64 



KNOAVLEDGE 



[July 



1883. 



chamber, and of the ascending and descending passages, as 

 tubes through which to obtain the reflection of the rays of 

 Draconis, offers the only rational explanation of these parts 

 of the structure with which I am acquainted ; and your 

 exposition of the purpose of the great gallery — which, as 

 it now exists in the heart of the structure, ending against a 

 dead wall, is entirely without object or use — appears to me 

 absolutely irrefragible. 



That the Great Pyramid was, in even a secondary sense, 

 erected in order to obtain an astronomical platform and an 

 observing tube, is what I cannot subscribe to ; but given 

 that the Pharaoh built his monster tomb during his life- 

 time, I can fully admit the likelihood of its having been 

 made use of, during its progress, for purposes of astrono- 

 mical or astrological observation. 



Amelia B. Edwards. 



[I think my correspondents referred chiefly to remarks 

 by some continental Egyptologists ; but as Miss Edwards had 

 expressed the same views in her very kindly notice of my 

 book on the Great Pyramid, it is probable that several of 

 them referred to her known views on the subject. It 

 appears to me that most Egyptologists fail to estimate the 

 significance of the astronomical relations involved in the 

 Pyramids, and especially in the Great Pyramid. What 

 Miss Edwards, for instance, regards as proved beyond 

 further question, carries with it a great deal which she 

 appears to regard as more than improbable. I will run 

 briefly through the considerations which seem, to my own 

 mind, logically convincing in this respect : — 



Either the Egyptian rulers were greatly interested in 

 the advance of astronomical and astrological learning for 

 its own sake, or they were not. If they were not, it 

 would be very unlikely that merely for the sake of such 

 astronomical purposes as the structure might subserve at 

 certain stages of its erection, they would have gone to the 

 enormous extra expense, labour, and care involved in the 

 construction of the great slant gallery. If, on the other 

 hand, they were greatly interested in the advance of astro- 

 nomy, it would be manifest to persons as familiar as they 

 obviously were with astronomical relations, that little of 

 real importance could be added to their knowledge by an 

 observing gallery only available for a few years ; they 

 would have recrignised the absolute necessity, if they would 

 efifectively advance their science, of an observatory so con- 

 structed as to be available for centuries. Seeing, then, that 

 whether the Egyptians were, or were not, greatly in- 

 terested in the advance of astronomy, they would never, for 

 that purpose, have given to the Great Pyramid the qualities 

 as an observatory which were actually given it at the cost 

 of enormous extra labour, care, and cost, it follows certainly 

 that the astronomical and astrological relations considered 

 by the builders were other than those merely connected 

 with the advance of their science — were, in fact, such as 

 made it worth their while to devote all that skill which 

 they evidently possessed, to employ all that extra labour 

 and to go to all that extra expense of which the building 

 gives evidence, for astronomical and astrological relations 

 which vmvJd, in their belief, be eflectively advanced during 

 the few years that the great platform and gallery could be 

 used for observing purposes. I can see no escape, for my 

 own part, from the conclusion that these astronomical and 

 astrological matters related solely to the king for whom the 

 Great Pyramid was erected. In other words, it appears to 

 me a demonstrated fact (whatever the interpretation of the 

 fact may be) that while the ultimate purpose of the 

 Great Pyramid was that it should serve as a tomb for 

 Cheops, its primary purpose (not a secondary purpose at all) 

 was that by means of it those observations of celestial 



bodies, which, according to the belief of his time, were 

 essential for his success in life and (I have no doubt) for 

 his welfare after death, should be satisfactorily and effec- 

 tively pursued. If there is any way of escape from this 

 conclusion, I have not seen it, nor has any Egyptologist 

 who has ever asserted that the Great Pyramid was a tomb 

 and a tomb only, ever indicated one. Lepsius, of all among 

 them, took, I think, the most logical position, — in regarding 

 astronomical evidence as not worth considering at all. In 

 so doing, he only rejected a demonstrated fact But to 

 accept that fact, and not to accept what it proves, is to be 

 wanting in the logical completeness of unreasonableness 

 which Lepsius showed in this matter. 



Indeed, the tomb theory taken alone proves a good deal 

 which those who hold it seem to overlook. In concluding 

 that the Great Pyramid was a great tomb, we are admitting 

 that its erection was closely and intimately associated with 

 the religious ideas prevalent among the ancient Egyptians 

 when it was built. From all the indications which have 

 reached us as to the nature of those ideas, it might be shown, 

 I believe, even though nothing whatever were known of the 

 Great Pyramid, except that it was very large and had been 

 erected at such-and-such cost of time and labour, that during 

 the lifetime of its future tenant it must have had some such 

 astronomical characteristics as is actually possessed. If sun 

 and moon and planets were the gods of the ancient Egyptians, 

 and the star sphere the house in whose " many mansions " 

 those gods moved — and there are abundant indications that 

 such was the nature of the most ancient Egyptian cult — the 

 aspects of the heavenly bodies were bound to be considered 

 during life and after death in the case of every Egyptian 

 " worth counting " (I suppose the " common-folk " were 

 not considered worth counting at all), more particularly in 

 the case of governors, generals, official rulers, and priests, 

 still more particularly in the case of princes and members 

 of the royal family, but most particularly of all in the case 

 of him who was at once King, Prime Minister, Chief 

 General, and Highest Priest. Knowing what we know, 

 and inferring what we may safely infer, of the religion of 

 Old Egypt, the wonder would rather have been that 

 astronomical and astrological relations should not have 

 been considered in the Great Pyramid — being what it was, 

 the future resting-place of the greatest of their nation — 

 than that we should find these relations considered so 

 thoughtfully and so skilfully, with so much care, at such 

 great cost, and at the expense of so much labour. — R. P.] 



PRINCIPLES OF DRESS REFORM. 



By E. M. King. 



MERE novelty, divorced from the ' eternal canons of 

 loveliness,' as Ruskin calls them, can produce only 

 oddity of various kinds, as we see in the world of fashion, 

 where a morbid love of change is always at hand to usurp 

 the throne of reason, and to juggle Nature out of her most 

 comely graces and most healthy proprieties." — Professor 

 Blackie's article in " Contemporary Bevieiv " for June, 

 1883. 



" Utility, and fitness to attain a practical end, must be 

 as in all the useful arts ; but it is there as a basis on which 

 the beautiful is erected, or as a stem out of which it grows." 

 — The same. 



" There are two sides to the artistic view of the question 

 (dress). On one side is nature ; on the other art. I need 

 go no further than to remind your readers that the human 

 frame, if in its unsullied grandeur, is, of all the Creator's 

 works, the most artistic. Consequently, I contend that 



