i28 



KNOWLEDGE • 



[Aprh. . 1, 1882. 



ordinary coiulition. Mr. Mnr.sliall IFuU kept a lotJiarfjir 

 liitlgi-liog undtT wattir for '1'1\ iiiiiiut<vs witlioul injuring it, 

 thougli ;i iiiinutus' iinniuruion killed auutlicr in the normal 

 active stnto. 



Tliu rotifiir wh<<n dried to a cliip, and not killud, is much 

 liku a watch that hius all its wliocis .sound, tml tlin spring 

 rcniovi'd. All lifo processes miuire a high degree of 

 mohility in the molecules of the living suhstanee. Water 

 supplies this condition, and those animals or plants that 

 can survive desiccation didor from dead ones when they 

 poss into the torpid stjitc, in that their organic structure 

 is not de!itroyo<l, and the chemical character of their allm- 

 niinous matters is left in such a state that it can, l<y 

 imbibing wat<'r, resume its ordinary activities. Life must 

 not be regarded as some entity put into an organism, as 

 wine is poured into a bottle, but as a complex scries of 

 actions and reactions which result in nutrition, growth, 

 and reproduction. When we come to the higher phenomena 

 of thought and feeling, science can only .say that it has no 

 explanation to oflor as to the why and the how such mani- 

 festations are connected with molecular changes in brain 

 and nerve. 



THE GREAT PYRAMID. 



By tue Editou. 



1 COULD descant at great length on the value which the 

 Great Pyramid, when in the condition represented at 

 p. .3 1 5, and in the accompanying illustration repeated from 

 p. ."JO.s, must have had for astronomical obscr\ation. I 

 could show how niucli more exactly than by the use of any 

 gnomon, the sun's annual course around the celestial sphere 

 could be determined by obser\ations made from the Great 

 <!!allcry, by noting the shadow of the edges of the upper 

 opening of the Gallery on the sides, the floor, and the upper 

 surfaces of the ramps. The moon's monthly path aiid its 

 changes could have been dealt with in the same effective 

 way. The geocentric paths, and thence the true paths, 

 of the planets could be determined very accurately by 

 combining the use of tubes or ring-carrying rods with 

 the direction lines determined from the Gallery's sides, 

 rtoor, itc. The place of every visible star along the 

 Zodiac (astrologically the most important part of the 

 stellar heavens) could be most accurately determined. 

 Had the Pj-rainid been left in that incomplete, but astro- 

 nomically most pcrfcLt, form, the edifice might have 

 remained for thousands of years the most important 

 astronomical structure in the world. Nay, to this \ery 

 day it would have retained its pre eminence, provided, of 

 "course, that its advantages over other buildings had been 

 duly supplemented by modern instrumental and optical 

 improvements. 



Unfortunately, the Great Pyi-amid was erected solely for 

 selfish purposea It was to b<' the tomb of Cheops, and 

 whatever <iualitie3 it had for astronomical observation were 

 to be devot<:d to his service only. The incalculable aid to 

 the progress of astronomy which might have been obtained 

 from tills magnificent structure entered in no sort into its 

 king-builder's plan. Centuricj would have been required 

 to reap even a tithe of the knowledge which might have 

 been derived from Pyramid observations, and such ob.ser- 

 vations were limited to a few years — twenty, thirty, forty, 

 or fifty at the outside. 



Now, while 1 am fully conscious that the astrological 

 theory of the Great Pyramid is open to most obvious, and 

 at the lirst sight most overwhelming objections, I venture 

 to say not only that these are completely met by what is 

 e<-rtainly known about the Pyramid ; but that the astro- 



logical theory (combined, of course, with the tomb theory), 

 is demon.strably the true explanation of all that had been 

 mysttirious in the Great Pyramid. 



Take the chief points which hav. ^lerplexed students of 

 the Pyramids generally, and of the Great Pyramid in 

 particular. 



1. Granting the most inordinate affection for large 

 sepulclii°al abodes, how can we account for the amazing 

 amount of labour, money, and time bestowed on the Great 

 Pyramid ? 



The astrological theory at once supplies the answer. If 

 the builder believed what we know was actually believed 

 by all the Oriental nations, respecting planetary and stellar 

 influences, it was worth his while to expend that and more 

 on the Pyramid, to read the stars for his benefit, and to 

 " rule " stars and planets to his advantage. 



2. If the Pyramids were but vast tombs, why shouM 

 they be astronomically oriented with extreme care, — to 

 assume for a moment that this is the only astronomical 

 relation established certainly respecting them ? 



Astrology answers this difticulty most satisfactorily. For 

 astrological study of the heavens, the Pyramid (in its in- 

 complete or truncated condition) could not be too accu- 

 rately oriented. 



.'3. Granted that the Great Pyramid was for a time used 

 as an astronomical observatory, and that its upper square 

 platform was used for cardinal directions in the way shown 

 in the figure, what connection is there between these 

 direction lines (the only ones which would naturally arise 

 from the square form) and astrological relations'? 



These lines remain to this very day in use among astro- 

 logers. The accompanying figure, taken fi'om Raphael's 

 Astrology (Raphael being doubtless some Smith, or 

 Llodgett, or Higginbotham), represents the ordinary horo- 

 scope, and its relations (now unmeaning) to a horizontal, 

 carefully-oriented square plane surface, such as the top of 

 the Pyramid was, with just such direction-lines as would 

 naturally be used on such a platform : — 



Twelvt CfUsltai Hcrusn. 



Kfcordinf to tr^oul 

 AAlroI'jgicaJ A'Jthor^ 



r. INHERITANCES 

 KINDRED ^\ /.v. 



a^ilmifffjt. 



I. Why did each king want a tomb of his own \ W^hy 

 should not a larger family mausoleum, one in which all the 



