SECT. 15.] Chance, Causation, and Design. 253 



must know it ; but we can see no rational motive, if they 

 did know it, which should induce them to perpetuate it 

 in their building. If, however, to adopt an ingenious sug 

 gestion 1 , we suppose that the builder may have proceeded 

 m the following fashion, the matter assumes a different 

 aspect. Suppose that having decided on the height of his 

 pyramid he drew a circle with that as radius : that, laying 

 down a cord along the line of this circle, he drew this cord 

 out into a square, which square marked the base of the 

 building. Hardly any simpler means could be devised in 

 a comparatively rude age; and it is obvious that the cir 

 cumference of the base, being equal to the length of the 

 cord, would bear exactly the admitted ratio to the height. 

 In other words, the exact attainment of a geometric value 

 does not imply a knowledge of that ratio, but merely of some 

 method which involves and displays it. A teredo can bore, 

 as well as any of us, a hole which displays the geometric pro 

 perties of a circle, but we do not credit it with correspond 

 ing knowledge. 



As before said, all numerical appreciation of the like 

 lihood of the design alternative is out of the question. But, 

 if the precision is equal to what Mr Smyth claimed, I sup 

 pose that most persons (with the above suggestion before 

 them) will think it somewhat more likely that the coinci 

 dence was not a chance one. 



1 Made in Nature (Jan. 24, 1878) lengths of the four straight sides 

 by Mr J. G. Jackson. It must be of the actual and practical square 

 remarked that Mr Smyth s alter- base.&quot; As regards the alternatives 

 native statement of his case leads up of chance and design, here, it must 

 to that explanation: &quot;The vertical be remembered in justice to Mr 

 height of the great pyramid is the Smyth s argument that the anti- 

 radius of a theoretical circle the thesis he admits to chance is not 

 length of whose curved circumference human, but divine design, 

 is exactly equal to the sum of the 



