392 PROFESSOR C. PIAZZI SMYTH'S ACCOUNT OF 



Proposition VI. 



When inquiring very closely into the ancient Pyramid's angles by means of 

 modern observation, it becomes important, after eliminating errors of observation, 

 dilapidation, and of workmen, to ascertain whether any slow geological changes of 

 the earth's crust, accumulating during the 4000 years or more that the Pyramid 

 has been standing, have introduced by this time any sensible alteration of the 

 angles in the building as originally constructed. 



Now without alluding to some indications of a shifting of the earth's crust 

 over the place of the poles of rotation, a variety of our measures in the interior of 

 the Pyramid do show a slight tilt or dip of the monument towards the south ; and 

 this is further testified to by the differences of the observed corner angles of the 

 Pyramid outside, with the addition that there is a dip eastward also. The two 

 directions are moreover the very ones in which all the component strata of the 

 hill, and indeed all this part of the country do largely, though somewhat 

 variously, dip, or have been so tipped by geological forces beginning from ages 

 long anterior to the Pyramid, and now apparently continued to some extent 

 within its history. The quantity of this post-pyramid tilt, in the Meridian 

 direction, as given by the corner observations appears to be about 37" ; it is 

 therefore a rather small, and perhaps doubtful quantity ; but yet we should 

 note that if it be applied as a correction, with its proper sign to the previously 

 observed angle in the grand gallery, it makes that important feature of the 

 symbolization of this building come, within 1", exactly the same as the theoretical 

 quantity already given. 



And now, Sir, I crave your pardon for having so exceedingly hurried over the 

 numerous practical details of all these observations, and having told you little 

 more than their final results, — but the truth is, they could not be completely set 

 before you, except in a long series of discourses ; and meanwhile, there are many 

 other topics not less important which require to be touched on this evening. 



Yet allow me, Sir, also to say, that at the stage whereto we have reached — I 

 shall have altogether failed in my duty, if Members do not now begin to see that 

 the builders of the Great Pyramid had a remarkable appreciation of certain 

 definite angles, and realised them on an enormous scale, and with astonishing 

 success ; wherefore arises the very natural question, — What was all this labour 

 for, and what object was sufficient to justify a cost so huge? 



If the full explanation of these angles, and of certain other existing mechani- 

 cal facts and features, is to accompany the true theory, then we must plainly 

 wade through the mere burial hypothesis of the middle ages of the world, as wel 

 as of the modern hierologists, and try what virtue there may be in that which is 

 at once the oldest Eastern tradition, and the youngest Western theory, viz., the 



