS 243

ASTRONOMY AND THE JEWISH FESTIVALS

THE HISTORY OF SUNDAY .

ASTROLOGY

PLATES.

THE GREAT PYRAM ID OBSERVATORY Fronti sp z'

eee

HORIZONTAL SECT ION OF THE GREAT PYRAM ID

THROUGH FLOOR OF KING ’S CHAM BER

VERT ICAL SECT ION THROUGH THE GRAND GAL

LERY

VERT ICAL SECT ION OF THE GREAT PYRAM I D,

SHOWING THEASCEND ING AND DESCEND ING

PASSAGES, GRAND GALLERY , AND Q UEEN’S

CHAMBER

WOODCUTS IN TEXT .

PLAN OF THE PYRAM IDS OF GH I Z EH

SHOWING How THE BU ILDERS OF THE PYRAM ID PRO

BABLY OBTAINED THEIR BASE

VERT ICAL SECT ION OF THE GREAT PYRAMID

SECT IONS OF GREAT GALLERY , ETC . I30 and 13 1

THE

GREAT PYRAMID.

CHAPTER I .

HISTORY OF THE PYRAMIDS.

FEW subjects of inqu i ry have proved more per

plex ing than the quest ion of the purpose for whi ch

the pyramids of Egypt were bu i l t ; Even i n the

remotest ages of which we have histori cal record ,

nothing seems to have been known certain ly on

this ‘point. For some reason or other, the bui lders

of the pyramids concealed the obj ect Of these

structures,and this SO su ccessfully that not even a

tradi tion has reached us which purports to have

been handed down from the epoch of the pyra

mids ’ construction . We find,i ndeed

,some expla

nat ions given by the earl iest historians b u t they

were professedly on ly hypotheti cal , l ike those ad

vanced i n more recent t imes. I ncluding ancient

and modern theories, we find a wide range O!

B

choice. Some have thought that these bui ld ings

were associated with the rel igion of the early

Egypt ians ; others have suggested that they were

tombs ; others , that they combined the purposes

of tombs and temples, that they were astronomica l

observatories, defences against the sands of the

Great Desert, granaries l ike those made under

Joseph ’s d irection,places of resort during ex ces

s ive overflows of the Ni l e and many other uses

have been suggested for them . But none of these

i deas are found on close examination to be tenable

as representing the sole purpose of the pyramids,

and few of them have strong claims to b e regarded

as presenting even a ch ief obj ect of these remark

able structu res . The sign ificant and perplexing

h isto ry of the three oldest pyramids— the Great

Pyramid of Cheops , Shofo, or Suphis, the pyramid

of Chephren,and the pyramid of Myceri nus and

the most remarkable of al l the facts known re

specting the pyramids general ly, v i z . the ci rcum

stance that one pyramid after another was bu i l t

as though each had become useless soon a'

fter i t

was finished , are left enti re ly unexplained by al l

the theories above mentioned , save one only, the

tomb theory, and that does not afford by any

means a satisfactory explanation of the c i rcum

stances .


I propose to give here a brief account of some

of the most suggestive facts known respecting the

pyramids,and, after considering the d i fficu lt ies

which beset the theories heretofore advanced , to

i ndicate a theory (new, so far as I know) which

seems to me to correspond bette r wi th the facts

than any heretofore advanced ; I suggest i t, how

ever, rather for considerat ion than because I

regard i t as very convinc ingly supported by the

evidence. In fact, to advance any theory at

present with confident assurance of i ts correctness,

would b e Simply to indicate a very l imited ac

quaintance with the d ifficu lties surrounding the

subject.

Let us fi rst consider a few of the more st rik ing

facts recorded by history or t rad i tion , noting , as

we proceed , whatever ideas they may suggest as

to the intended character of these structu res.

I t i s hard ly necessary to say,perhaps

,that the

history of the Great Pyram id is of paramount

importance in this i nqu iry. Whatever purpose

pyramids were original ly intended to subserve

must have been conceived by the bu i lders of that

pyramid . New ideas may have been superadded

by the bu i lders of late r pyramids , but i t i s unl ike ly

that the original purpose can have been enti re ly

abandoned . Some great purpose there was,which

B 2

4 THE GREAT PYRAMID.

the rulers of ancient Egypt proposed to fulfi l by

bu i ld ing very massive pyramidal structures on a

particu lar plan . I t i s by inqu iring i nto the history

of the fi rst and most mass ive of these stru ctu res,

and by examin ing i ts construction,that we shal l

have the best chance of finding out what that

great pu rpose was.

Accord ing to Herodotus,the kings who bu i l t

the pyram ids re igned not more than twenty - eight

centuri es ago ; but there can be l i ttl e doubt that

Herodotus misunderstood the Egyptian priests

from whom he derived hi s i nformation, and that

the real antiqu ity of the pyramid - kings was far

greater. He te l l s us that,according to the Egyp

t ian priests, Cheops‘ On ascending the throne

plunged into al l manner of wickedness . H e

c losed the temples , and forbade the Egyptians to

o ffe r sac rifice,compel l ing them instead to labou r

one and al l i n h is service , v i z . i n bu i ld ing the Great

Pyramid .

’

St i l l fo l lowing his interpretation of the

Egyptian acco at one hundred thou

iW ’ and th

occupied in constru ct ing a causeway by which to

convey the stones to the place and i n conveying

them the re . Ch re igned fifty years ; and was

succeeded by his her Chephren,who imi tated


the conduct of his predecessor,bui l t a pyramid

but smal l er than his brother’s— and re igned fifty

s ix years . Thus during one hundred and Six years

the temples were Shut and never Opened .

’ More

ove r,Herodotus tell s us that ‘

the Egyptians so

detested the memory of these k ings , that they do

not much l ike even to mention the i r names . Hence

they commonly cal l the pyramids after Phi lition,a

Shepherd who at that t ime fed his flocks about the

place. ’ ‘After Chephren,Mycerinus, son of Cheops ,ascended the throne. He reopened the temples,

and al lowed the people to resume the practi ce o f

sacrifice . He, too, left a pyramid , but much infe~

rior i n s iz e to his father’s . I t i s bu i l t,for half of

i ts he ight, of the stone of Eth iopia,

’

or, as Pro

fessor Smyth (whose extracts from Rawl inson ’s

translat ion I have here fol lowed) adds, expensive

red gran i te .

’ ‘After Mycerinus, Asychis ascended

the throne . He bu i lt the eastern gateway of the

Temple of Vulcan (Phtha) ; and being desi rous of

ecl ips ing al l his p redecessors on the throne , left as

a monument of hi s re ign a pyramid of brick .

’

This account i s so suggest ive, as wi l l presently

be Shown , that i t may be,

we l l to i nqu i re whether

i t can be re l i ed on. Now,although there can be

no doubt that Herodotus misunderstood the Egyp

t ians i n some matters, and in particu lar as to the

6 THE'

GREAI’

PYRAMUD.

chronological order of the dynasties, plac ing the

pyramid - kings far too late,yet in other respects he

seems not only to have understood them correctly,

but also to have received a correct account from

them . The orde r of the kings above named cor

responds with the sequence given by Manetho,and also found in monumental and h ieroglyphic

records . Manetho gives the names Suphis I. ,

Suphis I I ., and Mencheres, i nstead of Cheops,

Chephren,and Mycerinus ; whi le , according to the

modern Egyptologists, Herodotu s’s Cheops was

Shofo, Shufu, or Koufou ; Chephren was Shafre ,whi le he was al so cal led Nou- Shofo or Noun

Shufu as the brothe r of Shofo ; and Mycerinus

was Menhere or Menkerre . But the identi ty of

these kings i s not quest ioned . AS to the true

dates there i s much doubt an robab le/jhatx

the tion wi l l l ong congrm—e. Open but the

determination of the exact epochs when the

severa l pyramids were bui lt i s not very importan t

i n connection with our present inqu i ry. We may,

on the whol e, fai rly take the points quoted above

from Herodotus, and proceed to consider the Sig

nificance of the narrative, with su ffic ient confidence

that i n al l essent ial respects i t i s trustworthy.

There are s everal very strange features i n the

account .

HISTORY OF THE PYRAMIDS. 7

In the fi rs t p lace, i t i s manifest that Cheops

( to cal l the fi rst k ing by the name most famil iar

to the general reader) attached great importance

to the bu i ld ing of his pyramid . I t has been said ,

and perhaps j ustly,that i t would be more interest

i ng to know the plan of the architect who devised

the pyramid than the purpose of the king who

bui l t i t. But the two things are c lose ly connected .

The architect must have satisfied the king that

some highly important purpose i n which the king

himse lf was inte rested would b e subserved by the

structure. Whether the king was persuaded to

undertake the work as a matter of duty, or only

to advance his own i n terests , may not be so clear .

But that the king was most thoroughly i n earnest

about the work is certain . A monarch in those

t imes would assured ly not have devoted an enor

mous amount of l abou r and materia l to such a

scheme un less he was thoroughly convinced of i ts

great importance. That the wel fare of his people

was not considered by Cheops i n bu i ld ing the

Great Pyramid i s almost equal ly certain . He

might,indeed

,have had a scheme for the i r good

which e i ther he d id not care to explain to them or

which they could not understand . But the most

natural inference from the narrative i s that h is

purpose had no reference whatever to thei r wel


fare. For though one cou ld understand h is own

subj ects hating him whi le he was al l the time

work ing for the i r good , i t i s obvious that his

memory wou ld not ' have been hated if some im

portant good had eventually been gained from his

scheme . Many a far—see i ng ru le r has been hated

whi le l iving on account of the very work for which

h is memory has been revered . But the memory of

Cheops and h is successors was he ld i n detestation .

May we, howeve r, suppose that, though Cheops

had not the we lfare of his own people i n h is

thoughts,hi s pu rpose was neverthe less

“not se lfish ,

but intended in some way to promote the welfare

of the human race ?‘

I say his pu rpose,because

,

whoever originated the scheme, Cheops carried i t

out ; i t was by means of his weal th and through

h is power that the pyramid was bu i l t. This i s the

view adopted by Professor Piazz i Smyth and

others , i n our own t ime,and fi rst suggested by

John Taylor. ‘Whereas other writers,

’ says Smyth ,

have general ly esteemed that the mysterious per

sons who di rected the bui ld ing of the Great Pyramid

(and to whom the Egyptians, i n thei r trad itions ,

and for ages afterwards,gave an immoral and

even abominable character) must therefore have

been very bad indeed, so that the world at large

has always been fond of stand ing on,kicking

,and

HIS TORY OF THE PYRAMIDS . 9

insult ing that dead l ion , whom they real ly knew

not ; he, Mr. John Taylor, see ing how re l igiously

bad the Egypti ans themselves were, was led to

conclude,on the contrary, that those they hated

(and could never suffic iently abuse ) might, per

haps,have been pre - eminently good ; or were , at

al l events, of d ifferent rel igious f ai th from them

selves .’ ‘ Combining this with certain unm is

takable hi storical facts,’ Mr. Taylor deduced

reasons for be l i eving that the d i rectors of the

bui ld ing designed to record i n i ts proportions , and

in its interio r featu res, certain important re l igiou s

and scientifi c truths, not for the people then l iving ,

but for men who were to come years or so

after.

I consider at length,further on

,the evidence

on which thi s strange theory rests . But there

are certain matters connecting i t wi th the above

narrative which must here be noti ced . The

mention of the Shepherd Philit ion,who fed h is

flocks ab out the place where the Great Pyramid

was bu i l t,i s a Singu lar feature of Herodotus ’s

narrative . I t reads l ike some strange misin

terpretation of the story related to him by the

Egyptian priests . I t i s obvious that i f the word

Philition d id not represent a people, but a per

son , th is person must have been very eminent

THE GREAT PYRAMID.

and d ist inguished— a shepherd - king, not a mere

shepherd . Rawl inson,i n a note on this portion of

the narrative Of Herodotus, suggests that Phi litis

was probably a shepherd - prince from Palest in e,

perhaps of Phil ist ine descent,but so powerfu l and

domineering, that i t may b e tradit ions of his

oppress ions i n that earl ier age which , mixed up

afterwards i n the minds of later Egyptians wi th

the evi ls i nfl i c ted on thei r count ry by the sub se

quent shepherds of better known dynasties, l ent so

much force to thei r re l ig ious hate of Shepherd t imes

and that name .

’

Smyth, somewhat modifying th i s

Vi ew,and considering certain remarks of Manetho

respecting an al leged i nvasion of Egypt by shep

herd - kings,‘ men of an ignoble race (from the

Egypt ian poin t of vi ew) who had the confidence to

i nvade our country,and eas ily subdued i t to the i r

power without a battle,’ comes to the conclusion

that some Shemite p rince, a contemporary of, but

rather older than,the Patriarch Abraham ,

’ visi ted

Egypt at this t ime, and obtained such i nfluence

over the mind of Cheops as to persuade him to“ 4 -

1

e rect the pyramid . Accord ing to Smythl‘ theprince was no other than Me lchizedek

,king of

Salem ,and the i nfluence he exerted was super

natural . With such deve lopments of the theory

we need not trouble ourselves . I t seems tolerably

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d ivine scheme and (i i i ) the fut i l i ty of an arrange

ment by which the pyramid was on ly to subserve

i ts purpose when it had lost that perfection of

shape on which i ts enti re s ignificance depended,

accord ing to the theory itself. But apart from

these,there i s a d i fficu lty, nowhere not iced by

Smyth or his fol lowers, which i s fatal , I conce ive ,

to this theory of the pyramid’s pu rpose . The

second pyramid,though sl ightly inferior to the

first i n S i ze,and probably far inferior i n qual ity of

masonry,i s st i l l a structure of enormous d imen

s ions,which must have requ i red many years of

l abou r from tens of

ems imposs ible to explain why Chephren bu i l t

th is second pyramid,i f we adopt Smyth ’s theory

respecting the first pyramid . For e i ther Chephren

knew the purpose for which the Great Pyramid

was bu i l t,or he did not know i t . I f he knew that

purpose,and i t was that indi cated by Smyth, then

he also knew that no second pyramid was wanted .

On that hypothesis, al l the l abou r bestowed on the

second pyramid was witt ingly and wilfu l ly wasted .

This,of course , i s incred ible. But , on the other

hand,i f Chephren d id not know what was the

se for which the Great Pyramid was bu i l t,

reason could Chephren have had for

id at al l ? The only answer t

HISTORY OF THE PYRAMIDS . 13

quest ion seems to be that Chephren bu i l t the

second pyramid i n hopes of find ing out why his

brother had bu i l t the fi rs t,and this answer i s

s imply absurd . I t i s clear enough that, whatever

purpose Cheops had i n bu i ld ing the fi rst pyramid ,

Chephren must have had a simi lar purpose i n

bui ld ing the second ; and we requ i re a theory

whi ch Shal l at least explain why the first pyramid

d id not subserve for Chephren the purpose which

i t subserved orwas mean t to subserve for Cheops.

The same reason ing may b e extended to the thi rd

pyramid,to the fourth, and i n fine to al l the

pyramids, forty or so in numbe r,i nc luded under

the genera l designat ion of the Pyramids of Ghizeh

or Jeez eh . The extension of the princip le to

pyramids later than the second i s espec ial ly im

portant as showing that the d i fference of rel igion

ins isted on by Smyth has no d i rect bearing on the

question of the purpose for which the Great

Pyramid i tsel f was constructed . For Mycerinus

e i ther neve r left o r e l se retu rned to the rel igion of

the Egyptians . Yet he also bui l t a pyramid , which ,

though far inferior i n Si ze to the pyramids bui lt by

his father and uncle, was sti l l a mass ive structu re,

and re lat ively more cost ly even than thei rs, b e

cause bu i lt of expensive grani te . The pyramid

bu i lt by Asychis, though smaller st i l l, was remark


abl e as bu i l t of brick ; i n fact, we are expressly

told that Asychis desi red to ecl ipse al l h is pre

decessors i n such labours, and accordingly left thi s

bri ck pyramid as a monument of his reign .

We are forced,i n fact, to bel ieve that there

was some Speci al relation between the pyramid

and i ts bu i lder,seeing that each one of these

kings wanted a pyramid of his own. This appl i es

to the Great Pyramid qu ite as much as to the

others,despite the superior exce l lence of that

structu re. Or rather, the argument derives i ts

chief force from the superiority of the Great

Pyramid . I f Chephren , no longer perhaps having

the assistance of the Shepherd - architects i n plan

n ing and superintend ing the work, was unable to

construct a pyramid so perfect and so stately as

h is brother’s, the ve ry fact that he neverthe less

bui l t a pyramid shows that the Great Pyramid d id

not fulfi l forChephren the purpose which i t fu l

fi l led for Cheops. But, i f Smyth’s theory were

t rue, the Great Pyramid would have fulfi l led final ly

and for al l men the purpose forwhich i t was bu i l t .

S ince th is was manifestly not the case, that theory

i s,I submit

,demonstrably erroneous .

I t was probably the consideration of this point,

viz . that each k ing had a pyramid constructed for

h imse lf, which led to the theory that the pyramids

HISTORY OF THE PYRAM10 5 . i s

were intended to serve as tombs. Thi s theory was

once very general ly entertained . Thus we find

Humboldt, i n his remarks on American pyramids,

referring to the tomb theory of the Egyptian

pyramids as though i t were open to no question .

‘When we consider,

’ he says,

‘ the pyramidical

monuments of Egypt , of Asia, and of the New

Continent,from the same point of vi ew,

we see

that, though thei r form i s al ike, the i r destination

was altogether d ifferent . The group of pyramids

of Ghizeh and at Sakhara i n Egypt ; the triangular

pyramid of the Q ueen of the Scythians, Zarina ,

which was a stad ium high and three in c i rcum

ference, and which was decorated with a colossal

figure the fou rteen Etruscan pyramids, which are

sai d to have been enclosed in the labyrinth of the

king Porsenna, at C lusium— were reared to sewe

as the sepulchres of the i l lustrious dead . Nothing

is more natural to men than to commemorate th e

Spot where rest the ashes of those whose memory

they cherish,whether i t be, as i n the infancy of the

race,by simple mounds of earth, or, i n later periods,

by the towering height of the tumulus . Those of

the Chinese and of Thibet have only a few metres

of elevation . Farther to the west the d imension s

in crease ; the tumulus of the k ing Alyattes, father

of Croesus, i n Lydia, was six stadia, and that of


Ninus . was more than ten stad ia i n d iameter. I n

the north of Europe the sepulchre of the Scand i

navian king Gormus, and the queen Daneb oda,

covered wi th mounds of earth,are three hundred

metres broad, and more than thirty high .

’

But whi le we have abundant reason for b eliev

i ng that i n Egypt, even i n the days of Cheops

and Chephren, extreme importance was attached

to the character of the place of burial for d istin

guished persons, there i s nothing in what i s known

respect ing earl ie r Egyptian ideas to suggest the

p robabi l i ty that any monarch would have devoted

many years of hi s subjects’ labou r,and vast stores

of material,to e rect a mass of masonry l ike the

Great Pyramid,solely to rece ive his own body

after death . Far less have we any reason for sup

posing that many monarchs i n succession would

do thi s,each having a separate tomb bui lt for h im .

I t m ight have been conce ivable,had only the

Great Pyramid been erected,that the structure had

been raised as a mausoleum for al l the kings and

princes of the dynasty. But i t seems utterly in

c red ible that such a bu i ld ing as the Great Pyramid

Should have been erected for one king’s body only

— and that,not in the way described by Humboldt,

when he Speaks of men commemorating the spot

where rest the remains of those whose memory

HISTORY OF THE PYRAJJIDS .

they cherish , but at the expense of the king him

self whose body was to b e the re d epos i ted . Be a

s ides , the fi rs t pyramid,the one whose history

must b e regarded as most sign i ficant of the t rue

purpose of these bui ld ings,was no t bu i l t by an

Egyptian hold ing in great favou r the Special re l i

gions ideas of h is people,but by one who had

adopted other Views, and those not be longing,so

far as can b e seen , to a people among whom

sepulchral ri tes we re hel d i n exceptional regard .

A sti l l stronge r obj ect ion against the exclu

s ively tombic theory res ides in the . fact that thi s

theory gives no account whatever of the characte r

ist ic features of the pyramids themse lves . These

bui ld ings are al l,without

astronomical princ iples .

reason

Should have such a pos i t ion . I t i s not , indeed ,

easy to understand why any bu i lding at al l , except

an astronom ical observatory, should have such a

posit ion . A temple perhaps devoted to sun

worship,and gene ral ly to the worship of the

heavenly bodies,might b e bu i lt i n that way. For

i t i s to be not iced that the pecu l iar figu re and

position of the pyramids would bring abou t

fol lowing re lat ions — When the sun rose and set‘

south of the east and west points, or (speaking

general ly) between the autumn and the spring

equ inoxes , the rays of the ri s ing and sett ing sun

i l luminated the southern face of the pyramid ;

whereas during the rest of the year— that i s, during

the s ix months between the spring and autumn

equinoxes— the rays of the ri si ng and setting sun

i l lum inated the northern face. Again , al l the year lround the sun ’s rays passed from the eastern to

the western face at solar noon . And l astly, during

seven months and a half of each year— name ly, for

three months and three quarters before and after

m idsummer— the noon rays of the sun fel l on al l

fou r face s of the pyram id or,accord ing to a Peru

vian express ion (so Smyth avers), the sun shone

on the pyramid ‘ with al l h i s rays .’ Such cond i

t ions as these m ight have been regarded a

su i table for a temple devoted to sun -wcrsh

theory. For, in the first place,the pyramid form

as the pyram ids were original ly bu i l t, with perfect ly

smooth Sl ant faces , not terraced into steps, as now,

through the loss o f the cas ing - stones— was enti rely

u n su i t c d for al l the ord inary requ i rements of a

temple of worship . And further, th is theory gives


gorgeous pi ctu res of the contents of the pyramid ’s

i nterior. All the t reasures of Sheddad Ben

Ad the great Antedi luvian king of the earth,wi th

al l h is medi cines and al l h i s sc iences,they declared

were there , told over and over again . Others,

though,were posit ive that the founder- king was no

other than Saurid Ibn Salhouk, a far greater one

than the othe r ; and these l ast gave many more

minute part i cu lars, some of which are at least

interesting

’

to us i n the present day, as prov ing

that,amongst the Egypto -Arabians of more than a

thousand years ago the Jeez eh pyramids, headed

by the grand one, enj oyed a pre- eminence of fame

vastly before al l the other pyramid s of Egypt put

together ; and that i f any other i s al luded to afte r

the Great Pyramid (which has always been the

notable and favourite one, and chi efly was known

then as the East pyramid), i t i s ei ther the second

one at Jeez eh, unde r the name of the West pyra

mid ; or the th i rd one, dist ingu i shed as the

Coloured pyram id , i n al lusion to i ts red grani te,

compared with the white l imestone casings of the

other two (which , moreove r, from the i r more near,but by no mean s exact, equal ity of s i ze

,went fre

quently unde r the affectionate designat ion of the

pai r’

The report o f Ibn Ab d Alkokm,as to what

HISTORY OF THE PYRAMIDS . TI

was to be found i n each of these three pyramids,

or rathe r of what , accord ing to h im , was put into

them original ly by Ki ng Saurid, runs as fol lows‘ I n the Western pyramid , thi rty treasu ries fi l led

with store of riches and utensi ls , and with s igna

tures made of prec ious stones,and with instru

ments of i ron and vesse l s of earth,and with arms

which rus t not,and with glass which might b e

bended and yet not broken , and wi th strange

spe l l s, and with several kinds of a/ahah'

irs (magical

prec iou s stones ) s ingle and double , and with deadly

poisons,and with other th ings bes ides . He made

also i n the East ’ (the Great Pyramid)‘ divers

ce lest ial Spheres and stars , and what they seve ral ly

operate i n the i r aspects . and the perfumes which

are to b e used to them ,and the books which t reat

of these matters . H e put also into the Colou red

pyramid the commentaries of the priests i n chests

of black marbl e,and with every priest a book

,i n

which the wonders of hi s profess ion and of hi s

actions and of his nature were wri tten, and what

was done i n h i s t ime,and what i s and what shal l

be from the beginning of t ime to the end of i t . ’

The rest of th is worthy’

s report re lates to certai n

t reasu rers p laced within these three pyramids to

guard the i r contents,and (l ike al l or most Of what

I have al ready quoted) was a work of imaginati on.

2 2 THE GREAT PYRAMID.

Ibn Abd Alkokm,i n f act, was a romanci st of the

fi rst water.

Perhaps the strongest argument against the

theory that the pyramids were intended as strong

holds for the concealment of treasu re , res ides i n the

fac t that,search be ing made , no treasure has been

d iscovered . When the workmen employed by

Cal iph Al Mamoun , afte r encountering man ifold

d i ffi cult ies,at length broke thei r way into the great

ascending passage lending to the so- cal led Ki ng’s

Chamber,they found a right noble apartment

,

thi rty - four feet long, seventeen broad , and n ine

teen high , of pol i shed red gran i te throughout,walls

,

floor,and ce i l i ng, i n blocks squared and true, and

put togethe r with such exqu is i te Ski l l that the

j o ints are barely d iscern ible to the closest inspec

t ion . But where i s the t reasu re— the Si lver and

the gold , the jewe ls , medic i nes, and arms ? These

fanati cs look wi ld ly around them,but can see

nothing, not a s ingle a’irhem anywhere. They

t rim thei r torches, and carry them agai n and again

t o every part of that red - walled, flinty hal l , but

without any better success . Nought bu t pure

pol ished red gran i te, i n mighty Sl abs,looks upon

them from every s ide. The room i s clean,

garn ished too,as i t were, and, accord ing to the

i deas of i ts founders,complete and perfect ly ready

HISTORY OF THE PYRAIIIIDS . 2 °

for i ts vis itors so l ong expected, so long delayed .

But the gross minds who occupy it now,find i t al l

barren,and declare that the re i s nothing whateve r

for them in the whole extent of the apartment

from one end to another ; nothing except an

empty stone chest without a l id .

’

I t is, howeve r, to b e noted that we have no

means of learn ing what had happened between the

t ime when the pyramid was bu i lt and when Cal iph

Al Mamoun ’s workmen broke the i r way into the

King’s Chamber. The place may, afte r al l , have

contained treasu res of some kind ; nor, indeed , i s

i t i ncompatible with othe r theories of the pyramid

to suppose that i t was u sed as a safe receptacle for

t reasures . I t i s certain , however, that this cannot

have been the speci al pu rpose for which the pyra

mids were designed . We Should find in su ch a

purpose no explanati on whatever of any of the

most stringent d i fficu lt ies encountered i n deal ing

with other theori es. The re could b e no reason

why strangers from the East Should b e at special

pains to instruct an Egyptian monarch how to

h ide and guard his treasures . Nor, i f the Great

Pyramid had been i ntended to rece ive the treasures

of Cheops, would Chephren have bu i lt another for

h is own treasu res, which must have incl uded those

gathered by Cheops. But, apart from this, how

24 THE T PYRAMID.

i nconceivably vast must a t reasu re - hoard be su'

p

posed to b e,the safe guard ing o f which would

have repaid the enormous cost of the Great Pyra

m id in labou r and material ! And then,why

shou ld a mere treasu re- house have the character

i stics of an astronomical obse rvatory ? Man ifestly,i f the pyramids were used at all to rece ive trea

sures,i t can only have been as an ent i rely sub

ord inate though perhaps conven ient means of

ut i l i s i ng these giganti c structu res .

H aving thus gone through al l the suggested

pu rposes of the pyramids save two or three which

c learly do not possess any claim to se rious con

s iderat ion,and not having found one which appears

to give any su fficient account of the hi story and

princ ipal features of these bu i ld ings , we must

e i ther abandon the i nqu i ry or seek for some ex

planation qu ite d i ffe rent from any yet suggested .

Let us consider what are the principal points of

which the true theory of the pyramids Should give

an account .

In the fi rs t place,the h i story of the pyramids

shows that the erect ion of the fi rst great pyramid

was i n al l probab i l i ty either suggested to Cheops

by w i se men who visi ted Egypt from the East, or

e l se some important i nformat ion conveyed to him

by such vis i tors caused him to conce ive the idea of

HIS TORY OF THE PYRAMIDS . 25

bui ld ing the pyramid. I n either case we may

suppose,as the history indeed suggests, that these

learned men,whoeve r they may have been , re

mained i n Egypt to superintend the e rection of the

structu re . I t may be that the archi tectural work

was not under the i r supervi sion ; i n fact , i t seems

altogether unl ike ly that Shepherd - ru lers wou ld

have much to teach the Egyptian s in the matter

of arch itecture . But the astronomical pecu l iari ties

which form so S ign ificant a feature of the Great

Pyramid were probably provided forenti re ly unde r

the i nstructions of the shepherd chiefs who had

exerted so strange an influence upon the mind of

King Cheops .

Next, i t seems clear that sel f- i nterest must have

been the predominant reason i n the mind of the

Egyptian k ing for undertaking this stupendou s

work . I t i s true that hi s change of re l igion impl ies

that some higher cause i nfluenced him . But a

ru ler who coul d infl i ct such grievous burdens on

his people,i n carrying out h is purpose

,that for ages

afterwards his name was held i n utter detestat ion,

cannot have been sole ly or even chiefly influenced

by rel igious motives . I t affords an ample explana

t ion of the behaviour of Cheops, i n closing the

temples and forsaking the re l igion of h is country,

to suppose that the advantages which he hoped to


secure by bu i lding the pyramid,depended in some

way on his adopt ing this cou rse. The vi si tors from

the East may have refused to give the i r assi stance

on any other terms, or may have assu red him that

the expected benefit could not be obtained if the

pyramid were erected by idolaters. I t i s certain ,

i n any case, that they were opposed to idolatry ;

and we have thus some means of i n ferring who they

were and whence they came. We know that one

parti cu lar branch of one particu lar race i n the East

was characterised by a most marked hatred of

i dolatry in al l i ts forms . Terah and his fami ly, or,

probably, a sect or d ivis ion of the Chaldaean people,

went forth from Ur of the Chaldees,to go into the

l and of Canaan— and the reason why they went forth

we l earn from a book of conside rable historical i nte

rest ( the book of J ud ith) to have been because‘ they

would not worship the gods of thei r fathers who

were i n the l and of the Chaldaeans.’ The Bible

record shows that membe rs of th is branch of the

Chaldaean people vis i ted Egypt from time to time.

They were shepherds, too, which accords wel l with

the account Of Herodotus above quoted . We can

wel l unde rstand that persons Of this fami ly would

have res i sted al l endeavours to secure the i r

acqu iescence i n any scheme associ ated with idola

t rous ri tes. Nei ther promises nor threats wou ld


have accepted with unquesti oning confidence al l

that they told h im respecting the partic u l ar sub

ject ove r which they seemed to possess so perfec t

a mastery.

But having formed the opin ion,on grounds

su ffic iently assu red , that the strange rs who.

vi si ted

Egypt and superintended the bu i ld ing of the Great

Pyramid came from the land of the Chaldae ans , i t

i s not very d i fficu l t to decide what was the subject

respecti ng which they had su ch exact information .

They were doubtless learned i n al l the wisdom of

the i r Chaldae an k insmen . They we re masters,i n

fact, of the astronomy of the i r day, a science for

which the Chaldae ans had shown from the earl iest

ages the most remarkable apti tude . What the

ac tual extent of the i r astronomical knowledge may

have been it would b e d ifficul t to say. But i t i s

ce rtain ,from the exact knowledge which later

Chaldae ans possessed respect ing long astronomical

cycles,that astronomical obse rvations must have

been carried on continuously by that people for

many hund reds of years . I t i s h ighly p robable

that the astronomical knowledge of the Chaldae ans

i n or long before the days of Terah and Abraham

was much more accurate than that possessed by the

Greeks even after the t ime of H ipparchus .

l We

It has been remarked that , though H ipparchus had the

HISTORY OF THE PYRAMIDS. 29

see indeed , i n the accu rate astronomical adj ustment

of the Great Pyramid , that the architects must have

been ski lfu l astronomers and mathematic ians and

I may note here,i n pass ing

,how strongly this ci r

cumstance confirms the Opin ion that the vis i tors

were Chaldaeans. All we know from Herodotus

and Manetho, al l the evidence from the c i rcum

stances connected with the re l igion of the pyramid

kings, and the astronomical evidence given by the

pyramids themse lves,tends to suggest that m em

bers of that particular branch of the Chaldae an

family whi ch went out from Ur of the Chaldees

because they would not worship the gods of the

Chaldmans , extended the i r wanderings to Egypt,

and eventual ly superintended the erection of the

Great Pyramid so far as astronomi cal and mathe

matical re l at ions were concerned .

But not on ly have we al ready decided that the

pyramids were not intendedl

solely or chiefly to

subse rve the purpose of astronomical observatori es,

enormous advantage of being able to compare his own observat ionsw i th those recorded by the Chaldteans, he est imated the length of

the year less correctly than the Chaldaeans. It has been though tby some that the Chaldaeans were acquainted w i th the t rue system of

the un iverse, but I do not know that there are sufficient groundsfor th i s suppos i t ion . Diodorus Siculus and Apol l on ius Mynd iusment i on, however , that they we re able to p red ict the retu rn of

comets , and th i s impl ies that the i r observat ions had been cont inuedfor many centu i ies w i th great care and exactness.

30 THE GREAT PYRAIIIID.

but i t i s certain that Cheop s woul d not have been

personal ly much inte rested in any astronom i cal in

formation which these vis i tors m ight b e able to

communicate . Unless he saw clearly that some

th ing was to be gained from the lore of his vis i tors,

he would not have undertaken to e rect any astro

nom ical bui ld ings at the i r suggest ion , even i f he

had cared enough for the i r knowledge to pay anyattent ion to them whatever. Most probably the

reply Cheops would have made to any commun i

cat ions respect ing mere

/

astronomy, would have run

much in the style of the reply made by the Turk i sh

Cad i , ImaumAli Zade, to a fri end of Layard’

s who

had apparently bored him abou t double stars and

comets : ‘ Oh my soul ! oh my lamb ! ’ said Ali

Zade,‘ seek not after the th ings wh ich concern thee

not . Thou camest unto us,and we we lcomed

thee : go in peace . Of a truth thou hast spoken

many words ; and there i s no harm done, for the

speaker i s one and the l i stener i s another. Afte r

the fashion of thy peopl e thou hast wandered from

one place to another unt i l thou art happy and con "

tent i n none . Li sten , oh my son ! There i s no

wisdom equal unto the bel ief in God He c reated

the world,and Shal l we l iken ourse lves unto H im

in seek ing to penetrate i nto the mysteries of H isc r

eation Shal l we say, Behold th is star Sp inneth

HISTORY OF THE PYRAMIDS . 3 1

round that star,and this other star with a tai l goeth

and cometh i n so many years ! Let i t go ! He

from whose hand i t came wi l l gu ide and d i rect i t .

But thou w i l t say unto me, Stand aside, oh man ,

for I am more learned than thou art, and have seen

more things . I f thou thinkest that thou art i n thi s

respect better than I am,thou art welcome . I

p raise God that I seek not that whi ch I requ i re not .

Thou art learned inthe things I care not for and

as for that which thou hast seen, I defi l e i t. Wil l

much knowledge c reate thee a double be l ly,or wi lt

thou seek paradise with thine eyes ?’ Such,

omitt ing the references to the Creator, would

probably have been the reply of Cheops to hi s

visitors,had they only had astronomical facts to

present h im with . Or, i n the plenitude of hi s

k ingly powe r, he m ight have more dec is ive ly

rejected the i r teaching by removing the i r heads .

But the shepherd - astronomers had knowledge

more attract ive to Offer than a mere series of

astronom ical d iscoveries . Thei r ancestors had

Watched from the cent res of the i r sleeping flocksThose rad iant Mercu ries, that seemed to moveCarrying through te the r in perpetual roundDecrees and resolu t ions of the gods ;

and though the visi tors of King Cheops had them

se lves rejected the Sab aistic polythe i sm of thei r

the stars in the i r cou rses affect the fortunes of

men . We know that among the J ews,probably

the di rect descendants of the shepherd - chiefs who

visited Cheops,and certainly C lose kinsmen of

the i rs,and akin to them also in the i r monotheism

,

the be l ief in astrology was never regarded as a

superst i tion . I n fact,we can trace very c learly i n

the books re l at ing to this people, that they be l ieved

confidently i n the i nfluences of the heavenly bod ies .

Doubtless the vi s itors of King Cheops Shared the

be l ief of the i r Chaldaean kinsmen that astrology

i s a true science,‘ founded ’ i ndeed (as Bacon ex

presses the i r views)‘ not in reason and physi ca l

contemplations, but i n the d i rect experience and

obse rvation of past ages . ’ J osephus records the

J ewish trad i t ion (though not as a tradi tion but as

a fact) that our fi rst father, Adam , was instructed

in astrology by d iv i ne i nspi rat ion,’

and that Seth

so exce l led i n the science, that,‘ foresee ing the

Flood and the destruction of the world thereby,he

engraved the fundamental principles of his art

(astrology) i n h ie roglyphical emblems,for the

benefit of after ages , on two p i l lars of bri ck and

stone H e says,farther on

,that the Patria rch

Abraham ,having learned the art in Chaldaaa

,when

he j ourneyed into Egypt taught the Egyptians the

HISTORY OF THE PYRAMIDS. 3 3

sci ences of ari thmet i c and astrology’ Indeed ,

the strange r called Phili tis by Herodotus may,for

aught that appears,have been Ab raham himse l f ;

for i t i s gene ral ly agreed that the word Phi li t is

indi cated the race and country of the vi si tors ,

regarded by the Egypti ans as of Phi l ist ine descent

nd arriving from Palestine. H owever, I am in

no way concerned t o Show that the shepherd - astro

nomers who ind uced Cheops to bu i ld the Great

Pyramid we re even contemporaries of Abraham

and Me l ch i zedek . What seems su ffic ient ly Obvious

i s al l that I care to maintain— namely,that these

Shepherd - astronomers were of Chaldae an bi rth and

t rain ing, and therefore astrologers, though , un l ike

thei r Chaldaean kinsmen , they rejected Sabaism or

star- worsh ip,and taught the be l i ef i n one only

De i ty

Now, i f these vis i tors were astrologers, who

persuaded Cheops, and were honestly convinced

themselves,that they cou ld predict the events of

any man’

s l i fe by the Chaldaan method of casting

nativit ies, we can read i ly understand many c i rcum

stances connected with the pyramids which have

h itherto seemed inexpl icable . The pyramid bu i l t

by a k ing would no longer b e regarded as having

reference to his death and burial,but to his bi r th

D

THE GREAT PYRAMID.

and l i fe , though afte r hi s death i t might receive h i s

body. Each king wou ld requi re to have his own

nat ivi ty- pyramid , bui lt with due symbol ical refe

rence to the speci al celest ial influences affecting

his fortunes . Every portion of the work would

have to be carri ed out under spec ial cond i tions ,

determ ined according to the mysteriou s influences

ascribed to the d i fferent planets and thei r varying

positions

Now h igh, now low, then hid,Progress i ve, ret rograde, or stand ing st i l l .

I f the work had been intended on ly to afford

the means of pred i ct ing the king’s future, the

l abou r would have been regarded by the monarch

as we l l bestowed . But astrology involved much

more than the mere pred iction of futu re events .

Astrologers c laimed the power of ru l ing the

planets —that i s,of cou rse , not of rul ing the mo

tions of those bodies, but of provid ing against

evi l influences or strengthen i ng good influences

which they supposed the celest ial orbs to exert in

parti cu la r aspects. Thus we can understand that

whi le the me re basement layers of the pyramid

would have served for the process Of casting the

royal nativi ty, with due mysti c Observances, the

further progress of bu i ld ing the pyramid wou ld

supply the necessary mean s and ind ications for


s ide faced the Ascendant,the southern faced the

Mid - heaven,the western faced the Descendant,

and the northern faced the Imum Coel i , Again ,

we can understand that the arch i tects would have

made a c ircu i t of the base correspond in length

with the number of days in the year— a re l at ion

whi ch,accord ing to Prof. P . Smyth, i s fu lfi l l ed i n

this manner,that the four sides conta i n one hun

dred times as many pyramid inches as there are

days in the year. The pyramid i nch, again , i s

i tsel f myst ical ly connected with astronomical rel a

t ions,for its length i s equal to the five hundred

m i l l i onth part of the earth’s d i ameter, to a degree

of exactness correspond ing we l l wi th what we

might expect Chaldman astronomers to attain .

