450 



KNOWLEDGE 



[March 24, 1882. 



tlio Great Pyramid had a ivligious sigiiiflcanco with regard 

 to him, it had also a national rttligious signiticancc. 



It would havii l)ocn worth Cheo])s' whili- to have this 

 •^reat astrological observatory erected, even if by means of 

 it he could learn only what was to happen, the times and 

 seasons which wore likely to be fortunate or unfortunate 

 for him or his race, and so forth. lUit in his day, a.s in 

 ours, astrology claimed not only to read l)iit also to rule 

 the stars. Astrologers did not pretend that they could 

 actually regulate the movements of the heavenly bodies, 

 but they claimed that by careful observation and study 

 they could show how the best advantage could be t.iki-n of 

 the good dispositions of the stars, and their malefic in- 

 fluences best avoided. They not only claimed this, but 

 doubtless many of them believed it ; and it is quite certain 

 that those who were not astronomers ('.'•., astrologers) 

 were fully persuaded of the truth of the system which, 

 even when the discovery of the true nature of the planets 

 has entirely disproved it, retains still its hold upon the 

 minds of the multitude. 



There is, so far as I can see, no other theory of the 

 Great Pyramid which even comes near to giving a common- 

 sense interpretation of the combined astronomical and 

 sepulchral character of this wonderful structure. If it is 

 certain on the one hand that the building was built astro- 

 nomicalh-, and was meant for astronomical observation, it 

 is eiiually certain that it was meant for a tomb, that it was 

 closed in very soon after the king died for whom it was 

 built, that, in fine, its astronomical value related to himself 

 alone. As an astrological edifice, a gigantic horoscope for 

 him and for him only, we can understand its purport, 

 much though we may marvel at the vast expenditure of care, 

 labour, and treasure at which it was erected. Granted full 

 faith in astrology (and we kno\\- there was such faith), it 

 was worth while to build even such a structure as the 

 Great Pyramid ; just as, granted the ideas of Egyptians 

 about burial, we can understand the erection of so mighty 

 a mass, and all save its special astronomical character. 

 Of no other theory, I venture to say, than that which com- 

 bmes these two strange but most marked characteristics of 

 the Egyptian mind, crni this be said. 



THE "SATURDAY REVIEW'S" COilET. 



Cissio.— Why, thit is a more exquisite song than the other. 



THE effect of [Mr. Proctor's] note of alarm was promptly seen iu 

 tlie queer homily in the Spectator, of which we have already taken 

 notice, having for its text this prophecy of Mr. Proctor, as one " of 

 whose astronomical authority and ability nobody doubts." Upon 

 this undoubted fact were founded some characteriatic speculations 

 as to the moral attitude with which the inevitable doom is likely to 

 be met as the day draws near, which day Mr. Proctor would doubt- 

 less be able to fix with still greater "precision. The Menacing 

 Comet has, it appears, since been "scratched" in the pages 

 of Knowledge. But the title of the essay, and what is drawn 

 out as the line of proof, epitomised by ns [querv, as epitomised 

 by the Saturday KertVio— Ed.] shows to our "mind an tinmis- 

 takablo desire, however it may be sought now to turn it off 

 as a playfiil freak of science, to make the reader's ilesh creep. 

 Hov: far, indeed, so many of us as aro not dead with fright 

 )iiai/ have indications vouchsafed them of the cominr/ catas- 

 Irophe does not yet appear. Nor does it very much matter. All 

 must soon be over. " Mr. Proctor's name will have one instant of 

 lurid fame, in which that and everything else connected with our 

 corporeal life will expire." In a few weeks— possibly in a few days, 

 or even hours, in the words of Mr. Proctor— the sun, excited for a 

 while to intense heat and splendour, will resume his usual temi)era- 

 ture. his usual lustre ; but there will be no one to bask in his genial 

 beams, no popular science teacher to tell of all he has done or is hence- 

 forth to do. [And no Saturday Uaiew to give treatises on science 

 for review to "society writers," reduced to the abject necessity of 

 " stealing their thunder " from the authors they criticise.— Ed.]" It 

 may yet bo that some spirits of a bolder and" more hopeful turn, 



long trustful of popular scionco prophotn, mny bethink them that 

 out of the myriads, not to my milliona, of Ihcso menacing bodiea 

 that are said to circulate round the sun with the same cliance 

 of precipitation into his mass, i( would be odd if in the vrholt 

 ranyc of hiitorical, or, let 1M any, ytoloijical time, tueh 

 a calailrophe had vercr taken place before. Yet, whether 

 any such dreaded cmnh has come oil or not, bore at least 

 we are. There luis been, imlccd, a strong impression that the un- 

 iconled digturbanee of the nun') tiirfacc, noted at once by Mr. 

