Epidemics. 223 



Pyramid. Its basis of numeration is five and twenty-five 

 inches, which latter appears to have been the common 

 standard of measurement. This standard, when reduced to 

 i-25th, gives us the inch as a unit, which is 5OO,ooo,oooth 

 part of the earth's diameter. In the beautiful fitting or 

 jointing of one stone against another, the Pyramid, like 

 the Jews maintain for Solomon's Temple, is air-tight, or 

 nearly so, tissue paper being too thick to pass between 

 the seams of the joints or fittings of stone against stone in 

 this wonderful Pyramid. 



To be as brief as possible, the Jews, who were long in 

 Egypt, did not bring with them the unit or inch measure, 

 and then the foot or two feet. They brought with them 

 no pyramidical proportion whatever, but merely a con- 

 venient system for a set of rustics, who understood pasturage 

 and, in a measure, agriculture, and not science and fine arts. 

 The finger, the hand, the span, and the fore-arm, to the 

 tips of the fingers, were the natural standard, and for most 

 purposes were admirable ready reckoners, for they were 

 always at hand. When more civilized, they got these ready 

 reckoners more fixed and uniform as standards, as must 

 necessarily be the case as they became more settled, and, 

 in many respects, much more mechanical and artistic in 

 their works and requirements as occupants of a conquered 

 country. When settled, the cubit was fixed at twenty-one 

 inches and two-thirds, or more. The old astronomer Greaves, 

 in 1639, being the one whose inquiries in the East upon 

 the cubit and the hand-breadth are now usually quoted, 

 gives the cubit as 21.888, and the hand-breadth as 3.640 ; 

 adding these two together we get Ezekiel's cubit, for which 

 read Ezekiel xl. 5, and xliii. 13. 



At the time Ezekiel gave his measurements of the Temple, 

 usually called Ezekiel's Temple, he was, and had been, for 

 many years a captive in Babylon. It is singular to observe 