Prof. Smyth , i ndeed , be l ieves that i t was exact ly

equal to that proportion of the earth ’s polar d i a

mete r— a View which would correspond with h i s

theory that the archi tects of the Great Pyramid

we re assisted by d ivine i nsp i ration ; but what i s

ce rtain ly known about the sacred cubi t, which con

tained twenty- five of these inches, corresponds

bette r with the diameter which the Chaldaean

astronome rs,i f they worked ve ry carefu lly, would

have deduced from Observat ions made i n thei r

own count ry, on the supposi ti on which they would

natu rally have made that the earth i s a perfect

HISTORY OF THE PYRAMIDS. 3 7

globe,not compressed at the poles . I t i s not

,

i ndeed , at al l certain that the sacred cubi t bore anyreference to the earth’s d imens ions but this seems

tolerably we l l made out— that the sac red cubit was

about twenty - five i nches i n length,and that the

c i rcu it of the pyramid ’s base contained a hundred

inches for every day of the year. Re lations such

as these are preci se ly what we might expect to

find in bu i ld ings f wc

n'

tig an astrologi cal Signifi

cance .

C" - =xi i larly, i t uld correspond wel l with

themy“1013 3 1 of ast

'

ogy that the pyramid

l i /hou’c"be 3 0 Proportion as to make the he ighte

lthb the rald lus of a. ci rcle CIrcumference would

c i rcu i t of +1‘

pyramid’s base. Again ,

that long"?

lead ing downwards from

the pyramid ’s northern face,wou ld at once find

a meaning in thi s astrological theory. The s lant

tunne l pointed to the pole - star of Cheops’

s t ime

when due north be low the true pole of the heavens .

This ci rcumstance had no observat ional u ti l i ty. I t

cou ld afford no indicat ion of t ime,because a pole

star moves very Slowly, and the pole - star of

Cheops’

s day must have been i n view through that

tunnel for more than an hou r at a time . But,

apart from the mystical s ign ificance which an

astrologer wou ld attribute to such a relation,i t

may be shown that th is sl ant tunnel is prec isely


what the astrologer wou ld requ i re in order to get

the-

horoscope correctly.

Another consideration remains to be menti oned

which , whi le strengthen ing the astrologica l theory

of the pyramids, may bring us even nearer to the

t rue aim of those who planned and bui l t these

structures .

I t i s known that the Chaldaeans from the

earl iest t imes pursuedléi

i

s

‘

a study of alchemy in

connection wi th astrol not hoplh é; to d iscover

the phi losopher’s ston,y chemical invest ig .

“if tions

alone,but by carry. out Such investl

i

iindtnsunder spec ial celest i nfluence The hc

a degref

achieving thi s d isco“. by which he 39m“h"" at

once have had the means orfJLQYJn’

I l l imitable

wealth, would of i tse lf account for the fact that

Cheops expended so much labou r and material in

the erection of the Great Pyramid,see ing that

, of

necessi ty, suc cess in the search for the philoso

pher’

s stone would be a main feature of his

fortunes, and would therefore be astrological ly in

dicated i n h is nativi ty - pyramid, or perhaps even

be secured by following mystical Observances

proper for rul ing hi s planets .

The el ix i r of l i fe may also have been among

the objects which the bu i lders of the pyramids

hoped to di scover.


I t may b e noticed, as a somewhat s ign ifi cant

c i rcumstance, that, i n the account given by Ibn

Ab d Alkokm of the contents of the various pyra

mids, those assigned to the Great Pyramid re late

enti re ly to astrology and associated mysteries . I t

i s, of cou rse, c lear that Ab d Alkokm drew large ly

on his imagination . Yet i t seems probable that

the re was also some basi s of t rad ition for hi s ide as .

And certainly one wou ld suppose that, as he as

s igned a treasu rer to the East pyramid (‘ a statue

of black agate, his eyes open and sh in ing,S i tt ing

on a throne with a he would have cred ited

the bu i ld ing with treasu re also,had not some tra

d it ion taught otherwise . But he says that King

Saurid placed in the East pyramid , not treasures ,

but ‘ d ive rs ce lest ial Spheres and stars,and what

they seve ral ly operate i n thei r aspects, and the

perfumes which are to b e used to them , and the

books whi ch t reat of these matters ."

1 Arab i an wr i ters give the fol l ow ing accoun t of Egypt ian progress in astro logy and the myst ical arts Nacrawasch, the progen i torOf Misraim, was the fi rst Egypt ian p rince, and the fi rst of the

magic ians who excel led in astrology and enchantmen t . Ret i ringinto Egypt w i th hi s fami ly of e ighty persons, he bu il t Essons, themost anc ient c i ty of Egypt , and commenced the fi rst dynasty of

Misraimitish p rinces , who exce l led as cabal i s ts, d iv iners, and in themyst ic a rts general ly. The most celebrated of the race wereNaerasch, who fi rst represented by images the twe l ve signs of thezod iac Gharnak , who Open ly descr ibed the arts before kept secre tHersal l , who first worshipped idol s Sehlouk, who worshipped the


But, afte r al l, i t must be admitted that the

strongest evidence i n favou r of the astrologi cal

theory of the pyramids is to be found i n the

c i rcumstance that al l other theories seem un

tenable. The pyramids were undoubtedly e rected

for some purpose which was regarded by thei r

bu i lders a s most importan t. This purpose cer

tainly related to the personal fortunes of the

kingly bu i lders. I t was worth an enormous outlay

of money, labour, and material . This pu rpose was

such , furthermore, that each k ing requ i red to have

hi s own pyramid . I t was i n some way assoc iated

with astronomy,for the pyramids are bu i l t with

most accurate referenc e to ce lestial aspects . I t

also had its mathematical and mysti cal bearings,

see i ng that the pyramids exhibit mathematical and

symbol ical pecul iarit ies not belongi ng to the i r

essent ial ly structu ral requ i rements . And lastly,

the erection of the pyramids was in some way

connected with the arrival of certain learned per

sons from Palestine,and presumably of Chaldman

origin . All these ci rcumstances accord we l l with

the theo ry I have advanced ; whi l e only some of

sun ; Saurid (King Saurid of Ib n Ab d Alkokm’s account) , who

e rected the fi rst pyram ids and invented the magic mi rro r ; and

Pharaoh, the l ast k ing of the dynasty, whose name was afterward st aken as a k ingly title, as Caesar l ater became a general imperi a lt i t le.


them,and these not the most characteri st i c, accord

with any of the other theories . Moreover, no fact

known respect ing the pyramids or thei r bu i lders i s

i nconsistent with the astrological theory. On the

whole, then, i f i t cannot be regarded as demon

strated (in- i ts general bearing, of cou rse , for we

cannot expect any theory about the pyramids to

be establ ished in minute detai ls), the astrological

theory may fai rly b e described as having a greater

degree of probab i l ity i n its favou r than any

hitherto advanced.


CHAPTER I I .

THE RELIGION OF THE GREAT PYRAMID.

DURING the last few years a new sect has ap

peared which, though as yet smal l i n numbers, i s

fu l l of zeal and fervou r. The faith professed by

this sect may be cal led the re l igion of the Great

Pyramid, the chief artic le of thei r creed being the

doctrine that that remarkable ed ifice was bui l t for

the purpose of reveal ing— in the fulness of t ime,

now nearly accompl ished — certai n noteworthy

truths to the human race . The founder of the

pyramid rel igion is described by one Of the present

leaders of the sect as the l ate worthy John Taylor,

of Gower Street, London but hitherto the ch ief

prophets of the new fai th have been i n this country

Professor Smyth, Astronomer Royal for Scotland ,

and i n France the Abbé Moigno . I p ropose to

examine here some of the facts most confidently

u rged by pyramidal ists i n support Of thei r views .

But i t wi ll be wel l first to ind icate briefly the

THE GREAT PYRAMID.

obtained (even Si nce the last t rans it of V en

imparted to them, and they embod ied that

s ion i n the height of the pyramid . Other results

which modern sc i ence has achieved,but which by

me re ly human means the arch i tects of the pyra

m id cou ld not have Obtained,were also supernatur

al ly communicated to them so that the true mean

density of the earth,her true shape

,the configura

t ion of land and wate r, the mean temperatu re of

the earth’s su rface,and so forth , were e i the r sym

b olised i n the Great Pyramid’s pos i t ion,or in the

shape and d imensions o f i ts exteri or and interior.

In the pyramid also were prese rved the t rue ,

because supernatu rally communi cated,standards of

length, area, capaci ty, weight, densi ty, heat , time ,

and money. The pyramid also indicated , by certain

featu re s of i ts interio r structure,that when i t was

bu i l t the holy influences of the Ple iades we re

exe rted from a most effective posi t ion— the meri

d i an through the po ints where the ecl ipti c and

equator intersect. And as the pyram id thus S igni

ficantly refe rs to the past, so also i t ind i cates the

future histo ry of the earth, espec ial ly i n Showing

when and whe re the mi l l enn ium is to begin .

Lastly, the apex or crown ing stone of the pyramid

was no othe r than the ant itype of that stone

stumbl ing and rock of offence, rej ected by

TIIE RELIGION OF THE GREAT PYRAMID. 45

who knew not its tru e u se,unt i l i t was final ly

placed as the chief stone of the corner. Whence

natural ly,‘ whosoeve r shal l fal l upon i t — that i s

,

upon the pyramid re l igion— J shal l b e broken but

on whomsoever i t Shal l fal l i t wi l l grind h im to

powder. ’

I f we examine the rel at ions actual ly presented

by the Great Pyramid — i ts geographical posit ion ,

d imens ions,shape

,and internal structure— withou t

hampering ourse lves with the tenets of the new

faith on the one hand , or on the other with any

serious anxiety to disprove them ,we shal l find

much to suggest that the bu i lders of the pyramid

were ingen iou s mathematici ans, who had made

s ome progress i n astronomy, though not so much

as they had made i n the mastery of mechan ical

and scientific d i ffi cu lti es .

The fi rst poin t to b e noti ced i s the geographical

pos ition of the Great Pyramid,so far, at least, as

this pos it ion affects the aspect of the heavens,

viewed from the pyramid as from an observatory.

Li ttle importance , I conce ive, can be attached to

purely geographical re lat ions in considering the

pyramid’s posi tion. Professo r Smyth notes that the

pyramid is pecu l i arly p laced with respect to the

mouth of the Ni le,stand ing ‘ at the southern apex

of the Delta - land of Egypt . ’ This region be ing


shaped l ike a fan, the pyramid , set at the part cor

responding to the hand le , was, he considers, that

monument pu re and undefiled i n i ts rel igion through

an idolatrous land , al luded to by Isaiah the

monument which was both an altar to the Lord

i n the midst of the land of Egypt,and a pi l lar at

the border thereof,” and dest ined withal to become

a witness in the latte r days, and before the consum

mation of al l things,to the same Lord , and to

what He hath purposed upon mankind .

’

St i l l

more fanc ifu l are some other notes upon the

pyramid ’s geographica l pos it ion : as (i . ) that there

i s more land along the meri d ian of the pyramid

than on any other all the world round ; (i i .) that

there i s more land in the lati tude of the pyramid

than i n any other ; and ( i i i ) that the pyramid ter

ritory of Lowe r Egypt i s at the centre of the dry

l and habitable by man al l the worl d ove r.

I t does not seem to be noti ced by those who

cal l ou r attent ion to these points that such co inci

deuces prove too much . I t might be regarded as

not a mere accident that the Great Pyramid stands

at the centre of the arc of Shore - l i ne along which l i e

the outlets of the Ni le ; or i t might b e regarded as

not a mere coincid en ce that the Great Pyramid

stands at the central poin t of al l the habitable land

su rface of th e globe ; or again , any one of the other

THE RELIGION OF THE GREAT PYRAMID. 47

re lat ions above menti oned might be regarded as

something more than a mere coinc idence . But i f,

i nstead of taking only one or other of these fou r

relations,we take a l l fou r of them , or even any two

of them,together

,we must regard pecu l iari ties of

the earth’s configu rat ion as the resu lt of speci al

design which certainly have not h i therto been so

regarded by geographers. For i nstance,i f i t was

by special design that the pyramid was placed at

the centre of the Ni le de l ta, and al so by Specia l

design that the pyramid was placed at the centre

of the land - surface of the earth, i f these two re l a

t ions are each so exactly fu lfi l led as to render the

idea of mere accidental coin cidence i nadmissible ,

then i t fol lows,of necessity, that i t i s through no

mere ly acc idental coincidence that the centre of

the Ni l e de l ta l ies at the centre of the land - su rface

of the earth in other words, the Shore - l ine along

whi ch lie the mouths of the Ni l e has been

designed ly cu rved so as to have i ts centre so

placed . And so of the other re lat ions . The very

fact that the fou r cond it ions can b e fu lfi l led s imu l

taneously i s evidence that a coincidence of the sort

may resu l t from mere accident. ‘ Indeed,the

Of cou rse i t may b e argued tha t noth ing in the world is theresul t of mere acc ident , and some may asser t that even matterswhich are commonly regarded as en t i rely casual have been spec ial lydesigned . It wou ld not b e easy to d raw the prec i se l ine d iv id ing


pecu l i arity of geographi cal posi tion whi ch real ly

seems to have been i n the thoughts of the pyramid

architects,i ntroduces yet a fifth condition which ,

by acc ident cou ld be fulfi l led along with the four

others

eem that the bu i lders of the pyramid

were anxious to place i t i n lati tude as c lose ly

as thei r means of ob se rvation permi tted . Let us

consider what t result they achieved , and the evi

dence thus afforded respect ing the i r ski l l and sc ien

t ific attainments. I n our own t ime,of course, the

astronomer has no d ifficu lty i n dete rm in ing with

great exactn ess the posit ion of any given lat itude

paral lel . But at the t ime when the Great Pyramid

was bu i l t i t must have been a matter of very serious

di fficul ty to determ ine the posi tion of any requ i red

lat i tude - paral le l with a great d egree of exact itude .

The most obvious way of deal ing with the d i fficu lty

would have been by observing the length of

shadows thrown by upright posts at noon in spring

and autumn . I n lat itude 30° north, the sun at

noon in spring (or, to speak precisely, on the day of

the ve rnal equ inox) i s j u st twi ce as far from the

horizon as he is from the point verti ca l ly overhead

event s whi ch al l m en would regard as to al l intent s and pu rposesacc ident al from those wh i ch some men wou ld regard as resul ts ofspec ial p rov idence . But common sense d raws a su ffic ient d ist inct ion,at least for ou r presen t purpose.

1d i f a pointed post were set exactly upright at

t rue noon (supposed to occur at the moment of the

vernal or autumnal equ inox) , the shadow of the

post would be exactly hal f as long as a l ine drawn

the end of the shadow .

3m mpresented many d i fficult ies to the archi tects of the

pyramid . The sun not being a poin t of l ight , but

a globe,the shadow of a pointed rod does not end

i n a we l l - defined point. The moment of true noon,

which i s not the same as ord inary or civi l noon ,

never does agree exac tly with the t ime of the

vernal or autumnal equ inox,and may be removed

from it by any i nterval of t ime not exceeding

twelve hou rs . And there are many other ci rcum

stances which would lead astronomers l ike those

who doubtless pres ided over the sc ientific prepara

t ions for bu i ld ing the Great Pyramid,to prefer a

means of determin ing the lati tude depending on

another principle. The stel l ar hea(l ens would

afford practi cal ly unchanging ind ications for the i r

purpose . The stars be ing al l carried round the

pole of the heavens,as i f they we re fixed points i n

the i nterior of a hollow revolving sphere,i t b e

comes possible to determine the position of the

pole of the star sphere,even though no bright

c onspi cuous star actually occupies that point . Any


bright star close by the pol e i s seen to revolve i n a

very smal l c i rcle,whose centre i s the pole itse lf.

Such a star i s ou r present so- called pole- star and ,

though in the days when the Great Pyramid was

bu i lt, that star was not near the pole, another, and

probably a brighter star,lay near enough to the

pole 1 to serve as a pole - star,and to ind icate by its

c i rc l ing motion the positi on of the actual pole of

the heavens . This was at that t ime, and fo r many

subsequent centuries, the lead ing star of the great

conste l lation cal led the Dragon .

The pole of the heavens, we know,varies i n

posit ion accord ing to the lati tude of the observer.

At the north pol e i t is exactly overhead ; at the

Thi s sta r, cal led Tlzuécm from the Arab ian d l TInf/mu ,the

D ragon, i s now not very br ight , be ing rated at bare ly above the

fou rth magn i tude, but i t was formerly the br ightes t s tar of the con

ste l l ation, as i ts name ind icates . Bayer al so assigned to i t the firs tlet ter of the Greek alphabe t though th is i s not absolu te ly decis iveev idence that so l ate as his day i t reta ined i ts super iori ty ove r thesecond magni tude stars t o wh ich Bayer ass igned the second and

thi rd Greek le t t rs . In the year 2790 B . C . , or thereabouts , the starwas at i t s neares t to the t rue north pole of the heavens, the d iame terof the l i t t le ci rcle in wh ich i t then moved being considerably lessthan one - fourth the apparen t d iame te r of the moon. At that t imethe s tar must have seemed to al l ord inary observat ion an absolutelyfixed cent re, round wh ich al l the othe r stars revolved . At the t imewhen the pyram id was bu i l t th i s s ta r was abou t s i x ty t imes fartherremoved from the t rue pole, revolving in a c i rcle whose apparen td iame ter was abou t se ven t ime s as great as the moon ’s . Yet i tw ould st il l b e regarded as a ve ry use fu l pole - star, espec ial ly as thereare very few consp icuous stars in i t s ne ighbou rhood .

5°THE GREAT PYRAMID.

b rlgivery celestial object i s raised above its true

Ipos ition by the refractive power of our atmosphere,beingmost raised when nearest the hori zon and least

when nearest the point vert ical ly overhead. This

effec t i s so marked on bodies c lose to the hori zon

that i f the ast ronomers of the pyramid t imes had

observed the sun,moon , and stars attentively when

so placed,they could not have fai led to d iscover

the pecu l iari ty. Probably, however, though they

noted the t ime of ri s ing and setting of the celestial

bodies,they only made i nstrumental observations

upon them when these bodies were high in th e

heavens. I f so they remained ignorant of the

refractive powers of the ai r.1 Now, i f they had

determined the posi tion of the th i rt ieth paral lel of

l at itude by observations of the noonday sun ( i n

spring or autumn) , then s ince, owing to refract ion ,

they would have j udged the sun to be higher than

he real ly was, i t fol lows that they wou ld have

supposed the lat i tude of any station from which

they observed to be lower than i t real ly was . For

the l ower the lati tude the higher i s the noonday

sun at any given season . Thus, when real ly i n

lati tude 30° they would have supposed themselves

Even that sk i lfu l ast ronome r H ipparchus, who may b e j ustlycal led the father of observat ional ast ronomy, overlooked thi specul iari ty , which Ptolemy would seem to have been the firstto recogn i se.


i n a lati tude lower than and would have

t ravel led a l i ttl e farther north to find the proper

p lace,as they wou ld have supposed

,for erecting

the Great Pyramid . On the other hand , i f they

determined the p lace from observat ions of the

movements of stars near the pole of the heavens,

they wou ld make an error of a prec ise ly Opposite

natu re . For, the h igher the lat i tude the higher i s

the pole of the heavens ; and refraction , therefore ,

which apparently raises the pole of the heavens ,

gives to a stat ion the appearance of being in a

higher lat i tude than i t real ly is , so that the observer

wou ld consider he was i n lati tude 30° north when

in real i ty somewhat south of that lati tude. We

have on ly then to inqui re whether the Great Pyra

m id was set north or south of latitude to

ascertain whether the pyramid architects observed

the noonday sun or c i rcumpolar stars to determ ine

the i r lat itude ; always assuming (as we reasonably

may) that those archi tects d id propose to set the

pyramid in that part i cular lati tude , and that they

were able to make very accurate observations of

the apparent posi t ions of the celest ial bod ie s, but

that they were not acquainted with the refractive

e ffects of the atmosphe re . The answe r comes i n

no doubtfu l terms . The centre of the Great Pyra

mid ’s base l ies about one mi le and a third shat/z of


the thi rt ieth paral le l of latitude ; and from this

pos i tion the pole of the heavens, as rai sed by

refraction, would appear to be very near indeed to

the requ ired posit ion . I n fact, i f the pyramid had

been set abou t half a m ile sti l l farther south the

pole would have seemed j ust right.

Of course, such an explanation as I have here

suggested appears al together heretical to the pyra

m idalists. Accord ing to them the pyramid archi

tects knew perfectly we l l where the true thi rt ieth

parallel lay,and knew al so al l that modern sc i ence

has d iscovered about refraction ; but set the pyra

m id south of the true paralle l and north of the

posi tion where refraction would j ust have made

the apparent e levat ion of the pol e correc t, s imply

i n order that the pyramid might correspond as

nearly as poss ible to each of two cond itions,

whereof both could not b e fulfi l led at once . The

pyramid would i ndeed , they say, have been set

even more c losely midway between the t rue and

the apparent paral lels of 30° north, but that the

Jeez eh hi l l on which i t i s set does not afford a rock

foundat ion any farther north .

‘So very close,

’

says Professor Smyth,‘ was the great pyramid

placed to the northern brink of i ts h i l l,that the

edges of the cl i ff m ight have broken off under the

terrible pressure had not the bu i lders banked up


there,most fi rmly, the immense mounds o f rubbish

which came from the i r work,and which Strabo

l ooked so parti cularly for years ago,but

cou ld not find . Here they were, however, and sti l l

are,ut i l i sed i n enabl ing the Great Pyramid to stand

on the very utmost verge of i ts commanding hi l l ,

within the l im its of the two requ i red lati tudes, as

wel l as over the centre of the land ’s physi cal and

rad ial formation,and at the same t ime on the sure

and proverbi al ly wise foundat ion of rock .

’

t ion of the Great Pyramid (as of al l the pyramids)

i s that the sides are careful ly oriented . This , l ike

the approximation to a part i cu lar lati tude, must

be regarded as an astronomi cal rather than a geo

graphical re lat ion . The accuracy with which the

orientat ion has been effected wi l l serve to show

how far the bu i lders had mastered the methods o f

astronomical observat ion by which ori entation was

to b e secured . The problem was not so simple

as might b e supposed by those who are not

acquainted wi th the way in whi ch the card inal

points are correctly determined . By solar ob ser

vations, or rather by the observations of shadows

cast by vertical shafts before and after noon , the

d i rection of the merid ian , or north and south l i ne ,

can theoreti cal ly be ascertained . But probably in


t hi s case,as i n determ i n i ng the latitude

,

bu i lders took the stars for the i r gu ide. The

of the heavens would mark the true north ;

equal ly the pole - star, when be low or above

pole, would give the t rue north,but

,of co

most conveniently when below the pole . Nor i s i t

d i ffi cu l t to see how the bu i lders would make use

o f the pole - star for th is pu rpose. From the midd le

of the northern s ide of the i n tended base they

would bore a slant passage tend ing always from

the pos i t ion of the pole - star at its lowe r merid ional

passage, that star at each success ive retu rn to that

posi t ion serving to d i rect the i r progress ; whi l e i ts

smal l range east and west of the pole, would

enable them most accurate ly to determine the

star’

s tru e mid - poin t below the pole ; that i s, the

t rue north . When they had thus obtained a slant

tunne l pointing truly to the merid ian,and had

carried i t down to a point nearly below the middl e

of the proposed square base, they could , from the

m iddle of the base,bore verti cal ly downwards

,

unt i l by rough calcu lation they were near the

lower end of the slant tunnel ; or both tunnels

ld b e made at the same time. Then a sub ter

n chamber would be opened out from the

tunne l . The vertical boring , which need not

than necessary to al low a p lumb - lin

RELIGION OF THE GREAT PYRAMID.

b e suspended down i t, would enable the architects

to determine the point vertical ly below the poin t

of suspension . The s lant tunnel wou ld give the

d i rection of the true north, e i ther from that point

or from a point at some known smal l d i stance east

or west of that point .1 Thus, a l ine from some

ascertained point near the mouth of the ve rtical

boring to the mouth of the slant tunne l wou ld lie

due north and south,and serve as the requ ired

guide for the orientation of the pyramid ’s base .

I f this base extended beyond the opening of the

slant tunne l,then , by cont inu ing this tun

through the base t iers of the pyramid,the

course natural ly

suggested to astronomi cal archi tects who had

determined the lati tude i n the manner described

above . I t may even be described as the on ly very

accurate method avai lable before the te lescope had

been invented . So that i f the accuracy o f the

orientation appears to be greater than cou ld be

obtained by the shadow method,the natural

It wou l d only b e by a lucky acc ident , of course, that thed i rect ion of the slant t unne l’s ax is and that of the vert i cal from the

se lected cen t ral point wou ld lie in the same ver t ica l p lane . The

object of the tunnel l ing would , in fact, b e to de termine how far

apart the vert ical p l anes through these poin t s l ay , and the oddswou ld b e great against the resu l t p rov ing to b e zero .


i nference, even in the absence of corroborat ive evi

dence, would be that the stel lar method , and no

other, had been employed. Now,i n 1779, Nouet,

by refined obse rvations,found the error of ori enta

t ion measured by less than 20 minutes of arc ,

correspond ing roughly to a d isplacement of the

corners by about 37% i n ches from thei r true posi

t i on , as supposed to b e determ i ned from the

centre ; or to a displacement of a southern corne r

by 53 i nches on an east and west l ine from a point

due south of the correspond ing northern corner.

This error, for a base length of i nches, would

not be seri ous,being only one i nch in about five

yards (when est imated i n the second way) . Yet

the resu l t i s not qu ite worthy of the praise given

to i t by Professor Smyth . He h imse l f,however

,

by much more exact obse rvations,with an excel

lent alt az imuth,reduced the al leged error from

2 0 minutes to on ly 453 or to 9-

40ths of i ts formerly

supposed value. This made the total d isplace

ment of a southern corner from the tru e merid ian

th rough the correspond ing northern corner, almost

exactly one foot, or one i nch in about twenty - one

yards— a degree of accuracy rendering i t practi

cal ly certain that some ste l lar method was used i n

o ri enting the base.

Now there is a s l anting tunnel occupying pre


was, therefore, not wel l fitted for an entrance pas

sage to the subterranean chamber immed iately

under the apex of the pyramid (with whi ch

chamber i t communicates i n the manner suggested

by the above theory) . I t cou ld not have been

i ntended to b e used for observing merid ian trans its

of the stars i n order to determ ine s id ereal t ime ;

for c lose ci rcumpolar stars,by reason of the i r s low

motion , are the least su i ted of al l for such a

purpose. As Professor Smyth says, i n argu ing

against th is suggested use of the star, no observer

in his senses,i n any existing observatory, when

seeking to obtain the t ime,wou ld observe the

trans i t of a c i rcumpolar star for anything e lse than

to g et t/ze d z'

reezz'

m of t/ze meridian to adjus t /zz'

s

z'

zzstrzm zent éy.

’

(The i tal i cs are his .) I t i s prec ise ly

such a purpose (the adj ustment, however, not of

an instrument,but of the enti re stru cture of the

pyramid i tself), that I have suggested for thi s

remarkabl e passage thi s ‘ cream -white, stone~

l i ned,long tube

,

’ where i t traverses the masonry of

the pyramid , and be l ow that dug through the sol id

rock to a d istance of more than 3 50 feet.

Let us next consider the d imens ions of the

square base thus carefu lly placed in lat i tude 30°

north,to the best of the bu i lders

’

power, with s ides

c arefu lly orien ted .

THE RELIGION OF THE GREAT PYRAMID. 6 1

I t seems highly probable that,whatever spec i al

pu rpose the pyramid was intended to fulfi l,a sub

ordinate i dea of the bui lders would have been to

represent symbol i cal ly, i n the proportions of the

bui ld ing,such mathematical and astronomical re la

t ions as they were acquainted with. From what

we know by trad it ion of the men of the remote

t ime when the pyramid was bu i lt,and what we

can infer from the ideas of those who inhe ri ted ,

however remote ly,the modes of thought of the

earl iest astronomers and mathematic ians, we can

we l l be l ieve that they wou ld look with supersti

t ious reverence on spec i al figures,proportions

,

‘

numbers, and so forth . Apart from this,they may

have had a quasi - scientific desi re to make a lasting

record of the i r d i scoveries,and of the col lected

seems altogether poss ibl e,then

,that the

smal ler un i t of measurement used by the bu i lde rs

of the Great Pyramid was intended,as Professor

Smyth thinks, to b e equal to the 500,000,000th

part of the earth ’s d iameter,determined from the i r

geodeti cal observations . I t was perfectly wi thi n

the power of mechan icians and mathematic ians so

experienced as they undoubted ly were — the pyra

m id attests so much— to measure with considerabl e

accu racy the length of a degree of lat i tude. They

THE GREAT PYRAMID.

could not poss ibly (always sett ing aside the t

of d ivine i nsp i ration) have known anything

the compress ion of the earth’s globe,and the refore

cou ld not have i ntended, as Professor Smyth sup

poses,to have had the 500,0 3 0 ,

000th part of the

e arth’s pola r axi s,as d istinguished from any othe r,

for their un i t of length . But i f they made obse rva

t ions i n or near lat itude 30° north on the sup

pos it ion that the earth is a globe, the i r p robabl e

e rror wou ld exceed the d iffe rence even between

the earth’s polar and equatorial d iameters . Both

d i fferences are l arge ly exceeded by the range of

d i fference among the est imates of the actual length

of the sacred cubit, supposed to have‘

contained

twenty - five of these smal ler un i ts . And again,

the length of the pyramid base—s ide,on which

Smyth bases his own estimate o f the sacred cubi t,

has been variously estimated , the la rgest measu re

be ing i nches,and the l owest i nches .

The fundamental theory of the pyramidal i sts,that

the sacred cubi t was exact ly one 20 ,000,000 th part

the earth’s polar d iameter, and that the side of

e base contained as many cubits and parts of a

t as there are days and parts of a day in the

i cal year (or year of seasons), requ ires that the

of the s ide shou ld be inches,lying

n the l imi ts i ndi cated , but sti l l so wide ly

THE RELIGION OF THE GREAT PYRAM QW

removed from either that i t would appear ve ry

unsafe to base a theory on the supposi t ion that the

exact length i s or was inches . I f the mea

sures inches and inches were i nferior,

and several excel l ent measures made by practi sed

observers ranged around the length inches,

the case would b e di fferent . But the best recent

measures gave respective ly 10 and inches ;

and Smyth exclaims against the unfairness of Sir

H . J ames i n taking as ‘ therefore the !pro

bable! true length of the s ide of the great pyram id

when pe rfect,’ cal l ing this a d ishonourable shelving

of the honourable older observers with the i r large r

results.’ The only othe r measures, besides these

two,are two by Colone l Howard Vyse and by the

French savmz ls , giving respective ly and

inches . The pyramidal i sts cons ider

inches a fai r mean value from these fou r. The

natural inference , however, i s, that the pyramid

base i s not now in a cond it ion to be sati sfactori ly

measured ; and assu redly no such re l iance can b e

placed on the mean value inches that, on

the strength of i t, we should bel ieve what othe rwise

would b e utterly incredible, vi z . that the bui lders

of the Great Pyramid knew ‘ both the s iz e and

shape of the earth exactly ’ ‘ Humanly, or by

human sc ience,

find ing it out i n that age was, of


cou rse, utterly impossible,’ says Professor Smyth .

But he is so confident of the average value derived

from wide ly confl i ct ing base measures as to assume

that this value, not be ing humanly discove rable,

was of necessity ‘ attributable to God and to H is9d ivine i nspi ration . We may agree

,i n fine, with

Smyth, that the bu i lders of the pyramid knew the

earth to b e a globe that they took for thei r measure

of length the sacred cubi t, which, by the i r earth

measures, they made very fai rly approximate to

the 20,000

,000th part of the earth ’s mean d iameter ;

but there seems no reason whatever for supposing

(even if the supposit ion were not antecedently of

i ts very nature i nadmiss ible) that they knew any

thing about the compress ion of the earth, or that

they had measured a degree of lati tude i n thei r

own place with very wonderfu l accuracy.

‘

It may, perhaps, occu r to the reader to inqui re what d iamete rof the earth, supposed to b e a pe rfect sphere , wou ld b e der ived froma degree of l at i tude measu red w i th absolute accu racy near lat i tude

Adegree of l at i tude measured in polar regions would ind icatea d iameter greate r even than the equator ial one measu red inequatorial regions would ind icate a d iameter less even than the polar.Near l at itude 30° the measu rement of a degree of l at i tude wou ldind icate a diameter very nearly equal to the t rue pol ar d iameter of theearth . In fact , i f i t coul d b e proved that the bui lde rs of the pyramidused for the i r un i t of length an exact subd iv is ion of the polard iame te r, the infe rence would b e that , whi le the coinc idence i t sel fwas me re ly accidental , the i r measuremen t of a degree of lat i tude inthe i r own country had been s ingularly accu rate . By an approx imatecalcu la t ion Ifind that, tak ing the earth’s compression at 1 + 300 , the


But here a very s ingular coinc idence may b e

noticed , or rather i s forced upon our noti ce by the

pyramidal ists , who strangely enough recognise in

i t fresh evidence of design,whi le the unbe l iever

finds in i t proof that coinc idences are no sure

evidence of design . Thei idefl lg pw

inches,i t fol lows that the dia onal of the base

contains such inches,and the two diagonals

whateve r

amongst men,

’ says Professor Smyth after record

ing various est imates of the precessional period ,

from his own or school knowledge,knew anything

about such a phenomenon,unti l H ipparchus, some

years afte r the Great Pyram id ’s foundation,

had a'

gl impse of the fact ; and yet i t had been

rul ing the heavens for ages,and was recorded in

Ghi z eh’

s ancient structure .

’ To minds not moved

to most ene rget ic forgetfulness by the sp i ri t of

faith,i t would appear that when a square base had

d iame ter of the earth, est imated from the accurate measurement ofa degree of l at i tude in the ne ighbourhood of the Great Pyramid

,

would have made the sacred cub i t— taken a t one 20,000 ,000th of

the d iameter— equal to Bri t ish inches a closer app rox imat ionthan Professor Smyth ’s to the es t imated mean probable value of the

sacred cub i t .


been dec ided upon, and its d imensions fixed , with

reference to the earth’s d iameter and the year, the

d iagonals of the square base were determined

also ; and , i f i t so chanced that they corresponded

with some other perfectly independent relation .

the fact was not to b e cred ited to the archi tects .

Moreover i t is manifest that the closeness of such

a coinc idence suggests grave doubts howfar othercoinc idences can be rel ied upon as evidence of

design . I t seems,for instance

,al together l ikely

that them M Wcub i t

'

é q ual to one 20,000 ,000th part of the earth ’s

tentionall assigned to the side of the ram id’

s"

square base a length of just_

so“121Wthe r mew oseness f

the coinc idence between the measured length and

an even c lose r coinc idence immed iately

presents itse l f, which manifestly i s a coinc idence

only, the force of the evidence before derived from

me re coincidence is pro tame shaken . For con

s ider what this new coincidence real ly means . I ts

natu re may be thus ind icated -Take the number

of days in the year, multiply that number by 50 ,

and increase the resu lt in the same degree that the


not bound to have a square base for the pyramid

they might have had an oblong or a triangu lar

base, and so forth - al l whi ch accords very i l l with

the enthusi ast ic language i n which the se lection

of a square base had on other accounts been

t let u s consider the height of the pyramid .

According to the best modern measurements, i t

would seem that the he ight when the pyra

m id terminated above in a pointed apex,must

have been about 486 feet. And from the com

parison of the best est imates of the base sid e w ith

the best estimates of the height,i t seems very

l ikely indeed that the in tention of the bu i lders was

to make the height bear to the perimeter of the

base the same rat io which the rad ius of a c i rcl e

ars to the ci rcumference. Remembering the range

er d igi t in the number expressing the rat i o of c i rcumferenceto d iameter of a c i rcle, he p roceeds Acorrespondent of my friendPiazz i Smyth not ices that 3 i s the number of most frequency, andthat 3 } i s the nearest approx imat ion to i t in s imple d igit s . Professo rSmyth, whose work on Egyp t i s paradox of a very h igh orde r,backed by a great quant i ty of useful l abou r

, the resu l ts of wh i ch w i l lb e made av ai lab le by those who do not rece i ve the paradoxes, i sincl ined to see confi rmat ion for some of his theory in these phenomena . ’ In passing, I may ment i on as the most s ingu lar of theseaccidental d igi t rel at ions wh ich Ihave yet not iced , that in the fi rst1 10 d igi ts of the square root of 2 , the number 7 occu rs more thantw ice as o ften as e i ther 5 or 9, wh ich each occu r e ight t imes, 1 and 2

occurring eachn ine t imes, and 7 occu rr ing no less than e ighteen t imes.


of d iffe rence in the base measures , i t might b e sup

posed that the exactness of the approximation to

this ratio cou ld not be determined very sat isfac

torily. But as certain casing stones have been

d iscovered which indicate with cons iderable exact

ness the slope of the origi nal p l ane - surfaces of the

pyramid, the rati o of the he ight to the s ide of the

base may b e regarded as much more sati sfactori ly

determined than the actual value of e i ther dimen

s ion. Of cou rse the pyramidal i sts c laim a degree

of precis ion indicat ing a most accurate knowledge

of the rati o between the d iameter and the c i rcum

ference of ‘ a c i rc le ; and the angle of the only

casing stone measured be ing d iverse ly est imated

at 51°

50’ and 5 1

°

525 ,they cons ider 50

°

5 1’

14 3

the true value, and infer that the bu i lders regarded

the ratio as 3 14 159 to 1 . The real fact i s,that

the modern est imates of the d imensions of the

casing stones (which, by the way, ought to agree

better i f these stones are as wel l made as stated)ind icate the values 3 14392 28 and 3 1 396740 for

the rat io ; and al l we can say is,that the ratio

real ly used lay prooao/y between these l imits ,

though i t may have been outside ei ther. Now the

approximation of e i the r is not remarkably close.

I t requires no mathematical knowledge at al l to

determine the ci rcumference of a c i rc l e much more


exactly.

‘ I thought i t very strange,

’ wrote a

c i rcle - squarer once to De Morgan (‘ Budget of

Paradoxes ,’ p .

‘ that so many great scholars

i n al l ages should have fai led i n find ing the true

ratio, and have been determined to t ry myse l f.’

‘ I have been informed,

’ proceeds De Morgan, ‘ that

this tria l m akes the d iameter to the c i rcumference

as 64 to 20 1 , giving the ratio equal to

exactly. The resu l t was obtained by the d is

covere r i n three weeks after he first heard of the

existence of the d i fficu lty. This quadrator has

s ince publ i shed a l i ttle sl ip and entered i t at

Stationers’

Hal l . He says he has done i t by

actual measurement ; and I hear from a private

sourc e that he uses a d i sc of twe lve inches di a

mete r,which he rol l s upon a straight rai l .’ The

‘ ro l l i ng i s a very c red i tabl e one ; i t i s as much

be low the mark as Archimedes was above i t. I ts

performer i s a j oine r who evidently knows we l l

what he i s about when he measures ; he i s not

wrong by 1 i n Such ski l fu l mechanic ians

as the bu i ld ers of the pyramid cou ld have obtained

a c loser approx imat ion st i l l by mere measu rement .

Besides,as they were man ifestly mathematicians

,

such an approximation as was obtained by Archi

medes must have been wel l with in the i r powe r ;

and that approx imation l ies with in the l im its

THE RELIGION OF THE GREAT PYRAMID. 7 1

above indicated . Professor Smyth remarks that

the ratio was ‘ a quant i ty which men in general ,

and al l human sc ience too,d id not begin to trouble

themse lves about unti l long, long ages , l anguages ,

and nations had passed away after the bu i ld ing of

the Great Pyramid ; and after the seal ing up, too,

of that grand primeval and prehistori c monument

o f the patriarchal age of the earth accord ing to

Scriptu re.

