RECENT MEASURES AT THE GREAT PYRAMID. 393 



metrological ; implying in other words, that the Great Pyramid was primarily, — 

 whatever it may have been made into, or used for subsequently, and which we need 

 not, therefore, now inquire into further, — a monument devoted to weights and 

 measures ; not so much as a place of frequent reference for them, but one where 

 the original standards were to be preserved for some thousands of years, safe from 

 the vicissitudes of empires, and the decay of nations. 



To this theory, however, we will show no other favour, than to test it on every 

 hand with the most extraordinary severity ; and, let it come out from such an 

 ordeal brighter, if it can. 



(A.) Standards of Size. 



In the ancient Coptic language, and still in the memory of some of the people 

 of Egypt, the name "Pyramid" is derived from Pyr division, and met ten, or a 

 division into ten ; while again, in actual fact, the Pyramid with its five corner 

 stones, is considered by many as symbolical of five ; wherefore, if a system of 

 weights and measures be appropriately included in a Coptic Pyramidal build- 

 ing, we might expect to find the numbers ten and five very frequently made 

 use of. 



Again, if the system be a complete one, that leading department or linear 

 measure, will of course be represented. Under such a belief, very many writers 

 have joined in looking for the grand standard of length in one side of the base of 

 the Great Pyramid. What that length was precisely, no man knew, even approxi- 

 mately, until the corner sockets were recently uncovered ; and even now that 

 they have all four been seen, the best measures vary between 9102 and 9168 

 inches, the mean of all being 9142 British inches. Accepting these numbers for 

 the time, what does such a length mean as a standard of linear measure ? 



First, have rushed forward to answer, the hierologist scholars with the cubit 

 of the nilometer in their hands, well preserved from the most remote ages, and 

 they declare a priori, that 400 times that cubit, exact and even, was the measure 

 of the side of the base of the Great Pyramid ; but on measuring the cubit, 400 

 times its length is found equal only to 8280 inches. 



Next, have come forward various celebrated geodesists, declaring that the side 

 of the Great Pyramid was made exactly equal to 5-^ of a degree of the meridian 

 previously measured for the purpose, such degree being -3^ of a circle. 



But they had no proof that in the Pyramid-building day the circle was di- 

 vided into 360 degrees ; and even if it had been, 5^ of such a degree is equal only 

 to 8750 inches 



Lastly came Mr Taylor, teachin g us to look not to anypart of the surface of 



the earth, but to its internal axis of rotation, as the only fit reference for the 



highest class of linear measure, and to divide it decimally : that is, for distance- 



measuring to take ^millionth of the radius of rotation for the standard ; express- 

 vol. xxiv. part 11. 5 



