April 21, .fcti2.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



529 



expense and labour given to all the PjTamids might have 

 been combined, have been preferred ? 



Astrology at once supplies a reason. Dead kings of one 

 fetmily might sleep witll advantage in a single tomb ; but 

 each man's horoscope must be kept by itself. Even to this 

 day, the astrological charlatan would not discuss one man's 

 horoscope on the plan drawn out and used for another 

 man's. Everything, according to ancient astrological 

 superstition, would have become confused and indistinct. 

 The ruling of the planets would have been imjierfect and 

 unsatisfactory, if King Cheops' horoscope platform had 

 been used for Chephren, or Chephren's for Jlycerinus. The 

 religious solemnities which accompanied astrological obser- 

 vations in the days when the chief astrologers were high 

 priests, would have been rendered nugatory if those per- 

 formed under suitable conditions for one person were fol- 

 lowed by others performed under different conditions for 

 another person. 



on a smaller scale. Probably, the astrologj' of those days 

 assigned the proper proportion in which the horoscope- 

 platform for a son should be less than that for a father. It 

 is noteworthy, at any rate, that the linear dimensions of 

 the Pyramid of Asychis are less than those of the Pyramid 

 of Mycerinus, in just the same degree that these are less 

 than the linear dimensions of the Pyramid of Cheops. 



6. It is certain that if Mycerinus had built his own 

 Pyramid, he would have erected one larger, not smaller, 

 than his father's, while Asychis would have made his 

 Pyramid larger yet ; whereas, as a mere matter of fact, the 

 Pyramid of Asychis is utterly insignificant in size com- 

 pared with the Pyramid of Cheops. The sides of the 

 bases of the four Pyramids were roughl)' as follows : — The 

 Pyramid of Cheops, 7G0 feet ; that of Chephren, 720 feet ; 

 that of Mycerinus, 330 feet; that of Mycerinus, IGO feet. 

 The Pyramid of Cheops exceeds that of Asychis much 

 more than 150 times in volume. It is not in accordance 



3. How is it that the Pyramid of Chephren (Cheops' 

 brother), though about as large, is quite inferior to the 

 PjTamid of Cheops, the Pyramid of Mycerinus (Cheops' 

 son) much smaller, and that of Asychis (Cheops' grandson) 

 \ery much smaller, while to the younger sons and daughters 

 of Cheops very small Pyramids, within the same enclosure 

 as the Great Pyramid, are assigned 1 



^ The astrological answer is obvious. Cheops not only 

 I had full faith in astrology — as, indeed, all men had in his 

 day — but his faith was so lively that he put it in practice 

 • in a very energetic way for the benefit of himself and 

 (dynasty. Chephren probably had similar faith. For the 

 Itwo brothers, separate Pyramids, nearly equal in size, were 

 Imade, either at the command of Cheops alone, or with such 

 Isanction from Chephren as his (probable) separate authority 

 required and justified. At the same time, and because his 

 fortunes were obviously associated in the closest manner 

 •with those of his father and uncle, Cheops (or Cheops and 

 Chephren) would have a Pyramid made for Mycerinus, but 



with what we know of human nature to suppose that 

 Asychis would have been content with so insignificant a 

 version of his grandfather's Pyramid. Rather than that, 

 he would have had no P^-ramid at all, but invented some 

 new sepulchral arrangement. Yet it adds enormously to 

 the difficulties of the Pyramid problem to suppose that 

 Cheops and Chephren arranged for the erection of all the 

 Pyramids, or, at any rate, that the smaller Pyramids were 

 raised to the horoscope-platform le\el during their life- 

 time. 



Here, however, the astrological theory, instead of encoun- 

 tering, as all other theories do, a new and serious difficulty, 

 finds fresh support ; for this arrangement is precisely what 

 we should expect to find if the Great Pyramid was erected 

 to its observing platform for astrological observation and 

 the religious observances associated with them. It is 

 certain that with the ideas Cheops must have had (on that 

 theory) of the importance of astronomical observations to 

 determine, and partly govern, his future, he would not 