’ I do not know where the Scripture

records the seal ing up of the Great Pyramid but

i t i s al l but certain that during the very time when

the pyramid was being bu i l t astronomical observa

t ions were in progress which,for the i r interpre

tation,involved of necessi ty a cont inual reference

to the rat io i n quest ion . No one who conside rs

the wonderfu l accuracy with which , nearly two

thousand years before the Chri stian era, the Chal

daeans had determined the famous cycle of the

Saros . can doubt that they must have observed the

heavenly bod ies for several centu ries before they

could have achieved such a success and the study

of the motions of the celest i al bodies compe l s‘ men to trouble themse lves ’ about the famous

ratio of

now come upon a new relat ion (contained

d imensions of the pyramid as thus deter

which,by a strange comcrdence, causes the

he ight of the pyramid to appear to symbol ise

d i stance of the sun There were pyramid

inches , or British inches, in the he ight of the

pyramid accord ing to the relat ions al ready ind i

cated . Now, i n the sun’s d istance, accord ing to

an estimate recently adopted and freely used ,‘

the re are mi les,or thousand mi l

l i ons of inches— that is, there are approximate ly as

many thousand mil l i ons of i nches in the sun’s

d istance as there are i nches i n the he ight of the

pyramid . I f we take the re lat ion as exact we

should infer for the sun ’s d istance thousand

mi l l ions of inches , or mi les— an im

m ense improvement on the est imate which for so

many years occupied a place of honou r in our

books of astronomy . Besides, there i s strong

reason for be l ieving that,when the resu lts of

recent observations are worked out,the est imated

sun d istance wi l l b e much nearer this pyramid

value than even to the value recently

adopted . This resu l t, which one would have

thought so damaging to fai th i n the evidence from

dence— nay, quite fatal after the othe r case i n

a c lose coinc idence had appeared by

,

’o f

the Erin'

s/e Encycloped ia, for the est imate forme rly used , v iz .miles . But the re i s good reason for be l ieving that

ac tual d istance i s nearly mi les.


accident— i s regarded by the pyramidal i sts as a

perfec t tri umph for the i r faith .

They connect i t with another coinc idence,v i z .

that, assuming the he ight dete rmined in the way

al ready indicated,then i t so happens that the

he ight bears to half a d iagonal of the base the rati o

9 to 10 . Seeing that the perimeter of the base

symboli ses the annual mot ion of the earth round

the sun , whi le the he ight represents the rad ius of a

c ircle with that perimete r,i t fol lows that the he ight

should symbol ise the sun ’s d istance ‘ That l ine ,

further,’ says Professor Smyth (speaking on behalf

of Mr. W . Petrie , the d iscoverer of this re lation) ,

must represent ’ this radius ‘ i n the proportion of

1 to (or ten raised to power m'

7ze) ,‘ because amongst othe r reasons 10 to 9 i s practi

cal ly the shape of the Great Pyramid .

’

For,thi s

bu i ld ing has such an angle at the corners,that for

every ten un i ts i ts s tructure advances inwards on

the d iagonal of the base,i t p racti cal ly ri ses up

wards, or points to sunsh ine’

(s z'

e)‘ by m

'

ne. Nine,

too,out of the ten characteri st i c parts (vi z . five

angles and five sides) be ing the number of those

parts which the sun shines on in such a shaped

pyramid,in such a lat i tude near the equator

,out of

a high sky, or, as the Pe ruvians say, when the sun

sets on the pyramid with al l i ts rays . The coinci


dence i tse l f on which this pervers e reason ing rests

i s a s ingular one— s ingular,that i s

,as showing how

close an acc idental coincidence may run . I t

amounts to thi s,that i f the number of days in the

year be multipl ied by 100,and a c i rcle be drawn

with a c i rcumference contain ing 100 t imes as many

inches as there are days i n the year,the rad ius of

the c i rcle wil l be very nearly one

part of the sun ’s d istance. Remembering that the

pyramid i nch is assumed to be one - 500,000,000th

part of the earth ’s d i ameter, we shal l not b e far

from the truth in saying that,as a matter of fact

,

the earth by her orb i tal motion traverses each day

a d istance equa l to two hundred times her own

d iameter. But of course this re l at i on is al together

accidental . I t has no real cause i n nature .

‘

Such relations show that mere numerical co in

It may b e matched by othe r coinc idences as remarkable and asl i t t le the resul t of the operat ion of any natural law. Take , for instance ,the fol lowing st range rel at ion , int roduc ing the d imensions of the sun

h imself, nowhere, so far as Ihave yet seen,int roduced among pyra

m id rel at ions, even by pyram idal i st s If the plane of the ecl i pt icwere a t rue su rface, and the sun were t o commence rol l ing alongthat surface towards the part of the earth ’s orbi t where she i s at hermean d istance

,whi le the earth commenced rol l ing upon the sun

(round one of his great c i rcles ) , each globe tu rn ing round in the samet ime — then, by the t ime the earth had rol led i ts way once round thesun, the sun wou ld have almos t exact ly reached th e earth ’s orb i t .Thi s i s only another way of say ing that the sun ’s d iameter exceedsthe earth’s in almost exact ly the same degree that the sun ’s d istanceexceeds the sun’s d iameter . ’


another ; for instance , i f some measu re of length

does not correspond c losely with any known dimen

s ion of the earth or of the solar system (an un l ikely

supposit ion) , then i t can be understood to typify an

in terval of t ime. I f, even after trying al l possible

changes of that kind,no coincidence shows itse l f

(which is al l but impossible) , then al l that i s needed

to secure a coinc idence i s that the d imensions should

b e man ipu lated a l i tt le.

Let a s ingle i nstance su ffi ce to show how the

pyram idal ists (with perfect honesty of purpose )

hunt down a co inc idence . The slant tunne l a l ready

described has a transverse he ight, once no doubt

un iform,now giving various measu res from

pyramid inches to inches, so that the verti cal

he ight from the known incl inat ion of the tunne l

wou ld b e est imated at somewhere between 52 64

i nches and 52 8 5. Ne i ther d imension corresponds

very obviously with any measured d istance in the

earth or solar system . Norwhen we try periods,

areas,&c .

,does any very sat isfacto ry coinc idence

p resent i tse lf. But the difficul ty i s easi ly turned

into a new proof of des ign . Putting al l the ob ser

vat ions together (says Professor Smyth),‘ I

deduced pyramid inches to b e the t ransverse

height o f the entrance passage and computing

from thence with the observed angle of inc l ination


the vertical height , that came out of the same

i nches . But the sum of those two he ights,or the

he ight taken up and down, equals 100 i nches ,

which length,as e l sewhere shown

,i s the general

pyramid l inear representation of a day of twenty

fou r hours . And the mean of the two he ights,or

the he ight taken one way only,and impartial ly to

the middle point between them,equals fifty inches

which quant ity i s,therefore ,

‘

the gene ral pyramid

l inear representation of only half a day. I n which

case,let us ask what the ent rance passage has to do

with half rather than a whole day ?

On re lat ions such as these— which, if really

intended by the archi tect, would imply an utterly

fatuous habit of conceal ing el aborate ly what he

des i red to symbol i se— the pyramidal ists base the i r

be l ief that ‘ a Mighty Inte l l igence d id both think

out the plans for i t, and compel unwi l l ing and igno

rant idolaters, i n a primal age of the world,to work

m ighti ly both for the future glory of the one true

God of Revelat ion , and to establ ish lasting pro

phetic test imony touching a further development,

st i l l to take place,of the absolutely Divine Christian

d ispensati on.’


CHAPTER III.

THE PROBLEM OF THE PYRAMIDS.

SO far as cond itions of the soi l , surrounding

country,and so forth, are concerned , few posi tions

cou ld su rpass that se lected for the Great Pyramid

and its compan ions . The pyramids of Ghizeh

(fig . 1) are s i tuated on a p latform of rock, about

150 feet above the level of the desert. The largest

of them , the pyram id of Cheops,stands on an

elevat ion free al l around, i nsomuch that less sand

has gathered round i t than would otherwise have

been the case. How admirably su i ted these pyra

mids are for observing—stat ions is shown by the

way in which they are themselves seen from a

d istance . I t has been remarked by eve ry one who

has seen the pyramids that the sense o f s ight i s

dece ived in the attempt to apprec iate thei r d istance

and magnitude .

‘ Though removed several l eagues

from the spectator, they appear to b e c lose at

hand ; and i t i s not unti l he has trave l l ed some

miles i n a d i rect l ine towards them,that he

THE PROBLEM OF THE PYRAMIDS . 79

becomes sensible of thei r vast bu lk and also of the

pure atmosphere through which they are viewed .

’

I n al l the Egyptian pyramids,there i s evidence

of an astronomi cal p lan . I n the Great Pyramid we

find evidence that such a plan was carri ed out with

Pro. 1 . PLAN or am; PyRAMIDs or GH I Z EH .r. Pyramid of Cheops, orGreat Pyram id .

2 . Pyramid of Chephren, or second pyram id .

3 . Pyram id of Mycerinus , or third pyram id4 . Pyramid ofAsychis , or fourth pyram id .

great sk il l,and with an attention to points of

detai l which shows that, for some reason or other,

the edifice was requ i red to be most careful ly bu i l t

i n a special astronomical posi tion . I t matters

l ittle at thi s stage of the i nqu i ry whether we sup


pose the pyramid was erected for ast ronomical

observat ion or not . I t was certainly constructed

i n accordance with , astronomical observations of

great accuracy,and conducted with great sk i l l .

Moreover, i t i s obviou s that to obtai n such ac

curacy, the bu i lding was made to serve, whi le i t

was be ing bui l t,the pu rpose of an astronomical

observatory. J ust as the astronomer i n our own

t ime uses the instrument he i s sett ing up to adj ust

and make exact the posit ion of the mason ry on

which i t stands,so the bu i lders of the Great Pyra

m id used the passages whi ch they made with in i t

t o determine,with the greatest accuracy attainable

by them, the proper posi t i on of each part of i t

,up

to the so - cal led King ’s Chamber, at least, and pro

bably higher.

So much i s certain. Every feature thus far

d i scovered in the Great Pyramid corresponds with

th is theory,and some features can b e explained on

no other .

With regard to thei r astronomical pos it ion , i t

seems clear that the bu i lders in tended to place

the Great Pyramid prec ise ly in lat i tud e or, i n

other words,i n that lati tude where the true pole of

the heavens i s one - thi rd of the way from the

hori zon to the po int'

overhead (the zen i th) , and

where the noon sun at true spring or autumn

THE PROBLEM OF THE PYRAMIDS . 8 1

(when the sun ri ses almost exactly in the east, and

sets almost exactly i n the west) i s two - thi rds of

the way from the horizon to the point overhead .

I n an observatory set exactly i n this posi t ion ,

some of the calcu lations or geometri cal construe

t ions (as the case may b e) i nvolved i n astronomi cal

p roblems are conside rably simp l ified The fi rst

p roblem in Eucl id , for example , by which a tri

angle of three equal s ides i s made,affords the

means of d rawing the proper angle at which the

mid - day sun in spring or autumn is raised above

the horizon,and at which the pole of the heavens

i s removed from the point overhead . Re lat ions

depending on this angl e are also more read i ly

calcu lated,for the very same reason

,i n fact

,that

the angle i tse l f i s more read i ly d rawn . And

though the bu i lders of the Great Pyramid must

have been advanced far beyond the stage at which

any d ifficu lty in deal ing d irect ly with othe r angles

would b e i nvolved , yet they would perce ive the

great advantage of having one among the angles

entering into the i r p roblems thus conven iently

chosen . In our t ime,when by the use of logarith

mic and othe r tables , al l calcu lati ons are greatly

s impl ified , and when also astronomers have learned

to recogni se that no possible choice of lati tude

would simpl i fy the i r labou rs (un less an observatory

G

82 THE GREAT PYRAr’lIID.

cou ld be set up at the North Pol e i tsel f, which

would be i n othe r respects i nconven ient), matters

of th is sort are no longer worth considering,but

to the mathemati c ians who planned the Great

Pyramid they wou ld have possessed extreme

importance .

To set the centre of the pyramid ’s futu re base

i n l at i tude two methods cou ld b e used— the

shadow method , and the pole - star method . I f at

noon , at the season when the sun rose due east

and set due west , an upright AC were found to

throw a shadow C D , so proport ioned to A C that

AC D would be one - hal f of an equal - s ided triangle ,

then, theoret ical ly, the poin t where thi s upright

was placed wou ld be in latitude As a matter

o f fact i t wou ld not b e, because the ai r, by bend ing

the sun’s rays,throws the sun apparently some

what above his true posit ion . Apart from this, at

the t ime of tru e spring or autumn , the sun does

not seem to rise due east, or set due west, for he is

rai sed above the horizon by atmospheri c re frac

t ion,before he has real ly reached i t i n the morn ing

,

and he remains raised above i t after he has real ly

passed below - understand ing the word ‘ really ’ to

re l ate to h i s actual geometri cal d i rection . Thus,

at true spring and autumn , the sun rises to the

north of east and sets s l ightly to the north of west .


farther north) . The actual amount by which , sup

posing thei r observat ion s exact, they would thus

set th is s tation north of i ts proper position , would

depend on the refract ive qual i ti es of the ai r i n

Egypt. But although there i s some sl ight d i ffer

ence i n th i s respect between Egypt and Green

wich,i t i s b ut smal l ; and we can determine from

the Greenwich refraction tables, within a ve ry

sl ight l imi t of error,the amount by which th e

architects of the Great Pyram id would have set

the centre of the base north of l at i tude i f they

had trusted solely to the shadow method. The

d istance would have been as nearly as poss ib l e

yards, or say three furlongs.

Now, i f they fol lowed the other method, ob

serving the stars around the pole, i n orde r to

determ ine the e l evat ion of the true pole of the

heavens , they wou ld b e i n a s imi lar way exposed

to error ari s ing from the effects of atmosphe ri c

refraction . They wou ld proceed probably some

what i n this wise z— Using any kind of d i rection

l ines,they wou ld take the al titude of the i r polar

star ( I) when passing immed iate ly under the pole,and (2 ) when passing immediatelv above the pole .

The mean o f the al titudes thus obtained would b e

the al ti tude of the t rue pole of the heavens . Now,

atmospheri c refraction affects the stars i n the same


way that i t affects the sun, and the nearer a star i s

to the horizon , the more i t i s raised by atmospheri c

refraction . The pole - star in both i ts posi t ions

that is, when passing be low the pole,and when

passing above that point— i s raised by refraction ,

rather more when bel ow than when above ; but

the est imated posi t ion of the pole i tse l f,rai sed by

about the mean of these two e ffects , i s i n fact

raised almost exactly as much as i t would be i f i t

were i tse l f d i rectly observed (that is, i f a star occu

p ied the pole i tself, i nstead of merely c i rc l ing close

round the pol e). We may then simpl i fy matters

by leaving ou t of cons iderati on at present al l

questi on s of the actual pole - star i n the t ime of

the pyramid bu i ld ers, and simply considering how

far they wou ld have set the pyramid ’s base in

error,i f they had determined the i r lat i tude by

observing a star occupying the posit ion of the true

pole of the heavens .

They would have endeavou red to determine

where the pole appears to b e raised exactly thirty

degrees above the horizon . But the effect of re

fract ion be ing to raise every ce lestial object above

i ts t ru e positi on,they would have supposed the

pole to b e raised thi rty degrees,when i n real ity i t

was l ess raised than this . I n other words , they

would have supposed they were in lati tud e


when , i n real i ty, they were in some lower lati tude,

for the pole of the heavens ri ses h igher and h ighe r

above the hori zon as we pass to higher and highe r

latitudes . Thus they would set the i r station some

what to the south of lati tude instead of to the

north,as when they were supposed to have used

the shadow method . He re again we can find how

far they would set i t south of that lat itude. Using

the Greenwich refraction table (which i s the same

as Besse l ’s) , we find that they would have made a

much greater e rror than when using the othe r

method,s imply because they wou ld be observing a

body at an e levation of about thi rty degrees on ly,

whe reas in taking the sun’s mid - dav alti tude i n

spring or autumn, they would be observing a body

at twice as great an e levation . The error wou ld

be,i n fact

,i n th is case , abou t 1 mile yards .

I t seems not at al l unl ike ly that astronomers,

so sk i l fu l and ingen ious as the bu i lders of the

pyramid man i festly were,would have employed

both methods . I n that case they would certa inly

have obtained wide ly d i screpant results,rough as

thei r means and methods must unquest ionably

have been , compared wi th modern instruments and

methods . The exact determination from the

shadow plan would have set them yards to

the north of the true l ati tude ; whi le the exact

THE PROBLEM OF TIIE PYRAIWIDS . 87

determ ination from the pole - star method wou ld

have set them 1 mi le yards south of the t rue

l ati tude. Whethe r they would thus have been led

to de tect the e ffect of atmospheri c refraction on

celestial bodies high above the hori zon may b e

open to quest ion . But certain ly they would have

recogn ised the action of some cause or othe r,

rendering one or other method, or both method s,

unsati sfactory . I f so,and we can scarcely doubt

that this would actually happen (for certain ly they

would recognise the theoret i cal j u stice of both

methods,and we can hard ly imagine that having

two avai lab le methods, they would l imit the i r

operation s to one method only), they would

scarcely see any better way of proceeding than to

take a pos i ti on intermed iate between the two

which they had thus obtained . Su ch a posi tion

would l i e almost exactly yards south of true

l at i tude 30° north .

Whether the arch i tects of the pyramid of

Cheops real ly proceeded in th is way or not, i t i s

certain that they obtained a resu l t correspond ing

so we l l wi th this that i f we assume they real ly d id

i ntend to set the base of the pyramid i n lat i

tude we find i t d i ffi cu lt to persuade ou rselves

that they d id not fol low some su ch course as I

have j ust ind i cated— the coincidence i s so close

88 TIIE GREAT PYRAMID.

considering the natu re of the observat ions i nvolved.

Accord ing to Professor Piazz i Smyth , whose ob ser

vational labou rs in re l ation to the Great Pyram id are

worthy of al l p raise, the cent re of the base of th i s

pyram id l i es about 1 mile 568 yards south of the

th i rtieth paral le l of l at i tude . This i s 944 yards

north of the posi t ion they would have deduced

from the pole - star method ; 1 mile yards

south of the posit ion they wou ld have deduced

from the shadow method ; and yards south

of the m ean posit ion between the two last named .

The posi t ion of the base seems to prove beyond

al l poss ib i l i ty of question that the shadow method

was not the method on which sole or ch ief re l iance

was placed,though this method must have been

known to the bu i lders of the pyram id . It does

not,howeve r

,prove that the star method was the

only method fol lowed . A di stance o f 944 yards

i s so smal l i n a matte r of th is sort that we might

fa irly enough assume that the posit i on of the base

was determined by the po le - s tar method . I f,how

eve r,we supposed the bu i lde rs of the pyramid to

have been exceed ingly sk i l fu l i n applying the

methods avai lab le to them , we might not unreason

ab ly con clude from the posi tion o f the pyramid ’s

base that they used both the shadow method and

the pole- star me thod,but that, recogn i s ing the

THE PROBLEM OF THE PYRAIlIIDS. 89

superiori ty of the l atter, they gave greater we ight

to the resu l t obtained by employing this method .

Supposing,for instance

,they appl ied the pole - star

method three t imes as often as the shadow method,

and took the mean of al l the resu lts thus obtained,

then the deduced posit ion wou ld lie three t imes as

far from the northern posi tion obtained by the

shadow method as from the southern posi t ion ob

tained by the pole—star method . I n thi s case the i r

resu lt, i f correct ly deduced , would have been only

about 1 56 yard s north of the actual present

posit ion o f the centre of the base .

I t i s imposs ible , howeve r, to place the least

re l iance on any cal cu lation l ike that made i n the

last few l ines . By apos ferz'

orz'

reason ing such as

this one can prove almost anyth ing abou t the

pyramids . For obse rve,though presented as

d prz’

orz’

reason ing, i t i s i n real i ty not so, be ing

based on the observed fact,that the true posi t ion

l ies more than three t imes as far from the northerly

l imi t as from the southern one . Now,i f i n any

other way,not open to exception , we knew that

the bui lders of the pyramid used both the sun

method and the star method,with perfect observa

t ional accu racy, but wi thout knowledge of the l aws

o f atmosphe ric refraction, we could infe r from the

observed posi t ion the preci se relative weights they


attached to the two methods . But i t i s al together

unsafe,or

,to speak plainly

,i t i s in the logical sense

a perfectly vic ious manner of reason ing , to ascer

ta in fi rs t such re l at ive weights on an assumption

of th is kind,and, having so found them ,

to assert

that the relat ion thus detected i s a probab le one i n

i tsel f,and that s ince, when assumed , i t accounts

prec ise ly for the observed posi t ion of the pyramid ,

therefore the pyramid was posi ted in that way and

no other. I t has been by unsound reason ing of

this k ind that n ine - tenths of the absu rd i t ies have

been establ ished on which Mr. Taylor and Professor

Smyth and the i r fol lowers have establ i shed what

may be cal led the pyramid re l igi on .

All we can fairly assume as probable from the

ev idence , i n so far as that evidence bears on the

resu lts of ( i prz'

orz'

considerations,i s that the

bu i lders of the Great Pyramid p referred the pole

star method to the shadow method , as a means o f

d etermin i ng th e t rue posi t ion of l at itude 30° north .

They seem to have appl ied this method with great

ski l l , considering the means at the i r d isposal , i f we

suppose that they took no account whatever of the

influence of refraction . I f they took refraction

into accoun t at al l,they considerably underrated

i ts influence .

Piazzi Smyth ’s id ea that they knew theprecise


be that towards the pole - star when below the pole .

The extremit ies of these uprights,or the axis of

the upraised tube,would l i e i n a north - and - south

l ine considerably inc l ined to the hori zon,because

the pole i tse lf be ing thi rty degrees above the

hori zon, the pole - star, whatever star this m ight

b e,would be high above the hori zon even when

exactly under the pole . No star far from the pole

would serve to de term ine the merid ian l ine of the

pyramid ’s base,or rather the merid ian l ine corre

spond ing to the posi tion of the underground passage

d i rected towards the pole - star when immed iately

under

A l i ne at right angles to the merid ian l in e thus

obtained would lie due east and west, and the t ru e

posit ion of the cast - and - west l ine would probably

b e better i nd i cated in th is way than by d irect

observat ion of the sun or s tars . If d i rect observa

t ion were made at all,i t would be made not on

the sun i n the horizon near the t ime of spring

and autumn, for the sun’s posi t ion i s then largely

affected by refraction . The sun might be obse rved

for thi s pu rpose during the summer months,at

moments when calcu lation showed that he should

b e due east orwest, or c ross ing what i s techn i cal ly

termed the prime vertical . Possibly the so - cal led

az imuth trenches on the east s ide of the Great

THE PROBLEM OF TIJE PYRAMIDS . 93

Pyramid may have been in some way assoc iated

with observat i ons of this sort, as the middle trench

i s d i rected considerably to the north of the east

point,and not far from the d i rect ion in whi ch the

sun would ri se when about thi rty degrees (a favou rite

angle with the pyramid archi tects) past the vernal

equinox . But I lay no stress on thi s poin t . The

merid ian l i ne obtained from the underground

passage would have given the bu i lders so ready a

means of determ in i ng accurate ly the east - and -west

l ines for the north - and - south edges of the pyra

mid’s base,that any other observati ons for this

pu rpose can hard ly have been more than sub

s idiary. They could in the fi rst place set up a

pointed upright,as AB i n fig . 3 , at the middle of

the northern edge of the base , and anothe r shorter

one, C D,

so that at one of the epochs , i t would not

matte r which,an eye placed as at E would see the

points C and E i n the same straight l ine as the pol e

star 8. Then the l ine D B would lie north and

south .

ough approx imation ,

howeve r. The bu i lde rs wou ld requ i re a much more

satisfac tory north - and - south l ine than D B. At

thi s stage o f proceed ings,what could b e more

perfec t as a method of obtain ing the t rue bearing

of the pole than to d ig a tubula r hole into the sol id


rock , along which tube the pole - star at i ts lowe r

cu lmination shou ld be visible ? Perfect stabi l i ty

would be thus ensu red for th i s fundamental d irec

t ion - l i ne. I t would b e easy to obtain the di rection

with great accu racy,even though at fi rst starting

the borings were not qu i te correctly made. And

the farther the boring was continued downwards

towards the south,the greater the accuracy of the

d irect ion - l i ne thus obtained . Of course there cou ld

b e no questi on whatever i n such unde rground

boring of the advantage of taking the l owe r passage

of the pole - star,not the upper. For a l i ne d i rectly

from the star at i ts upper passage would slant

downwards at an angle of more than thi rty degrees

from the horizon,whi le a l ine d i rectly from the

star at i ts lower passage wou ld s lant downward s at

an angle of l ess than thi rty degrees and the

smalle r th i s angle the less would be the length and

the less the depth of the boring requ i red for any

given hori zontal range.

Besides perfect stabi l i ty,a boring through the

sol id rock wou ld present another most important

advantage ove r any othe r method of orienting the

base of the pyramid . I n the case of an incl ined

d i rection—l ine above the leve l of the hori zontal base,

the re would be the d i fficulty of determ in ing the

precise pos ition of points under the raised line for


t ake e i ther the upper or the lower passage ; but th e

underground boring cou ld have but one di rect ion ,

and they must choose whichever of the two passages

of the star they preferred . As already remarked they

wou ld take the lower passage,not on ly as the more

conven ient passage for Observation,but because the

length of the i r boring D Gwould b e less, for a given

hori zontal range F D , i f the l owe r passage of the

star s were taken , than i t wou ld be for the upper

passage, when i ts d i rection would b e as D G’

.

When they had bored far enough down to have

a suffi cient hori zontal range F D (the l onger this

range,of course , the truer the north - and - south

d i recti on ) , they wou ld sti l l have t o ascertain the

t rue posi tion of F,the point vert ical ly above G.

For thi s pu rpose they would get F fi rst as truly as

they could from the l ine D B prolonged , and wou ld

bore down from F verti cal ly (gu id ing the boring, of

cou rse,with a plumb- l i ne) unti l they reached the

space Opened out at G. The boring F G m ight be

of very smal l d iameter. Noting whe re the p lumb

l ine let down from F to G reached the floor of the

space G,they would ascertain how far F l ay to the

east or to the west of i ts p rope r posi ti on ove r the

eezzZre of the fl oor of this space. C orrecting the

posit ion of F accord ingly, they wou ld have F D the

true north - and - south l in e.


This method could give results of considerable

accuracy and i t i s the only method , i n fact, which

could do so. When, therefore , we find that the

base of the py ramid is ori ented with s ingular

accuracy, and second ly that j ust such a boring as

D G ex ists beneath the base of the pyramid ,

running z/zree Ii i mdred arid jif fy f eel l/zroagk Zke

solid rock on wkiek Ike pyram id i s bu i lt, we cannot

we l l refuse to be l i eve that the sl ant passage was

bored for thi s purpose, which i t was so wel l fitted

to subserve,and which Has been so wel l subserved

in some way.

I n al l the pyramids of Ghizeh,i ndeed

,there i s

such a tunnel l ing as we might expect on almost

any theory of the re lat ion of the smal ler pyramids

to the great one. But the sl ant tunne l u nder the

great pyramid i s constructed with far greater ski l l

and care than have been bestowed on the tunnels

under the other pyramids . I ts length underground

amounts to more than 3 50 feet, so that, viewed

from the bottom,the mouth , about fou r feet across

from top to bottom on the square , would give a

sky range of rather less than one - th i rd of a degree,

or about one- fou rth more than the moon’s apparent

d iamete r But of cou rse there was nothing to

prevent the observers who used this tube from

greatly narrowing these l imits by using d iaphragms,

H


one covering up al l the mouth of the tube, except

a smal l Open ing near the centre,and anothe r cor

respond ingly occupying the lower part of the tube

from which the Observation was made .

I t seems satisfactori ly made out that the Obj ec t

of the slant tunne l,which runs 3 50 feet through the

rock on which the pyramid is bu i l t,was to observe

the Pole - star of the period at its lower cu lmination ,

to obtain thenc e the tru e d i rection of the north

point. The slow motion of a. star very near the

pole would cause any error i n time, when this

observation was made, t o be of very l ittl e impor

tance, though we can understand that even such

observat ions as these wou ld remind the bu i lders of

the pyramid of the absolute necessity of good time

measurements and t ime- observat ions i n astronomi

cal research .

If th i s Opin ion i s adopted,and for my own part

I cannot see how i t can we l l b e quest ioned , we

cannot possibly accept the op inion that the slant

tunnel was bored for another purpose solely,or

even ch iefly,unless i t can be shown that that other

purpose i n the fi rs t place was essent ial to the plans

Of the bu i lders,i n the second place cou ld be sub

served in no other way so well , and i n the th i rd

p lace was man i fe stly subse rved in thi s way to the

knowledge of those who made the s lant borings .


for my own part I cannot see why we should do so

(most certain ly we have no apriori reason for so

doing), we should have 26°18

’ as about the requi red

angle Of incl ination,whence we should get about

3°

42’ for the d i stance of the Pole - star of the pyra

mid’s t ime from the true pole of the heavens. The

di fference may seem of very sl ight importance , and

I note that Professor Smyth passes i t over as i f i t

real ly were un important ; but i n real i ty i t corre

sponds to somewhat large t ime - d ifferences .

I n the year 2 170 B.C . ,and again (last before

that) i n the year 3 3 50 B.C .,and also for severa l

years on ei the r s ide of those dates,a certain bright

s tar did look down that boring,or

,more precise ly,

could b e seen by any one who looked up that bor

ing, when the star was j ust be low the po l e in i ts c i r

cu i t round that point . The star was a ve ry impor

tant one among the Old conste l lations,though i t has

s ince conside rably faded in lustre , being no othe r

than the starAlpha of the constel lat ion the Dragon ,

which formerly was the polar conste l lation . For

hundreds of years befo re and after the dates 3 3 50

and 2 170 B.C . ,and during the enti re i nterval between

those dates,no other star wou ld at al l have su ited

the pu rposes Of the bu i lders of the pyramid so that

we may b e tolerably su re th i s was the star they

employed . Therefore the boring, when fi rst made

THE PROBLEM OF THE PYRAMIDS . IOI

must have been di rected towards this star. We

conclude,then , with considerable confidence , that i t

was somewhere about one of the two dates 3 3 50

B.C ., and 2 170 B.C .,that the erect ion of the great

pyramid was begun . And from the researches of

Egyptologists i t has become al l but certai n that the

earli er of these dates is ve ry near the correct epoch .

But though the boring thus serves the purpose Of

dating the pyramid,i t seems altogethe r unl ikely

that the bu i lde rs of the pyram id intended to record

the pyramid ’s age i n thi s way. They could have

done that, i f they had wanted to, at once far more

easi ly and far more exactly, by carving a su i table

record i n one of the i nne r chambers of the bu i ld ing .

But nothing yet known abou t the pyramid suggests

that its bu i lder wanted to te l l futu re ages anything

whatever. SO far from this , the pyramid was care

fu lly planned to reveal nothing. On ly when men

had fi rst destroyed the casing, next had found the i r

way into the descend ing passage, and then had , i n

the roughest and least ski l fu l manne r conce ivable

(even so, too, by an acc ident), discove red the great

ascend ing gal le ry,were any of the sec re ts o f this

m ighty tomb revealed - for a tomb and nothing

else i t has been eve r s i nce Cheops d ied . To assert

that al l these events lay within the view of the

arch i tect who seemed so carefu lly to endeavour to


render them impossible,i s to ask that men should

set the i r reasoning facult ies on one s ide when the

pyramid i s i n quest ion . And lastly, we have not a

partic le of evidence to show that the bu i lders of the

pyramid had any idea that the date of the bu i ld ing

would be i ndicated by the posi tion of the great sl ant

passages . They may have noticed that the Pole

star was s lowly changing i ts posit ion with respec t

to the t ru e pol e o f the heavens and they may

even have recognised the rate and d i rection i n which

the Pole - star was thus moving. But i t i s utterly

unlike ly that they cou ld have detected the fact that

the pole of the heavens c i rc les round the pole of the

ecl ipti c i n the mighty precessi onal period of

years and unless they knew this, they

If the arch i tect of the great pyramid knew anything abou t thegreat p recess ional pe riod , then— un less su ch knowledge was miraculously commun i cated— the ast ronomers of the pyram id ’s t imemust have had ev idence wh i ch could on ly have been obtained duringmany hundreds of years of exact Observat ion , fol lowing of cou rseon a long per iod during wh i ch comparat ive ly impe rfect ast ronomical me thods were employed . The i r astronomy must therefore havehad i ts origin long before the date commonly ass igned to the Flood .

In passing Imay remark that in a paper on the pyramid by AbbéMo igno, that worthy bu t somewhat credu lous eccles iast i c m akes aremark whi ch seems to show that the stabi l i ty and perfect ion of the

great pyramid , and the refore the archi tectura l sk i l l acqu i red by theEgypt ians in the year 2 170 B.C . (a date he accepts) , p roves in someunexplained way the comparat ive youth of the human race . To

most men i t woul d seem that the more perfect men’s work at anygiven date , the l onger must have been the preced ing interval duringwh ich men were acqui r ing the sk i l l thus d isp l ayed. On the con

THE GREAT PYRAMID.

passage i s l i abl e to the objection that,the mouth

of the passage be ing“walled up,i t i s not easy to

conce ive how a star could b e observed through i t,

Beckett says,

‘ Certain ly not,after i t was c losed ;

but what has that to do wi th the question whether

the bui lders thought fit to ind icate the date to anyone who might in after ages find the passage , by

reference to the c elesti al d ial , i n which the pole of

the earth travels round the pole of the ecl ipti c i n

years, l ike the hand of a c lock round the

d ial ? ’ But in real i ty there i s no more extravagan t

suppos it ion among al l those ideas Of the pyramid

alists (which Beckett j ustly regards as among the

wi ldest i l lustration of ‘the province of the imagina

t ion i n science ’

) than the notion that thi s motion of

the pole of the earth was known to the bui lders of

the pyramid , or that, knowing it , they adopted so

preposte rous a method Of indicating the date of

thei r labours .

Let us retu rn to the pu rposes which seem to

have been actual ly present in the minds Of the

pyram i

g duly laid down the north - and - so

l i ne F D , i n fig . 5, and being thus ready to cut out

from the nearly leve l face Of the sol i d rock the

corner sockets of the square base , they would have

to choose what s ize they would give the base . Thi s


would b e a quest ion depend ing partly on the nature

of the ground at the i r d isposal,partly on the expense

to which King Cheops was prepared to go . The

quest ion of expense probably d id not influence him

much ; but i t requi res on ly a brief inspection of the

region at his d isposal (i n the requ i red latitude , and

on a fi rm rock basi s) to see that the nature of the

ground set defin i te l im i ts to the base Of the bui ld

ing he proposed to erect . As Piazzi Smyth re

marks , i t i s set c lose to the very ve rge of the

e l evated plateau , even dangerously near i ts edge .

Assuming the centre of the base dete rm ined by the

lati tude observations outside, the l im i t of the s ize

of the base was determined at once. And apart

from that,the hi l l country d irect ly to the south of

the great pyramid would not have pe rmitted any

considerable extension in that di rect ion , whi le on

the east and west of its present posi t ion the plateau

does not extend so far north as i n the longitude

actually occupied by the pyramid .

These considerations probably had qu ite as

much to do with the se lection of the d imens ions Of

the base as any that have been hithe rto insi sted

upon . S ir E. Beckett says , after showing that the

actual s i ze of the base was i n other respects a con

venient one ( i n its numeri cal re lat ion to previou s

measures) , the great pyram id‘ must be

106

1but why Cheops wanted hi s pyramid to be about

i ts actual s i z e he does not profess to know. Yet, i f

the lati tude of the centre of the base were real ly

d etermined very careful ly, i t i s c lear that the

nearest,and i n this case the northern

,verge of the

rock plateau would l im it the si ze of the base and

we may say that the s iz e se lected was the l argest

whi ch was avai lable,subj ect to the cond it ions

respect ing l ati tude. True, the latitude i s not cor

rectly determined ; but we may fai rly assume i t

was meant to b e, and that the actual centre'

of the

base was supposed by the bu i lde rs to l i e exacfly i n/

l ati tude 30 degrees north .

W we may admit that the d imens ions

adopted we re such as the bu i lders considered con

venient also. I fear Sir E. Beckett’s explanat ion

on this poin t, s imple and commonplace though i t i s,

i s preferable to Professor Smyth’s . I f, by the way,

the latte r were right, not only in his vi ews, but i n

the importance he attaches to them ,i t wou ld b e no

mere f agou de par/er to say‘ I fear ;

’ for a rather

unpleasant fate awai ts al l who shorten the cubi t as

S ir E. Beckett does . I wi l l not attempt,

’ says

Professor Smyth, to say what the ancient Egypt ians would have thought ’ of certain ‘ whose car

riages ,’ i t seems,

‘ try to stop the way of great

pyramid research,

’ for I am horrified to remember

108 THE GREAT PYRAIlIID.

l ess also Cheops’

s coffin unti l h i s body was resu r

rectionised by the th ieves who fi rst broke in to the

pyramid), do contain clear ind icat ions .’

The cubi t

referred to i s the working cub it of 20 43 inches

,or

about a fiftieth of an inch less . For a pe rson of

average he ight,i t i s equal to about the distance

from the e lbow to the t ip of the middle finge r, plus

a b and ’s - breadth,the former d istance be ing the

natural cub it (for a person of such he ight) . The

natural cubit i s as nearly as possib le half- a—yard,

and most probably our yard measure is derived

from this shorter cubit . The work ing cubi t may b e

regarded as a long half- yard , the double work ing

cubit or work i ng Egypti an yard measu re, so to

speak, be ing 4 1—5 inches long .

The length of the base- ci rcu i t of the great pyra

mid may b e most easi ly remembered by noti cing

that i t contains as many working cub its as our mi le

contains yards,viz .

,giving 440 cubits as the

length of each of the four s ides of the base. I f

Lincol n ’s Inn Fie lds were en l arged to a square

having its s ides equal to the greatest s ides of the

present Fie lds,the area of this

,the largest square

in London , would b e almost exactly equal to that

o f the pyram id’s base— or about 1 35 acres. The

front o f Che l sea Hospital has almost the same

l ength as a side of the pyramid ’s base, so also has


the frontage of the Bri ti sh Museum ,i nclud ing the

houses on ei the r s ide to Charlotte Street and Mon

tague Street. The average breadth of the Thames

between Che lsea and London Bridge, or, i n other

words, the ave rage span of the met ropol itan

bridges, i s al so not very di fferent from the length

of each side of the great pyramid ’s base . The length

measures about 76 1 feet, or nearly 2 54 yards . Each

side i s i n fact a furlong of 2 20 double cubits or

Egyptian yards .

The he ight of the pyramid is equal to seven

e levenths of the s ide of the base, or to 2 80 cub its,

or about 484 fee t . Thi s i s about 16 feet h ighe r

than the top of Strasburg Cathedral , 24 feet h ighe r

than St . Peter’s at Rome,and i s about 1 30 feet

h igher than our St . Paul ’s .

These are al l the dimensions of the pyramid’s

exterior I here propose to ment ion . Sir E. Beckett

gives a numbe r of others,some of considerable

i n terest, but Of cou rse al l derivable from the fact

that the pyramid has a square base 440 cubits in

the s ide , and has a he ight of 2 80 cubits . I may

noti ce , however, i n passing , that I qu ite agree w i th

h im in think ing that the special mathematical re la

t ion which the pyramid bu i lders intended to em

body in the bui ld ing was thi s,that the area of each

of the fou r faces shou ld b e equal to a square having


i ts s ides equal to the height of the pyram id .

Herodotus te l ls us that this was the cond it ion

which the bu i lders adopted ; and th is cond i ti on i s

fulfi l led at least as c losely as any of the othe r more

or l ess fanci fu l rel ations which have been recog

n ised by Taylor and his fol lowers .

Having the i r base properly oriented,and be i ng

about to erect the bu i ld ing i tse l f,the archi tects

would certainly not have closed the mouth of the

slant tunne l pointing northwards,but would have

carried the passage onwards through the basement

layers of the ed ifice,unti l these had reached the

he ight corresponding to the place where the pro

lOngation of the passage would mee t the slanting

north face of the bu i ld ing. I incl ine to think that

at this p lace they wou ld not b e conten t to al low

the north face to remain in steps, but wou ld fi t i n

casing stones (not necessari ly those which would

eventual ly form the slant surface of the pyramid,

but more probably slanted so as to be perpend i

cular to the axis of the ascend ing passage) . They

would probably cut a square aperture through such

slant stones corresponding to the s ize of the pas

sage e ls ewhere, so as to make the fou r surfaces Of

the passage perfectly plane from its greatest depth

below the base of the pyramid to i ts apertu re ,

1 12 TIIE GREAT PYRAMID.

otherwise explained,but I shal l leave the reader to

determine whether the other explanation is alto

gether a l ikely one . The feature i s desc ribed by

Smyth as ‘ a most s ingular portion of the passage

—v i z . a place where two adj acent wal l - joints, s im i~

l ar,too

,on e i the r si de of the passage

,were vertical

or nearly so ; whi le eve ry other wal l - j oint, both

above and be low,was rectangular to the length of

the passage, and , therefore, l argely incl ined to the

vertical . ’ Now I take the mean of Smyth’s deter

m inat ions of the t ransverse he ight of the entrance

passage as 47 2 3 i nches (the extreme values are

and and I find that, from a point on

the floor o f the entrance passage , thi s transverse

he ight would subtend an angle of 7°24

’

(the range

of Alpha Dracon is i n al titude when on the meri

d ian ) at a d i stance 363 6 5”

i nches from the trans

verse mouth of the passage . Taking this di stance

from Smyth’s scale i n Plate xvi i . of his work on

the pyramid Our Inheri tance i n the Great Pyra

I find that, if measu red along the base of

the entrance passage from the lowest edge of the

vert i cal stone, i t fal ls exactly upon the spot where

he has marked i n the probable outl ine of the un

cased pyramid, whi le , i f measu red from the upper

edge of the same stone, i t fal ls just about as far

within the outl i ne of the cased pyramid as we


should expect the outer edge of a sloped end

stone to the tunne l to have lain .

