earlier ages of the world, appears sufficiently (?) from the following commands issued by Divine revelation, in subsequent times, to the particular people, in these words; viz., "Thou shalt have a perfect and just weight," &c.

Again he says, "Philitis, in the Greek of Herodotus, but Melchisedek, as we believe, in Hebrew, controlled the Egyptian king of the time to use the organised but peaceful bands of his subjects in the erection of this prophetic building, whose inspired design they understood not." He gives his reason, "touching the even earth immensurability of these measures having been a problem entirely beyond the power of men either of the pyramid day, or of any other day 4000 years therefrom— unless they had received the aid of Divine inspiration from on high."

Elsewhere something may be said to show the high degree of civilisation attained in pre-pyramid times, and the extreme probability that not only was the masonified pyramid-learning, so admirably illustrated by Prof. Smyth, to a great degree lost very soon after the death of Cheops, owing to disturbing invasions, but that the knowledge of the arts suffered a most serious check. In those ante-printing, and even ante-writing, epochs, it was easy for certain kinds of intelligence to be absolutely and for ever extinguished. The higher secrets of wisdom were confided to but very few, and were never committed to letters.

Mr. John Taylor, the professor's teacher upon this religious aspect of the pyramid, somewhat identifies Noah with the building. He being the preacher of righteousness, "nothing could more illustrate," he says, "this character of a preacher of righteousness after the Flood than that he should be the first to publish a system of weights and measures for the use of all mankind, based upon the measure of the world."

29. INSPIRATION FOR CERTAIN TEACHING.

This, though a modern conception, is becoming a very popular one in certain circles of religious people. On that account it is to be treated with respectful attention. Pious convictions, and views supposed to be derived from, and sustained by, the Holy Scriptures, are not to be rejected with sneers, though judged ever so unreasonable. Some minds are more susceptible of the marvellous than others. Many believe they add to the glory of the Deity in the multiplication of instances of His direct interposition. There are those who style this anthropomorphism, and reject the pagan-like contrivance of bringing the Divinity too frequently and needlessly from the clouds.

Prof. Piazzi Smyth has been the most prominent advocate of the Divine origin and purpose of the Great Pyramid. In the present work only a glance can be given at his important theory. He finds, as he thinks, certain scientific truths of high interest, and some dearly-cherished religious dogmas, conveyed in the measurements and architecture of the building. He cannot conceive of this masonified intelligence otherwise than from God Himself. He calls it the "Temple of Inspiration;" and quotes 1 Chron. xxviii. 19, "The Lord made me understand in writing." He lays it down as a fixed principle, "If intention did really preside on the occasion, it could only have been the result of Divine inspiration imparted to certain men."

Mr. Fergusson, while admitting it as "the most perfect and gigantic specimen of masonry that the world has yet seen," seems to doubt the necessity of inspiration, saying, "There is no reason whatever to suppose that the progress of art in Egypt differed essentially from that elsewhere." There are those who

see more beauty, finish, and skill in the Third Pyramid than the first. The Great Pyramid was clearly constructed upon the model of previously existing ones, though with some peculiarities of its own. One system of teaching runs through all the pyramidal structures, whether of Egypt, India, or America, pointing to one thought.

Prof. Hamilton Smith-like many who regard the ancients as fools—is so amazed at the scientific revelations of the pyramid, and, it may be added, pyramids, as to feel himself on the horns of a dilemma. He must either, he says, admit that in those long-past ages men knew as much as we do now, or that supernatural inspiration was granted to certain men, who were, whether they themselves understood the meaning of their own acts or not, to build an enormous edifice only to perpetuate this knowledge.

If it required the genius of some few men in the nineteenth century to reveal this thing-which is, however, doubted by the great mass of scientists now-of what practical use was the lesson at all? The pyramid was absolutely closed upon com pletion. The ignorant and the heathen were thus deprived of the benefit of this inspired teaching. And we, too, though believing in God, and understanding the astronomical lessons of the pyramid apart from its school, woull have been still left in absolute ignorance of this mysterious and wonderful teaching upon religion and science had not a certain Mahometan ruler of Egypt, some thousand years ago, actuated by avarice, employed hundreds of men to force a way into the building.

After all, we may say with Sir James Simpson, "In relation to the Great Pyramid, as to other matters, we may be sure that

God does not teach by the medium of miracle anything that the unaided intellect of man can find out."

30. THE MEMORIAL OF THE DELUGE.

Prof. Smyth has pointed out that the passage, with its angle of 26° 18', looked toward the North Pole 2170 B.C., when the then Polar star was crossing the meridian. But, he observes that when that body crossed below the pole, the mouth of the Waterpot of Aquarius was crossing the meridian above the pole.

The event called the Deluge, always associated with Aquarius, and necessarily so, as the mystics affirm, is thus strongly fixed upon the Egyptian mind by such a constructive memorial of the passage of the constellation. Mr. Smyth, who recognises no mere celestial Deluge, and no partial terrestrial one, but an absolute and universal drowning of the whole globe, says that it "destroyed all pre-existing monuments." He evidently believes, like other mystics, that the Deluge had some mysterious connection with the ascendancy of Aquarius. He speaks of Aquarius being the "prominent constellation" at what he styles the "awful moment for man," when Draco was in the ascendant.

He is perfectly satisfied, by pyramid measurement, that the time of the Deluge would "be as surely very near 2800 B.c. as the date of the Great Pyramid building is close to 2170 B.C." In this estimate he adds 450 years to the commonly received Biblical chronology. He has as much right to give a date. to the Deluge as the 300 known authorities had for their several 300 periods for that occurrence. If, too, his calculation

for the pyramid building be 2170 B.C., he must needs get a great deal more time, between that date and the Deluge, than what Usher and others afford him, in which to have enough. population, progress, and wealth for the construction of the pyramid in Egypt.

31. THE SABBATH.

Those who contend for the antediluvian, or ante-Mosaic, origin of the Divine institution of the Sabbath, suppose they have confirmation of their opinion from the imagined Sabbatical teaching of what some regard as a Divinely-inspired building.

The roof of the Gallery is seen to have seven overlappingsa suggestive lesson. The Queen's Chamber has seven sides; that is, the four walls, the floor, and the double roof. Again, the height of the Great Gallery is pronounced seven times that of the ordinary passages. At the angle of 26° 18' the latter's transverse height of 44.8 inches becomes 50 vertical, and this is a seventh of 350, the vertical height of the Gallery.

"For what purpose," asks Mr. Piazzi Smyth, "is the Grand Gallery holding up so notably to view seven of the said standards?"

The seven standards of length he would conclude to mean standards of time. The small passage represents the unit day, and the Gallery is the week. His conclusions are:- "That violent and apparently unmeaning contrast of heights has the noblest of reasons, viz., the typifying of the sacred division of time; and we see here, again, that in time, as well as in space, the Great Pyramid embodies an idea which was entirely unknown to, or totally disobeyed by, the Egyptians."