626 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. II., No. 40. 



begin. Lastly, the apex or crowning stone of the 

 pyramid was no otlier tlian the antitype of that stone 

 of stumbling and rocli of offence, rejected by builders 

 who Icnew not its true use, until it was finally placed 

 as tlie chief stone of the corner. Wlience, naturally, 

 ' Whosoever shall fall upon it' — tliat is, upon the 

 pyramid religion — 'sliall be broken; but on whom- 

 soever it shall fall, it will grind Iiim to powder.' " 



It would require all the space of this number 

 of Science to print in fall array the evidence on 

 which these conclusions are rested. At every 

 step the able astronomer royal of Scotland has 

 fortified his conclusions bj- careful measurements 

 of the Great Pj-ramid. His method of working 

 is as follows : having found that the unit of 

 measurement is a certain length, about an inch, 

 which he terms the ' pjTaraid inch,' he seeks, in 

 the various measurements of the structure, for 

 correspondences in number of these units with 

 natural and historic units, the distance of the 

 sun, the radius of the earth,«etc. Finding a cor- 

 respondence, or o close approximation to a cor- 

 respondence, he assumes that this ratio was 

 intended by the builders to be a statement of 

 this truth. At first sight, the number and 

 accuracy of these correspondences is simply 

 astounding : they look like insuperable facts. 

 Moreover, the measurement of the sun's dis- 

 tance, and ])erhaps some other ratios from the 

 Great P3'ramid, may turn out in the end to be 

 closer to the truth from the pyramid revelation 

 than thej^ are to our present measurements. 



After a sagacious review of the prinoipal 

 coincidences, and an effort to show tlieir gen- 

 erallj' unintended nature, Mr. Proctor proceeds 

 to develop his ownview, which is, in effect, that 

 the pyramids were built for astrological obser- 

 vatories, designed for the casting of the horo- 

 scopes of the successive kings. He shows 

 cleaiij', and we believe was the first to show, 

 that earl^- astronomy was astrological in its 

 aims, and that the pj'ramid, when it had been 

 carried up to half of its height, would afford the 

 best possible structure for astronomical work 

 of that time. His ingenious, and we must say 

 convincing, argument requires ns to assume a 

 much more advanced state of astronomical and 

 geodetic science in those days than many would 

 be willing to admit. Still, the old Semitic civili- 

 zation is a vast unexplored realm : it is a vain 

 fancj' that we yet know what it contained. It 

 is easier to give to it any thing in the way of 

 learning than to accept the monstrous scheme 

 of bungling prophecj- that tliepj'ramidalists offer 

 in its stead. 



The student of science maj- have something 

 beyond the entertainment that all readers will 

 find in this book, and tlie literature of which 

 it will form an important part. He may find 



in the controversj' a suggestion of certain dan- 

 gers that await all work of a theoretic kind. 

 AH the work of extending our conceptions of 

 natural jihenomena, all tiie woi'k of true science, 

 must be carried on by the method of coinci- 

 dences. A fact, or series of facts, is compared 

 with other facts or series, and, from their ob- 

 served identities, relations are inferred. Tlie 

 use of this metliod, under rigorous scrutiny, lias 

 given us our modern science, and must give us 

 all that is truly scientific in the time to come. 

 The incident of the (ireat Pyramid inquiry 

 ma}' well lead us to notice certain dangers in 

 this method. A large part of the facts with 

 which the naturalist has to deal has for him 

 the danger that the Pyramid of Cheops has for 

 the mathematician. Between the thing in hand 

 and other things, there is a practically infinite 

 number of relations. If he sets out on his in- 

 quiry with a mind to find resemblances of a 

 certain kind, this liberal nature is sure to gratify 

 him. Nothing but the most rigorous correc- 

 tion of the reasons for an opinion by the rea- 

 sons against it will keep him safelj' on his wa^'. 



The more fixed the opinion that guides the 

 student in his work, the surer he is to find ia 

 the infinite that any object offers the facts to 

 support his views. This is the great danger 

 that lies in the way of many who are seeking 

 to advance the development hypothesis in biol- 

 ogy. Having become possessed with the con- 

 viction that certain things are to be found, they 

 will see them as Smyth sees revelation in the 

 stones at Ghizeh. 



There are some faults to be found with the 

 making of this book. More than one-third of it 

 consists of separate essays on the origin of the 

 week, — Saturn, and the sabbath of the .Jews; 

 astronomy and Jewish festivals; the history of 

 Sunday ; and astrology, — all \evj interesting 

 in their way, but they are not represented in 

 the title. There is no proper table of contents, 

 and no index. The British seem determined 

 to leave this work of opening their modern liter- 

 ature to students, altogether in tlie hands of the 

 Index society'. 



The book is written in the admirable didactic 

 English of which the author is a master. 



MINOR BOOK NOTICES. 



Man before melaii. By N. JoLYi New York, 1883. 



(International science series, no. 45.) 8 + 365 p., 



illustr. 8°. 



The author of this attractive volume, unlike 

 many European writers on archeology, gives 

 but little space to the subject of North-Ameri- 

 can antiquities ; and, of the one hundred and 