I t may be said that from the floor of the

entrance passage no star could have been seen,

because no eye cou ld be placed there. But the

bu i ld ers of the pyramid cannot reasonably be sup

posed to have been ignorant of the s imple pro

perties of plane mirrors,and by simply p lac ing a

thin piece of pol ished metal upon the floor at this

Spot, and noting where they could see the star and

the upper edge of the tunnel ’s mouth in contact

by reflection i n th i s m irror,they could determine

p rec isely where the star cou ld be seen touching

that edge, by an eye placed (were that poss ib le)prec isely i n the p lane of the floor.

I have said there i s another explanation of

th is pecu l iari ty in the entrance passage,but I

should rather have sai d the re i s anothe r explana

t ion of a l ine marked on the stone next below the

verti cal one. I shou ld imagine thi s l ine,which i s

nothing more than a mark such as might b e ru led

with a blunt steel instrument,but by a master

hand for power, evenness,straightness

,and sti l l

more for rectangulari ty to the passage axis,

’ was a

mere sign to show where the upright stone was to

come. But Professor Smyth,who gives no ex pla

nation of the upright stone i tself,except that i t


seems,from its upright posit ion, to have had

‘some

thing representat ive of setting up, or preparat ion

for the erecting of a bu i ld ing,’ bel ieves that the

mark i s as many inches from the mouth of the

tunnel as there were years between the d ispersal of

man and the bu i ld ing of the pyramid that thence

downwards to the place where an ascending pas

sage begi ns, marks in l ike manner the number

of years which were to fol low before the exodus ;

thence along the ascend ing passage to the begin

n ing of the great gal lery the number of years from

the exodus to the coming of Christ ; and thence

along the floor of the grand gal lery to i ts end, the

i nterval between the first coming of Chri st and

the second coming, or the end of the world , which i t

appears was to have taken place i n the year 188 1 .

It i s true not one of these intervals accords wi th the

dates given by those who are considered the best

authori ties i n B ibl ical matters, - but so much the

worse for the dates .

To return to the pyramid .

But what speci al purpose had the archi tect i n

view,as he p lanned the addition of layer after layer

of the pyramidal st ructure ? So far as the mere

orienting of the faces of the pyramid was concerned ,

he had ach ieved h is pu rpose so soon as he had

obtained , by means of the incl ined passage , the


chief of al l pu rposes to which a great publ i c ob ser

vatory,at any rate

,can be appli ed, i t i s the pole

star,simply because that star moves so slowly

round its smal l c i rcl e. But for determ ining the

d i rection of the true north point (and al so for deter

min ing lat itude) the pole - star i s i nvaluable . No

astronomer who thinks over the problem at al l,can

fai l to see that the bu i lder of the Great Pyramid

would have been driven by the requ i rements of h i s

case to make j ust such a sl ant descend ing passage

as that which opens out (now that the casing

stones have been removed) on the northern s ide of

the pyramid , not far above i ts base. I t i s equal lycertain that such a descend ing passage would have

been d i rected to the posi t ion of the pole - star when

i t was due north and - at i ts l owest. The posi tion

of the pole - star when exactly above the pol e wou ld

have been j ust as wel l su i ted for determin ing the

d i recti on of the tru e north , but the slant passage

would have had to run deeper down into the sol id

rock to give the same degree of accuracy,and the

extra labou uld have been w

en , after mark ing the posi t ion of the base,

the quest ion of Obtain ing the t rue l eve l c ame to b e

considered , only one method e ffective enough to

give the requ i red accu racy would have been avai l

able— viz . the use of water, flood ing the squared

THE PROBLEM OF THE PYRAMIDS. 1 1 7

space cut ou t in the sol id rock. A d i fficu lt and

costly task, doubtless , i n i tse l f, but a mere nothing

considered wi th reference to the labour and cost to

which the bui lde rs were prepared to go. For th i s

purpose , the descend ing passage would have to b e

temporari ly p lugged ; and as soon as the water

level had been marked at several stations on each

s ide of the base, the plug cou ld b e removed , and the

water run Off i nto the p i t which had been ex ca

vated underneath . A depth of a few inches of

water al l ove r the base would have su ffi ced for th is

se, but more probably a mere channe l

p repared .

After thus g the base by aid of the

pole- star,and leve l l ing i t by using a property of

l iquids whi ch was, of cou rse , well known to them ,

the arch itects would place l ayer after laye r, carry

ing towards the north the passage for observing the

pole - star,so that as each laye r was placed , the

work of orient ing,and poss ibly of level l i ng, might

be repeated,and an ever- i ncreasing exacti tude

secu red .

But they would know that ere long the d i rect

pole—s tar obse rvations would fai l them for the

passage would presently reach the northern face of

the pyramid . By again using a we l l - known p ro

perty of l iqu ids, however, combined with a we l l


known property of l ight rays,they wou ld continue

the process of orienting to a much greater height .

(When I say we l l - known, I mean wel l- known to

them : they were mani festly ski lfu l engineers and

archi tects, and as su re ly as they were we l l ac

q uainted with the propert ies of matter,so su rely

must they have been acquainted with the mathe

mat ical relat ions on which the simpler optica l

l aws depend . Poss ibly they knew laws more

recond ite ; but the s impler laws they

ickly sug

lf to any one knowing these laws, would b e

to make use Of the reflected rays from a star when

the d i rect rays could no longe r be employed . We

know that when a ray from a luminous objec t i s

reflected at a plane surface , the reflected ray and

the inc ident ray make equal angles wi th a l ine per

d icular to the surface at the point of i ncidence,

are also both i n the sam

d icu what

0 have a constant means of determ in

i ng the d i rection Of north and south— in othe r

words,a constant knowledge of the posi tion of

what modern astronomers cal l the plane of the

merid ian . They had thi s so l ong as they could

Observe the pole - star when due north, through a

passage open ing out withi n th e square laye r they

THE GREAT PYRAMID.

be al l that would b e need ed here . I f the descend

i ng passage we re for a t ime (a day, or even an hou r

FIG. 5 .

would su ffice) plugged at B. and water pou red in so

as to partial ly fi l l the angle thus formed at B, the


surface of that water would reflect the rays of

Alpha Dracon is up the ascending passage B C . The

d i rection for the south l ine thus ind icated could b e

marked,and then the plug left to s l ide down to the

subterranean chamber. Once a year (supposing

one layer of stones added each year,as Lepsius

su rmises) would have sufficed for thi s operation .

Not only d o we thus find a natu ral and perfect

explanat ion Of the c i rcumstance (hitherto unex

pla ined) that the ascend ing passage i s incl ined at

the same angle to the hori zon as the descend ing

passage,but precise ly as we might expect from a

true theory, we find that other points of d i fficu lty

have here thei r explanation .

‘ I t i s obvious that at

B the casing- stones of the descending passage wou ld

have to b e ve ry closely set and careful ly cemented ,

so that the water used,year after year

,i n obtain ing

Most pyramidal ist s content themsel ves by assuming, as SirE.

Becket t pu ts i t, ‘ that the same angle woul d p robab ly b e used forboth set s of passages, as tlzere was no reason f or varying i t,

’whi ch

i s not exact ly an explanat ion of the re lat ion. Mr. Wackerbarthhas suggested that the passages were so adj usted for the pu rpose o f

managing a system Of balance cars un i ted by ropes from one passaget o anothe r but thi s explanat ion i s open, as Becket t po in t s out , t othe fatal object ion that the passages meet a t the i r lowes t point , nota t the i r highest , so that i t would b e rather a puzzle ‘ to work ou tthe mechan ical idea .

’The reflect ion explanat ion i s no t on ly open

t o no such obj ect ions , but involves p rec ise ly such an appl icat ion of

opt i cal l aws as we shou ld expec t from men as ingen ious as thepyramid bu i l ders certa inly were.


the reflected rays, might not percolate through and

do mischief. Now,j ust here, we find the stones of

the descend ing passage arranged with greater pre

cision and made of better material . ‘Why,’ says

Smyth— who noti ces everything, but seems always

to insist on some forced explanation why did the

bui lders change the rectangular j oint at that point,

and execute such unusual angle as they chose i n

place of i t,i n a better materi al of stone than else

where,and yet with so l i ttl e d esi re to cal l general

attent ion to it,that they made the j oints fine and

c lose to that degree that they escaped the attention

Of al l men unt i l 1865 AD.

‘ The answer came

from the d iagonal joints themselves,i n d i scovering

that the stone between them was opposi te to the

butt end of the portcul l i s of the fi rst ascend ing pas

sage, or to the hol e whence the prismati c stone of

concealment through years,had dropped out

almost before Al Manoun’

s eyes . Here,therefore ,

was a sec ret s ign in the pavement of the entrance

passage, apprec i able only to a careful eye and a

measurement by angle, but made i n such hard

material that i t was evidently intended to last to

the end of human time with the Great Pyramid ,

and has done so thus far.’ In other words the

stones were thus carefu l ly fitted that they might be

a sign to Professor Piazz i Smyth and the pyramidal


acceptabl e to pyramidal i sts,who prefer to bel i eve

that the l abours of the pyramid bui lders were

read i ly b e en l arged in a ver t ical d i rect ion , the floor remain ing nua l tered . Since i t i s not en l arged un t i l the great gal le ry is reached(at a d istance of near ly 12 7 fee t from the place where the ascen tbegins) , i t fol lows, or i s a t least rendered high ly p robable, thatsome br ight star was in v iew through that ascend ing passage.

Now, tak ing the date 2 170 B.C . , wh ich Professo r Smyth ass igns t o

the beg inn ing of the Great Pyramid , or even t ak ing any date (as wefai rly may ) , wi th in a centu ry or so on e i ther s ide of that date, wefind no bright sta r wh i ch woul d have been v isib le when due south ,

through the ascend ing passage. Ihave calcu la ted the pos it ion o f

that c i rcle among the stars along wh ich l ay all the point s passing2 6° 18’ above the horizon when due sou th, in the l at i tude of Gh i zeh,

2 170 years before the Chr i st i an era ; and i t do es not pass near as ingle consp icuou s star. There i s only one fou rth magni t ude sta rwh i ch i t actual ly approaches— name ly , Epsi lon Ce t i and one fi fthmagn i t ud star

,Be ta of the Sou the rn C rown . When we remember

that Egyptologists almost wi thou t except i on asser t that the date of

the bu i ld ing of the pyramid must have been more than a thousandyears earl ier than 2 1 70 B. C .

,and tha t Bunsen has assigned to Menes

the date 3620 B. C . ,whi le the date 3 300 B. C . has been assigned to

Cheops or Suphis on apparent ly good au thori ty , we are led t oInqu i re whe ther the other epoch when Alpha Draconi s was atabout the r ight d istance from the pole of the heavens may not havebeen the t rue era of the commencement of the Great Pyramid . Now

,

the year 3 300 B. C . ,though a l i t t le late, would accord fai rly we l l

w i th the t ime when Alpha D racon i s was at the p roper d istancefrom the pole o f the heavens . If the incl inat ion of the ent rancepassage i s 26° as Pro fessor Smyth made i t, the exact date forth i s wou ld b e 3 390 D. C . i f 2 6° as othe rs made i t before hismeasu rement s , the date woul d b e abou t 3 3 20 B. C . , whi ch would su i twe l l Wi th the date 3 300 B. C .

,s ince a cen tu ry e i ther waywould on ly

carry the star about a thi rd o f a degree toward s o r from the pole.

Now,when we inqu i re whe the r in the year 3 300 B. C . any brigh t

s tar would have been v is ib le, at south ing, through the ascend ingpassage

,we find tha t a very br igh t s ta r indeed , an orb otherwi se


di rected by archi tects knowing al l that is now known

i n science , and more ; but we are,at l east, saved

from the in congru i ty of assuming that these won

drously- gifted arch i tects were id i oti c enough to

adopt the blunderi ng plan assigned to them— hid

i ng away for prese rvation the i r sacred symbol isms

and prophet i c teach ings , i n a bu i l ding so con

structed that i ts i nteri or cou ld only b e reached by

be i ng forc ibly broken i nto, and would as a matter

of fact b e never properly measured unti l i t had lost

i n great part the perfect ion of form on which i ts

value for the supposed purpose depended .

This wi l l appear st i l l more c learly when we

cons ider the Great Gal le ry, which to the astronomer

i s the most obviously astronomical part Of the

bui ld ing, but to the pyramidal i st i s a sort Of

Zadk ie l ’s Almanac in stone .

All the featu res thus far have been such as we

shou ld expect to find in a

'

mass ive structure such

as this,intended— for whateve r reason— to be very

careful ly oriented . They are such , i n fact, as cou ld

not but exist i n a bu i ld ing oriented so successfu lly

as the Great Pyramid unequestionab ly i s, un less

remarkable as the nearest of al l the stars, the bri l l iant Alpha Cent au ri

,shone as i t c rossed the me r id ian righ t down that ascend ing

tube . It i s so br igh t that , v iewed through that tube , i t must havebeen v is ible to the naked eye, even when sou th ing in ful l dayl ight .


some utterly i ncred ible chance had enabled the

bui lders, by an imperfect method, to h i t acc i

dentally on so perfect an orientat ion . Even then ,

i n passing fromthe ground level to higher levels,

they must inevitably have lost the perfection of

the i r ori entat ion, unless they had had such means

of keeping thei r work correc t as we find they had .

Thi s being so,the chances being practi cal ly infinite

against thei r firs t obtain ing,and afterwards retain

ing, such accuracy of orientation,without long

,

s lant passages,su ch as we find within the pyramid

,

we are logical ly j ustified in saying i t i s certain that

the passages were used i n that way, and were

intended orig i nal ly to subserve that purpose.

The case i s somewhat al tered when we reach

the point C , where the ascending passage ceases to

be of the same smal l square section as the descend

ing one. Up to thi s point i ts purpose i s obvious.

But so far as mere orientation was conc erned,there

seems no reason why i t should not have retained

the same section to a highe r l evel . I t i s t ru e that

the nearer i t approached to the central l i ne,LF

,

‘

the less effective i ts di rect value but certai nly this

Thi s l ine i s not vert ical ly be low the vertex , V, bu t cent ral , in

the sense of be ing the ve rt ical l ine where the horizon ta l north andsou th l ine from the ascend ing and descend ing passages c rosses theeast and west pl ane through the vertex .

THE GREAT PYEAMID.

the bu i lding of colossal tombs seems to have

been .

At the point C,however, al l doubt ceases . The

astronomical natu re of the bui lders ’ purpose b e

comes here as c lear and certain as al ready the

astronomical natu re of the i r methods has been .

For from here upwards the smal l ascend ing pas

sage i s changed to one of great he ight,so as to

command a long verti cal Space of the heavens,

prec ise ly as a modern astronomer sets his trans i t

c i rcle to sweep the vert i cal meri dian . The floor,

however, of the ascend ing passage, and even its

s ides,are carried on unchanged in d i rection

,right

up to D,where the central vertical (see preceding

note) meets the ascend ing gal lery. So that from

B to D ,except where the hori zontal passage C L to

the so -

‘

cal led Q ueen’s Chambe r i s carried off

, the

floor of ascend ing passage and gal lery formed a

perfectly un iform slant p lane.

And here let us pause to inqu i re— see ing that

the astronomical purpose of the passage i s made

manifest— what shape an astronome r,who was

also an arch i tect, would give to the great ascend

ing s l i t, as i t were, through whi ch the transi ts Of

the heavenly bod ies were to b e watched . As an

astronomer,he wou ld l ike i t to be very high and

re latively narrow ; but as an arch i tect, he wou ld

THE PROBLEAT OF THE PYRAMIDS . 129

see that the vertical section cou ld not have such a

shape as AB C D i n fig. 6 for then , not only would

the s ide wal ls, AC , BD, be unstable, but the observer

would not be comfortably s ituated . Yet, as an

astronome r,he would know that such a shape as

i s shown in fig. 7 wou ld be unsu itable . To men

t ion only one case out of many, supposing he

wanted not only to observe a transi t of a heavenly

body along such a course as p ,A, or g, g, (which ,

during the short t ime the body was visible would

be practical ly a hori zontal l ine) , but also by Ob

servations on successive nights to determine the

course of a heavenly body on the star sphere along

a path as P1P,"which might be incl i ned : then ,

the slant of the wal ls would enti rely defeat his

purpose . He would requ i re,as an astronome r,

that the wal ls shou ld be absolute ly verti cal (note

the d i fference between the paths p ,A, g, 92, PI P2,

i n fig. 6, and the simi larly - lettered paths in fig.

while as an archi tect he wou ld know that they

must b e c loser at the top than at the bottom of a

passage so lofty as the Great Ascending Gal lery .

Fig. 8, giving the actual shape of the verti cal

sect ion of the Great Galle ry, shows how the astro

nom ical architects of the Great Pyramid combined

both qual i ti es. Every part of the walls i s ab so

K


lutely vertical, and yet the wal ls, regarded as

whol es,are aslant.

I f we had not seen from the beginn ing the

astronomical plan Of the Great Pyramid,and that

such a plan indi cated an astronomical purpose, we

shou ld find , I take i t, i n th i s doubl e character of

the Ascend ing Gal lery, proof posit ive that i t was

intended for astronomical Observation s . Only an

astronomer wou ld have set the archi tect such a

problem .

But i t may be sa id , How are Observers to

b e stationed along a slant gal lery such as thi s ,

with smooth and much - i ncl ined floor ? I s not the

i dea that such an unstab le place was intended for

exact ast ronomical obse rvation almost as absurd

as the not ion that the top of the pyramid was

meant for that pu rpose ?

Certain ly,i f a modern astronomer were plan

n ing a sl ant gal lery for trans i t work he would

arrange for comfortable observation (the only ob

servation which can b e trustworthy) .

Now the ramps, as Professor P iazz i Smyth

cal ls them— the long slant stone banks,shown in

section at R and R’ i n fig. 8 — seem as i f they had

some reference to such a pu rpose. They are at a

convenient he ight above the leve l Of the slan t

floor,i nsomuch that Smyth pictu res hi s Arabs


l ean ing on them , stepping on to them ,and so

forth. But they would not serve of themse lves to

make observat ions easy. The Observer has to b e

set i n the middle of the gall ery (at whatever point

of i ts length he may b e), and he ought to be

comfortably seated . I th ink, i f I were planning

for his comfort (which means fitness to make good

Observations) , I should have seats set across from

ramp to ramp . They must be movable, of course

and if there were not something along the ramps ’

uppe r surface to hold them, they would sl ide

down,carrying the observer most uncomfortably

with them . I shou ld,therefore, have holes cut

out along the tops of the ramps at convenient

d istances ; the holes on one s ide being exactly

opposite those on the other. A set of cross

benches should then be made,with proj ections

correspond ing to these holes ; Then a bench

cou ld be set wherever i t was wanted, or several at

a t ime, so that d ifferent observers might watch the

same trans it ac ross d i fferent parts of the fie ld of

view, as along p , A, g, 92, and r1r2. For some

Observat ions, i ndeed, such holes would serve yet

another purpose. By means Of them,screens

cou ld be set up by which to d iminish the field of

view and make the observations more exact. Or

on such screens, images of the sun (showing the


sun spots,be it remarked) could be thrown through

a smal l Open ing on a screen , covering for the t ime

the mouth of the gal lery. For such observations

the holes would be conven ient ; for the seats they

would be absolute ly essent ial .

Now no traces of the seats themselves, with

the i r project ions,cushions

, &c., &c ., have been

found,or were l ike ly to b e found . But holes i n

the ramps are there st i l l ; twenty- eight Of them

there were original ly in each ramp,though now on ly

twenty- six remain , owing to the destruct ion of a

ramp - stone . They are si tuated j ust as they shou ld

b e to subserve the purposes I have ment ioned

that is, at equal d istances (of about 5—5 feet), and

each hole on the east s ide of the gal lery i s exactly

opposi te the correspond ing hole on the left s ide .

Regarded as a sort of architec tu ral transit in

strument, the Great Gal lery would, of cou rse, have

to b e carried up to a certain height, and there Open

out on the level to which the pyramid had then

attained, the sides and top being carri ed up unti l

the southernmost end of the gallery was completed

with a vert ical section l ike that shown in fig . 10

(facing p . This would be the ‘ object end ’

of

the great Observing- tube. The observer might b e

anywhe re along the tube, accord ing to the posi

t ion of the Obj ect whose transi t was to be observed .


a cl epsyd ra , or water - c lock— must have been set

there , and person s appoi nted to mark the passage

of time i n some way, and to note also the i nstants

when the observer or observers i n the Great Gal lery

s ignal led the beginn ing or end of transi t across

the gal lery’s fie ld of View. These t ime - i nd icating

persons, with thei r instruments, would have occu

pied the space where now are the floors of the so

cal led Antechamber and King’s Chamber— then ,

of cou rse, not wall ed i n (or the walls would have

obstructed the V i ew along the gal lery ) . These

persons themselves would not obstruct the view,

unless they came too near the mouth of the gal lery.

Or they m ight be close to the mouth of the gal lery

at i ts sides,without obstruct ing the view.

But now,notice that i f the place they thus

occupi ed— the future Ki ng’s Chamber (perhaps, as

the region in or near which al l the observations of

the heavenly host i n culmination had been made)were in the centre Of the square top of the

pyramid as thus far bui l t, they would b e ve ry much

i n the way of other Observers, who ought to b e

stationed at certain spec ial points on thi s hori zontal

top,to observe certain important hori zontal l ines,

viz . the l ines d irected to the card inal points and to

points m idway between these . An obse rve r who

had this task ass igned him should occupy the very

THE PEOPLEM OF THE PYEAMIDS . x37

centre of the square top of the, as yet, incomplete

pyramid,so that the middle point of each s ide would

mark a card inal poi nt,whi le the angles of the square

would mark the mid - card inal points . Al so thi s

central point ought not only to command d i rection

l i nes to the angles and bisections of the sides, but

to be commanded,without Obstruction, by di rection

l i nes from these points .

Thus the upper end of the Great Ascending

Galle ry should not b e exactly at the centre,but

somewhat e i ther to the west or to the east o f the

centre of the great square summit of the incomplete

pyramid .

Let us see how th is matter was actuallyarranged

Fig. 9 shows the incomplete pyramid , as sup

posed to b e vi ewed from above . The fou r sockets,

s .7v. ,u .m.,

n .e. , and s .e. ,were supposed

,unti l qu i te

recently, to mark the exact posi tion of the fou r base

angles of the pyramid . I t turns out, howeve r, that

they are rather bel ow the leve l of the real basal

p lane of the structure,which is

,therefore

,somewhat

smal ler than had been supposed .

Fig. 9 i s , however, chiefly intended to show the

natu re of the square platform ,which formed thetop

of the pyramidal frustum when the leve l Of the floor

of the gallery of the King’s Chamber had just been

I 3 3 THE GREAT PYEAM1D.

reached . We have a horizontal sect ion of th e

pyramid,i n fact

,taken through the floor Of the

King’s Chamber andAntechamber— that is,through

S D , i n the figure on p . 120. The bottl e - shaped

black space, near 0,gives the section of the slant

ing gal lery,beginn ing on the southern s ide at i ts

widest part, reaching a narrower part somewhat to

the north of O, and thereafter narrowing towards

the north, t i l l the sect ion of the uppermost or nar

rowest part i s reached . The dotted l ines show

where the Grand Gal lery and the narrow ascend ing

passage (ascend ing for one passing towards the

King’s Chamber) pass downwards into the structure

of the pyramid at e i s the place where descend ing

and ascend ing passages meet. The posi t ion,also

,

of the entrance- hol e,forced in by Al Mamoun , at

about the leve l of the angle e, i s ind icated .

At O i s the centre of the square su rface, which

then formed the top of the structure . I f posts

were placed at the angles nan , s .w., s .e.,s .w . , and

also at n .,e. , s . ,

and w,an Observe r stationed at O

would have the cardinal and the mid - card inal points

exactly indicated . Now the point O i s about eight

and a- half paces from the middle of the southern

opening of the Grand Gallery ; so that, i f there

were an assistant obse rve r at 0, he cou ld commun i

cate t ime signals read ily both t o the observers i n

Horizontal Section of the Great Pyra

149 THE GREAT PYEAM1D.

s ., to ob serve in the correspond ing d i rect ions b e

longing to the i r stations . Observers at u .m., s .w. ,

s .e., and m o. cou ld al so do excel lent work . I n fac t ,

between them they could take the hori zon tal car

d inal and m id - card inal d i rections better than the

observe r stationed at O, though his would b e the

best station for gene ral work with the astrol abe.

Yet again,for observing heavenly bodies at

cons iderable alti tudes,stati ons neare r to the up

rights at s .w . , w , nan ,&c .

,would be useful . Where

e l se cou ld they b e so we l l p laced as at the points

a,o,c,d,where the l ines w .s . ,

i on,e.s ., and e n .

intersect the d iagonals of the square surface of

the pyram i da l structure ? Note , also, that these

Observing stations would be at conven ient d istances

from each othe r. The sides of this square surface

would b e roughly about 175 paces long, so that

such a d istance as a.w .,or a.Owould on ly b e about

6 2 yards (the length of the Grand Gal lery being

about 52 yards) .

Thus there would be thi rteen observers of

azimuthal d i rections and al t itudes,whose work

would be combined with that of at l east seven

t rans i t Observers along d ifl'

erent parts of the length

o f the Great Gallery with i ts seven trans i t widths (as

shown byi ts sect ion , fig. 8, p . 1 Twenty obse rvers

i n al l (the trans i t workers provided with the great

FIG. 10 .- V crtical Sect ion through the Grand Gal lery .

142 THE GREAT PYRAJTID.

Gallery, a very close approximation to true s idereal

t ime cou ld be obtained .

I apprehend , however, that astronomers who

had shown themselves so ingen ious in other respects,

would not have omitted to note the advantage of

sui tably - adj usted screens for spec ial transi t Ob ser

vations ; and i t seems to me l ikely that the long

grooves shown in section at Eand k’ (fig. 8, p . 13 1)might have been used in connection wi th such a pur

pose, and not merely/ (though that was probably oneof

the Obj ects they were i ntended to subserve) to carry

a hori zontal s l id ing c ross- bar,by means of which

the al t i tude of a celest ial body at the moment of

t rans i t cou ld b e more read i ly determined . We

must not forget that transi t observers have to

determine what is cal led the decl ination o f a star

( i ts d i stance from the equator), as wel l as what is

cal led the right ascens ion,or d istance measured

paral le l to the equator from a certain assigned

point on that ci rcl e. For this pu rpose the hori

z ontal l i nes a a’, 6 u, &c. (fig. would be useful ,

but not su fficient. I incl ine to think that the

method used to Obtain accuracy in Observat ions for

determin ing dec l ination involved a very pract i ca l

use of the grooves EE’. Possibly a hori zontal bar

ran from If to le’,carrying vertical rods, across

which,at sui table d i stances, horizontal l ines were

THE PROBLEM OF THE PYRAIlIIDS . 143

drawn (or, better sti l l, hori zontal rods could b e sl i d

to any requi red height). The horizontal bar cou ld

be sl id to any conven ient posit ion,the vertical rods

adjusted,and at the time Of trans it the hori zontal

rods could be shifted to such a height as j ust to

touch a star when seen by an observer in the gal l ery

at the moment of mid - t ransi t.

I f a telescopi st in our own t ime wi l l t ry to plan

out a method of determin ing the decl inations and

right ascensions of stars (say, for the pu rpose of

forming a trustworthy star chart or catalogue),

without using a telescope,by using such an Ob serv

i ng place as the Great Gal lery, he wi l l see how

much might be done, so far as equatorial and

zod iacal stars were concerned and they are alto

gether the most important,even now, and were

sti l l more so i n the days when the stars i n thei r

courses were supposed to rule the fates of men and

nations.

How far the structure of the Grand Gal lery

corresponds with the requi rements of th is theory

can be j udged from the fol lowing desc ription given

by Professor Greaves i n 163 8‘ I t is

,

’ he says ,‘ a

very stately piece of work,and not inferior, either

i n respect of the curiosi ty of art or ri chness of

materials,to the most sumptuous and magnificent

bu i ld ings and a l itt le fu rther on he says : ‘ This

144 THE GREAT PYEAM10 .

gal lery, or corridor, or whatever else I may cal l i t,

i s bu i l t of white and pol ished marble (l imestone) ,

the whi ch i s very evenly cut i n spac ious squares or

tables . Of such materi al s as i s the pavement,

such i s the roof and such are the s ide wal ls that

flank i t ; the coagmentation or kn itting of the

j oints i s so close,that they are scarce ly d i scern ibl e

to a curi ous eye ; and that which adds grace to

the whole structu re, though i t makes the passage

the more sl ippe ry and d ifficu l t,i s the accl ivi ty or

ris ing of the ascent. The height of thi s gal lery i s

26 feet ’ (Professor Smyth’s carefu l measurements

show the true height to be more nearly 2 8 feet) ,

the breadth of 68 70 feet , of which 5 feet are

to b e al lowed for the way in the midst, which i s

s et and bounded on both s ides wi th two banks

( l ike benches) of s leek and poli shed stone ; each

Of these hath 17 17 of a foot in breadth,and as

much i n depth .

’ These measurements are not

stri ctly exact . Smyth made the breadth of the

gal lery above the banks or ramps,as he cal ls them

,

6 feet 103 i nches ; the space between the ramps,

3 feet 6 i nches ; the ramps nearly about 1 foot

811;i nches broad

,and nearly 1 foot 9 i nches high,

measu red transversely ; that i s, at right angles to

the ascending floor.

The d iversity of width which I have ind icated


shadows would be so far shortened , that a smal lernumber of observers on ly cou ld fol low the shadows’

motions ; but i n some respects, the Ob servations in

thi s part of the year cou ld be more read i ly and

exactly mad e than i n winter, when the shadow

spaces of various width would range along the

enti re l ength of the gal le ry .

S imi lar remarks would apply to the moon,

which could also be d i rectly observed . The

planets and stars of course cou ld only be observed

d i rectly.

The Grand Gal l ery cou ld be used for the Ob ser

vation of any celestial body southing higher than

above the hori zon but not very effectively

for objects passing near the zen ith. The Pleiades

cou ld b e we l l observed . They southed about

6 3—53—0 above the hori zon in the year 2 140 B.C . , or

thereabouts,when they were on the equ inoctial

colure. ‘ But i f I am right in taking the year

Thi s date i s somet imes given earl ier, but when account i s takenof the p roper mot ion of these stars we get abou t the date abovemen t ioned . I cannot unde rstand how D r. Bal l , Astronomer Roya lfor Irel and , has obta ined the date 2 248 B. C . ,

unless he has takenthe proper mot ion of Al cyone the wrong way. The proper mot iono f th i s s tar du ring the last years has been such as to increasethe star’s d istance from the equ inoct ial colu re ; and therefore , of

course, the actual interval of t ime s ince the star was on the colu re i sl ess than i t would b e calcu lated to b e i f the proper mot ion wereneglected.

THE PROBLEIM OF THE PYRArWIDS . 147

3 300 B.C.,when Alpha Centauri shone down the

smal ler ascend ing passage in southing, the Ple iades

were about 58° only above the hori zon when

southing,and therefore even more favourably ob

servable from the great merid ional gallery .

In passing I may note that at thi s t ime, about

3 300 years before our era, the equ inoctial point

( that is , the point where the sun passes north of

the equator,and the year begins accord ing to the

old manner of reckoning) was midway between

the horns of the Bu l l. So that then , and then

alone,a poet might truly speak of spring as the

t ime

Cand idus aui

ratis aperit quum cornibus annumTau rus,

as Vi rgi l incorrectly did (repeating doubtless some

Old trad i t ion ) at a later t ime. Even Professor

Smyth noti ces the necessity that the Pyramid

Gal lery should correspond in some degree with

such a date. For,’ says he

,

‘ there have been tra

d itions for long, whence aris ing I know not, that

the seven overlapp ings of the Grand Gal lery,so

impressive ly described by Professor Greaves, had

something to do with the Ple i ades, those pro

verb ially seven stars Of the primeval world ,’ only

that he considers the pyramid related to memori al,

L 2


not observing astronomy ‘of an earl ier date than

V i rgi l . ’ The Ple iades also were not regarded as

belonging to Taurus, but as forming an inde

pendent star group .

We have seen that the Great Pyramid i s so

perfectly oriented as to show that astronomical

observat ions of great accu racy were made by i ts

archi tects . No astronomer can doubt th is, for the

s imple reason that‘

every astronome r knows the

exceed ing difli culty of the task which the archi

tects solved so sat i sfactori ly,and that nothing

short of the most carefu l observat ion would have

enabl ed the bui lders to secure anything l ike the

accu racy whi ch, as a znatter of fact, they d id

secure. Many, not acquainted with the nature Of

the problem , imagine that all the bu i lders had to

do was to use some of those methods of tak ing

shadows,as

,for i nstance

,at solar noon (which has

to be fi rst d etermined, be i t not iced) , or before and

after noon, noting when shadows are equal (which

i s not an exact method , and requi res considerable

care even to give what i t can give— Imperfect

ori entation), and so forth . But to give the accu

racy which the bui lders Obtained, not only in the

o ri entation,but in getting the pyramid very close

to lati tude 30°

(wh ich was evidently what theywanted) , only very exact observations wou ld serve.


See ing this, and Observing that the ascend ing

j us t cons idered . But j us t in proport ion as the water surface wasd im in i shed wou l d the d ifficu l ty of see ing a star by reflected rays b eincreased . The bu il ders had , doub t less, good reason for mak ingthe descend ing passage about four fee t w i de and as many h igh. It

at any rate enab led them to see the pole - star read i ly, j ust as thew ide ‘ fie l d Of a comet -finder enables the ast ronome r to bringa ce lest ial objec t very easi ly into view. Whatever reason they hadfor thus secur ing a tole rably l arge field of v iew, they wou ld havep recisely the same reason for retain ing i t und imin i shed when theyused the reflected instead Of the d irect rays in observ ing a star .Now for th i s pu rpose nothing short of the whole breadth of the de

scend ing and ascend ing passages would suffice— in other words, nod ishfu l or th imb lefu l of water wou ld have served the i r pu rpose .

Then i t is asked why the descend ing passage should b e repeatedi n the other pyram id s when the orientat ion had al ready been secu redi n the Great Pyram id— man ifest ly in ignorance of the fac t that i twould b e far more d i f ficul t to take the orien tat ion for one pyram idfrom another, than t o do i t independently. It i s al so asked whe therthe slan t descend ing passages were not obv iously meant for the

s l id ing down of the k ing’s sarcophagus . Sl id ing the sarcophagusdown that i t m ight afterwards b e hauled up the ascend ing passageor i f not, what was the ascend ing passage for? and why was i t ofthe same cross sect ion as the descend ing passage ? If the sarcophagus alone had been in quest i on,

we may b e ce rtain that thepyramid enginee rs wou ld never have arranged for sl id ing i t downfrom the leve l of the en t rance to the descend ing passage, to the placewhere the ascend ing passage begins, in order afterwards to rai se i tby the ascend ing passage . If they meant to go down to the underg round chamber they wou ld not have raised it a t al l

,but let i t down

from the leve l of the pyramid ’s base. But to say t ru th, mov ing thesarcophagus was a me re noth ing compared wi th the l ift ing of thegreat sol id blocks whi ch formed the pyramid ’s mass. The engineerswho moved these great sol id block s to the i r pl aces would not havewan ted slan t passages a t the r ight frict ion slope, and al l the rest ofi t,by wh i ch to take the sarcophagus to i ts place ; nor wou ld they

have prov ided for unnecessa ry descent s o r ascent s e i ther, bu t havetaken the sarcophagus from the outside to i ts proper level, and senti t a long a leve l passage .


and descend ing passages are just such as the astro

nomer would make to secure such a resu lt, we may

accept, without doubt, the bel i ef that they were

made for that purpose.

Then we saw that the features of the Great

Ascending Gal lery were not such as would b e

essential,or even desi rable

,to inc rease or maintain

the accuracy of the orientation , as layer after laye r

was added to the pyram id , but are precise ly such

as would b e essential i f the pyramid was mean t

to subserve (as one,at l east

, of i ts Objects) the

purpose of an observatory.

But persons unfami l iar with astronomy wi l l

say,This Great Ascend ing Gal lery would only en

abl e astronomers to Obse rve stars when due south ,

or nearly so,and only those which , when due

south,were within a certain d istance above or

below the point towards which the axis of the

Great Gal lery i s d irected . Were al l the other stars

left unobserved ? And again , we know that the

Egyptians, l ike al l ancient astronomers, paid great

attention to the ri sing and setting of the heavenly

bodi es,and espec ial ly to what was cal led the helia

cal ri si ng and setting of the stars . I n what way

would the Great Gal lery he lp them here ?

Now, with regard to the first point,we note

that the chief instrument of exact observation i n


modern Observatories,the one which, as i t were,

governs all the others , has precisely thi s qual i ty

it i s always directed to the merid ian, and has ,

i ndeed , a very much narrower range of View on

e i ther s ide of the merid ian than the Great Gallery

had . And though i t is indeed free to range over

the whol e arc of the merid ian from the south

hori zon poin t through the point overhead to the

north horizon point, i t i s mainly employed over

about that range north and south of the ce lest ia l

equator which was commanded by the Great

Gallery. The vi sitor at Greenwich sees the great

equatorial , and imagines that to be the ch ief ob

serving instrument . The comparat ive ly unob tru

s ive transi t c i rcl e seems far less important . Bu t

the t ime observations, which are far and away the

most important observations made at Greenwich,

are al l made, or at least al l regulated,by the

trans it observat ions. So are the observations for

determin ing the posi tions of stars .

When the equatorial i s u sed to make a t ime

or pos ition Observation, i t i s u sed as a di ffe rential

i nstrument ; i t i s employed to determ ine how far

east or west a star may b e (theoretical ly, how

much i t d i ffers i n right ascension measured by

t ime) from another ; and again , to show how far

north or south a star may be (theoretical ly, h ow


merid ional work,the astronomer recogn i ses

a fel low- worker. He says,with the poet :

I am as Old as Egypt t o myse lf,

Brother to them that squared the Pyram id sBy the same s tars Iwatch.

And now conside r what was this great Ob ser

vatory of anc ient Egypt — the most perfect ever

made t i l l te lescopi c art revealed a way of exact

observation without those mass ive structu res . A

mighty mass, having a base larger than the square

o f Lincoln’s Inn,ri s ing by just fifty laye rs to a

height of abou t 142 feet, and presenting towards

the south the appearance shown in fig. 1 1,where

the mouth of the Great Gal l ery is seen Opening

southwards , and the l ines are shown which have

been al ready ind icated as Observing d i rections i n

the p i ctu re fac ing p . 13 8 . The pyramid observatory

i s shown in sect ion in fig. 12 . I t wi l l b e noti ced

that the success ive layers. are not of equal thi ck

ness . There are j ust fifty between the base and

plane of the floor of the King’s Chamber. The

d i rect ion - l ines for the mid - day sun at m idsummer,

midwinter, and the equ inoxes are shown also the

l i nes to the two stars , Alpha Dracon is and Alpha

Centau ri,are given at the subpolar merid ional

passage of the former and the merid ional passage


But here our di fficu l t ies begin . Astronomy no

longe r lends i ts aid when we ask why the bu i lder

of the Great Pyramid wanted to have an astro

nomical observatory as wel l as a tomb . To begin

with, I suppose Egyptologists are qu ite c lear that a

main purpose of each pyramid was that i t shoul d

serve for a tomb. And I suppose,further

,that this

being so, i t was essential that each pyramid , i nc lud

ing that one which we have been regard ing hitherto

only i n i ts astronomical aspect,should be as nearly

as poss ibl e completed before the death of i ts futu re

occupant . There may b e, for aught I know,some

reason to bel ieve that i n the days of the pyramids

an Egyptian king might b e abl e i n some way to

assure himse l f of the éona fides of his su ccessors ,

and that they would continu e the work which he

had begun and more than half completed . But i t

i s very di fficu l t to imagine that th is real ly was the

case. Human natu re must in those days have

resembled pretty close ly human nature i n ou r own

t ime ; and i t seems as unl ike ly that a king cou l d

t rust i n h is successors so far as to be l i eve they

would expend large sums of money and a great

amount of l abou r i n complet ing a work i n which

they had no d i rect or actual interest, as that, sup

posing he trusted them to thi s degree, the i r con

duct after his death would have j ust ified his

THE PROBLEM OF THE PYRAMIDS . x57

confidence. Thus, when we find that the Great

Pyramid was actual ly completed in the most care

fu l and perfect manne r, we have very strong reason

for bel ieving it to have been a l l but completed

during the l i fet ime of the king, i ts bu i lder— i f i t

was indeed intended for hi s tomb . I must confess

that the exclus ive ly tombic theory of the Great

Pyramid (at least) had always seemed to me

utterly incred ibl e,even before I advanced what

seems to me the on ly reasonable i nterpre tation of

i ts erect ion . One may admi t that the s ingular

taste Of the Egyptian kings for monstrous tombs

was carried to a preposterous extent,but not to

an extent qu ite so preposterous.

as the exclusively

tombic theory would requ ire . Of cou rse,when

we see that the detai l s of the great ed ifice ind icate

unmistakably an astronomical object , whi ch was

regarded as of such importance as to j ust i fy the

extremest care, our Op in ion i s strengthened that

the pyramid was not solely meant for a tomb.

