196 The Great Pyramid in 'Egypt. [April, 



That angle, too, might have been varied at the pleasure 

 of the architect (with no precedent all the world over to 

 control his proceedings), from the almost flat appearance of 

 a mere "buckled" plate, or of King Alyattes' low and 

 broad tumulus mound in Asia minor, up to a needle-shaped 

 spire to compete in subsequent days either with Pagan 

 Egyptian obelisks or modern Christian church spires, for 

 delicate slimness of figure. But the said architect choSe to 

 give his building the special form due to an angle of 51 51' 

 and some seconds ; and kept to that one angle with singular 

 care and success. 



What virtue, then, if any, was there in that particular 

 angle as introduced in that place ? 



To the same venerable John Taylor, in his 80th year, we 

 owe also the happy suggestion, that it was because that 

 angle, in such a quinary pyramid, is demonstrative of the 

 true " squaring of the circle," known to mathematicians as 

 " the value of 77-," a subject which is at the base of all prac- 

 tical calculations throughout the whole of the exact sciences ; 

 and though the quantity be styled an "incommensurable" 

 (that is, an unlimited eternal fraction), yet has its true 

 value, approximated to only by the Greeks, been obtained 

 at last correctly by the learned of modern Europe to at least 

 thrice as many decimal places as are ever required in 

 practice. Their result, too, stands perfectly firm, though it is 

 still ever and anon being radically disputed through its 

 whole extent by those strange enthusiasts who never die out 

 amongst men, but are continually reappearing in almost 

 every month's serial literature that so quickly passes on its 

 inevitable road to oblivion. 



According to John Taylor's supposition, 51 51' I4'3" is 

 the precise computed angle which such a ir pyramid ought 

 to possess, and is just about as close to a mean of the best 

 modern measures yet made of the Great Pyramid, as is pos- 

 sible for their residual errors. Closer, in face of the growing 

 dilapidation, no future measures can well be expected to 

 come. Hence, any further proof that it and not some 

 other idea, differing in its angle by a few seconds only from 

 the 7r quantity, was intended, must be sought elsewhere than 

 in practical re-measurements of the simple angle. Nor have 

 we very far to seek. 



On the it principle, the continued length of the four sides 

 of the base is equal to the straightened-out length of the 

 circumference of a circle whose radius is the vertical height 

 of the pyramid. If such a circle be drawn concentrically on 

 a plan of the Great Pyramid, its circumference will be found 



