OF THE GREAT PYRAMID. 671 



By all three means . = 51 51 152 



= 51 51 5-6 



= 51 51 22-2 



First Mean = 51 51 14-3 



Caviglia 



58 











French Academy 



51 



19 



4 



Mr Hamilton 



51 



23 



46 



Vyse and Brettel 



51 



50 







Vyse and Perring 



51 



50 



46-5 



Vyse and Pei-ring ^ 



51 



52 



30-3 



Hence we may arrange the authors, angles, and the circumferential propor- 

 tion (or TT) which they attribute to the Pyramid, agreeably with Mr Taylor's 

 proposition, in this manner — 



. , « '»' 



= 2-49950 



= 3-20257 



= 3-19360 



= 3-14393 



= 3-14268 



= 3-13922 



Vyse and Perring corrected 51 52 122 = 3-13978 



Final Mean, v., P., &B. 515114-3 = 3-14159 



Now the last result for t, is absolutely correct so far as it goes ; and though 

 there may be some doubt about the best way of taking the mean of all the ob- 

 servations, where the observers had such very large probable errors as their 

 measures of the stones exhibit,* — yet there can be none, as to the Pyramid result 

 coming out better and better, in proportion as it is more closely examined into. 



The Pyramid has in fact proved itself to have been built closer to the truth, 

 than the best and greatest of modern savans from all existing civilised countries 

 have been able to measure it to : and if we are obliged to draw rein in pushing 

 on the severity of our inquiry to still further places of decimals, the reason is not 

 that the Pyramid fails in accuracy, but that modern observations are not suffi- 

 ciently good to bear more than has been already put upon them. 



This first result, therefore, of applying an independent test to one of Mr 

 Taylor's propositions, has ended entirely in his favour. And if the finding has 

 depended on the angle, A B C in fig. 1, alone, it may be as well to state here, that 

 there is nothing in. what remains to us of the original linear proportions of the 

 Pyramid that tends in any way to invalidate the conclusion. 



There have been, indeed, several ingenious suggestions as to various geometrical 

 proportions existing between the several parts of the Pyramid, including its 

 height, and base-breadth ; but it is hardly worth while to allude to them further, 

 as they are not accurate, and have not been advanced very confidently by any 



* Though the Vyse and Perring observations were so rough, yet they seem eminently honest 

 and fair : and it must add additional weight to their testimony in this case, that neither of these 

 gentlemen seem to have had any idea at the time, of what refined results their observations might 

 .eventually be made to bring out, or what indeed the Pyramid itself contains in this direction ; for 

 in his 2d volume, Colonel Howard Vyse, enumerating his laborious assistant Mr Perring's conclu- 

 sions about the Pyramid, says, that its height is to its base-side, as about 5 to 8 ; which gives no 

 closer approximation to the value of ir, then 3200. 



VOL. XXin. PART III. 8 S 