For this would bring i n another absu rd ity,scarce ly

less than that involved in the exclus ive ly tombi c

theory of structures so vast,i f even they were non

astronomical— this,

namely, that the Egyptian

k ings thought the ce lest ial bod i es and thei r move

ments so espec ial ly related to cli ent , that the i r long

home must be astronomical ly posited with a degree

158 THE GREAT PYEAM1D.

o f care far surpassing that which has ever‘ been

given to an astronomi cal observatory. Common

sense compels us to bel ieve that whether the Great

Pyramid was meant for a tomb or not, i ts astrono

mical character was given to i t for some purpose

relating to the l iving king who had i t bu i l t . (I

suppose Egyptologists are absolute ly ce rtai n that

the Great Pyramid was bui l t by one king, and ,

therefore, within a few decades of years .)Now, i t i s not reasonable to suppose King

Cheops’ purpose was simply sci ent ific . We may

fai rly take i t for granted that the k ing who ex

pended such vast sums and s acrificed so many

l ives to bu i ld for himself a tomb , was not a man

taking a d is interested interest i n science, or even

ready to help the pri ests of his day to regulate

rel ig ious ceremon ial s by astronomical Observations

conducted with reference on ly to general re l igious

relations . To pu t the matter plainly, the bu i lder

of the Great Pyramid must have thought of himse l f

fi rst next,of his dynasty ; then , perhaps , of the

priesthood (though always wi th reference to the

bearing of re l igi ous ceremon ies on the we l fare of

himself and his dynasty) lastly , of hi s people , as

Even in ou r own t ime, though we get greater accu racy in ou rObservat ions than Cheops Obtained in his pyramid , we have not togive anyth ing l ike the same degree of care to the wo rk .

160 THE GREAT PYRATWID.

the astrologi cal system of old Egypt. OurSundayi s the Old Chaldaean and Egyptian quarter- month

rest day,and the J ewish Sabbath i s thi s quarter

month rest day assoc iated wi th the bel ief i n the

malefic i nfluence of the planet (Satu rn) , which

formerly ruled the last day of the week (st i l l cal led

Saturday or Satu rn’s The morn ing and

A corresponden t of Knowledge touched on the assoc iat ion whi ch Imen t ioned as ex ist ing between the Jewi sh Sabbath (ourSatu rd ay ) and Satu rn l abou ring

,man i fest ly, under the impress ion

that the point at i ssue was the i den t i ty of the Roman god Saturnw i th the Scand inav ian de i ty assigned to Saturday. But of cou rseth i s i s not the ques t i on a t i ssue . It i s not the god Saturn, bu tthe pl anet Satu rn, wh i ch i s assoc iated wi th Sat urday . How any

one can reconc i le the c lear statemen t of D ion Cassius w i th the

b e l ief that the days of theweek were not associated wi th the plane t sun t i l the twe lfth century , passes my comprehens ion. D ion Cass iu sd ist inctly at tr ibutes the invent ion Of the week to the Egypt ians, andas he wrote a thousand years before the t ime named , there can b e noquest ion as to the greater an t iqu i ty of the week - day names . In the

anc ien t Brahmin i cal astronomy the days are assoc iated wi th the sameplanet s as among the Egypt ians. See Mr. Coleb rooke

’s papers in the

Asiati cResearc/zes . Among more fami l iar d iscussions of th i s mat te rmay b e ci ted Bai l ly ’sAstronom ie Indienne et Orientale, and Bohlen’sDas Alte Ina’ien . D ion Cassiu s refers to the connect ion betweenmusical interval s and the planets , showing that p robably the oldEgypt ian lore wh i ch Pythagoras of Samos brought to Greece, inc luded the assoc iat ion between the plane ts and the days of the week ;that

,in fact , al l three subj ect s were connected— planet s, musical

interval s, and the days of the week . Longfel low thus poet i cal l yrenders the v iews of Egyp t ian astrologers on these, wi th them,mys t ical mat ters z

Like the ast rologers of eld,In that great v ision I behel dGreater and deeper myster ies.I saw, wi th i ts celest ia l keys,

THE PROBLEIlI OF THE PYRAMIDS. 161

evening sacrifices of the J ews and thei r new moon

fest ivals were manifestly astronomical i n origin— in

other words astrological (for astronomy was nothing

except as astrology to the old Chaldaeans and

Egypti ans) . The Feast of the Passover, howeve r

l ater assoc iated with other events, was derived

from the old astrological Observance of the passage

of the’

sun (the Passing over of the Sun-God) across

the equator,ascend ingly ; whi le the Feast of

Tabernac les was in l ike manner ruled by the pas

sage of the s un over the equator descend ingly.

Our calendar ru les for Easter and other festivals

would never, we may be wel l assured , have been

made to d epend on the moon , but for thei r original

derivat ion from ast ronomical (that i s astrologi cal)ceremon ial .‘

Its chord s of ai r, i t s fret s of fire,The Samian’s great ZEolian lyre,Ri s ing through al l i t s sevenfold bars,From earth unto the fixéd stars .And through the dewy atmosphere,Not on ly coul d I see but hearIts wond rous and harmon ious st ringsIn swee t v ibrat ion

,sphe re by sphere

From D ian’s c i rc le l igh t and near,Onward to vaster, w ider r ings,Whe re, chant ing through h is beard of snowsMaj est i c , mournfu l Satu rn goes,And down the sun less realms of spaceReverbe rates the thunde r of his bass. ’

The Jewi sh people, when they left Egypt after the i rM


When we remember that the astronomy of the

t ime of Cheops was essential ly astrology, and

astrology a most important part of re l igion , we

begin to see how the e rection of the mighty mass

o f masonry for astronomical purposes may be ex

plained— or, rather, we see how, being certainly

astronomical,i t must b e explained . I nasmuch as

i t i s an astronomical bu i ld ing , erected in at ime

when astronomy was astrology, i t was erected for

astrological pu rposes . I t was i n this sense a sort

of temple,erected

,i ndeed , for the pecu l iar benefit

of one man or of a s ingle dynasty ; but as he was

a king in a t ime when being a king meant a great

deal,what benefited him he doubtless regarded

as a benefi t also to his people : in whateve r sense

the Great Pyramid had a rel igiou s sign ificance with

regard to h im, i t had also a nat ional re l igious

sign ificance.

I t would have been worth Cheops ’whi le to have

this great astrologica l observatory erected , even i f

soj ourn there, had doubt less become thoroughly accustomed to therel igious Observances of the Egypt ians (at any rate the re i s not thes l ightest refe rence even to the Sabbath before the soj ourn in Egypt) ,and we re d isposed not on ly to retain these Observances , but t oassociate wi th them the Egypt ian superst i t ions . We know thi s, infact, from the Bib le record . Moses could not— no man eve r couldtu rn a nat ion from Obse rvances once become part of thei r veryl i fe, but he cou ld , and d id , deprive them of thei r superst i t iouscharacter.

164 THE GREAT PYEAMID.

i t was closed in very soon after the k ing d ied for

whom it was bu i lt, that, i n fine, i ts astronomical

value related to himsel f alone. As an astrological

ed ifice, a gigantic horoscope for him and for him

only,we can understand its pu rport

,much though

we may marvel at the vast expenditu re of care,

l abour, and treasure at which i t was erected .

Granted fu l l faith i n astrology (and we know there

was such fai th), i t was worth whi le to bu i ld even

such a structure as the Great Pyramid ; j ust as,

granted the ideas of Egyptians about bu rial , we

can understand the erect ion of so mighty a mass

for a tomb,and . al l save i ts special ast ronomical

character. Of no other theory, I ventu re to say,

than that which combines these two strange but

most marked characteri stic s of the Egyptian

m ind, can thi s b e said .

I cou ld descant at great l ength on the valu e

wh ich the Great Pyramid,when in the condi tion

represented in fig . 1 1 (frontisp iece) and fig. 12,

must have had for astronomical Observati on . I

could show how much more exact ly than by the

use of any gnomon , the sun’s annual course

around the ce l estial sphere could be determined

by observations made from the Great Gal lery,

by noting the shadow of the edges of the uppe r

opening of the gal lery on the s ides, the floor,

THE PROBLEM OF THE PYRAMIDS. 165

and the upper surfaces of the ramps. The

moon ’s monthly path and i ts changes could have

been deal t with i n the same effective way. The

geocentri c paths,and thence the true paths, of

the planets could be determined very accu rate ly

by combining the use of tubes or ring- carrying

rods with the d i rection- l i nes dete rmined from the

gal lery’s s ides,

floor, &e . The place of every

visible star along the Zod iac (ast rologi cal ly the

most important part of the ste l lar heavens) cou ld

be mos t ac curate ly dete rmined . Had the pyramid

been left in that i ncomplete , but astronomical ly

most perfect,form

,the ed ifice might have re

mained for thousands of years the most im

portant astronomica l structure i n the world . Nay,

to this very day i t would have retained i ts

p re- eminence,provided , of course, that i ts advan

t ages ove r other bu i ld ings had been duly supple

mented by modern instrumental and opt i ca l im

provements .

Unfortunate ly, the Great Pyramid was erected

sole ly for selfish purposes . I t was to b e the tomb

o f Cheops, and whatever qual it ies i t had for astro

nom ical observation were to be devoted to hi s

servi ce on ly . The incalcu lable a id to the progress

o f astronomy which might have been obtained from

th is magn ificent structure entered i n no sort into


i ts k ing- bui lder’s plan . Centuries wou ld have been

requi red to reap even a t i the of the knowledge

which might have been derived from pyramid Ob

servations,and such observat ions were l im ited to

a few years— twenty, th i rty, forty, or fifty at th e

outs ide .

Now,whi le I am ful ly conscious that the astro

logica l theory of the Great Pyramid i s open to

most obvious, and , at the fi rs t s ight, most over

whe lming Objections,I venture to say not onlv

that these are completely met by what i s ce rtain ly

known about the pyramid,but that the astrolo

gical theory (combined , of cou rse,with the tomb

theory) i s demonst rably the t rue explanat ion

Of al l that had been myste rious in the Great

Pyramid .

Take the chief points which have perplexed

students of the pyramids general ly, and of the

Great Pyram id in particu l ar.

1 . Granting the most i nord inate affect ion for

large sepu lchral abodes , how can we account for

th e amaz ing amount of labou r, money, and t ime

bestowed on the Great Pyramid

The astrologi cal theory at once supp l i es the

answer. I f the bui lde r be l ieved what we know was

ac tual ly bel ieved by al l the Oriental nations re

spect ing planetary and ste l lar influences, i t was

168 THE GREAT PYRAIWID.

l i n es as would natural ly be used on such a p lat

form

FRIENDS LONG q

HONOR

Parti cu larSig'mficat iofis

OF THE

Ac cord ing to u n dii fi‘

As trologi Authors)

RICE-{ES KNESSERN

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A

GH ILOR

4 . Why did each king want a tomb of h is own ?

Why should not a larger fami ly mausoleum,one

i n whi ch al l the expense and labou r given to al l

the pyramids might have been combined, have

been preferred

I t may be noted here. that, according to some

THE PROBLEM OF THE PYRAMIDS. 169

t rad itions,the second pyramid , though somewhat

smaller than”

the first,and altogether inferio r i n

design,was begun somewhat earl ie r. I would

i nvi te special attent ion to thi s po int . I t i s one of

those perplexing detai ls which are always best

worth examin ing when we want to obtain a t ru e

theory. The second pyramid was certain ly bui l t

during the reign of the bui lde r of the firs t orGreat

Pyramid . I t must have been bu i lt, then , wi th hi s

sanction,for his brother

,Chephren, accord ing to

H erodotus ; Noun - Shofo,or Suphis I I ., according

to the Egypti an records . Enormous quanti ties of

stone,of the same qual ity as the stone used for

the Great Pyramid , were conveyed to the s i te of

the second pyramid,during the very t ime when

the resou rces of the nation were be ing large lytaxed to get the materials for the Great Pyramid

conveyed to the'

place appointed for that structure.

I t would appear,then

,that there was some strong

— in fact, some i nsuperable— Objection to the

bu i ld ing of one great pyramid , l arger by far than

ei ther the fi rst or second , for both the brothers .

Yet nothing has ever been learned respecting the

views of the Egyptians about tombs (save only

what is learned from the pyramids themselves,i f

we assume that they were only bui l t as tombs)which would suggest that each king wanted a


monstrous pyramid sepulchre for himself. I f we

coul d doubt that Cheops valued hi s brother an d

his fam ily very highly,we should find convinc ing

proof of the fact,i n the c i rcumstance that he

al lowed enormous sums to be expended on his

brother’s pyramid,and a great quanti ty of l abou r

to be devoted to i ts erect ion , at the time when hi s

own was in progress at st i l l greater expense,and at

the cost of st i l l greater labou r. But i f he thu s

highly esteemed his brother, and regard ing him as

the futu re ru ler of Egypt , recogn ised in him the

same almost sac red qual it ies which the people of

Egypt taught the i r ru le rs to recognise in themselves,

what was to prevent h im from combin ing the

moneys and the l abou rs which were devoted to the

two pyramids in th e construct ion of a s ingle larger

pyramid,whi ch could be made doubly secu re ,

and more perfectly des igned and executed ? I s

anything whatever known respecting e i ther the

Egyptians or any race of tomb - loving, or rather

corpse -worshipping people,which wou ld lead us

to suppose that a number of cost ly separate tomb

pyramids wou ld have been preferred to a s ingle,

but far larger,pyramid - mausoleum , which shou ld

rece ive the bod ies of al l the members of the fami ly,

or at l east of al l those of the fami ly who had ru led

in turn over the land ? I f we cou ld imagine for a.


chamber where the body was l aid . Cheops cou ld

not even be certain that Chephren would survive

him, or that h is own son , Mycerinus orMenkeres,

would be abl e to carry out th e pu rpose for which

he (Cheops) had bu i l t the pyramid .

Apart, then , from that featu re of the tomb

theory which seems so strangely to have escaped

noti ce— the utter wi ldness of the idea that even

the most tomb - loving race would bu i ld °tombs

qu i te so monstrous as these— we see that there are

the strongest possibl e object ions against the cred i

b ility of the merely tombi c theory (to use a word

coined,I imagine

,by Professor Piazz i Smyth, and

more conven ient perhaps than defens ible) . I t

seems clear on the face of th ings that the pyramids

must have been intended to serve some usefu l

pu rpose d uring the l i fetime of the bu i lder. I t i s

c lear also (all, i ndeed, save the bel ievers i n the

re l igion of the Great Pyramid , wi l l admit this point)that each pyramid served some purpose useful to

the bu i lder of the pyramid,and to him only.

Cheops’ pyramid was of no use to Chephren,

Chephren ’s of no use to Mycerinus, and so forth .

Othe rwi s e we might be sure, even i f we adopted

for a moment the exclusively tombic theory, that

though Chephren might have been so honest as

not to borrow his brother’s tomb when Cheops was


departed,orMycerinu s so honest as not to despoi l

ei ther his uncle or his father, yet among some of

the bui lders of the pyramids such honesty would

have been wanting. I t i s clear, however, from al l

the traditions which have reached us respecting the

pyramids, that no anxiety was entertained by the

bui lder of any pyramid on thi s score. Cheops

seems to have been wel l assu red that Chephren

would respect hi s pyramid , and even (at great ex

pense) complete i t and so of al l the rest. There

must , then, have been some speci al reasons which

rendered the pyramid of each king use less alto

gether to h i s su ccessor.

Astrology at once suppl i es a reason . Dead

kings of one fami ly might sleep with advantage i n

a single tomb ; but each man’s horoscope must be

kept by itse lf. Even to this day, the astrological

charlatan wou ld not d i scuss one man’s horoscope

on the plan drawn out and used for anothe r man ’s .

Everything,according to ancient astrological super

stition, would have become confused and indi st inct.

The ru l ing of the planets would have been imper

fect and unsat isfactory, i f King Cheops’ horoscope

platform had been used for Chephren,or Cheph

ren’s for Mycerinus . The re l igiou s solemnities

which accompanied astrological observations i n the

days when the chief astrologers were high priests ,


woul d have been rendered nugatory if those per

formed under su i tabl e condit ions for one person

were fol lowed by others performed under d ifferen t

cond it ions for another person .

5. How i s i t that the pyramid of Chephren

(Cheops’ brother), though abou t as large, i s qu ite

i nferi or to the pyramid of Cheops,the pyramid of

Mycerinu s (Cheops’ son) much smaller, and that

of Asychis (Cheops’ grandson) very much smal ler,

whi le to the younger sons and daughters of Cheops

very smal l pyramids, within the same enclosure as

the Great Pyramid , are assigned ?

The astrologi cal answer i s obvious. Cheops

not only had fu l l fai th i n astrology— as, indeed , al l

men had in h is day— but his faith was so l ively

that he put i t i n practi ce i n a very energet i c way

for the benefit of himse l f and dynasty. Chephren

prob aby had simi lar fai th. For the two brothers ,

separate pyramids,nearly equal i n s ize, were

made,either at the command of Cheops alone

,or

with such sancti on from Chephren as his (probable)

separate authority requi red and j ust ified . At t/ze

same time, and because hi s fortunes were obviously

assoc iated i n the closest manner with those of hi s

father and uncle, Cheops ( or Cheops and Chephren )would have a pyramid made for Mycerinus , but on

a smal ler scale . Probably, the astrology of those


mid problem to suppose that Cheops and Cheph

ren arranged for the erection of al l the pyramids,

or, at any rate, that the smal ler pyram ids were

raised to the horoscope - platform level during thei r

l i fetime.

Here, however, the astrological theory, i nstead

of encountering, as al l other theories do, a new

and serious d i fficu lty,

finds fresh support ; for thi s

arrangement i s p recise ly what we should expect

to find if the Great Pyramid was e rected to i ts

observing platform for astrological obse rvation and

the rel igious Observances associated with them . I t

i s certain that with the i deas Cheops must have

had (on that theory) of the importance of astro

nom ical observations to determ ine, and partly

govern , hi s futu re, he wou ld not have left hi s sons

without the i r pyramidal horoscopes. Even i f we

suppose he entertained such jealousy of his brother

Chephren,as Ori ental ( and some Occidental)

princes have been known to entertain of the i r near

kinsfolk and probable successors,that would be

but an add i tiona l reason for having hi s brother’s

horoscope - pyramid e rected on such a scale as the

astrologers and priests conside red su itable i n the

case of such near kinship . For by means of the

observat ions made by the astrologi cal priesthood

from Chephren ’s horoscope - platform , Cheops cou ld


l earn,according to the astrologi cal doctrines in

which he bel ieved, the futu re fortunes of hi s

brother,and even b e able to rule the planets i n h i s

own defence, where thei r configurat ions seemed

favourable to Chephren and threaten ing to him

self.

7. But i t may be urged that, beyond the gene

ral statement that the pyramids we re i ntended as

the tombs of thei r respect ive bu i lders, we learn too

l i tt l e from ancien t wri ters to form any satisfactory

idea of thei r obj ect.

I t so happens,however

,that the only prec ise

statement handed down to us respecting the use of

the pyramids— not merely of the Great Pyramid ,

but of al l the pyramids— accords with the astro

logical theory i n every detai l, and with no other

theory in any degree. For we learn from Proclus

that the pyramids of Egypt (which, accord ing to

Diodorus, had existed years before hi s

h istory was wri tten, about 8 B.C . ) terminated above

i n a p latform , from which the” priests made the i r

celest ial observations .

Observe how much is impl ied in this short

statement

Fi rst, all the pyramids had a use independent

of thei r final purpose as tomb s a use,therefore ,

during the l i fet ime of thei r futu re tenants,and

N

x78 THE GREAT PYRAMID.

presumably— one may say certain ly— relating to

the interests of those pe rsons .

Secondly, th is use was prec isely such as we

have been led to i nfer with al l bu t absolute

certainty, already, from the study of the Great

Pyramid .

Third ly, the astronomical observat ions were

made by priests,and were therefore re l igious in

character— a descript ion which could only apply

to astronomical observations made for astrological

pu rposes . I n al l p robabi l i ty,the pri ests who made

these observations p rofessed a rel igion d iffering

l i tt le from pu re Sabaism ,or the worship of the

heavenly host. But i t must be remembered that

astrology was the natural offspring of Sabaism .

Wherever we find an astronom ical p riesthood ,

there we find fai th i n astrology. But to say truth,

wh e re amo ng anc ient Ori ental nations was such

faith want ing ? The jews had l ess of i t than other

Oriental nat ions, but they were not free from it .

As they had al l thei r rel ig ious Observances regu

lated by the heaven ly bod i es , so they recogn ised

the in fluen ce of the ‘ stars i n thei r cou rses .’ I f

they bel i eved the heavenly bod ies to be for

seasons ’ (of rel igious worship) , and for‘ days and

years,

’ they bel ieved them also to be for ‘ s igns . ’

This also was the view of the anc i ent Chaldaeans.


serious d i fficu lty i n the astrological theory thus

d i sappears when closely examined , the d i fficulti es

i n the way of al l other theori es are so great, that,

to al l i ntents and purposes, they are not so much

di fficu lt ies as impossibi l i t ies.

I do not say that there i s nothing su rpris ing in

what i s known , when the theory i s admitted that

the Great Pyramid was bu i l t by Suphis or Cheops

i n order that astronomical observations might be

continued throughou t hi s l i fe, to determine h i s

futu re,to ascertai n what epochs were dangerous or

propit ious for him,and to note such unusual phe

nomena among the celest i al bod ies as seemed to

bode him good or evi l fortune. I t does seem

ama z ing,desp ite al l we know of the fulness of

fai th reposed by men of old t imes i n the fancifu l

doctrines of astrology,that any man , no matter

how rich or powerful , should devote many years

of his l i fe,a large portion of his wealth

,and the

l abours of many myriads of his subj ects, to so

chimeri cal a pu rpose. I t is strange that a bu i ld ing

erected for that purpose should not be capabl e o f

subserving a s imilar pu rpose for hi s successors on

the throne o f Egypt. Strange also that he should

have been able to provi de in some way for the

completion of the bu i ld ing after h i s death , though

that must have been a work of enormous labou r,


and very expensive,even though al l the materials

had been prepared during his own l ifet ime .

But I do assert with considerable confidence

that no other theory has been yet suggested (and

almost every imaginable theory has been advo

cated ) which gives the s l ightest answe r to these

chief d i fficu lt ies i n the pyramid problem . The

astrological theory,i f accepted , gives i ndeed an

answer whi ch requ ires us to be l ieve the kingly

bu i lder of the Great pyramid,and , in less degree,

those who with him or after him bui lt the others,

to have been utte rly se lfish , tyrann i cal, and super

st itious— or, i n brief, utterly unwise. But unfor

tunate ly the study of human nature brings before

us so many i l lustrat ions of the existence of such

folly and superst i t ion in as great or even greate r

d egree, that we need not for such reasons reject

the astrological theory. Of other theories i t may

b e said that, while not one of them,except the

wi ld theory which attributes the Great Pyramid to

d ivine ly instructed architects,presents the bu i lders

more favourably, every one of these theorie s leaves

the most strik ing features of the Great Pyramid

enti re ly unexplained .

Lastly, I wou ld note that the pyramids when

rightly viewed must b e regarded,not as monu

ments whi ch should exc i te our admi ration,but as


stupendous records of the length to which tyranny

and selfishness,fol ly and superstit ion

,l ust of power

and greed of wealth, wi l l carry man. Regarded

as works of ski l l,and as examples of what men

may effect by combined and long- continued labou r,

they are indeed marve l lous, and i n a s ense admi

rable . They wi l l remain i n al l probabi l i ty, and

wi l l be scarcely changed,when every other edifice

at this day exist ing on the surface of the earth

has e i ther crumbled into dust or changed out of

al l knowledge. The museums and l ibraries,the

churches and cathedrals, the obse rvatories, the

college bu i ld ings and other scholasti c edifices of

our t ime,are not for a moment to be compared

with the Great Pyram id of Egypt i n al l that con

stitutes materi al importance, strength, or stabi l i ty .

But whi l e the imperishable monuments of old

Egypt are records of tyranny and selfishness, the

less du rable structu res of our own age are,i n

’

the

main , records of at l east the des i re to inc rease the

knowledge,to advance the interests, and to ame

liorate the cond it ion of the human race. No good

whatever has resu lted to man from al l the l abou r,

misery, and expense i nvolved i n rais ing those

mighty structu res which seem fi tted to endure

whi le the world i tse lf shal l l ast. They are and

ever have been splendid ly worthless. On the other

APPENDICES.

APPENDIX A.

THE GREAT PYRAMID MEASURES, AND THE DIA

METERS AND DISTANCES OF THE SUN, EARTH , AND

MOON.

BY JOSEPH BAXENDELL,

A FEWmonths ago the results of a partial discussion of

the Great Pyramid measures, given by Professor C .

Piazzi Smyth, in the fourth edition of his work entitled

Our Inheritance in the Great Pyram id ,’

led me to believethat the data which had formed the basis of the designfor the pyram id were the diameters and distances of thesun, earth, and moon ,

combined with the ratio (r ) of thecircumference of a circle to its diameter— a quantitywhich forms an important feature in the relations of thepyram id measures and, also, that in order to reduce the

results of the astronom ical data to magnitudes suitab lefor the design and construction of the pyram id , a scaleof one pyram id inch to a length, one - thousandth part

greater than the present Engl ish m ile, or 63 ,3 6o pyram idinches

,had been used by the architect but as I found

that the values of the diameters and distances given invarious astronom ical works, especially those for the

APPENDIX A. 185

diameter and distance of the sun,would not yield results

agreeing exaa‘ly with the pyramid measures, although

they were generally remarkab ly close ap p roximations, Iwas induced to undertake a more extended d iscussion

and analysis of the measures, with a V iew to ascertain, if

possib le, the exact values which had been emp loyed bythe architect in his reductions, and it thus became

necessary to attemp t a solution of the following problem.

Given ap proximate values of the diameters and distances

of the sun, earth, and moon, to find the values which in

simp le comb inations wi ll give, with strict exactness, the

various pyram id measures and numbers,the scale for the

reductions being one pyram id inch for a pyram id mi le of63 ,3 6o pyram id inches. For some time I had consider

able difficulty in form ing the requisite number of suitab leequations for the comp lete solution of this p roblem,

but ultimately succeeded, and obtained the followingvalues

D iameter of the SunEquator ial d iamete r of the EarthD i ameter of the MoonMean d istance of the Sun

Mean d istance of the Moon

Let S distance of the sun 3 M distance of the

moon s diameter of the sun ; (3 equatorial diameterof the earth ; m diameter of the moon. Then the

following equations,in which pyramid m iles and inches

are adopted, wi ll show the relations between these numbers and the pyramid measures

se1,000 ,0007r.

Pyram id Miles Engl ish Miles856, 793


It is probab ly owing to the remarkable relation in themagnitudes of the three bodies shown by this equationthat the quantity7: forms so prominent a feature in the

relations of the pyramid measures.

2 . s z length of one side of the base

of the pyramid.

3 . Jsz w height of the pyramid.

s7r2 M7:

,8 = 1 11 f 114 1 8 1 59 engt o Grand Ga ery

5, 41 2-

1 3 length ofKing’s Chamber.

2

6.M : the number which has

been called the key number to the dimensions of the

King’s Chamber, and of the pyramid generally.

7 S2 5,ooo ,oooe

m

8 M — fl "

32

5:se

9 M

1 0 .

257 5—

1

21493 7 height of antechamber.

1 1 . perimeter of base ofz soe

the Pyramid.

1 2 .

3 J

5

‘

2MS7’

3

height of the pyram id.

057?“7”0 h f G <1 G 11W : 59 lengt o ran a ery.

7SSou

ls; 41 2°

1 3 = length of theKi ng’s Chamber.

3 d

Among the equations I obtained during the investi


arcs of meridian, is English m iles— the differ

ence being, therefore, less than two- tenths of a m i le. I

was,therefore, much surprised to find that the pyram id

measureswould not yield a less diameter for the earth

than pyramid miles, ormore than a m ile greater

than the generally- accepted length of the polar diameter.

The question therefore arose— Can this latter length b e

in error to the extent indicated, or is the value I have

obtained connected in any waywith some marked feature of the pyram id ? It seemed to b e highly impro

bab le, if not impossib le, that the results of the calcula

tions of Bessel , Airy, and C larke could b e in error to the

extent of more than a small fraction of a m ile and as

suming, therefore, that the figure of the earth is truly

spheroidal with major ax is : and m inor axis

pyram idal m iles, I calculated the geocentriclatitude in which a diameter wi ll b e m i les, and

found it to b e 78°25

’and, deducting this from

we have 1 1 ° 3 4’ Aglance at this result at once

suggested that it was the polar distance of the pyram idp ole - star

,a Draconis, multip l ied by the quantity 7r, and

on div iding 1 1°

3 4’2 7

” by 7r,I obtained 3

°which is

a very close ap p roximation to the calculated polar distance of a Dracon is at the time of the bui lding of the

pyram id . Now a section of the earth through the

parallel of latitude marked out in so singular a manner

has a diameter of 1 ,583°

54 pyramid m i les, or exactlyonefifth of the earth’s equatorial diameter, and an area of

m iles, or one twenty- fifth that of a section

through the equator, which is miles. The

occurrence of the pyramid numb ers 5 and 25 in connec

APPENDIX A. 189

tion wi th the diameter thus indicated in so striking amanner gives a p eculiar importance to it, and accordingly Ihave found that exp ressions inwhich it is a factor can b eformed which give mad ly the various pyram id measures.

Thus, rep resenting this diameter by the Greek letter 1;

(eta), we have

SJw2 2 ° 7’

5 62

7 5-0

SJw

5 : 1 00 times length of ante7?

4,0 00n2

5°

1 5 1 ,646

2 7.

2 6"1 1 1 7 95 height of granite wainscot

100

in antechamber.

2 8.

450020

5'

1 5 1 ,646c37717r

Sa / n

S7 5°

1 5 1 ,646

Ioon

S711

4779, 3 3

:S2 7?

14913 70

It maybe remarked that the diameter 1) is exactly oneseven - thousandth part greater than the polar diameter,and that the parallels of latitude in which it occurs


may be regarded as the l im its of the hab itab le portion ofthe globe.

The results of my investigation having proved that a

measure corresponding to ourEngl ish m i le, and containing 63 ,3 60 pyram id inches, was used by the architect ofthe pyram id, it became amatter of interest to ascertain,i f possible, how it originated, and ultimately I arrived atthe following formula

3 3 . 1 0 mi les, which is the cir

cumference of a circle whose area is miles, or

equal to the area of a section of the earth through the

parallel of latitude in which the length of a diameter is

equal to the mean of all the earth’s diameters

p . m iles) . This area, expressed in pyramid inches, is

equal to a square, the side of which has a length of

inches, and this, divided byinches

My experience in the development of the theory

which has yielded the results given in this paper hasconv inced me that there is no feature of the Great

Pyram id, or relation of its various parts, which cannotb e expressed in terms of the astronom ical data I haveused, and in some cases, as I have already shown, two,three, or more equations can be formed, each containingone or more factors not in the others, but giv ing prec isely the same result. It is evident, therefore, that the

builder possessed a far greater amount of mathematicaland astronomical knowledge than it has hitherto beensup posed could possib ly have been acquired by the ord inary course of observation and scientific investigation in


at once,without waiting for the comp lete pub lication of

i t, along with my survey of the pyram ids (made duringfive months of last season), to which it is a necessary

sequel, for fixing the exact fiducial points of the ancient

At the Great Pyramid, the entrance passage has beencleared enough to exam ine it throughout, and to enter

the subterranean chamber freely. Some of the loose

gravel in the ‘

grotto of the well has been moved, showing that there is a natural vertical fissure fi lled with the

gravel. The casing and pavement of the pyram id have

been found i n sz'

tzc,at about the m iddle of the west, east,

and south sides ; i t was already exposed on the north

side, on which alone it has been hitherto known . The

outer edge of the rock- cut b ed of the pavement has beencleared in parts of the sides, and at the north- east and

south -west corners. The great basalt pavement has beencleared in parts, and the edge of the rock- cut b ed of i t

has been traced along the north - east and south sides

but i ts junction with the limestone pyramid paving

(which is at the same level) could not b e found, as bothare destroyed at that part. The ends of the great trenches

around the basalt pavement have been partly cleared.

The bottom and sides of the east - north - east trench have

been cleared in parts to show the form. N0 bottom wasfound under nine feet of sand in the north trench. The

small north - north - east trench has been cleared in partsup to its inner end at the basalt paving, where it is muchsmaller, and forks into two. The various rock cuttingsand trenches north - east of the pyram id have been clearedand surveyed, but refilled, as the road passes over them.

APPENDIX B. 193

Apiece of the casing of the pyramid, round near thebase on the west side, has Greek inscriptions, apparentlyPto Sot (perhaps PtolemyV II I. , as the s

is round) ; and Markos K over which is hammered roughly m aj in Arab ic . Nothing,besides a few fragments with single letters, had been prev iously discovered of the many inscriptions that existed

on the casing.

At the second pyram id the corners have been all

cleared. The site of the edge of the casing has beenfound in six p laces near the corners, and the casing itselfuncovered at the south -west. The edge of the b ed of

the pavement has been found on the north and west

sides. The peribolus walls 01 the pyram id have beencleared in many parts, showing that they are all carefully

built,and not of ‘ heaped stone rubbish,

’ as had beenhitherto sup posed . Also, the so - called ‘ l ines of stone

rubbish on the west side of the pyram id prove to b e all

builtwalls, form ing a series of long galleries about sixtyin number, each about 1 00 ft. long, 9 ft. wide, and 7 ft.

high, with ends and thresholds of hewn l imestone.

They would suffice to house two or three thousand men,

and I can only sup pose that they were the workmen’s

barracks. Fragments of fine statues in diorite and

alabaster were found here, l ike those in the temple of

this pyram id. The great bank of chips on the south

side of the cyclopean wall north of the pyram id p rovesto have retaining walls built in it to hold up the stuff.

The p eribolus wal l on the south - south - east of the

pyramid is of fine l imestone, of good workmanshi p , l ikemost of the tombs of the period. The enormous heap s

O

194. THE GREAT PYRAMID.

of rubbish south of this wall were slightly cut, and foundto consist of tip p ed out, stratified

,clean chips of l ime

stone, l ike the r ubb ish banks of the Great Pyram id , butinferior stone .

At the third pyram id, the gran ite casing has been un

covered at its base in five p laces near the corners. The

peribolus walls have been cleared in manyparts all round,and found

,in every case, not to consist of heaped stones,

but to have carefully- bui lt vertical faces, like the secondpyramid p eribolus, but of inferior work and the wall on

the south side is better built, and verywide.

The small pyram ids have not been cleared for lack oftime, as they are rather deep ly buried but a part of therock- cut b ed of pavement of the northern one near the

Great Pyramid was accidentally uncovered close to the

edge of the b ed of the basalt pavement.Though I am obl iged to suspend work here at pre

sent, yet I shall b e very glad to recei ve any suggestions

of points needing exam ination (addressed to Poste

Restante, Cairo) and,if they are practicable, Imayfind

an op portunity for further work two or three months

hence.

When all the paper work of this survey is finished,we

shall know the s izes and distances of the pyram ids withina quarter of an inch ; and there wi ll b e fresh soil forthe growth of theories, as fi le GrcacPyramid proves to be

several f eet smaller l/zan lzz'

l/zerz‘

o supposed, the socketsnot defining the casing at the pavement level, thoughdefining it, perhap s, at their own respective levels.


slant at the edge very nearly as 9 vertically to 1 0 horizon

tally. Now,to the ignorant, it seems as though the close

approx imation of the building’s proportions to these three

relations proves demonstrably the mathematical skil l ofthe builders

,if no t the ir divine insp iration. As a mat

ter of fact,however

,we see from the co- existence of

these three relations, any one of which m ight as wel l as

another b e the real one which the builders had in v iew

(were it not certain, from what H erodotus tells us, that

the first onlywas their building rule), how easy it is to

find such relations if we only look carefully for them,

for two out of the three are certainly accidental. So

that apart from the evidence of Herodotus, we should

b e free to reject all three, on the sound plea that sincecoincidence can so readily be detected, no reliance

can b e p laced upon any argument from mere coinci

dence.

Then, again, according to the measurements justnegati ved, there were exactly as many cub its of 2 5

inches in each side as there are days in the year, or

inches in the circuit of the base. One would

have said that if this were really proved, and if the height

were determ ined by any one of the three geometrical

rules just indicated, all the dimensions of the Great

Pyram id , as a whole, were determ ined once for alL But

e ven in the early days of the pyram id rel igion, the

pyramidalists were not content with this. They found

that the two diagonals of the square base together contained as many inches as there are years in the Great

Precessional Period, and that the height contained as

APPENDIX B. 197

many inches as there are in the one thousand -millionth

part of the sun’s distance though, of course, if these rela

tions really hold, they indicate coincidences, and very

singular ones too, entirely outside of the pyram id. As

thus z— Take one- fourth the number of days in the year,and double the square of this number ; the square rootof the product equals half the number of years in the

Great Precessional Period. And again, taken 100 times

the number of days in the year, and reduce the numberthus obtained in the same ratio that the radius i s less

than the circumference of a circle you wi ll then have a

number equal to the number of inches which there are inone thousand -m ill ionth part of the sun’s distance. These

two relations exist quite independently of the pyramid,and

, so seen, even pyram idal ists must admit that theyare but singular numerical coincidences. They have not

a particle of real sign ificance, any more than this one,

which Imake pyramidal (by a very transparent device)merely to show how easy it is to work such thingsTake the square base of the pyram id, and divide each

s ide into as many parts as the pyram id has faces. join

the corresponding divisions of op posite sides of the baseso that the base is divided into sixteen squares. In eacho f these squares, save one, p lace a number (after themanner of the abom ination of desolation to which in ourown post- pyram idal days hath been assigned the name

o f the ‘ Fifteen Puzz le ’

)— then it may b e shown that thenumber of arrangements which can b e made of thesefifteen numbers in the aforesaid sixteen squares is equalto the number of m iles separating our solar system


from that star which, according to the b est Egyptolo

gical investigations of the date of the Great Pyram id,shone

,at its meridional culm ination

,directly down

the Great Gallery and its prolongation the ascending

passage.

Then comes my ingenious and (outside the pyramid)scientific fnhnd, Mr. Baxendell, who, accepting the pyram id dimensions assigned byProfessor Smyth, finds otherrelations which they fulfil equallywell, showing, of course,other singular coincidences existing quite independentlyof the pyram id. Nay, he finds several indep endentcoincidences for each dimension, fail ing, apparently,to notice that the most remarkable feature of his paperthe singular closeness of the numerical results— ex ists

(scarcely in diminished degree) , i f the pyram id b e leftentirely out of the question. Take, for instance, whatI find many regard as singularly impressive, the six

different formula ,by whi ch he gets out as the

number of inches in the length of the Grand Gal lery

(which I need hardly say is not known to anythingl ike this degree of exactitude). Theyare as follows

$727rx/ 7r £57

4(14w 0

2

)2

e22 10

5

S27n / 7r S tr x/ fl'

400 ,000e 7)

H ow terrible these formulae ap pear, in conjunctionwith the circumstance, that by tak ing dates for the Fall,the Exodus, and the b irth of Christ, not quite agreeingwith those ap proved by recognised theological authorities,

THE GREAT PYRAMID.

coincidence between the pyram id and astronomical

numbers the former are as close and remarkable as theyare real , the latter, which are only imaginary, have only

been estab l ished by the p rocess which schoolboys call‘ fudging

’— and now new measures have left the work

to be done all over again.

