1871.] The Great Pyramid of Egypt. 31 



or Rossellini pay the Great Pyramid's geometrical qualities 

 any more respect ; while Caviglia, even when engaged by 

 Howard Vyse expressly for Great Pyramid investigation, 

 would pertinaciously always go off in any other direction 

 hunting for mummies and " little green idols" 



8. The Mud Foundation Theory. 



If such, then, be the final and sorry result of all that 

 modern Egyptologists and hierologists can help us to, 

 as to what really constitutes and did originate the 

 Great Pyramid, — who will necessarily blame some scientists 

 for taking up that primeval monument just at the point 

 where the hierologists have left it ; and, after studious toil 

 for years in applying to it instruments for mathematical 

 measure of unwonted precision, think they can now 

 begin to see a connected purpose and clear meaning — 

 consistently, too, with that geometrical key-note gathered 

 by Herodotus — running through all the great building's 

 dimensions ? 



No positive blame, perhaps, will be extended openly; but 

 not a few insinuations are indulged in privately, deriding 

 the very idea of so old a building possessing any features on 

 which accurate measure can still be made. 



Thus, as touching the very first step which would have 

 to be taken in such an enquiry, it is asserted in the 

 " Record," (newspaper) of February 7th, 1868 — -that no less 

 a personage in modern society than the existing President 

 of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 declared, in a lecture before the British Clergy at Sion Col- 

 lege, that the Great Pyramid, as included amongst " the 

 oldest Pyramids of Memphis," is founded on alluvial mud ; 

 " built," he declares " on the site of the great valley of the 

 Nile ;" and the conclusion is added, that " these monuments 

 evidently existed after this great deposit of mud upon which 

 they stand." 



Had such a state of things been the case, what sinkings and 

 tiltings of the Great Pyramid's floors would have taken place 

 through long ages. Would they even have remained to be 

 measured at all ? Would they not rather have gone down 

 altogether out of sight, as the once famous walls of Babylon 

 very speedily did in similar soil ? 



But, lamentable to say, either for the " Record," if it has 

 reported the lecture wrongly ; or for the British Association 

 President, if reported correctly, — there is not a word of truth 

 in the statement. The Great Pyramid is in reality (and I 

 declare it on the strength of nearly four months' residence at 



