1871.] The Great Pyramid in Egypt. 209 



can approximate to the mean specific gravity of the whole con- 

 tents of the earth taken faithfully and on trust together ; 

 and can say with confidence, that the all-important quantity 

 in physics thence arising, is close to 57 times the specific 

 gravity of that ever present, almost universal, surface fluid 

 of the earth, water. Whence, having already from the 

 linear measures of modern science, the outside size and 

 shape of the globe, we may readily compute its weight 

 (here in a particular species of tons), and shall find it to 

 amount to 5,271,900,000,000,000,000,000 ; (the numbers, 

 however, not being trustworthy to more than the three, 

 possibly four, first figures, and the remaining o's indicating 

 uncertainty rather than exactness, in everything beyond 

 " place.") 



Now, between the bulk of the earth and the bulk of the 

 Great Pyramid, there is no even numerical relation. Nor 

 should there be, if the size has been settled upon a different 

 feature of the Kosmos. But between the above weight of 

 the earth and the weight of the Pyramid there may, or may 

 not, be something of the kind ; because, without in the 

 slightest degree interfering with shape, size, or astronomical 

 position, the architect might use a material of any given 

 density. 



Now, the substance which that primeval designer did 

 choose, is. very peculiar in respect of weight for a given 

 bulk. For whereas, in terms of the earth-globe as unity, 

 the specific gravity of granite is 0*479, and of what is usually 

 called by builders in this country " common stone," 0*442, 

 — that of the chief material of the Great Pyramid is only 

 0*412, and a portion so low as 0*367. Whence, calculating 

 the separate weights of each portion, we obtain for the final 

 sum of the Pyramid's weight (in terms of the same tons as 

 before), 5,273,000 nearly ;* or a quantity which may be 

 practically regarded as being to the whole earth's weight, 

 in the grandly round, even, and truly Great Pyramid pro- 

 portion of 1 : io 5X3 . 



The linear relations, however, of the Great Pyramid did 

 not stop at a single cosmical equivalent of the whole, but 

 proceeded, after the introduction of a subsidiary idea, to 

 another and more practical relation on a very much smaller 

 scale, and more fitted for everyday use among men. Is 

 there, then, anything of the same kind in the weight 

 relation of the Great Pyramid? 



*See "Antiquity of Intelle&ual Man," by C. Piazzi Smyth, p. 475. 

 VOL. VIII. (O.S.) — VOL. I. (N.S.) 2 E 