THE ORIGIN OF THE WEEK.

It may b e assumed , w i th Ideler , that the week has originatedfrom the length of the synod ic mon ths and that refe rence t othe p lanetary ser ies, together wi th planetary days and hours, be longto an ent i rely d ifferen t period of advanced and specu lat ive cul ture.H UM BOLDT (Cosmos) .

I PROPOSE i n th is essay to conside r how the week

probably had i ts origin,presenting

,as occasion

serves,such subsid iary evidence as can b e derived

from history or trad ition . Usual ly this and k i ndred

subjects have been deal t with apos terz'

orz'

. Ob serv

ances,festivals, chronological arrangements , and so

forth,known or recorded to have been adopted by

various nation s,have been examined

,and an in

qu i ry made i nto the i r s ign ificance. The resu lt

has not been altogether satisfactory. Many inte

rest ing facts have been brought to l ight as research

has proceeded , and several e laborate theories have

been advanced on nearly every point of chronolo

gical research . Any one of these theories, ex

am ined alone,seems to b e establ ished almost

beyond d ispute by the number of facts seemingly

202 THE ORIGIN OF THE IVEEK.

attesting in i ts favou r ; but when we find that fo r

another and yet another theo ry a s imi lar array of

facts can be adduced , we lose faith i n al l theories

thus supported . At least those only retain the i r

be l ief in a theory of the kind who have given so

much care to its preparation that they have had

no time to examine the evidence favou ring other

theories .

On the other hand,there i s much to b e said in

favou r of an a prz’

orz’

method of deal ing with

anc ient chronological arrangements. We know

certain ly how the heavens appeared to men of old

t imes ; i f occas ion arise we can determine read i ly

and certainly the exact aspect of the heavens at

any given place and t ime ; we know generally

the cond it ions under which the fi rst observations

of the heavens must have been made ; hence we

can i n fer,not unsafe ly. what parti cu lar objects

wou ld have been fi rst noted , or wou ld have been

early chosen as t ime - measu res ; wha t d iffi cu l ties

wou ld have presented themse lves as t ime pro

ceeded and how such d i fficu lt i es would have been

met.

The i nqu i ry, l et me remark at the outset, has

an inte rest other than that depend ing on chrono

logical re lat ions . I know of none better su i ted to

commend to ou r attention the movements of the

204 THE ORIGIN OF THE IVEEK.

opened— that i s, whi l e no part of the sky is in

v i ew.

I t i s prec isely because in old t imes matters

must have been enti re ly d i fferen t, and fami l i ari ty

with astronomical facts much more important to

persons not themselves engaged in the study of

astronomy, that the method of i nqu i ry which I

propose now to pursue respecting the origin of the

week is so fu l l of promise. I f we wi l l bu t put

ourselves mental ly in th e pos it ion of the shepherds

and ti l lers of the soi l i n old t imes, we can tel l

p rec ise ly what they were l ikely to not i ce,i n what

o rder, and i n what way.

I n the fi rst place,I th ink

,i t wi l l appear that

some d ivis ion of the month analogous to the week

must have been suggested as a measure of t ime

long before the year. Commonly the year i s taken

as e i ther the fi rst and most obvious of al l t ime

measu res , or e l se as on ly second to the day. But

i n i ts astronomical aspect the year i s not a ve ry

obvious d ivis ion of time . I am not here speak ing,

be it understood, of the exact determination of the

length of the year. That, of necessi ty, was a work

requ i ring much t ime,and cou ld only have been

successful ly ach ieved by astronomers of consider

able sk i l l . I am referring to the commonplace

year,the ordi nary progression of those celestial

THE ORIGIN OF THE WEEK. 205

phenomena which mark the changes of the seasons.

As Whewel l wel l remarks of the year,the repet i

t ion of s imi lar c i rcumstances at equal intervals i s

l ess man ifest i n thi s case (than i n that of the day) ,

and,the interval s being much longer, some exertion

of memory becomes requ isi te i n order that the

recurrence may b e perceived. A chi ld might easi ly

b e persuaded that success ive years were of unequal

length ; or, i f the summer were cold , and the

spring and autumn warm,might b e made to b e

l ieve,i f al l who spoke in its hearing agreed to

support the de lu sion , that one year was two. Of

cou rse the recu rrence of events characteris ing the

natural year is far too obvious to have been over

looked even before men began to observe the

heaven ly bod ies at al l . The t i l ler of the soi l must

observe the right t ime to plant seeds of various

k i nd s that they may rece ive the right proportion

of the summer’s heat ; the herdsman could not but

note the t imes when his flocks and herds brought

forth the i r young. But no definite way of not ing

the progress of the year by the movements of the

sun or stars l would probably have suggested itself

unti l some t ime after the moon’s motions had been

1 There are many reasons for bel iev ing, as I may one day takean oppor tun i ty of showing, that the year was firs t measured bythe stars, not by the sun.

206 THE ORIGIN OF THE WEEK.

used as means of measuring time. The lunar

changes, on the other hand , are very striking and

obvious ; they can be readi ly watched , and they

are marked by easi ly determinabl e stages . ‘ I t

appears more easy,’ says Whewel l

,

‘ and in earl ier

stages of c ivi l i sation (i t was) more common , to

count time by means than by years . ’

I t has indeed been suggested that the moon ’s

use as a measurer of t ime was from the earl iest

ages so obvious that the Greek words 777277 for

month,777e

‘

77e‘

for moon (less common , however,

than and the Latin 777e77s z'

s for month ,

shou ld b e associ ated wi th the Lati n ve rb lo measure

(mel lor, measas sam,

Cicero says that months

were cal l ed menses,qu ia 777e77sa spatz

'

a cwzficz'

zmc,

’

because they complete measu red spaces. Other

etymologists, says Whewel l, connect these words

with the Hebrew mama/c, to measu re .

’

Note also

the measu re of value, maneh , twenty shekels,

five - and - twenty shekels,

fifteen shekels shal l b e

your 777a77e/z , or 77ma’

(Ezek . x lv. Again, the

name manna i s given to the food found i n the

dese rt, by some interpreted a portion .

’ The word

777e7ze, or 77ma, i n the warninr, Me77e

, tekel, plzares ,

was translated ‘ numbered .

’ With the same word

i s connected the Arabi c Al-manac, or Al manac/c.

Whewel l poin ts out that ‘ i f we are to attempt to


s igni fying to measu re ,’ which he oppugns . Even

i f this View b e rej ected,we may yet regard the

words s ignifying mensuration (measurement and

numbering) as derived from a name for the moon ,

months, &c.

— a ci rcumstance whi ch would ind icate

the recognised character of the moon as a t ime

measurer even more sign ificantly than the converse

d erivation .

I t i s noteworthy that of al l the phenomena

obvious to observat ion, the motions of the moon

are those which most d i rectly suggest the i dea of

measu rement. The earth’s rotation on her axis i s

i n real i ty much more uni form than the moon ’s

c i rc l ing mot ion around the earth ; but to ordinary

observation the recu rrence of day and night seems

rather to suggest the idea of i nequal i ty than that

of the uni form subd ivis ion of t ime . For the

lengths of day and night are se ldom equal to each

othe r, and are constantly varying. The dai ly

motions of the fixed stars are more uni form than

the moon’s,and

,i f carefu l ly noted, afford an

almost perfec t un iformity of t ime - measurement.

But i nstruments of some kind are necessary to

show that this i s the case . The moon , on the

other hand,measures o ff t ime in an obvious and

striking manner, and , to ord inary observation , wi th

perfect un i formity . I n measuring time, the moon


suggests also the idea of numeri cal measurement.

And measu res of length, surface, volume, and so

forth,cou ld more read i ly have been derived i n

anc ient t imes from the moon ’s motions than in any

other manner. I n prec isely the same way that now,

i n Great Britain,all our measu res, ‘ without ex cep

t ion , are derived from the dai ly motion of the

stars,so in old t imes the more obvious motion s

o f the moon cou ld have been used,and were pro

bably used,to give the measures requ i red in those

days .

Even ou r measures of the value of money depend on the ob

se rved mot ions of the stars. As I pointed out in my essay Our

Ch ief T imepiece Los ing T ime (Lz'

g/zt Science f or Lei sure Hours ) ,when we come t o inqu ire closely into the ques t ion of a sove reign’sint r insic value, we find oursel ves led to the d iurnal mot ion of the

stars by no very long or int r icate path.

’ For a sovere ign i s a coinconta in ing so many grains of gold mixed wi th so many grains ofal loy. A grain i s the we ight of such and su ch a volume of a certa instandard substance— that i s , so many cub i c inches , or part s of acub ic inch, of that substance . An inch i s de termined as a certa inf ract ion of the length of a pendu lum vibrat ing seconds in the l at i tudeof London. A second i s a certain port ion of a mean solar day

,and

i s pract i cal ly determined by a re ference to what i s ca l led a side rea lday— the interval , namel y, between the success ive passages by thesame star across the celest ial me r id ian of any fixed place. Thi sinterval i s assumed to b e constant , and i s in fact very nearly so .St rangely enough, the moon, the olde r measure of t ime , i s, by herat t ract ion on the waters of th i s earth, constant ly tend ing t o mod i fyth i s near ly constant quan t i ty— the earth’s rotat ion . For the re s is tance of the t idal wave acts as a b reak , constan tly re tard ing the

earth’s tu rn ing mot ion— though so sl owly, that m i l l ions of

years would b e requ i red to lengthen the terrest r i a l day by one fu l lhour.

2 10 THE ORIGIN OF THE IVEEK.

I f, then,the names of the ‘ moon

,months

,

’

and so forth,we re not original ly derived from the

idea of measu rement,i t i s nevertheless certain that

the moon must, from the very earl iest t imes,have

been regard ed as par excellence,l ice measurer. The

aprz'

orz'

reasons for expecting that the moon ’s

n ame , or one of her names, would b e thus de rived

seem to me to add greatly to the probab i l i ty of

th is derivation,which has been i nferred from the

actual co - existence of such names as 777e77e for the

moon ; 77ze7z,777e77s 7

'

s,810 (see previous note) , for

the month ; 77777a, mane/7, 777e77s77s (root 777e77s) for

measurement .

The ci rcl i ng motion of the moon round the

earth be ing noted from the very earl iest time, i t i s

certain that,ve ry soon after

,men would think of

subd ividing the moon ’s c i rcu it . The n ights when

the re was no moon wou ld b e d ist inguished in a

very marked way from those i n wh ich the moon

was fu l l,or nearly so

,

~

and thus the lunar month

would be obviously marked off i nto two halves ,

each about a fortn ight in length . Something ana

logous to this fi rst subd ivis ion is to be recognised

i n a ci rcumstance which I may one day have to

dea l with more at length, the subd ivis ion of the

year i nto two halves— one i n which the Ple iades

were above the horizon and visible at sunset, the

2 12 THE ORIGIN OF THE WEEK.

and (2) disappearing. But apart from the con

s iderat ion j ust ment ioned,showing the probab i l i ty

that the fi rst d ivi s ion woul d be into the bright half

and the dark half,i t i s easi ly seen that neither the

ful l phase,nor what i s cal led techn i cal ly new (i n

real i ty the absolute d isappearance of the moon),

cou ld be conven iently determined with anything

l ike precision . The moon looks fu l l a day or two

before and a day or two after she really i s full .

The t ime of the moon ’s coming to the same part

of the sky as the sun , again, though i t can be in

ferred by noting when she first d isappeared and

when she fi rst reappeared,i s not obviously i nd i

cated,—or, which i s the essential point, so mani

fested as to afford , acMe time, an ind ication of the

moon’s reach ing that spec ial stage of her progress.

I f a clock were so constru cted that time were in

dicated by the rotation of a globe half white half

b lack, and so s i tuated that the observer cou ld not

be certain when the white side was ful ly turned

towards’

him,i t i s certain he would not obse rve

that phase for determining time exactly . I f h e

were not only uncertain when the black side was

fully turned towards h im ,but cou ld not ascertain

this at al l unt i l some l i tt le t ime after the whi te s ide

began to come into view again on one s ide (having

d isappeared on the other shortly before), he wou ld


be st i l l l ess l ikely to observe the b lack phase as an

epoch.

I f we consider what the owner of such a time

p iece would b e apt to do, or rather wou ld b e

c ertain to do,we shal l not be long in doubt as to

the course which the shepherds of old t ime would

have fo l lowed The only phases which such a

c lock would show with anything l ike prec is ion

would be those two i n which one half the globe

exactly would b e white and the other black. Not

only would e i ther of these be a perfectly definite

phase marked unmistakably bythe straightness of

the separating l ine between black and white,but

also the rate of change would at these t imes be

most rap id . The midd le of the separat ing l ine,

or terminator i n the moon ’s case,i s at al l t imes

t rave l l ing athwart the face of our sate l l ite, b ut

m ost quickly when cross ing the midd l e of her d i sc.

Apart, then , from the conside ration al ready men

t ioned,which would lead the fi rst observers to

d ivide the month i nto a dark and a l ight half, the

aspect of the moon ’s face so varied before their

eyes as to suggest,or

, one may say, to force upon

them , the plan of divid ing her course at the

quarters, when she i s half ful l increasing and hal f

fu l l d imin ishing.

Let us pause for a moment to see whether this


fi rst resul t, to which we have been led by pure ly

aprz'

orz'

considerat ions,accords with any evidence

from trad ition . We might very we l l fai l to find

such evidence,s imply because al l the earl ie r and

less precise ways of d ividing time ( of which this

certain ly wou ld be one) , giving way, as they must

inevitably do,to more exact t ime -measurers, might

leave no trace whatever of the i r existence . I t i s,

therefore , the more remarkab le and in a sense

fortunate,that i n two cases we find clear evidence

of the d ivi s ion of the lunar month into two halves,

and in the precise manner above indicated . Max

Mil ller, remarking on the week,says that he has

found no trace of any such d ivis ion i n the anc ient

Ved ic l i teratu re of the H indoos , but the month is

d ivided into two accord ing to the moon — t he clear

half and the abscare half. l (Flammarion ,from

whom I take the reference toMax Mul ler, says , ‘ the

clear half from new to fu l l, and the obscure hal f

from ful l to new ;’ but this i s manifestly in correct

,

It i s noteworthy that in the Assyr ian tab let s lately decipheredby Mr. G. Smith (wh i ch are copies of Babylon ian original s olderp robably than the books o fjob and Genesi s) , we find in the accountof the creat ion of the sun, moon, and stars, from wh ich the accounti n Genes i s was probably abr idged , special reference to the moon’schange from the horned to the gibbous phase At the beginningo f the month , at the ri s ing of the n ight

,his horns are break ing

through, and shine on the heaven on the n inth day to a c irc le hebegins to swel l . ’


to look for some connection between the length of

the month and of the day,prec ise ly as men (late r,

no doubt) d ivided the year roughly into four

seasons, and the seasons into months, long before

they had formed prec ise notions as to the number

of months i n years and seasons . We shal l see

presently that in each case, so soon as they tried

to connec t two measu res of time— the month and

day in one case, the year and month in the other

s im i lar d i fficu lt i es presented themse lves . We shal l

see also that whi le s im i lar ways of meet ing these

d i fficu l ti es natural ly occu rred tomen, these natural

methods of deal ing with the d ifficu lt ies were those

actual ly fol lowed in one case certain ly,and ( to

show which i s the object of the present paper)most probably i n the othe r also.

Men,at least those who we re given to the habi t

o f enumerat ion , would have found out that there

are some 29—1

2days i n each lunar month

,not long

afte r they had regarded the month as d ivided i nto

fou r parts,and long before they had thought of

connecting months and days together. After a

whi le , however, the oc cas ion of some such connec

t ion wou ld ari se. I t might arise i n many d ifferent

ways . The most l ikely occasion , perhaps, would

b e the necess ity of apportion ing work to those

employed as herd smen or i n t i l l ing the soi l. They

THE ORIGIN OF THE WEEK. 2 17

would be engaged probably (so soon as the s implest

o f al l engagements, by the day, requ i red some

extension) by the month . I n fact, one may say

that certainly the hi ring of labourers for agricul

tu ral and pastoral work must have been by the

month almost from the beginn ing .

‘

But from the beginn ing of h iring also,i t must

have become necessary to measu re the month by

days . Herdsmen and labourers cou ld not have

had the i r terms of labou r defined by the actual

observat ion of the lunar phases, though these

i The earl iest record we have of h i ring i s that con tained inGenesi s

,chap . xxix . We read there that Jacob abode w i th Laban

t/ee space of a 777077tb,

’ serv ing him wi thout wages . Then Labansaid to jacob , ‘ Because thou art my brother, shouldst thou therefore serve me for nough t ? te l l me

, what shal l thy wages b e ?’ Atthi s t ime

,i t i s worth not ing, the numbe r seven had come to b e re

garded as conven ient in h i ring, for Jacob sa id, Iwi l l serve theeseven years for Rache l thy younger daughte r. And Jacobserved seven years forRache l and they seemed un t o him but a fewdays , for the love he had to her.

’It i s obv ious that the length of

serv ice was regarded by the narrator as a special p roof of Jacob ’sl ove for Rache l . For an ord inary wage '

a man wou ld work sevendays for his l ove Jacob worked seven years . That th i s was so i sshown by Laban’s cal l ing the term a week . Afte r giv ing Leah instead of Rachel , he says , ‘ Fu lfi l her week , and we wi l l give theeth i s al so for the serv i ce wh ich thou shal t se rve wi th me yet sevenother years . And jacob d id so , and fulfi l led her week .

’The week

mus t have been a cus tomary term of engagemen t long before th i s,

o r i t would not b e thus spoken of. Se rvant s (the herdsmen of

Abram ’s cat t le, and the he rdsmen of Lot’s cat tle ) are ment ionedsomewhat earl ier. The word week i s not used earl ie r than inthe passage just quoted and there i s no reference to a week ly dayof rest before the Exodus .


might have shown them,i n a rough sort of way

,

how thei r term of l abour was pass ing on.

Thus, at l ength , a month of days and i ts sub

d ivis ions must have come into use . The sub d iv i

s ions would almost certai nly correspond with the

quarters a lready ind icated and the week of seven

days is the nearest app roach in an exact number

of days to the quarter of a month . Four periods

of e ight days exceed a lunar month by two and

a- half days ; whi le fou r periods of seven days

exceed a lunar month by on ly one and a- half days .

Now there would b e two d ist inc t ways in which

the divis ion of the month into four weeks might

b e arranged .

Fi rst, the month might be taken as a constant

measu re of t ime,and four weeks, of seven days

each,su itably placed in each month, so that the

extra day and a- half,or (nearly enough) three days

i n two months,cou ld be intercalated . Thus i n

one month a day could b e left ou t at the time of

new moon, and in the next two days, one’

day

alternating with two in su ccessive months : i f the

remain ing part of each month were d ivided into

four equal parts o f seven days i n each,the arrange

ment would correspond c lose ly enough with the

progress of the months to se rve for a cons iderable

t ime before fresh intercalation was requ ired . Two


The last day of each lunar month,’ Whewel l says

,

was cal led by them the old and new,

” as be long

i ng to both the waning and the reappearing moon ,

and thei r festivals and sacrifices, as determined by

the calendar, were conce ived to be necessari ly con

nected with the same periods of the cycles of the

sun and moon .

’ ‘ The l aws and oracles,

’ says Ge

minus,

‘ which d irected that they should in sacri

fices observe three things , months, days, and years,

were so understood .

’ With this permission , a cor

rect system of i ntercalat ion became a re l igious

duty. Aratus, i n a passage quoted by Geminus,

says of the moon

As st i l l her sh ift ing visage changing turns,By herwe count the mon thly round of mom s.

But the rel igious duty of properly intercalat ing a

day every thi rty- two months,to correct for the

d i fference between two lunar months and fifty- nin e

days, would seem not to have been properly at

tended to , for Ari stophanes i n the Clouds’ makes

the moon complain thus

CHORUS or C LOUDS.

The moon by us to you her greet ing sends,

But b id s u s say that she ’s an i l l - used moon,And takes i t much amiss that you shou ld still


Shufi‘i e her days , and turn them topsy - tu rvyAnd that the gods, who know the i r feast - days wel l ,By you r false coun t are sent home supperless,And scol d and storm at her foryou r neglect.

The second usage would be the more couve

n ient . Perce iving, as they wou ld by th is t ime have

done, that the lunar month does not contain an

exact number of days,or of hal f- days, men wou ld

recognise the use lessness of attempting to use any

subd ivision of the month , month by month , and

would simply take the week of seven days as the

n earest approach to the conven ient subd ivis ion,the

quarter- month,and let that period run on con

t inually, without concern ing themselves with the

fact that each new month began on a d i fferent day

o f the week . In fact,this corresponds prec i sely

with what has been done i n the case of the year.

The necess i ty of adopting some arrangement

for pe riod ical rest would render the divis ion of t ime

i nto short periods of unvarying length desi rable.

And,as herdsmen and l abou rers were early engaged

by the lunar month , and afte rwards by i ts sub

d ivision the quarte r—month , i t i s very probable that

the beginning of each month would fi rst b e chosen

as a su i table time for a rest,whi le l ater one day

i n each week wou ld b e taken as a rest day. This

would nor b e by any means inconsi sten t with the


bel ief that from very early t imes a rel igious s igh i

ficance was given to the monthly and weekly

resting days . Almost every observance of times ,

and seasons,and days had i ts fi rst o rigin , most

probably,i n agri cu ltu ral and pastoral customs . I t

was only after a long period had e lapsed that

arrangements,original ly adopted as conven ient ,

became so sanctioned b V long habit that a rel igious

meaning was attached to them . Assured ly, what

ever opin ion may b e formed about the Sabbath

rest , only one can be formed about the new moon

rest . Tbal certain ly had i ts orig in in the lunar

motions and the i r relation to the convenience and

habits of outdoor workers . I t seems altogether

reasonabl e,apart from the evidence (2prz

’

orz'

and (2

posterz'

ori i n favour of the conclu sion , to adopt a

sim ilar explanation of the week ly rest, constantly

assoc iated as we find i t wi th the rest at the t ime of

new moon .

This explanat ion impl ies that the week would

almost certain ly b e adopted as a measu re of t ime

by every nat ion whi ch paid any attent ion to the

subj ect of time - measu rement . Now we know that

no trace of the week exists among the records of

some nations. whi le i n othe rs the week was at

l east only a subord inate t ime -measu re . Among

the earl ier Egyptians the month was d ivided into


when we consider under what d isadvantages he

achieved success) constructed a frame across wh ich

s lender threads cou ld b e shifted,so that thei r i nte r

sections shou ld coinc id e with the apparent places

o f stars . A frame simi larly constructed might be

made to carry fou r such threads forming a square,

which properly placed would just seem to enclose

the moon’s d isc,whi le a fifth thread paral le l to two

s ides of the square and midway between them

could be made to coinc ide with the straight edge

of the half- moon,— and thus the exact time of half

moon could b e easi ly determ ined . Now when the

separating l ine or are between l ight and darkness

fe l l otherwise , the fifth thread might b e made to

show exactly how far across this separating arc

(that i s , i ts m idd le point) had travel l ed , and thence

how far the month'

had progressed — if the observer

had some l i ttle knowledge of t rigonometry. I f he

had no such knowledge, but were acquainted only

with the simpler geometrical relation s of l i nes and

c ircles,there wou ld on ly be two other cases

,beside s

that of the half- moon, with wh ich he cou ld deal by

this s imple method , or some modification of i t.

When the middle poin t of the are between l ight

and darkness has trave l l ed exactly one- fourth of

the way across the moon’s d i sc,the moon has gone

one - thi rd of the way from ‘new

’ to ‘ ful l .’ When


that middle po int has travel led exactly three

fourths of the way across the moon has gone two

thi rds of the way from new ’ to ‘ full. ’ Ei the r

stage c an be determined almost as easi ly with the

frame and threads, or some such contrivance , as

the time of half- moon,and simi larly of the cor

responding stages from ‘ fu l l ’ to ‘ new .

’ Thus,

i n clud ing new and ful l , we have six stages in the

moon ’s complete ci rcu i t . She starts from ‘ new

when she has gone one - s ixth of the way round,the

advanc ing arc of l ight has trave l led one - fou rth o f

the way across her disc when she has gone two

sixths round , i t has travel led three- fou rths of the

way across : then comes ‘ fu l l,’ corresponding to

half- way round ; then , at four- sixths of the way

round,the reced ing edge is one- fourth of the way

back across the moon ’s d isc ; at five- s ixths i t i s

three- fou rths of the way back and last ly she com

pletes her c i rcu i t at ‘ new ’ again . Each stage of

her journey lasts one - s ixth of a lunar month ; or

five days, l ess about two hours . Thus five days

more nearly represents one of these stages than a

week represents a quarter of a lunar month . For

a week fal ls short of a quarter of a month by more

than nine hours , whi le five days exceeds a s ixth o f

a month by rather less than two hours . Moreove r,whi le s ix periods of fi ve days exceed a month by


l ess than hal f- a- day,fou r weeks fal l short of a month

by more than a day and a-half. l

We can very wel l understand, then , that the"

d ivis ion of the l unar month into s ix parts, each of

five days , or i nto three parts, each of ten days,

shou ld have been early suggested by astronomers,

as an improvement on the comparat ive ly rough

d ivis ion of the month i nto four equal p arts. We

can equal ly unders tand that where the l atter method

had been long in use, where i t had become con

nected with the system of h iring (one day’s rest

bei ng al lowed in each quarter- month), and espe

c ially where i t had become assoc iated with rel igious

Observances,the new method would be stoutly

resi sted . I t would seem that a contest between

advocates of a five days’ period and those of a

seven days’ period arose i n early times, and was

carried on with cons iderable bitterness . There are

those who find i n the Great Pyramid of Egypt the

record of su ch a struggl e, and evidence that final ly

the seven days’ period came to be d istingu ished,as

a sacred time- measu re , from the five days ’ period,

The five days’ per iod has as great an advantage over the weekin more exactly d iv id ing the year, as i t has in div id ing the month,s ince, wh i le fifty- two weeks fal l short of a year by nearly a day anda-quarter, seventy - th ree periods of five days only fal l short of a yearby a quarter of a day . But the number 52 has the great advantageove r 73 of be ing subd ivis ible in to four thi rteens.

2 28 THE ORIGII’V OF THE WEEK.

as thi rty days (the d ifference between forty- n ine

days and n ineteen) .

While i n any nation the month and i ts sub

d ivi s ions would thus, i n al l p robabi l i ty, be deal t

with,— the week almost inevi tab ly becoming, for a

whi le at least,a measure of time

,and in most cases

remain ing so long in use as to obtain an unshaken

hold on the people from the mere effect of custom,

— anothe r way of deal ing with the moon’s motions

would certain ly have been recogn ised .

Watching the moon,night after n ight

,men

would soon perce ive that she t ravels among the

stars. I t i s not easy to determine, from dprzorz

considerations, at what parti cu l ar stage of observa

t ional progress the stars, which are scattered over

the background on which the heavenly bodies

t rave l , would be speci al ly noti ced as obj ects l ike ly

to help men i n the measurement of time,the deter

minat ion of seasons, and so forth. On the whole i t

s eems l ike ly that the observation of the stars for

thi s purpose would come rather later than the fi rst

rough determinat ions of the year, and therefore

considerably later (i f the above reason ing is j ust)than the determ inat ion of the month . The su ita

b i lity of the stars for many purposes connected

w i th the measu rement of t ime i s not a c i rcumstance

which obtrudes i tself on the attenti on. Many

THE ORIGIN OF THE WEEK. 2 3 9

years might wel l pass before men would not ice

that at the same season of the year the same stars

are seen at correspond ing hours of the night ; for

this i s less striking than the regular variation of the

sun’s alt i tude , &c . , as the year progresses . This

would b e true even i f we assumed that from the

beginning certa i n marked star groups were recog

n ised and remembered at each retu rn to parti cu lar

pos it ions on the sky. But i t i s un l ike ly that this

happened unt i l long after such rough obse rvations

as I have described above had made cons id erable

progress . There i s on ly one group of stars respect

i ng which any except ion can probably be made,

v i z . the Ple i ades, a group which , being both con

sp icuous and unique in the heavens, must very early

have been recogn ised and remembered . But even

in the case of the Pleiades (though almost certain ly

i t was the first known star group,whi le most

probably it was the object which led to the first

p recise determ ination of the year’s length) a con

s iderab le t ime must have passed before the regular

return of the group,at t imes corresponding to par

t icular parts of the year o f seasons,was recogni sed

by shepherds and ti l l ers of the soi l . Certain ly the

moon ’s motions must have been earl ier noted .

So soon , however, as men had begun to study

the fixed stars, to group them into constel lat ions,


and to watch the motions of these groups athwart

the heavens, hou r by hour, and (at the same hour)

n ight by n ight,they would note with interest the

m ot ions of thei r special t ime-measu rer, the moon ,

amongst the stars .

They would find fi rst that the moon ci rcu i ts

the stel lar heavens always in the same di rect ion ,

name ly, from west to east, or in the d irection con

trary to that of the apparent d iurnal motion wh ich

she shares wi th al l the celesti al bod ies. A very few

months would show that,speak ing generally, the

moon keeps to one track round the heavens but

possibly,even i n so short a time

,close observers

wou ld perc eive that she had sl ightly deviated from

the cou rse she at first pursued . After a t ime this

wou ld be c learly seen,and probably the observers

o f those days may have supposed for a whi le that

the moon,gett ing farther and farther

.

from her

original t rack,would eventual ly travel on a qu ite

d i fferent path . But with the further progress of

time, she would be found slowly to return to i t .

And i n the course of many years i t would b e

found that her path l ies always , not i n a certain

t rack round the ce lestial sphere , but in a certai n

zone or band , some twenty moon - breadths wide

to which no doubt a spec i al name would be given .

I t was i n real ity the mid - zone of the present

2 3 2 THE ORIGIN OF THE WEEK.

whi le the i r est imate of the true period was as yet

inexact,they would suppose that it lasted exactly

four weeks. We must remember that the natural

i dea of the early observers would b e that the

motions of the various ce lest ial bod ies d id in real i ty

synchron ise i n some way though how those mo

tions synchron i sed might not easi ly b e d iscove red .

They would suppose, and as a matter of fact we

know they d id suppose, that the sun and moon

and stars were made to be for s igns and seasons ,

and for days and months and years . To imagine

that the ce lesti al machinery contrived for man ’s

special benefit was in any sense imperfect would

have appeared very wicked . They wou ld thus be

somewhat in the positi on of a person for whom a

clockmaker had constructed a very e l aborate and

i ngenious c lock, showing a numbe r of re lations , as

the progress of the day, the hou r, the minute, the

second , the years, the months, the seasons, the

t ides,and so forth, but with no explanat ion of the

various d ials . The owner of the clock would be

persuaded that al l the various motion s indi cated on

the dial s were i ntended for h is special en l ighten

ment,though he would be unable for a long time

to make out the i r meaning, or might fai l altogether.

So the first observers of the heavens must have

been thorough ly assu red that the movements of


the sun,moon

,planets, and stars were for measures

o f t ime,and therefore synchron ised (though i n long

periods) wi th each other. We recognise a wide r

system (a nobler scheme, one might say, i f th is

d id not imply a degree of knowledge which we do

not real ly possess) i n the actual mot ions of the

cel est ial bod ies. But with the men of old t imes i t

was d ifferent .

Most probably, then , perce ivi ng that the moon

completes her c i rcu i t of the ste l lar heavens i n a day

or two less than a lunar month,they would sup

pose that it was t/zz'

s motion which the moon com

pletes i n twenty- e ight days. Nor would they

detect the error of th is view so readi ly as the

student of modern astronomy might suppose. The

practice of carrying on cycle after cycle t i l l a

great number have been completed in order to

ascertain the true length of the cycle, obvious

though i t now appears to us,would not be at al l

an obvious resource to the fi rst observers of the

heavens . Of cou rse, i f th is method had been em

ployed , i t would soon have shown that the moon’s

c i rcu i t of the ste l lar heavens i s accompl ished i n

less than twenty - eight days. The excess of two

thi rds of a day in each c i rcu i t would mount up to

many days in many c i rcu i ts, and wou ld then be

recogn ised,— while after very many months the

23 1f THE ORIGIN OF THE WEEK.

exact value of the excess wou ld be determined .

Thi s,howeve r

,i s a process belonging to much later

t imes than those we are cons ideri ng. Watching

the moon’s motions among the stars during one

l unation,the observer

,unless ve ry carefu l , would

note nothing to suggest that she i s trave l l i ng round

at the rat e of more than a complete c i rcui t i n

twenty - e ight days. I f he d ivided her zone into

twenty - e ight equal parts,correspond ing to herdai ly

j ourney, and as soon as she fi rst appeared as a new

moon began to watch her progress through such of

these twenty - e ight d ivis ions as were vis ibl e at the

t ime (those on the sun ’s s ide of the heavens would

o f course not be vi sible), she wou ld seem to travel

across one divis ion in twenty - fou r hours very nearly.

As she herse lf obl i terates from view all but the

brighter stars,i t wou ld be al l the more difficu l t to

recognise the sl ight d iscrepancy ac tual ly exist ing,

the fact really be ing that she requi res only twenty

three hours and about twenty- s ix minutes to tra

verse a stat ion , a d iscrepancy large enough in time,

but corresponding to very l itt l e progress on the

moon’s part among the stars. Then in the next

month the observat ion would s imply b e repeated ,

no compari son be i ng made between the moon’

s

pos ition among the stars when fi rst seen in one

month and that whi ch she had attained when last


adopted by Egypti an, Arabian , Pers ian , and Indian

astronomers . The S iamese, howeve r, only reck

oued twenty- seven,with from time to t ime an extra

one, cal led AOzgz'

teen,or the intercala ry mansion .

I t wou ld appear,however

,from some statements

i n the i r books,that they had twenty - e ight l unar

conste l lations for certain classes of observation .

Probably,therefore, the use of twenty- seven,

with

an occas ional i ntercalary mansion,be longed to a

later period of thei r astronomical system,when

more carefu l observations than the earl ie r had shown

them that the moon ci rcu its the ste l lar heavens in

about twenty- seven and one - th i rd days .

I t i s importan t to observe that astronomers

were thus apt to change thei r usage, dropp ing e i the r

whol ly or in great part the use of arrangements

found to be imperfect. For, noting this, we shal l

have less d ifficul ty i n understanding how the

twenty- e ight lunar mans ions of the older astronomy

gave place enti rely among the Chaldaans to the

twe lve s igns of the zodiac— that i s , the parts of the

zodiac traversed day by day by the moon gave

place to the parts of the zod iac traversed month by

month by the sun . Because the Chaldman astro

nomy has not the twenty- e ight lunar mans ions,i t

i s common ly assumed that this way of d ividing the

zod iac was never used by them . But this conclusion

THE ORIGIN OF THE WEEK: 237

cannot safely be adopted . On the contrary, what we

have al ready ascertained respecting the Chaldaean

use of the week, bes ides what we should naturally

i nfer from atprz'

orz'

cons iderations,suggests that in

the first instance they, l ike othe r nations, d ivided

the zod iac into twenty - eight parts ; but that late r,

recognising the inaccuracy of thi s arrangement,

they abandoned it, and adopted the solar zod iaca l

s igns.

This corresponds closely with what the Persian

astronomers are known to have done . We read

that the twenty- e ight d ivi sions among the Persians

(of which i t may b e noti ced that the second was

formed by the Pleiades,and cal led Parr/ 2

'

s) soon

gave way to the twelve , the names of which ,

recorded in the works of Zoroaste r, and therefore

not less anc ient than he,were not qu ite the same

as those now used . They were the Lamb , the

Bul l , the Twins, the Crab, the Lion,the Ear of

Corn , the Balance, the Scorp ion,the Bow

,the Sea

Goat, the Watering Pot, and the Fishes . The

Chinese also formed a set of twe lve zod iacal s igns,

which they named the Mouse,the Cow,

the Tiger,

the Hare, the Dragon,the Serpent, the Horse , the

Sheep , the Monkey, the‘

Cock, the Dog, and the

Pig.

I t appears to me not unl ikely that the change


from lunar to solar astronomy,from the use of the

month and week as chief measu res of t ime to the

more d ifficu lt but much more sc i entific method of

employing the year for this purpose, was the

occasion of much ceremon ial observance among

the Chaldaean astronomers. Probably e l aborate

preparations were made for the change, and a

spec ial t ime chosen for i t. We should expect to

find that this t ime wou ld have very d i rect reference

to the Ple i ades,which must have been the year

measuring constel lat ion as certainly as the moon

had earl ier been the t ime -measuring orb . I t has

long seemed to me that i t i s to this great change ,

which certainly took place,and must have been a

most important epoch ‘ i n astronomy, that we must

refer those features of anc ient astronomy which

have commonly been regarded as pointing to the

origin of the science i tse l f. I cannot regard i t as a

reasonable, sti l l less as a probable assumption , that

astronomy sprung ful l formed into be i ng,as the

ord inary theories on thi s subj ect wou ld imply .

Great progress must have been made, and men

careful ly t rained i n mathematical as we l l as ob

servat ional astronomy must for centu ries have

studied the subject, before i t became possible to

dec ide upon those fundamental p rinciples and

m ethods which have existed from the days of the


dautly cl ear that qu ite early in the progress of

astronomy,the more scient ific and observant must

have recogn ised the unfitness o f the week as an

astronomical measure of t ime. With the disap

pearance of the week from astronomical systems

(the l unar‘ quarters ’ be ing retained

,however) the

week may b e considered to have become what i t

now i s for ourselves,a c ivi l and i n some sense a

rel igi ous t ime - measure . That i t shou ld retain i ts

posi tion in thi s characte r was to b e expected , i f we

consider the firm hold which c ivi l measures once

e stabl i shed obtai n among the general i ty of men,

and the st i l l greater constancy with which men

retain rel igiou s observances. A struggle probably

took place between astronomers and the priest

hood when fi rst the solar zod iac came into use

i nstead of the l unar stations,and when an effort

was made to get ri d of the week as a measure of

t ime. This seems to me to be indicated by many

passages i n ce rtain more or less mythological

records of the race through whom (directly) the

week has descended to us . But this part of the

subject in troduces quest ions whi ch cannot b e sati s

factorily dealt with without a profound study of

those records i n the i r mythologi cal sense,and a

thorough investigation of phi lologica l relations in

volved in the subj ec t. Such researches, aecom


panied by the carefu l d iscussion of al l such astro

nom ical rel ations as were found to be involved ,

would , I feel sati sfied , be richly rewarded . More

l ight wi l l be thrown on the anc ient systems of

astronomy and astrology by the careful s tudy of

some of the J ewish Scriptures, and clearer l ight

wi l l be thrown on the meaning of these books by

the consideration of astronomical and astrologica l

rel ations associ ated with them,than has heretofore

been supposed . The key to much that was myste

rions i n the older systems of rel igion has been

found in the consideration that to man as fi rst he

rose above the cond iti on of savagery, the grander

obj ects and processes of nature— earth,sea

,and

sky, c louds and rain , winds and storms, the earth

quake and the volcano, but , above and beyond al l ,

the heavenly bodies with the i r state ly movements,

thei r inextri cably intermingled periods,thei r mys

t ical symbol i sms— al l these must have appeared as

themse lves d ivine,unti l a nobler conception pre

sented them as but parts of a higher and more

mysterious Whole. In al l the ancient systems of

rel igion we have begun to recogn is e the myths

which had the i r b i rth in those fi rst natural concept ions of the Chi ldm an. To thi s ru le the ancient

re l igious system of the Hebrew race was no ex cep

t ion but from thei r Chaldaean ancestors they de

R


rived a nature -worship relat ing more d i rectly to

the heavenly bodies than that of nations l iving

under less constant skies,and to whom other phe

nomena were not less important,and therefore not

less s ign ificant of power,than the phenomena of

the starry heavens . So soon as we thus recognise

that Hebrew myths wou ld, of necessity, be more

essential ly astronomical than those of other na

tions,we perceive that the Hebrew race was not

unl ike other early races in having no mythology,

as Max Mul ler thought, but possessed a mytho

logy less s imply and readi ly i nterpreted than that

of other nat ions.