 Carrimjton and Mr. llod-jmn, on Sept. 1, 1859, u-at d\ie to the 

 inrush of a comet ["two meteors" it sboold bo. — Ed.] into f/ie <un ; 

 yet nothing came of it beyond a slight extra tremor of the galva- 

 nometer needles at Kew and elsewhere. Comparing the stui>cndoa< 

 mass of the sun with the utmost material volume that can ]ie 

 assigned to then fdmy lolatilc portintt of the sky, what jreat acces- 

 nion cnn we suppose any one among them to he sinyhj capable of 

 bringing to the x-ist eosmical centre of light and heat? Any parti- 

 cularly nervous person may as welt Ring a pinch of snufi into tha 

 fire, and see how it affects a thermometer upon the opjwsitc wall. 

 After nil our advance in scientific observation and theory for the 

 last fifty years, are wo really nearer to any definite knowledge of 

 the material constituents or the physical conditions of these myste- 

 rious wanderers of oar system ? "What are comets made of ? " 

 asked a French lady of the most distinguished savant of the time. 

 " Madame, I do not know." " Then what is the use of being an 

 Academician ? " " Madame, that I may be able to say I do not 

 know." It would never do for an oracle of popular scieru-e to have 

 it thought there was anything he did not know. — Saturday Revievo 

 for March 18, 1882. 



[The reader may find it interesting to compare the following five 

 extracts, respectively, with the five italicised passages above. — Ed.] 



Supposing there really is a possibility that our sun may one day, 

 tliruugli the arrival of some very large comet travelling directly 

 towards him, share the fate of the suns whose outbursts I have 

 described above, tee might he destroyed unawares, or we might be 

 aware for several weeks of the approach of the destroying cnmet. — 

 From "Myths and Marvels of Astronomy," 1877, by the Editor. 



If among the comets travelling in regular attendance upon the 

 sun there be one whose orbit intersects the sun's globe, then that 

 comet must several times ere this have struck the sun, raising him 

 temporarily to a destructive heat. Such a comet must have a 

 period of enormous length, for the races of animals now existing 

 upon the earth must all have been formed since that conieVs last visits 

 on the assumption, be it remembered, that the fall of a large comet 

 upon tlie sun — or, rather, the direct passage of the stm through tha 

 meteoric nucleus of a large comet — would excite the sun to destruc- 

 tive heat. We may fairly believe that all comets of the destmctiTe 

 sort have been eliminated. — From " Myths and Marvels," IST^j 

 by the Editor. 



I am not siu-e but that we may regard the meteors which seem to 

 have fallen on the sun on Sept. 1, 1859, as bodies travelling in (A« 

 track of the comet of 1843, just as the Xovcmber meteors, seen in 

 1S67-8-9, &c., until 1872, were bodies certainly following in the 

 track of the telescopic comet of 1866. — From " Mvthsand Marvels," 

 1877. 



The dread of the possible evils which might accrue if the earth 

 encountered a comet will possibly be diminished by the considera- 

 tion of the extreme tenuity of these ohject^t. — The Editor, in Bjiow- 

 ledge for November 11, ISSl. 



To the astronomer, the appearance of so many comets — some vi 

 them large ones — has been full of interest, because he hopes by the 

 application of the new methods of research discovered within the 

 last quarter of a century to solve some of the mysteries with which 

 the whole subject is still fraught, despite a number of interesting 

 discoveries which have recently been made.— The Editor, in Know- 

 ledge tor Xovember 4, 1881. 



TRICYCLES IN 1882. 



Bv JOHX Bbowxixo. 



SE\'ERAL correspondents have requested mc to give my reasons 

 for preferring the machines I have named as in the foremost 

 rank in the previous article, and as I cannot reply to them indi- 

 vidually, I will endeavour briefly to furnish such iiiformation here. 

 First, then, as regards the Kucker Tricycle. This is the only 

 open-fronted, rear-steering machine in which the pedals arc 80 

 placed that if the rider stands on them he adds to the stability of 

 the machine by keeping the hind steering-wheel more firmly on the 

 ground, while the pedals, beiuc; well under the rider, give the rider 

 more power, pariicularly in liill-ri.liii','. with Ii'--- fatiirniv .-Vnother 