244 SATURN AND THE

professedly repudiated,was clearly demonstrated

by this, that i n each of thei r temples they fixed

up in some conspicuous place the Ten Command

ments of the J ewish re l igion, whi le they rarely, i f

ever,

fixed up the two Christ ian Commandments

given i nstead of them . And yet,” says the reporter,

after d i lat ing on these strange facts,“though the

Engl ish were greatly given to missionary enter

prises of al l kinds , and though I sought di l igently

among the records of these, I could find no trace

o f a soc iety for convert ing the Engl i sh peopl e from

J udai sm to

I t i s,in deed

,a strange c i rcumstance that Chris

t ian teachings i n ou r t ime respecting the ob serv

ance of each seventh day should be at variance ,

not only with what is known of the origin of the

observance of Sunday, as d istingu ished from the

Sabbath of the Jews, but even more emphat ical ly

with the teach ings of Christ, both as to the pu rpose

of a day of rest,and as to the manner i n whi ch the

poor shou ld be cons idered . Our Sunday is i n fact,

i f not i n origin, the Sabbath of the Jews, not the

Lord’s Day of the Apostl es i t i s regarded,not as

a day set apart to refresh those who to i l , but as

though man were made for i ts observance ; while

the soul - wearying doom of the day i s so orde red

as to affect chiefly the poorer classes, who want

SABEATH OF THE 7EW5 . 245

rest from work and anxiety, not rest from the

routine of soc ial amusements,which are unknown

t o them. But although the thoroughly non - Chris

t ian nature of our seventh day is remarkable i n a

country professedly Christian,and although i t i s

a serious misfortune for us that an arrangement

which might b e most benefici al to the working

c lasses i s rende red mischievous by the way in

which i t i s carri ed out, I certainly have no purpose

he re to d is - uss the vexed quest ion of Sunday ob

se rvance. There are some points, howeve r, sug

gested by Spencer's refe rence to the origin o f ou r

weekly rest ing day, which are even more curious

than those on which he touches. We take our law

o f weekly rest from Moses ; we practical ly fol low

J ewish observances in this matter : but i n this,

e xcept i n so far as the contrast between Judaism

and Christian i ty i s concerned,there i s nothing in

congruous . For the J ewish nati on was of old the

sole Eastern nation whose priesthood taught the

worship of one God,and resi sted the tendency of

the people to worship the gods of other nations .

But the real origin of the Jewish Sabbath was far

more s ingular. The observance was derived from

an Egyptian , and primari ly from a Chaldaean

sou rce. Moreover, an astrological origin may b e

recognised i n the practice ; rest being enjoined

246 SATURN AND THE

by Egyptian priests on the seventh day, simply

because they regarded that day as a dies z'

nf austus ,

when i t was unlucky to undertake any work .

I t needs no ve ry el aborate reason ing to prove

that the Jewish observance of the Sabbath began

during the soj ourn in Egypt. Without entering

into the d i fficu lt quest ion of the authorship and

date of the Pentateuch , we can perce ive that the

h istory of Abraham , Isaac, and J acob , i n the E10

h isti c port ion of the narrative, i s i ntroductory to

the account of the Jews’ sojourn in Egypt and

exodus thence under thei r sk i lfu l and prudent

commander, Moses . I t i s incred ible that the

person who combined these two accounts into one

h istory, inc lud ing an exact record of the ru les for

observing fest ivals, shou ld have fai led to add some

reference to th e seventh day of rest when quoting

(from the Elohist) the ord inances which Abraham

and the other patriarchs were so carefu l ly enj oined

to obey, i f i t real ly had been a poin t of duty in

patriarchal t imes to keep holy the seventh day.

In every inj unction to the I srae l i tes after they left

Egypt , the duty of keeping the Sabbath i s strongly

dwel t upon. I t not only became from thi s t ime

one of the commandments , but‘ a s ign between

the Lord and the chi ld ren of I srae l for ever. ’ I n

the patriarchal t imes, on the contrary, we find no

248 SATURN AND THE

s tretched - out arm : therefore the Lord thy God

commanded thee to keep the Sabbath- day.

’

(Deut . v.

And these words occupy the posi tion in the

Fourth Commandment whi ch, i n Exodus xx . 1 1 ,

i s occup ied by the words,

‘ For in s ix days the

Lord made heaven and earth,

’

&c.

Assign ing the origin of the first J ewish ob serv

ance of the Sabbath to the t ime of the exodus ,

we are forced to the conclus ion that the custom of

keeping each seventh day as a day of rest was

derived from the people amongst whom the J ews

had been soj ou rn ing more than two hundred years .

I t i s unreasonabl e to suppose that Moses wou ld

have added to the almost ove rwhelming d ifficu l ties

which he had to encounter i n deal i ng with the

obst inate people he led from Egypt, the task of

establ i sh ing a new fest ival . Such a task i s at al l

t imes d ifficul t, but at the t ime of the exodus i t

would have been hope l ess to u ndertake i t . The

peopl e were continual ly rebel ling against Moses,

because he sought to turn them from the worshipo f the gods of Egypt, i n whom they were d isposed

to trust. I t was no t ime to establ i sh a new festi

val,unless one cou ld b e devised which should cor

respond with the customs they had learned in

Egypt. Moses wou ld seem indeed to have pursued a

SABBATH OF THE yEWS. 249

course of compromise.‘ Oppos ing manfullythe wor

ship of the Egyptian gods, he adopted, neverthe less,

Egypti an ceremon i es and festivals , on ly so far modi

fying them that (as he explained them) they ceased

to be associated with the worship of false gods .

We have also h is tori cal evidence as to the non

J ewish origi n of the obse rvance o f the seventh day,

as dec is ive of the arguments I have been consider

i ng. For Phi lo Judaeus, J osephus , Clement of

Alexandria, and others, speak plainly of the week

as not of J ewish origin,but common to al l the

Oriental nations . I do not wish, howeve r, to make

use of such evidence here,important though i t i s

or rather because i t i s so important that i t could

not properly be deal t with in the space avai lable to

1 There i s a passage in Jeremiah wh i ch, as i t seems to me, can

not otherwi se b e reconc i led wi th the Pentateuch— viz . chapter v i i .2 1— 2 3 , where he says, ‘ Thus sai th the Lord of H osts, the God of

Israe l Put you r burnt offe rings unto you r sacrifices, and eat flesh.

For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the daythat I b rough t them out of the l and of Egypt , concerning bu rntofferings or sacrifices ; but thi s th ing commanded I them,

saying,

Obey my voice, and Iwi l l b e you r God, and ye shall b e my peopleand walk ye in al l the way that Ihave commanded you , that i t mayb e we l l unto you .

’ It seems p lain ly int imated here that (in Jerem iah

’s opin ion

,at anyrate ) the ord inances re l at ing to burnt - offer ings

and sacrifices on the Sabbath and new moons were not commandedby God, however plainly the account in the Pentateuch may seemt o suggest the cont rary ; and the two account s can scarcel y b e re

conci led except by supposing that the Mosai c laws on these point swe re intended to regu late and al so to sanct ion an observance notorigim lly inst i tu ted by Moses.

2 50 SATURN AND THE

me. I wish to consider only the evidence which

l ies d i rectly before u s in the Bible pages, comb in

ing i t with the astronomical relations which are

involved in the question . For i t i s to an astrono

mical or rather an astrologi cal inte rpretation that

we are led, so soon as we recogni se the non - J ewish

origin of the Sabbath . Beyond al l doubt, the week

i s an astronomical pe riod,and that i n a twofold

sense ; i t i s fi rst a rough sub - div is ion of the lunar

month ,’

and in the second place i t i s a period

derived d i rectly from the number of ce lest ial bod ies

known to ancient astronomers as moving upon the

sphere of the fixed stars .

The astronomica l origi n of the Sabbath i s shown

by the Mosai c laws as to fest ivals,i l lu strated by

occasional passages i n other parts of the Bible. I n

the 2 8th chapter of Numbers we find fou r forms of

sacrifice to b e offered at regular inte rvals— first,

the continual burnt - offe ring to b e made at sunrise

and at sunset (these epochs,b e i t noted

,be ing

important in the astrological system of the Egypt ians) ; secondly, the offering on the Sabbath ;

thi rdly,the offe ring in the t ime of the new moon

and fourthly, the offering at the l uni - solar festival

of the Passove r. That is, we have dai ly, weekly,

monthly,and yearly offerings . An attempt has

been made to show that in the beginn ing of the

252 SATURN AND THE

go down qu ickly,and come to the place where thou

d idst hide thysel f wken the bus iness was in fiand,’

or,

as i n the Douay translation,

‘ i n the day when i t i s

l awful to work.

’

We have evidence equal ly c lear to show that

the seven days of the week were connected with th e

seven planets,that i s

,with the seven ce lest ial bodi es

whichappear to move among the stars . I t was by

no mere acc idental agreement between the numbe r

of the days and the number of plane ts that so many

of the Oriental nations were led to name the days

of the week after the p lanets . The arrangemen t

of the nomenc lature i s indeed so pecul i ar that a

common origin for the practi ce must be admit ted,

when we find the same arrangement adopted by

T i rin also asserts that the Jews observed the lunar system , and

that the i r months cons i sted of 29 and 30 days al ternate ly (295 days,w i th in abou t three - quarters of an hou r, be ing the length of the

mean l unar month ) . Hence the feast of the new moon came t o b ecal led the th i r t ieth Sabbath, that i s, the Sabbath of the thi rt iethday. Thus H orace (Sat. I. i x . ) Hodie tricesima sabbata vin’ t uCu rt is Judaeis oppedere ?

’ Macrobiu s ment ions that the Greek s,Romans, Egypt ians, Arabians, &c . , worsh ipped the moon (Sat. I.

and i t i s probab le that desp i te the care of Moses on th i spoint

, the Jews were prone to re tu rn to the moon -worsh ip , whencethe feast of the new moon had i t s or igin . We must not, however,infe r th i s from the passage in Jeremiah vn . 17, I8, Sees t thou notwhat they do in the c i t ies of Judah and in the st reets of Je rusalemThe ch i ld ren gather wood , and the fathers k ind le the fire, and thewomen knead the ir dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven,and to pou r ou t d rink - offerings unto other gods . ’ For the queen of

heaven i s Athor, paren t of the universe.

SABBATH OF THE 7EWS . 253

nations otherwise d iverse i n character and habits.

Moreover,the arrangement i s manifestly assoc iated

with Sabaism on the one hand , and with ast rological

superst it ions on the other and we find the c learest

evidence i n the Bibl e not only that Sabaism and

astrology were known to the J ews, but that Moses

had extreme d i fficu lty in separat ing the Observances

he enjoined (or permitted ?) from the worship of

the Host of Heaven . He was learned , we know,

i n al l the wisdom of the Egyptians (Acts vi i . and

the refore he must have known those astronomical

facts, and have been fam i l i ar wi th those astrolo

g ical supersti t ions, which the Chaldwans had im

parted to the Egyptians of the days of the

Pharaohs . 1 I t i s noteworthy, too, that the first

d i fficu lt ies he met with in the exodus arose from

the wish of the J ews to return to Sabaism . This

i s not man i fest i n the orig inal narrat ive ; but the

real mean ing of the account i s evident from the

fol lowing passage (Ac ts v i i . where Stephen ,

speaking of Moses , says, ‘ This i s he whom

our fathers would not obey,but thrust him from

1 He showed cons iderable sk i l l , i f Dr . Beke was r ight , in hisappl icat ion of such know ledge (combined wi th special knowledgeacqui red du ring his stay in Mid ian) , so that h is people shou ld crossa part of the Gulf of Suez during an except ional ly low t ide . For

though the Egypt ians may have been acquainted w i th the genera lt idal mot ion in the Red Sea, i t may we l l b e bel ieved that the armyof Pharaoh would b e less fami l iar than Moses w i th local pecu l iar it ies affect ing ( in his t ime) the movement s of that sea.

254. SATURN AND THE

them,and i n the i r hearts tu rned back again into

Egypt, saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go

before us for as for th is Moses, which brought us

out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what i s

become of him . And they made a cal f i n those

days , and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced

in the works of thei r own hands . Then God tu rned,

and gave them up to worship the host of heaven

as i t i s wri tten in the book of the prophets

Ye took up the tabernac l e of Moloch, and the star

o f you r god Remphan, figures which ye made to

worship them .

"

Thi s passage,and the passage from Amos, to wh i ch the proto

martyr refers, are cu rious in connect ion wi th the spec ial subject ofth i s pape r, as ind icated by i ts t i t le. For where Stephen saysRemphan, Amos says Ch iun. Now i t i s maintained by Grot iu s thatRemphan i s the same as Rimmon

,whom Naaman worshipped, and

Rimmon or Remmon sign ifies e levated ( l i t . a pomegranate) , andi s unde rstood by Grot ius to refer t o Saturn , the h ighest of the planet s .(The student of ast ronomy wi l l remember Gal i leo’s anagram on the

word s Altz'ssz'mum planetam tergemz'

mm z Now Ch i un,

wh ich denotes a ‘ pedestal , ’ i s cons idered to b e equ iva lent in th i sp lace to Chevan, or Kevan, the Saturn of the Arab ians . (Parkhu rst ment i ons that the Peruv ians worsh ipped Choun . ) Moloch, ofcou rse , s ignifies k ing . Because ch i ld ren were sac ri ficed to Moloch,Bonfrere cons iders thi s god to b e the same as Saturn,

described asdevou ring his own chi ld ren . If so

, the words ‘ t abernacle ofMolochand the star of Remphan ’ rel ate to the same spec ia l form of

Sabaism— that , namely, wh ich ass igned to Satu rn the chief p laceamong the s tar - god s . I must remark

,however , that thi s point i s

by no means essen t ial for the main argumen t of thi s pape r, wh i ch i si n real i ty based on the unquest ioned fact that amongst al l the nationswh ich u sed the week as a d iv ision of t ime , the seventh day was

256 SATURN AND THE

al l the inscript ions as the king, the father, and the

ru ler of the gods,thus answering to the Greek

god,Chronos

,or Saturn, i n Assyrio -He l leni c my

thology.

’

Agai n Layard,speaking ofAssyrian mythology,

says‘All we can now venture to infer i s that the

Assyrians worshipped one supreme God as the

great nati onal de i ty, under whose immed iate and

spec i al protection they l ived,and the i r empi re ex

i sted . The name of th is god appears to have been

Asshu r, as nearly as can be determined at present

from the i nscriptions. I t was ident ified with that

o f the empire i tself, always cal led“the country of

Asshu r.” With Asshu r,but apparently far inferior

to him in the ce lest i al h ierarchy,although cal led

the great gods,were associ ated twelve other deit ies .

These twe lve gods may have pre sided ove r

the twe lve months of the year. ’ and

Babylon, .p .

I n a note,Layard refers to doubts expressed

by Colonel Rawl inson respecting the identity of

Asshu r and Ni sroch , presumably removed by Raw

l i nson’s later read ing of the inscription referred to

above . He remarks that th is supreme god was

represented sometim es under a t ri une form ; and‘ general ly

,i f not always

,typified by a winged

SABEATH OF THE 7EWS. 257

figure in a c i rcle ’ Plate X I I I . of my treati se on

Saturn shows how these two descriptions are re

conci lab le for there are shown in i t two figures of

Ni sroch , both winged and withi n a ring, but one

only triune .

l

Amongst the twelve great gods were included

s ix correspond ing to the remain ing - plane ts, though

doubts ex ist as to the gods associated with the d if

ferent celest ial bod ies . I t seems probable that Sha

mash corresponded with the Sun Ishtar (Astarte or

Ashtar) with the Moon ; Bel with J upiter,2 Mero

I do not here dwel l on the cu rious coincidence— i f, indeed ,Chaldaean astronomers had not d iscovered the ring of Saturn— thatthey showed the god corresponding wi th in a ring, and t rip le.

(jali leo’

s fi rst v iew of Saturn, wi th feeb le te lescopic power, showedthe plane t as t riple ( fergeminus) and ve ry moderate opt ical knowledge, such indeed as we may fai rly infer from the presence of

optical inst rumen ts among Assyrian remains, might have led to thed iscovery of Saturn ’s ring and Jupi ter’s moons . (Bel, the AssyrianJupi te r, was represented somet imes w i th four star - t ipped wings . )But i t i s possible that these are mere coinc idences. Satu rn wouldnatural ly come to b e regarded as the God of T ime, on account ofhis sl ow motion round the ecl ip t ic ; and thus the ring (a natu ralemblem of t ime) migh t b e expected to appear in figu res of the godcorresponding to th i s pl anet . It i s cu rious, however, that the r ingi s flat , and proport ioned l ike Saturn’s .

2 Layard associates Bel, ‘ the fathe r of the great gods, ’ wi thSaturn, and Myl i t ta , the consort of Bel , wi th Venus, bu t wi thoutgiv ing any reasons, and probably merely as a g uess. He el sewhereremark s, however, that from Baal came the Be l us of the Greek s,who was confounded wi th our own Z eus or Jupi ter, and apart fromthe clear evidence associat ing Ni sroch w i th Satu rn, the ev idenceconnect ing Bel w i th Jupi ter is tolerably sat isfactory . The point isnot important, however, in rel at ion to the subject of th i s paper .

S

258 SATURN AND THE

dach with Mars ; Myl itta with Venus ; and Nebowi th Mercury. But the quest ion would only be of

importance i n its bearing on my present subj ect,

i f we knew the Assyrian t ime - measurement, and

especial ly the i r arrangement of the days of the

week . S ince we have to pass to other sources of

information on this point, the only real ly important

fact i n the Assyrian mythology, for our purpose ,

i s the nearly certai n one that thei r supreme god

Asshur or Ni sroch corresponded to the ‘ highest ’

or oute rmost planet Saturn . He was also the

Time God , thus corresponding to Chronos . But i t

i s ne cessary to notice here that mythological rela

tions must to some degree be separated from astro

l ogical consideration s, ln deal ing wi th the connec

tion between variousAssyrioe

-Chaldaean dei ties and

the planets . For instan ce, i t i s important in

mythology to observe that the Greek god Chronos

and the Latin god Saturn are unlike in many of

the i r attributes, yet the associ ation between the

planet Satu rn and the Assyrian dei ty Ni s roch is

not on that account brought into quest i on, al

though we can on ly connect Ni sroch with Saturn

by means of the common relation of both to

Chronos.

On etymological grounds, Yav , the fifth of the great gods , may perhaps b e associated wi th Z eus, ident i cal wi th the Sanscri t Dyaus, andthe Lat in root Jov also wi th Yahveh, the t ribal god of the Jews.

260 SATURN AND THE

astrological fancies i s even stronger, for the whole

system of astrological d ivination i s so artific ial and

pecu li ar that i t must of necessi ty be ascrib ed to

one nation . To find the system prevai l ing amor

’

igX/i

any people.

i s of i tse lf a suffic i ent proof that they

were taught by that nation . Nor can any question

arise as to the nation which invented the system.

The Egyptians themselves admitted the superi

ority of the Chaldaean astrologers,and the com

mon consent of al l the Oriental nations accorded

wi th this View. We know that i n Rome, although

Armen ians, Egypti ans, and J ews were consulted

as astronomers, Chaldaeans were he ld to be the

most profic ient Chalda is sed major erit fiducia,’

says J uvenal, of the Roman ladies who consu lted

fortune- tel lers : ‘ quicqu id Dix erit astrologus , cre

dent a fonte relatis Ammonis,’

- whatever the

Chaldaean astro logers may say, they trust as

though i t came from Jup iter Ammon . Another

argument i n favou r of the Chaldzean origin of

astronomy and astrology i s der ived from the fact

The scaly horror of a dragon coi l’d

Fu l l in the central field , unspeakableWi th eyes obl ique retorted , that aslantShot gleam ing flame.

’

(The very at t i tude, b e i t noted , of the D ragon of the Star sphere. )There i s much more evi dence of thi s k ind to whi ch, for wan t ofSpace, 1 canno t here refer.

5AERATH OF THE 7EW5 . 26 :

that the systems of astronomy taught in Egypt,

Babylon,Persepol i s

,and e lsewhere, do not corre

spond with the l ati tude Of these places ; but this

argument (which I have cons idered at some length

in Append ix A. to my treati se on Saturn) need

not detain us here. I t i s sufl‘ic ient to observe that

i n Egypt the astrological system was early received

and taught

Egypt,’ says a modern writer, a country noted

for the lovel iness of i ts n ights,might wel l be the

supporter of su ch a system . To each planet

was attributed a mystic i nfluence, and to every

heavenly body a supernatu ral agency,and al l the

s tars that gem the sky were supposed to exert an

influence over the bi rth,and l ife

,and dest i ny of

man ; hence arose the casting of nativi ti es, prayers ,

incantations,and sac rifices

,— ~ of which we have

t races even to the present day in those professors

o f as trology and d ivination,the gips i es

,whose very

name l i nks them wi th the ancient country of such

arts."

One of the cardinal princ ip les of astrology was

this : that every hour and every day is ruled by its

p roper planet. Now,i n the ancient Egypti an

This may be quest ioned. It is said , however, that when thegipsies fi rst made thei r appearance in Western Eu rope

,abou t the

y ear 1415, thei r leader called him self Duke of Lower Egyp t.

262 SATURN AND THE

astronomy there were seven planets two,the sun

and moon, ci rcl ing round the earth, the rest c i rcl ing

round the sun . The pe riod of c i rcu lation was

apparently taken as the measure of each planet’s

d ignity, probably because i t was j udged that the

d istance corresponded to the period. We know

that some harmonious re lat ion between the d istances

and periods was supposed to ex ist. When Keple r

d iscovered the actual law,he conce ived that he had

i n real i ty found out the mystery of Egyptian

astronomy, or, as he expressed i t, that he had‘ stolen the golden vases of the Egyptians ’

Whether they had clear ideas as to the nature of

this relation or not,i t i s certai n that they arranged

the planets i n order (beginning with the planet of

l ongest period) as fol lows

1 . Saturn . 5. Venu s .

2 . J upiter. 6 . Mercury

3 . Mars. 7. The Moon .

4. The Sun.

The hours were d evoted in cont inuous success ion

to these bod ies ; and as there were twenty- fou r

hours i n each Chaldaean or Egyptian day,i t fol lows

that with whateve r planet the day began , the cycle

of seven planets (beginning with that one) was

repeated three times, making twenty - one hours ,

264 SATURN AND THE

Dion Cassius,who wrote i n the thi rd centu ryof

our era,gives this explanation of the natu re of the

Egyptian week and of the method i n which the

arrangement was derived from the i r system of

astronomy. I t i s a noteworthy point that ne i ther

the Greeks nor Romans i n his time used the week,

which was a period of stri ctly Oriental origi n .

The Romans only adopted the week in the t ime of

Theodosiu s,towards the close of the fourth century ,

and the Greeks d ivided the month in to periods of

ten days ; so that, for the origin of the arrange

ment connecting the days of the week with the

planets,we must look to the source indicated by

Dion Cassiu s . I t i s a curious i l lustration of the

way in whi ch tradi tions are handed down,not on ly

from generat ion to generat ion,but from nation to

nat ion,that the Latin and Western nations rece iving

the week along with the doctrines of Christian i ty,

shou ld nevertheless have adopted the nomenclature

i n use among astrologers . I t i s impossible to say

how wide ly the superst it ions of astrology had

spread,or how deeply they had penetrated , for the

practices o f ast rologers were carri ed on i n sec ret,

whereve r Sabaism was rej ected as a form of

re l igion ; but that i n some mysterious way these

supersti tions spread among nat ions profess ing faith

i n one God, and that even to this day they are

SABBATH OF THE 7EWS . 265

sec retly accepted inMahometan and even Christi an

communit ies, cannot be d isputed . How much

more must such superstitions have affected the

J ews, led out by Moses from the very temple of

astrology ? Knowing what we do of the influence

of such superst i tions i n our own t ime, can we

wonder i f three thousand years ago Moses found

i t d i fficu lt to d ispossess his fol lowers of thei r be l i ef

i n ‘ the host of heaven,’ or i f

,a few generati ons

l ate r, even the reputed prophetess Deborah should

have been found proclaiming that ‘ the stars i n the i r

courses had fought against the enemies of I srael

We are apt to overlook the Pagan origin of many ideas referredto in the Bible, as we l l as of many ceremon ies wh i ch Moses at leastf ernz z

'

l fecl,i f he d id not enj oin . The descript ion of the Ark of the

Covenant,of the method of sacrifices, of the priest ly vestments , &c . ,

ind icate in the clearest manner an Egyptian or Assyr ian origin .

The cherub im , for instance— figures wh i ch un i ted , as Calmet hasshown, the body of the l ion or ox wi th the w ings of an eagle— are

common in Assyrian sculptures . The oracle of the temple d ifferedonly from some of the chambers of Nimrod and Khorsabad, in thesubst i tu t ion of ‘ palm trees ’ for the sacred tree of Assyrian scu lptures

, and open flowers for the Assyrian tu l ip - shaped ornament .Layard ana

’

Baby/on ,p . 643 ) states further that ‘ in the

Assyrian hal ls , the winged human -headed bul l s were on the side ofthe wal l , and the i r wings , l ike those of the cherub im ,

“touched oneanothe r in the midst of the house .

”The d imensions of these figures

were in some cases nearly the same v namely, fifteen fee t square .

The doors were also carved w i th cherubim and palm trees, and openfl owers, and thus, w i th the other parts of the bu i ld ing , correspondedw i th those of the Assyrian palaces On the wal l s at Nineveh, theonly addi t ion appears to have been the int roduct ion of the humanform and the image of the k ing, whi ch were an abominat ion to the

266 SATURN AND THE

That the Egyptians ded i cated the seventh day

of the week to the ou termost or highest pl anet,

Saturn , i s certain ; and i t i s p resumable that this

day was a day of rest i n Egypt . I t i s not known ,

however, whether this was ordained in honour of

Jews. The pomegranates and l i l ies of Solomon’s temple must havebeen nearly iden t ical wi th the usual Assy rian ornament , in whi ch— and part icu larly at Kh orsab ad fl the pomegranate frequent ly takesthe place of the tu l ip and the cone .

’ After quot ing the descri pt iongiven by Josephus of the inter ior of one of Solomon’s houses, wh i cheven more close ly corresponds wi th and i l lustrates the chambers inthe palace of Nineveh, Layard makes the foll owing remark ‘ To

complete the analogy between the two, ed ifices, i t wou ld appear thatSolomon was seven years bui ld ing the temple

,and Sennacherib

about the same t ime bui ld ing his great palace at Kouyunjik .

’The

introduct ion into the Ark of figures so remarkable as the che rubimcan hard ly b e othe rwi se explained than by assuming that thesefigures corresponded wi th some object s whi ch the Jews duri ng the i rs tay in Egyp t had learned to associate wi th rel igious ceremonies .That the Egypti ans used such figures, placing them at the ent ranceof thei r temples, i s ce rtain. Ne i ther can i t b e doubted that theset t ing of d ishes, spoons, bowl s, shewbread , &c . , on the t ab le w i th inthe Ark, was derived from Egypt ian ceremon ials, though d irec tevidence on these points i s not (so far as I know) ava i lable. \V e

know,however, that meats of a l l k inds were set before Baal ( see

Apocryp/za, Bel and the D ragon) . The remarkable breast - plateworn by the Jewish h igh pr iest was deri ved di rect ly from the

Egyptians. In the often- repeated pictu re of j udgment the deceasedEgypt ian i s seen conducted by the god Ho rus, wh i le ‘ Anubisp laces on one of the balances a vase supposed to contain h is goodact ions

,and in the othe r i s the emblem of t ru th

,a representat ion of

Thmé i , the goddess of T ruth , wh i ch was al so worn on the j ud icia lbreast - plate .

’ Wi lk inson,in h is Manners and Customs of {Ice

Ancient Egyptians, shows that the Hebrew Thummim i s a plu ra lform of the word Thmei. The symbol i sm of the breast - plate isreferred to in the Apocryp/za, Book ofWisdom , l xvi i i . 24.

268 SATURN AND THE

day as“a rel igious observance to p ropit iate thi s

powerfu l but gloomy god, or e lse because bad

fortune was expected to attend any enterprise

begun on the d ay over which Saturn bore sway.

The evi l i nfluence,as we l l a s the grea t power

attributed to Satu rn, are indi cated in the wel l

known l ines of Chaucer

Q uod Saturne,My cors, that hath so w i de for to tu rne,H ath more power than wot anymana: a: x

I do vengeaunce and pleine correct ionWh i le I dwe l l in the signe of the leon

>lg i ‘

Min b en also the malad ies colde,The darke tresons , and the castes ol deMy loking i s the fader of pest i lence.

I t is, however, poss ibl e that the idea of rest on the

day ded icated to Saturn may have been suggested

to Egyptian astrologers and priests by the slow

motion of the p lanet i n his orbit, whereby the

c i rcu i t of the ecl ip ti c i s on ly completed in about

twenty - n ine years .

However th is may be, we know certainly that

on the Sabbath of the J ews rest was enjoined for

a d i fferent reason . Moses adopted the Egyptian

week, and allowed the practice of a weekly day

of rest to continue. But in order that the peop le

5AEBATH OF THE yEW5 . 269

whom he led and instructed m ight not fal l into the

worship of the host of heaven, he assoc iated the

obse rvance of the seventh day with the worship

o f that one God in whom he enj oined them to

bel ieve,the God of thei r forefathers, Abraham ,

I saac,and J acob . So far as appears from the

B ible narrat ive,there i s no sc riptural obj ection to

this view . On the contrary, strong sc riptural

reasons exist for accepting i t . I f the account of

the creation given in the first chapter of Genesi s

cou ld b e accepted as l iteral ly exact , i t neverthe

less wou ld not fol low that the seven th day of rest

was enj oined before the t ime of the exodus . And we

have seen that the Bible account itse l f assigns the

departu re from Egypt as a reason for the ob serv

ance,so that whatever view we form respecting

the real origin of the seventh day of rest,we have

no choice as to the t ime we must assign for thecommencement of i ts observance by the J ews

,

unless Deuteronomy v. be rej ected as not even

h istorical ly trustworthy .

Nothing, therefore , that I have shown in this

paper need b e regarded as necessari ly opposed to

the fai th of those who hone st ly be l ieve i n the

l iteral exactness of the reason assigned in Exodus

xxxi . 17 for the observance of the Sabbath of the

J ews . Such persons may accept the week as o f

270 SATURN AND THE

Pagan origin,and the original observance of

Satu rn ’s day as of astrological s ignificanc e, whi le

beli eving . in the reason given by Moses for the

adoption of the practi ce by his followers,that ‘ in

s ix days the Lord made heaven and earth, and

on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed .

’

(The idea of rest, accepted l iteral ly, accords ne i ther

better nor worse wi th the conception of an

Almighty Creator, than the idea of work .) But

i t seems to me that those who thus regard the

J ewi sh Sabbath as a d ivine ly insti tu ted compro

mise between the worship of the seven planets as

gods, and the worship of one only God the

Creator of al l things,may yet find i n what I have

here shown a new reason for Christian is ing our

seventh day of rest , even i f we must sti l l continue

to miscal l i t the Sabbath . Sinc e i t was permis

s ible for Moses to adopt a Pagan practi ce (to

sanction , i f not to sanctify, a superst i t ion), i t may

wel l be bel ieved that the greate r than Moses was

enti tled to change the mode of observance of the

seventh day of rest. We know that in Christ ’s

t ime the Sabbath (of i ts very nature a convenient

ceremonial substi tute for true rel igion) had becomea h ideous tyranny ; nay, that many, wanting real

goodness,were eager to prove the i r vi rtue by ln

flicting the Sabbath on those who most needed

ASTRONOMYAND THE 9‘EWISHFES TIVALS .

IN the essay on the ‘ Origin of the Week,’ I

have shown that so soon as a people began to

rise above the savage state, and to requ i re some

means of measu ring time - periods other than the

day and the year (i f, i ndeed , the year ever was

even roughly measu red unti l long after the month

and week had been used as time - measu res) ,

they must have used the moon for this pu rpose ,

and must soon after have been led to d ivide

t ime into periods of seven days . I t i s no mere

acc ident that al l the nat ions of antiqui ty used

the week of seven days as a measu re of t ime ,

though some, later, employed the astronomical ly

more exact d ivis i on of t ime into periods of five

and ten days . The moon natural ly suggests by

her movements prec isely thi s d ivision of t ime into

periods of seven days, though a more carefu l study

of her motions suggests the divi sion of the l unar

month into s ix periods of five days each, rathe r

- N O .

T” ; v yEI/s‘

H FESTIVALS. 273

than into fou r pe riods of seven days each . Nor i s

i t a mere acc ident that in one of the books of that

l i ttle l ib rary of Hebrew works we cal l the Old

Testament, we find as the very earl iest d ivi s ion of

t ime used for the hi ring of labou r the week of

seven days . Even those nati ons,i f any such there

were (which I doubt) , who d id not i n the beginn ing

of thei r exi stence worship ei ther the sun or the

moon,or both , and often the other heaven ly bod ie s

as wel l, yet adopted the bel ief that the sun and

moon and stars were set i n the heavens for signs,

and for seasons,and for days and years. And as

I have shown, al l the names for the moon which do

not refer to her l ight, i nd i cate her use as a time

measurer.‘ I may also repeat here, that the times

of half-moon alone would b e observed with any

exactitude,the time of fu l l , l ike the t ime of new

moon . not be ing determinable with anything l ike

the same degree of accuracy. Moreover, I have

shown that soon after the use of the month and its

quarters for measu ring t ime had been commenced ,

i t would be found necessary to employ successive

Thi s i s t rue of nearly al l the Indo-Eu ropean l anguages, thoughin some , as in Greek , we have two names for the moon, one rel at ingto her brightness, the other to her t ime -measu ring use ; wh i le insome, as in Lat in, the l at ter name has d isappeared , save as i t remains in derivat ions as nzens is , the month, the connec t ion of wh i chword wi th mensuration was not i ced even by the Romans, as byC i cero and others.

274 ASTII’OrVO/WI/I

a n .

weeks of seven days without reference to the i r

agreement or not with the fou r quarters of succes

s ive lunar months . I n othe r words,s ince the week

and the month are not exactly synchronous,i t

would b e found necessary to use them separate ly,

j ust as the l unar month and the year not b eing

synchronous have had to be u sed separate ly, and

as,i n l ike manner

,the day not being synchronous

with e i ther the lunar month or the year, has

had to b e used apart from them , though al l fou r

peri ods , day, week, month, and year, are associated

together.

I n the e ssay on the Jewish Sabbath I have

shown how the seven days came to be assoc iated

with the seven planets . The twenty- fou r hours o f

each day were devoted to those planets i n the

order of the i r supposed d i stance from the earth,

Satu rn, J up iter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury ,and the Moon . The outermost plane t, Saturn ,

which also trave l s in the longest period , was t e

garded in th is arrangement as of ch ief d ign i ty, as

encompassing in h is movement al l the rest, Jupiter

as of higher d ign ity than Mars, and so forth .

Moreover to the outermost plane t,partly because

of Satu rn s gloomy aspect, partly becau se among

half- savage races the powers of evi l are always

more respected th an the powers that work for good,

276 ASTRONOMY AND

s infu l to work- was but the natural outcome of the

superst it iou s be l ief that the planets were gods ru l

i ng the fates of men and nat ions . ‘ I t i s , however,

obvious that the J ews, or rather those from whom

they derived the i r spec ial re l igiou s Observances,

were taught to find a worthier motive for thei r Sab

bath rest . Yet,of the connecti on between the

J ewish and the astrologic and sab aistic Sabbath , .

there could be no manner of doubt, even were there

not the evidence now to be considered , which i nd i

cates that al l the J ewish festivals and fasts were of

astronomical origin .

I t must, i n the first place,be obvious to any one

who considers the matter with the least degree of

attention,that the Jewish ceremonial worship, with

al l i ts compl icated arrangements,must have been

in existence long before the exodus. No reason ing

mind can for a moment imagine that such a

system could have been devised in a l ifetime , or a

generation , far less during such a period as that i n

In l ike manner the day of Venus, Fr iday, was a day formarrying and giv ing in marr iage and though our modern customs makethe day of marriage the day al so for start ing on a j ou rney (even that ,however, show ing ev idence of astronomical origin

,in i ts customary

length as the moon of i t was the reverse in arcient t imes,so that Friday wou ld b e of al l days in the week the one regarded asleast su i ted for start ing on a j ou rney . We see some t race of th i sassoc iat ion in Deuteronomy , chap . xx . v . 7, ‘What man i s therethat hath bet rothed a wi fe ? let him go and retu rn unto his house.

’

THE yE l/VISH FES TIVALS . 277

which the Jewish people we re wandering between

Egypt and Palest ine — assuming the des cription of

the exodus to b e i n i ts outl ines true, however man i

festly inexact in detai ls. But we are not left to

infe r th is, from the obvious considerations suggested

by experience as the origin of ce remonial ob serv

ances among othe r people. There i s abundant

evidence to show that the Jewi sh ceremonial system

was derived e i ther di rectly from the Assyrians (who

may have rece ived i t sti l l earl ier from H indoo

sources), or, more probably, from Assyri a through

the Egyptians. As I have pointed out at pp . 265,

266 ,‘the d escript ion of theArk of the Covenant

, of

the method o f sacrifices,of the priestly ornaments

,

&c. , i nd i cates i n the cleares t manner an Egypt ian

orAssyrian origin .

’

And now let us examine the Jewish sacrifices

offered up at various feasts and fasts, or otherwise

at stated t imes. We may conven iently fol low the

account given in the Book of Numbers,chaps.

xxvi i i . and xxix . , though the reader wi l l do well to

consult also Levit icus,chaps. xxi i i . , xxv. ,

&c.,and

Deuteronomy,chaps . xv. and xvi . These accounts ,

though probably written by d i fferent persons , and

at wide ly d i fferent t imes , agree substanti al ly

together— and,i ndeed

,would seem to have passed

under revis i on by one person (before the time of

278 AS TRONOMY AND

Ezra the scribe. See the Book of Nehemiah, chap .

v i i i ) .

At the very outset, we find evidence that the

sacrifices were not originally offered to the

Almighty Being, who works in and through al l

things, but were d evised as parts of a system of

natu re worship (primari ly, i t would seem ,a system

of Sun worship) . Forwe read,

‘ The Lord spake

unto Moses, saying, Command the chi ldren of

I srae l , and say unto them ,My offering and my

bread for my sacrifices made by fire, f or a sweet

savour unlo me,shal l ye observe to offer unto me

in the i r due season.

’

The conception that the

savou r of cooked flesh could be sweet to an

Almighty,All-wise, and Omnipotent Be ing, belongs

as completely to the chi ldhood of re l igion as does

the idea that such a Be ing cou ld under any cond i

t ions need the rest and refreshment ment ioned in

Exodus , chap . xxxi . v. 17. The use of fire also in

sacrific ial observances belongs essential ly to Sun

worsh ip and the assoc iated system of Fire

worship .

The fi rst sacrifice i s the dai ly sacrifice,or the

continual bu rnt offering .

‘ This i s the offering

made by fire which ye shal l offer unto the Lord

two l ambs of the fi rst year without spot day by

day,for a cont inual burnt offering ; the one lamb

280 ASTRONOJIY AND

of Levit i cus, Numbers , and Deuteronomy en

deavoured to train the J ewish people. I n Le

v iticus xxi i i . they were s imply told that the

day i s an holy convocation , the Sabbath of the

Lord ; j ust as i n chap . xxv. they were told that

the seventh year was a Sabbath for the Lord,and

that the j ubi lee was to be holy unto them . I n

Exodus xxi i . II they were told that the day

was to b e kept holy because the All- powerfu l God

rested on the seventh day. In Deuteronomy v .

14 they were told that God commanded them to

keep the Sabbath day because He had brought

them out of the l and of Egypt ‘ through a mighty

hand , and by a stretched - out arm .

’

I n passing, i t may be not iced that theAssyrian

tablets ind icate a weekly resting- day,called the

Sabbat, but i t was of much earl ier date than the

J ewish,be longing to the t ime before the week and

the month had been separated . Thus , the 7th,

14th , 2 15 t,‘

and 2 8th days of each month were days

of Sabbat, or rest, and also the l gth day, or the

49th day from the beginning of the previous month ,

so that this 19th , or mid - month rest, corresponded

to the J ewish ‘ week of weeks .’

I n the third place,sacrifices were offered in the

beginning of the months, that i s, at the time of new

moon .

THE y’

EWISH FESTIVALS . 281

So far as the offerings at the feast of the new

moon were concerned, we might infer that the

Sabbath of the new moon was original ly held to

be more important than the week- day Sabbath .

Instead of two lambs, as at the weekly Sabbath ,

there were o ffered at the feast of the new moon

two young bul locks,and one ram ,

and seven lambs ;

instead of two tenth deals of flou r,

fifteen tenth

deals ; i nstead of hal f a h in of wine, more than

two hins were offered at the monthly Sabbath.

Even i f we take i nto account the greater frequency

of weekly Sabbaths ( i n about the proportion of 59

to we sti l l find that the monthly offerings

taken throughout the year, or throughout a number

of years, considerably su rpassed the weekly of

ferings .

We come next to the two most important festi

vals of the Jewish year— the feast of the passover,

and the feast of tabernacles— on the fifteenth days

of the fi rst and of the second months respec

t ively.

We might safe ly infer, that these two feasts

were astronomical from the c i rcumstance that one

i s assigned to the t ime when the sun crosses

the equator from south to north,and the other to

the t ime when he c rosses the equator from north to

south, i n other words, to the t imes of the spring

282 ASTRONOIWYAND

and autumn equi nox . We should be confi rmed i n

this opin ion i n remembering that among othe r

nations these epochs had been regarded as of espe

cial sign ificance,and that where Sab aistic worship ,

and Sun worship , i n parti cular, had prevai led (and

there have been few races whi ch have not at one

t ime or other adopted these forms of worship) , the

t ime of Easter ‘ and the correspond ing autumn ’s

epoch had been times of ceremonial observance

l ong before,and long after, the feast of the pass

over and the feast of tabernac les had been regu

lated by the J ewish lawgivers . But there i s also

evidence of the astronomical character of these

two fest ivals i n the nature of the sacrifices offered

on these occasions. I t was no mere acc ident that

du ring the seven days of unleavened bread, at the

t ime of the passove r, the dai ly sacrifice was the

same as for the feast of the new moon, except that

i n add it ion to the ‘two young bu l locks, one ram ,

and seven lambs,

’ ‘one goat ’ was offered for a s in

offering,’ to make an atonement for the people . So

also du ring the eight days of the feast of taber

nacles, two rams and fou rteen lambs were offered

every day,but on the other days, i n succession ,

thi rteen bul locks,twe lve, eleven , and so forth ,

thi rteen (as eminent Jewish'

writers have pointed

The very word signifies upri sing.

284 ASTRONOMYAND

nomical fest ival of the new moon . But when we

find , i n add it ion , that the two principal annual

festival s of the J ews (the only remain ing fest ivals

except the seasonal feast of the first fru i ts) corre

sponded with the two most marked epochs of the

year— the passages of the sun across the equator

at the time of the vernal and autumnal equ inox

we find i t altogether imposs ible to resist the in

ference,that the enti re system of sacrific ial ob serv

ance was based on astronomi cal considerat ions.

But we can infer more than this. See ing that

these festivals remained rel igious fest ivals, even

when the Jews had been taught no longe r to

worship the host of heaven, we perce ive that they

must o riginal ly also have been not simply astro

nom ical but re l igious . They could therefore have

been nothing,as fi rst devised , but Sabaistic ob serv

auces,for Sabaism is the only form of rel igion

which i s based sole ly on astronomical principles.

We can understand,then

,the great d ifficu lty

experienced by the Jewish lawgivers i n weaning

the Jews from the worship of the sun, moon, and

stars,for the whole sacrificial system of the J ews

shows us that in pre ced ing times the peopl e had

been imbued with Sab aistic ideas.

There are some who go much farther than this ,

finding in fest ivals supposed to be pecu l iarly

THE 7EWISH FES TIVALS. 28;

Christ ian (which Easter, be i t observed , i s not) an

astronomical significance Thus, Osi ris, Mi thra ,

Bacchus, and Chrishna are represented as having

been born on December 2 5 (or rathe r at the

moment of midnight, between C hri stmas Eve and

Chri stmas Day) in a cave or stable . Now, al though

at the present t ime the only pecu l iari ty of thi s part

of the year i s , that i t corresponds with the t ime

when the sun is j ust beginn ing to rise above hi s

lowest mid- winte r descent be low the equator, yet

at the t ime when the zodiac was fi rst formed , to

which time probably the myths in questi on may

b e referred,the conste l l at ion Vi rgo had just risen

above the eastern hori zon ‘ whi le the sun was en

tering the conste l lat ion Capricorn,which also bore

the name of the Augeas. I t i s s ingular also,as

showing how our modern festival s have been

dated accord ing to these old Sabaistic ideas , that

August 8, which was about the t ime when the s ign

Vi rgo i s lost i n the sun ’s l ight, i s the date assigned

by the Cathol i c Church to the festival of the As

sumption of the V i rgin,whi le the Nativi ty of the

V i rgin i s assigned to September 8, which fol lowed

In real i ty, the sign V i rgo had j ust so ri sen, meaning by thatthe 30 degrees of the ecl ipt ic p reced ing the au tumnal equ inoct ia lpoint

,where the sign Libra- the Scales— begins

,or what i s techni

cally cal led the fi rst poin t of Lib ra .

286 ASTRONOMY AND j’EWISH FESTIVALS.

the epoch when the middle of the s ign of V i rgo

passes the sun by j ust the same interval as that by

which Christmas Day fol lowed the mid-winter sol

stic e . However,i t would take us too far to fol low

out al l the analogies which have been traced b e

tween solar myths and the fasts and festivals of

the modern calendar. Many of these are very doubt

fu l , and some are more than doubtfu l , whereasno

doubt whatever seems to rest on the astronomical

origin of the J ewi sh sacrific ial observances.

2 88 THE HISTORY OF S UNDAY.

on a Friday. I t i s even whispered that this i d ioti c

supersti tion i s n ot l imited to ord inary seamen , but

i s entertained by many among the i r officers who

might be expected to have more sense. Whethe r

at the Admiralty such nonsens i ca l notions are

bel i eved in , I do not know. But certain i t i s that

the stores so much requ i red were not d espatched

unt i l the Satu rday, though the delay i nvolved the

risk of serious mischi ef to the British forces in

Ashantee. I do not say that the de l ay was unwi se

on the part of the authori ti es, assuming always that

i t was not d irectly based on the fool ish superstition

abou t Friday sai l ing. So l ong as sai lors are

ignorant enough and si l ly enough to be l i eve i n

such superst i t ions, their fol ly must be taken into

account as one of the fac tors which the i r officers

and those yet highe r i n authori ty have to deal with .

I t m ight probably have been far more mischievous

to have despatched the ship on Friday, with a d is

heartened crew,than i t was to lose twenty- fou r

prec ious hou rs for the sake of encouraging those

gal lant but feeble- minded simpletons . Whether i t

was for th is reason that the ship was de layed , or

because (as some have sa id) the Friday supersti tion

extends to the quarter- deck and farthe r yet, certai n

i t is that this superst it ion was allowed to prevai l ,

and a great nation waited in the midst o f hu rried

THE HISTORY OF SUNDAY. 289

mili tary p reparat ions ti l l a dies inf aus ta shou ld be

overpast .

Five years passed,and again the Bri ti sh nat ion

was engaged in hurried preparations for war against

Afri can savages . Every hour was of importance ,

for reinforcements and mi l i tary stores were to b e

sent in al l haste to save Natal from the warriors of

Cetywayo. And now another day to which a

widespread opin ion attaches spec ial s ign ificance i s

reached before the preparations can be completed .

Up to Saturday night the work of preparat ion has

gone busi ly forward . But the morrow is Sunday,

on which , accord ing to the teaching of n ine- tenths

o f ou r c lergy and the professions at any rate of

n inety - n ine hundredths of ourpeople, we shou ld do

no manne r of work .

’ What the peopl e from whom

that law is ostensibly derived would have done

under such ci rcumstances we may partly infer from

the we l l - known episode in the history of the Mac

cab ees . I f a thousand J ews, i ncluding many fight

i ng men,would al low themselves to b e s la in rather

than do work on the Sabbath - day by which the i r

l ives might have been saved , ‘ we can understand

that they would have interrupted on the Sabbath

day such work as fi tt ing ships,col lect ing stores ,

&c . (which our mi l i tary and naval folk had in hand

Maccabees,Book I. chap . 11. 3 2 - 39.

U

290 THE HISTORY OF SUNDAY.

at the t ime I am writ i ng about) and would only

have resumed work when the Sabbath was fai rly

over. Our authori ties d id not so act ; they acted ,

to say truth,far more sens ibly. They regarded the

work of preparation as a labou r of necess ity. I ts

object was not, i ndeed, precisely to save l i fe , as in a

case which a certain Jewish teacher cons idered for

unquestionably the mi l i tary and naval preparat ion s

made when the news of the d isaster i n Zulu land

reached England would grievously have d isap

pointed ex nectation i f they had not resu lted i n the

destruction of many more l ives than they saved .

But i f such preparat ions have to b e made, they

cannot b e made too qui ckly. Stopping them on the

Sunday would have been strain ing out an exceed

inglysmall gnat after several most monst rous camels

had been swal lowed . Whatever the considerat ions

may have been whi ch influenced the Government,

certain i t i s that the rel igious observance was for

the t ime bei ng set on one s ide as ‘ not convenient,

’

and the work of preparation was pushed on as busi ly

through the Sunday as on the Saturday which

preceded and on the Monday which fol lowed i t.I t i s poss ible that during the d iscussions l ikely

to take place before long on the question of open

ing ou r museums, art gal leri es, and so forth on

Sundays, we may hear someth ing more of the

292 THE HISTORY OF SUNDAY

— the seventh day i n the week— was replaced by

the observance of the Lord ’s d ay— the fi rst i n the

week. As we sti l l retain among the Command

ments that one which spec i al ly refers to the seventh

day,i t must b e assumed that the Church teaches

the observance in ou r time of one day in the week

i n the manner appointed for the Jewish Sabbath ,

and also considers that the people requ ire no special

information as to the manne r i n which the seventh

day has been replaced by the fi rst. At least, th is

way of vi ewing the matter reduces to a min imum

the inherent absurd i ty of teaching one law whi le

another law i s to be practised . The absurd i ty ,

even when thus reduced to a m in imum ,remains

,i n

the j udgment of al l who are acquainted wi th the

facts,a monstrous one but i t would b e far more

monstrous if i t were to be assumed that,as respects

even the manner of observance as wel l as respects

the day to b e obse rved,the l aw thus constantly re

peated amongst us has been abrogated ; or again ,

i f i t were assumed that the lai ty real ly understood

how incorrect i s the not ion on which they for the

most part base the i r observance of Sunday.

A brief sketch of the gradual d isplacement of

the Jewish Sabbath by the Christi an Sunday wi l l

show how the question rests so far as the authori ty

and action of the Church are concerned .

THE HISTORY OF S UNDAY. 293

We do not find in any wri te r du ring the first

five centuries of the C hristi an era, or i n any ecc le

s iastical or c ivi l publ i c document, the sl ightest hin t

o f a transfer of the obl igat ions indic ated in the

Fourth Commandment from the Sabbath- day to

the Sunday. Both days we re observed as days of

worship and as days of rest. The author of the

Const itut ions says that Peter and Paul ordered

that servants should work on five days i n the week,

and rest on the Sabbath in memory o f the Creati on ,

and on the Lord ’s day in memory of the Resurrec

t ion. The Counc i l o f Laod i cea (363 AD .) orders

Christ i ans to work on the Sabbath, giving preference

to the Lord ’s day,and

-

if poss ible rest ing on i t bu t

they are to b e accursed i f they keep i t i n the Jewish

fashion. And Augustine,Bishop of H ippo Regius

,

so far from taking the Fourth Commandment as

the basis of Sunday observance,says that to fast on

Sunday as on the Sabbath ‘ i s a grave scandal .’

Even regarded apart from its imagined re lati on

to the Fourth Commandment, Sunday during the

fi rst centuri es of the Christ ian erawas not observed

as Sunday now is . I t was original ly a day to be

obse rved only by those who wished to observe i t.

I t was to be observed , i f at al l, as a day of gladness.

Tertul l ian condemned as un lawfu l not on ly Sunday

fasting, but the use of a kneel ing posture i n Sunday


services. “Die Domin ico, ’ he s ays, ‘

jejunium nefas

ducimus vel de geniculis adorare.’

The fi rst law which forbade work of any sort

on Sunday was passed by that most Christian and

exemplary emperor, Constantine (32 1 For

reasons best known to h imse l f he al lowed fie l d

labourers to work on Sundays, but ci ty people ,

artisans , and j udges were enj oined to rest on the

venerable Day of the Sun.

’ This was a high com

p liment to the Christ ian rel igion,for Constantine

was thus extend ing to Sunday the suspension of

business which heretofore had only been customary

on c ivi l fest ivals , i nclud ing his own bi rthday, which

he had probably regarded , and continued to regard ,

as far more ‘ venerable ’ than any day of merely

rel igious sign ificance . That the law was intended

to b e civi l, not rel igious, i s confirmed by the ed ict

of Theodosiu s (3 86 AD) , i n which Sunday and

other Christ i an fest ivals are set apart, i n company

w i th the days o f the founding of Rome and Con

stantinople, the days of the bi rth and accession of

the emperors, and the trad i tional fest ivals of

heathen Rome, as days on which no business was

to be transacted .

Unti l th is t ime no law had been passed which

tended di rectly to proh ib i t amusements on Sunday ,

or i ndeed on the Sabbath ei ther. But the ed ict of


hunting on Sunday was forbidden . I n the re ign of

Ri chard tenn is , football, gambl ing, and putting

the stone,were i nc luded among forbidden Sunday

amusements. Attempts were made at thi s t ime to

enforce the laws for c losing al l shops on Sundays,

especially barbers’ shops ; for then , as now,

barbers were great offenders against Sunday laws

whether because beards w i ll continue to grow

during Satu rday night and Sunday morn ing, or for

some other as yet undeterm ined reason,I do not

know. Eustace,Abbot of Flay, i n 1 20 1, main

tained the duty of observing Sunday most strictly ;

and he was able (probably as a reward for his great

vi rtues,and espec ial ly, i t shou ld seem , his great

veracity) to put i n documentary evidence on this

point in the form of a letter from Christ, m iracu

lously‘ de l ivered ’ on the altar of St. Simeon at

Golgotha : by th i s letter al l kinds of work were

forbidden from three on Saturday unti l Monday

morn ing.

‘ I t i s said also,

’ says a wri ter i n the ‘West

minster Review’

(who puts one of the following

stories so del icate ly that I cannot do better than

fol low him),‘ that certain mi raculous penalties

vis i ted those who paid no heed to this prohibition .

One woman weaving after three o’clock on Satur

day was struck wi th the dead palsy whi lst another,

THE HIS TORY OF SUNDAY. 297

who had put some paste into an oven,when she

thought i t was baked found i t paste sti l l . A man ,

too, made a cake during the forb idden hours, from

which blood flowed when he began to eat i t on

Sunday ; and an unfortunate Jew of Tewkesbury,who fe l l on the Sabbath into a place from which

extrication was d ifficult,and had scruples about

letting himse l f b e drawn out on that day,whi lst

the Duke of Gloucester had sim ilar scrup les about

d rawing him out on Sunday, was dead when they

came to h i s assi stance on Monday.

’

The Duke of Gloucester’s scruples show him to

have been a man of very del i cate consc ience (of

course we are not to imagine the possibi l i ty that

the unfortunate Jew might have been a creditor of

hi s ) ; man i festly, he would have been shocked i f

any one had advanced the easy doctri ne that a

man , having an ox or a sheep fal len into a p it,

might without s i n take i t out on the Sabbath - day.

But as in the days of the Christ ian i sed Roman

emperors the laws for the observance o f Sunday

were placed on the same footing only as those

re lating to the observance of imperia l b i rthdays

and Pagan festivals,so in the days before the Re

formation Sunday was placed on no highe r a leve l

than was assigned to sa ints’ days .

Sunday,’ says the ‘Westminster ’ reviewer


very truly,‘ was as holy as the depos it ion of St.

Wulfstan, or the day of St . Lawrence the Martyr,bu t no more ; so that i f (as, histori cal ly, i t seems

we must do) we ascribe the bind ing authori ty of

Sunday to the i nsti tution of the Church, we are

equal ly bound to observe the numerous saints ’

days,which have exactly the same authori ty and

grew up in exactly the same way. I f, for instance,

tenn is and footbal l are wrong on Sunday, they are

equally wrong upon any of the saints’ days to

which the Act of Ri chard I I . appl ied . For the

canons and statutes upon which our statute i s based

d id not take Sunday exclusive ly unde r thei r pro

tection and i f we acknowledge thei r authori ty at

all,we must acknowledge i t in toto. We have no

right to e l ect wh ich of the holy days created by

the Church we shal l retain and which we shal l d is

card ; for, i f we d iscard some, why should we not

d iscard al l ? At least, we must b e prepared with

reasons for our preference and , i t i s submitted , no

good reasons can be given . I t i s u se less to appeal

to what the Reformation d id the question is, Had

i t any grounds forwhat i t d id ? I f i t acknowledged

no sanct ion for the saints’ days, what sanct ion

remains for Sunday ? The sancti on only of sub se

quent statutes .’

But let us pass on to the t ime of theReformation,


Gospel i s reveal ed .

’ As to the Reformation i n

England , i t i s commanded in the twenty- fourth in

j u nc tion of Edward VI . that tb e b oly clay b e whol ly

given to God,i n hearing H is Word read and taught ,

and in private and publ i c p rayers but pari sh ioners

are to b e i nstru cted that i t i s lawfu l i n harvest - t ime

to labou r on holy and fest ival days,and to save

that which God has sent,and that ‘ i f

,for any

scrupu los ity or grudge of consc ience,men shou ld

superst it iously abstain from worki ng on those days ,

then they wou ld grievously offend and d isp lease

God.

’

(What a comfort i t must have been to the

preache rs of those t imes to know so we l l what God

wanted men to do !) Again, i n 5 and 6 Edward

VI ., cap . 3 , Sunday is spec ial ly inc luded among

holy days , respect ing which section 6 spec ifies that

i t sha l l b e lawfu l for every husbandman,labou rer

,

fi sherman,and al l and every other person or per

sons of any estate,degree , or cond it ion (upon the

days before mentioned) , at harvest or any other

t ime , when necessity shal l so requi re , to labou r,

ride,

fish,or work any kind of work, at thei r free

wi l l or pleasure . Cranmer speaks of Sunday and

other holy days as ‘ mere appointments of th e

magistrates,

’ which he conside rs,however, to b e a

su ffic ient reason for the i r observance . But,as the

writer i n the ‘Westminster Review,’ from whose

THE HISTORY OF SUNDAY. 30 1

excel lent paper on Sunday and Lent’ the above

account of the Reformers’ views has been abridged ,

remarks j ustly, the most strik i ng exposi t ion of the

Reformation doctrine is Tyndale’

s answe r to SirT

More’s d ialogue,where he says

As for the Sabbath , we be lora’s over the

Sabbath, and may yet change i t into Monday, or

i nto any othe r day, as we see need , or may make

eve ry tenth day holy day on ly as we see cause why .

We may make two eve ry week if i t were exped ien t,and one not enough to teach the people . Ne i ther

was there any cause to change i t from the Satur

day,but to put a d i fference between ourse lves and

the J ews ; ne i ther need we any holy day at al l , i f

the people might b e taught without it .’

Yet, before long, the Sunday of ou r time began

to grow out of the more reasonable (though in one

sense less logical) Sunday o f the early Reformers.

The Puritans, even in the time of El i zabeth,began

to b e as superst it iou s about Sunday observance as

the Cathol ics had been i n the t ime of Richard I I .

and after a time the Reformation, which had in the

fi rs t instance repudiated as too Judaised the Sun

day of the Cathol i cs, adopted a method of Sunday

observance which even su rpassed in strictness the

old rabbin ical observance of the Sabbath .

‘ Even El i zabeth ,’ says the ‘Westminster ’ re


viewer, was prevai led upon by the magistrates of

London to i nterd i ct plays and games on Sunday

within the l ibert ies of the c i ty. The Reformers

were in advance of thei r age, and , i n some respects ,

of our own. But Puritan ism rap idly got the better

of them . I t i s recorded that i t was preached i n

Somersetshi re that to throw a bal l on the Sabbath

was as great a s i n as to ki l l a man ; i n Norfolk,that to make a feast or a wedding d inner on Sun

day was as great a s in as for a father to cut h is

ch i ld’s throat wi th a knife i n Suffolk, that to ring

more bel ls than one was a crime equ ivalent to

murder.‘ Then came, i n 1595, Ni cholas Bounde’

s

great work on Sabbatariani sm, which began a con

troversy that has never s ince ended . Few books

are to be compared with his for thei r permanent

i nfluence on our soc ial l i fe. Our own Sunday has

much more of Bounde i n i t than of Tyndale or

Cranmer ; and the Scotch Sabbath i tself i s real ly

due to Bounde, not to Calvin or Knox . For, as

Ful ler,Book ix . 5 . 8, 2 2 . It w i l l hardly b e bel ieved , b ut

w i th in the l ast few years v iews as l ud ic rous in one aspec t and ashorrible in anothe r have been p romulgated respect ing Sunday ohservance. A fool i sh c lergyman, at a meet ing when the quest ion of

p laying cricket upon the v i l lage green on Sunday afternoons hadbeen d iscussed

,go t up w i th great warm th t o express his conv ict ion

tha‘ in God’s eyes there was no d i fference be tween the man who

could thus break the Fou rth Commandment and one who broke theSix th.


twenty- eighth . I t runs s imply,

‘ I f any man shal l

k iss his wi fe, or wife her husband, on the Lord ’s

d ay, the party in fau l t shal l be pun ished at the3d iscret ion of the court of magistrates and as the

magistrates we re of the same kidney as the law

makers , i t wi l l b e conce ived what‘ puni shment at

their discret ion sign ified ,’ for d i scretion they had

none , ne i ther d i d they know what mercy or j ustice

meant.

I t is, i ndeed , c lear that very early after the

Reformation the Puritans i n the old country itself

were beginning to observe Sunday as d ismal ly as

the Scotch now do. Thus, i n 163 5, or thereabouts,

Dr. Heylin found occasion to rebuke the gloomy

asceti c ism of some rigid Puritans People ,’ he says,

shou ld not be so superstit iously fearfu l (of breaking

the Sabbath) that they dare not kindle a fire, ordress

meat,or visi t the i r ne ighbours, s it at the i r own door,

or walk abroad , no, nor so much as talk with one

another,except i t b e— ln the poet

’

s words

Of God, grace, and ord inances ,As i f they were in heavenly t rances.

I n Scotland , only a few years later, the stri ct

observance of Sunday had begun to b e regarded

as a matter for the attention of the magistrates .

I n 1644 the six sessions forbade al l walking in the

THE HISTORY OF S UNDAY. 305

streets on Sunday after the noonday sermon . I n

1645 the magistrates were ordered to cause Engl ish

sold iers to lay hold of both old and young whom

they might find in the streets e i the r before or

after the sermon . In ‘

1650 the magistrates of

Edinburgh ordered that the c i ty gates should be

c losed from 10 PM . on Satu rday ti l l 4 AM . on

Monday, except for one hou r in the morning and

one i n the evening for the watering of horses .

About the same time Margaret D ickson , a widow,

had to pay two marks for having spi ts and roasts

at the fi re in t ime of se rmon.

’

Such being, i n brief, the h istory of the steps by

which the Sunday observance of our t ime has

come into existence, i t remains that we should con

s ider what actual authori ty we have for modern

Sabbatariani sm ,regarded as a rel igious question .

No one wil l care to take the Puritans of the seven

teenth century as the sole or the chief authori ty for

keeping Sunday holy after a stri cter fashion than

that in which the J ews he ld that the Sab bath

shou ld b e observed . For the Sabbath was a day

of abst inence from labou r,not of abstinence from

amusement . I f the Puritans had s imply said the

Sunday shall b e ourSabbath , and shal l b e observed

in al l respects even as the Sabbath of the J ews was

observed , we cou ld understand the i r pos it ion as

X


authori ties i n this matter. We shou ld st i l l have to

regard them as absolute ly the only authoriti es we

have for J udai s ing Sunday but we might at least

unde rstand that many would consider the 0b

servan ce of one day in seven as ordained by a

highe r authority, by the highest i ndeed of al l con

ce ivab le authorit ies . We must bel i eve,however, i f

we regard the Puri tans as our su fficient guide i n

this matter,that not only were they right in ins i st

ing on Sunday as a substi tute for the Jewish

Sabbath , but also i n ass igning a number of new

Sabbath regu lat ions, such as the J ews, and the

teacher, whoever he may have been,from whom

the Jews received thei r Sabbath laws, had neve r

thought of enj oin ing. No one , I shou ld imagine ,

cons ide rs the Pu ri tans of suffi cient authori ty to

countenance teachings of th is sort. The most

outspoken among them , those who exerted greatest

i nfluence, were as ignorant as they were bigoted , as

c rue l as they were crafty— the last men i n the

world from whom a cu l tured peop le would care to

take the i r re l igious obse rvances .

But if we do take the Puri tans as our autho

ri ties in th i s matter, we ought i n al l reason to

take the i r views as they stood . We have no right ,

i f they real ly were commissioned to lay down the

l aw for us in such matters,to accept a part o f

3 08 THE HISTORY OF SUNDAY.

s tantine was a su ffic ient authori ty i n one matter,

establishes his authori ty i n the other also.

But lastly,i f we go back to Moses, and reject

i ng the opin ion of those who considered i n old

t imes that the J ewish Sabbath was abrogated, and

the opin ion also of those others who cons idered

that the Christian Sunday should not resemble the

J ewish Sabbath , whether this last were abrogated

or not,adopt the opinion that the Fourth Com

mandment should now be understood as transferred

from the Sabbath to Sunday, how does the matte r

then stand ? Have we any reason for selecting

this one spec ial day from among al l the othe r days

that Moses commanded the people to observe ?

I f we are to hold,at least with regard to the

Sabbath , that not one j ot or t i ttle of the law of

Moses has passed away,how can we escape the

obligat ion of observing other days and other

seasons about which the Mosai c law was equally

definite Moses said, Six days shal t thou do thy

work, and i n the seventh day thou shalt rest

but he also said,

‘ Six years thou shalt sow thy

land , but the seventh year thou shalt let i t rest and

be sti l l .’ Are we to keep this law of the seventh

year or the law of the year of j ubi l ee, as we l l as

the law of the seventh day

Yet once more, we know that Moses com

THE HISTORY OF SUNDAY 3 9 9

manded the people to observe the fest ival of the

New Moon,and thi s festival shou ld b e obse rved

by us now,i f the law of Moses i s real ly to b e

regarded as of authority ove r us . So far as we can

j udge from the sacrifices respect ive ly appointed

for this festival and the Sabbath - day, the former

was he ld to be of at least equal importance with

the latter. On the Sabbath- day the sacrifices were‘ two lambs of the fi rst year without spot, and two

tenth deals of flou r for a meat offering, mingled

with o il, and the d rink offering the reof : this i s the

burnt offeri ng of eve ry Sabbath, beside the con

t inual burnt o ffering and his drink offering.

’

On

the feast of the New Moon,

‘ i n the beginn ings of

your months,ye shal l offer

,

’ says the Mosaic law,

‘ a burnt offering unto the Lord ; two young

bul locks , and one ram , seven lambs of the fi rst

year without spot ; and three tenth deals of flou r

for a meat offering, mingled with oil , for one

bul lock ; and two tenth deals of flou r for a meat

offering, mingled with oil , for one ram ; and a

several tenth deal of flour, mingled with o il,for a

meat offering unto one l amb for a bu rnt offering

o f a sweet savou r, a sacrifice made by fire unto the

Lord . And the i r d rink offerings shal l b e half an

hin of wine unto a bul lock, and the thi rd part o f

an hin unto a ram, and a fourth part of an h in

3 19 THE HIS TORY OF S UNDAY.

unto a lamb : th is i s the burnt offeri ng of every

month throughout the months of the year. And

one k id of the goats for a s in offeri ng unto the

Lord shal l b e offered , beside the con tinual bu rnt

o ffe ring and h i s drink offe ring . The cont inual

burnt offering ment ioned here , and in the descrip

t i on of the Sabbath offering, i s the morn ing sacri

hee,al l these ce remon ies

,dai ly

,weekly

,monthly ,

and the yearly sacrifice of the Passover,being

su rvival s of the pract ices of the sta r-worshipp ing

ancestors of the J ews . I ndeed,i f we accept the

J ewish law of the Sabbath , we ought not only to

accept with it the fest ival of the New Moon , and

other festivals (the Passove r we have very l i tt le

mod ified ), but the princip le of sacrifices, offeri ngs

o f meat and drink to God , Or to a god supposed to

care for such things, and moreover, the recog

n it ion of the heavenly bod ies as deit ies, which ,

however sk i l fu l ly d i sguised by Moses and othe r

J ewish lawgivers, i n real i ty underl ies the enti re

ceremonia l system of the J ewi sh re l igion .

Then also the observance of Sunday, i f real ly

based on the Fourth Commandm en t,should corre

spond more c lose ly than is actual ly the case wi th

the observance of the J ewish Sabbath . I t corre

sponds too c losely , i n many respects, al ready with

Sabbath observance . But the correspondence

ASTROLOGY.

WE are apt to speak of astrol ogy as though i t

were an altogether contemptibl e superstit ion,and

to contemplate with pity those who bel i eved in i t

i n old t imes ; and yet, i f we consider the matte r

aright, we must concede, I th ink, that of al l the

e rrors into which men have fal len in the i r desi re to

penetrate in to fu turity,astrology i s the most

respectable,one may even say the most reasonable .

I nd eed , al l othe r methods of d ivinat ion of which I

have ever heard are not worthy to b e mentioned in

company with astro logy,which

,delusi on though

it was , had yet a foundat ion in thoughts wel l

worthy of consid erati on . The heaven ly bod ies do

rul e the fates of men and nations in the most un~

mistakable manner, see ing that withou t the con

trol l ing and b eneficent i nfluences of the chie f

among these orbs— the sun— every l iving preature

on the earth must pe rish . The anc ients perce ived

that the moon has so potent an influence on our

world,that the waters of th e ocean r ise and fal l in

un i son with her apparent ci rc l ing motion round

ASTROLOGY. 3 13

the earth . Seeing that two among the orbs which

move upon the unchanging dome of the star

sphere are thus potent in terrestrial i nfluences,was

i t not natural that the other moving bod ies known

to the ancients should be thought to possess also

the i r Special powers ? The moon,seemingly less

important than the sun,not mere ly by reason of

her less degree of splendour,but also because she

performs her c i rcu i t of the star- sphere in a shorter

i nterval of t ime, was seen to possess a powerfu l

i nfluence , but st i l l an influence far less importan t

than that exerted by the sun , or rather than the

many influences mani festly emanat ing from him .

But other bod ies trave l led in yet wider c i rcu i ts i f

the i r d i stances cou ld b e in ferred from the i r periods

of revolution . Was i t not reasonabl e to suppose

that the i nfluences exerted by those slowly moving

bod ies might be even more potent than those of

the sun himself? Mars c i rcl i ng round the star

sphere i n a period nearly twice as great as the

sun’s , Jupite r i n twelve years , and Saturn i n

twenty - n ine,might wel l b e thought to b e ru le rs of

superior d ignity to the sun, though less glorious i n

appearance ; and s ince no obvious d i rect e ffects

are produced by them as they change i n posi tion,

i t was natural to attribute to them influences more

subtle, but not the l ess potent.

3 14 ASTROLOGY.

Thus was conceived the thought that the

fortunes of every man born i nto the world depend

on the posi ti on of the vari ous p lanets at the

moment of his birth . And i f there was someth ing

artifici al i n the ru les by which various influences

were assigned to particu lar planets, or to parti cu la r

aspects of the planets , i t must b e remembe red that

the system of astro logy was formed gradual ly and

perhaps tentative ly. Some i nfluences may have

been inferred from observed events,the fate of thi s

or that ki ng or ch ief guid ing astrologers in assign

ing partic ular influences to such p lanetary aspects

as we re presented at the t ime of his nativi ty.

Others may have been invented , and afterwards

have found general acceptance because confirmed

by some curi ous coinc idences . I n the long run .

indeed,any seri es of experimental pred i ct ions

must have led to some very su rpris ing fulfilments,

that i s,to fulfilments which would have been ex

ceedingly su rpris ing i f the correspond ing predi c

t ions had been the on ly ones made by astro logers .

Such instances, carefu l ly col lected , may at fi rs t

have been used sole ly to improve the system of

pred ic t ion . The astrologer may have been carefu l

to separate the fu lfi l l ed from the unfu lfi l led pre

d ict ions,and thus to establ i sh a safe ru le. For i t

must be remembered that, admitt ing the car

3 16 ASTROLOGY.

observat ion , whi le others were ready to general is e,

and yet others evolved theories from the depths of

thei r moral consciousness . I ndeed , what we know

of the development of astrology i n l ater t imes, as

we l l as the way in which other modes of divination

have sprung into ex istence,shows that the natura l

tendency of astrologers wou ld be to°

nvent systems

rather than to establ ish them by carefu l and long

cont inued observation . Within a very few years

of the d iscovery of the spots on the sun a tolerably

complete system of d iv i nation was founded upon

the appearance,formation

,and motions of these

objects . Certa in ly this system was not based on

obse rvat ion,nor wi l l any one suppose that the ru les

for read ing the hand ’ had an observati onal origin ,

or that fortune- te l l ing by means of cards was

derived from a careful comparison of the resu l t of

shuffl i ng,cutting

,and deal ing

,with the future

fortunes of those for whose enl ightenment these

important processes were performed .

But we must not forget that astrology was

original ly a science, though a false one. Grant

the truth of i ts cardinal id ea, and i t had every right

to this pos i tion . No offi ce could be more im

portan t than that of the astrologer, no servi ces

cou ld be more usefu l than those he was capable of

rendering accord ing to h is own be l i ef as we l l as

ASTROLOGY. 3 17

that of those who employed him. It is only

necessary to ment ion the history of astrology to

perce ive the estimation i n which i t was he ld i n

an cient t imes .

As to the extreme ant iqu i ty of astrology i t i s

perhaps needless to speak ; i ndeed , i t s origin i s so

remote that we have only imperfect tradi t ions re

specting i ts earl iest deve lopments . Yet i t may b e

worth whi l e to mention some of these trad i t ions,

see ing that, whether tru e or not, they show clearly

enough the great antiqu ity attributed to astrology,

even in time s which to ourselves appear remote.

Phi lo asserts that Terah, the father of Abraham ,

was ski l led in al l that re l ates to astrology ; and ,

accord ing to J osephus,the Chaldaean Berosu s

attributed to Abraham a profound knowledge of

a ri thmeti c,astrology, and astronomy, i n which

sc iences he i nstru cted the Egyptians . Diodorus

S iculus says that the Hel i adae , or chi ld ren of th e

sun (that i s , men from the East), exce l led al l other

men i n knowledge, part i cu larly i n the knowledge

o f the stars . One o f th i s race , namedActi s (a ray),bu i l t Hel i opol i s , and named i t afte r hi s fathe r, the

sun . Thenceforward the Egyptians cu lt ivated

astrology with so much assidu ity as to b e con

s idered i ts i nventors . On the other hand Tatiu s

says that the Egyptians taught the Chaldaeans

3 18 ASTROLOGY.

astrology. The people of Thebais,accord ing to

Diodorus Siculus , c laimed the power of pred ict ing

every futu re event wi th the utmost certainty ; they

al so asserted that they were of al l races the most

anc ient .

However, we have, both in Egypt and i n

Assyr ia,record s far more sat isfactory than these

confl i cting statements to p rove the great ant iqu i ty

of astrology, and the importance attached to i t

when i t was regarded as a science . The Great

Pyramid i n Egypt was unquest ionably an astro

nom ical,that i s (for i n the science of the anc ients

the two terms are conve rti b le) an astrological

bu i ld ing . The Birs Nimroud,‘ supposed to b e

bui l t on the ru ins of the towe r of Babel, was also

bu i l t for astrologers . The forms of these bu i ld ings

test i fy to the astronomical purposes for which they

we re e rected . The Great Pyramid,l ike the inferio r

bu i ld ings copied from it,was most carefu l ly

oriented,that i s

,the fou r s ides were bu i l t facing

exactly north, south, east, and west . The astro

nom ical use of thi s arrangement i s man i fest . By

Every br ick h i therto removed from th i s ed ifice bears thestamp of King Nebuchadnezzar. It affords a wonde rfu l idea of theextent and grandeur o f the bu i ld ings raised by the tyrant s of oldt imes , that the ru ins of a s ingle bu i ld ing on the s i te of Babyl on(Rich’s Kasr ) has for ages been the mine from wh ich the bui lde rso f c i t ies r ising afte r the fal l of Babylon have obtained the i rmater ial s. — Layard

’

s s zeUe/t .

3 20 ASTROLOGY.

erected by Semi ramis, and dedicated to Belus or

J upiter, and that on i ts roof or summit the Chal

dasan astronomers contemplated,and exactly noted,

the ri sings and settings of the stars.’

I f we cons ider the manner in which the study

of science , for i ts own sake , has always been viewed

by Oriental nations, we must admit that these

great bu i ld ings , and these elaborate and cost ly ar

rangements for continued observation,were not

i ntended to advance the sc ience of astronomy.

Only the hope that resu lts of extreme value would

b e obtained by observing the heavenly bod ies cou ld

have led the monarchs of Assyri a and of Older

Egypt to make such lavish provision of money and

labou r for the e rection and maintenance of astro

nom ical observatori es . So that , apart from the

eviden ce we have of the astrological obj ect of

celestial observations i n anc ient times, we find i n

the very natu re of the bu i ld ings erected for ob

serving the stars the clearest proof that men in

those t imes hoped to gain resu lts of great value

from such work . Now, we know that ne i ther the

improvement of navigat ion nor increased exactness

i n the surveying of the earth was a imed at by

those who bu i l t those ancient observatori es : the

only conceivable object they can have had was the

d iscovery of a perfectly trustworthy system of pre

ASTROLOGY. 3 2 1

d iction from the study of the motions of the

heavenly bod ies . That th i s was thei r obj ect i s

shown with equal c l earness by the fact that such a

system,accord ing to thei r bel ief, was d educed from

these observat ions, and was for ages accep ted

without quest ion .

Close ly assoc i ated with astrological superst it i ons

was the widespread form of rel igion cal l ed Sabaism ,

or the worsh ip of the host of heaven (Sabaoth) .

I t i s not easy to determine whether the worship of

the sun , moon , and planets preceded or fol lowed

the study of the heavens as a means of d i vi nation

I t i s p robable that the two forms of supersti t ion

sprang simul taneously i nto ex istenc e. The shep

herds of Chaldae a, who

Watched from the cent res of the i r sleeping flock sThose rad iant Mercu ries, that seemed to move,Carrying through aethe r in perpe tual round ,Decrees and resolut ions of the gods,

can hardly have regarded the p lanetary movements

as inclicatzng , without be l i eving that those move

ments actually influenced, the fate of men and

nat ions ; i n other words, the idea of planetary

powe r must from the very beginn ing , i t would seem ,

have been associated wi th the idea of the s ignifi

cance of planetary motions . Be this as i t may,i t

Y

3 22 AS TROLOGY

i s certain that in the earl i est t imes of which we

have any historical record , bel i ef i n astrology was

associated with the worsh ip of the host of heaven .

I n the Bible record we find the teachers and rulers

of the Jewish nat ion compel led cont inual ly to

struggle agai nst the tendency of that peopl e to

fol low surround ing nat ions i n forsak ing the worship

of the God of Sabaoth for the worship of Sabaoth ,

tu rn ing from the Creator to the creature . They

wou ld seem even,as the on ly means of d iverting

the people from the worship of those false gods,to

have adopted al l the symbols of Sabaism ,explain

ing them , however, with sole refe rence to the God

of Sabaoth . Moses adopted , i n th is way, the fou r

forms of sacrifice to which the J ewish people had

become accus tomed in Egypt — the o fferings to the

ris ing and sett ing sun (Numbers xxvi i i . 3 , 4) the

offerings on the day ded icated to the planet

Satu rn , chief of the seven star- gods (Numbers

xxvi i i . the offerings to the new moon (Num

bers xxvi i i . 1 and the offeri ngs for the lun i - sola r

fest ival be l onging to the first month of the sun’

s

annual c i rcu it of the zod iacal constel l ati ons (Num

bers xxvi i i . 16 , All these offerings were i n a

sense sanctified by the manner in which he enj oined

them,and the new mean ing b e attached to them

b ut that the original offe rings were Sabaistic i s

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