from 30° the result is 26° 2', the angle of inclination of the entrance passage of the Third Pyramid.

Mr. Wild has another remarkable parallel, or coincidence, as some may prefer to call it.

As before mentioned, the base of the Second Pyramid is 7′′, and of the third 3.5". The square of the Second Pyramid's base is 49′′. If the centre of the base of this pyramid be taken for the centre of a circle, and a regular polygon of forty-nine sides be inscribed therein, the central angle of the polygon will be 7° 20′ 484". This doubled is 14° 41' 37", which equals

360°

60; this is, says he, "equal to the number of degrees of the circumference of a circle, divided by the product of the numbers of meridian seconds contained in the bases of the Second and Third Pyramids."

Again, he goes on to say, "According to Colonel Howard Vyse, the base of the Third Pyramid is 8′ 5′′ above the base of the Second, and that of the Second is 33′ 2′′ above the base of the Great Pyramid. Now the proportion between the elevation of the base of the Second Pyramid above the base of the Great, and the elevation of the base of the Third Pyramid above the base of the Second, is equal to the proportion between the radius and the sinus of 14° 41' 374 33′ 2′′ to 8' 5"; that is, equal to the proportion between the radius and sinus of the double of the central angle of a polygon which has as many sides as the square of the base of the Second Pyramid contains square seconds, namely 49."

=

The eighteen years' lunar period is also obtained by relation of Gizeh pyramids.

The base of the Second is 7", which squared and multiplied by

5, the pyramid number, yields 245". Subtracting this from the latitude 30° we have 25° 55′—the inclination of the interior passage of the Second Pyramid. The inclination of the lower entrance of the Second is 22° 15', which taken from 30°, leaves 7° 45', or 465'. But 465 years will be 25 lunar cycles, of 183 each. Again, the base of the most southern of the three pyramids to the east of the great one is 93 cubits; making, in years, 5 lunar cycles.

Once more. He says that "the base of the three pyramids south of the Third are lower than the base of the Third, 16′ 18′′. Consequently, the bases of the three pyramids are lower than the base of the Second Pyramid as many feet as the base of the Third is above the base of the Second. The levels of the bases of the Third and the three pyramids, therefore, form two tangents of a circle of which the radius is equal to the sinus of the double central angle of the above-mentioned polygon. When each side of the heptagon contains twice 28 cubits, namely, twice the amount of cubits of the retrogradation of the tropic during one year, the circumference of the circle inscribed in the heptagon measures 365 cubits, or as many cubits as one year contains days."

Lastly-The entrance of the Second Pyramid is 24 cubits above the base, and the top is 267. The entrance above the Nile is 100+ 24. "If we add," says Mr. Wild, "the 100 cubits of elevation of the base of the Second Pyramid above the level of the Nile to the 412 cubits contained in this base, we obtain 100+ 412=512 29 cubits. Now 512 years contain as many intercalary days as there are cubits in the elevation of the entrance of the Second Pyramid above the level of the Nile,

124

namely 124. Consequently, 512 years contain (512 × 365) +124 = 187,004 days. As before mentioned, the summit of the Second Pyramid is 367, which equals 365 +2, cubits above the level of the Nile. The civil year, taken at 365 days, leaves a surplus of two intercalary days after a lapse of 102 = 1000+ £ $ = 8 years. But in 27, 128, years, or in as many years as the vertical height of the Third Pyramid contains cubits, there remains as many intercalary days as the fourth part of the elevation of the entrance of the Second Pyramid above the level of the Nile contains cubits, namely, 12 or 31 intercalary days." He thus obtains, in 128 years, (128 × 365) + 31 = 46,751 days. The average length of a tropical year is ascertained by these two pyramids, and by the Memphis cubit, to be 365 days.

31 128

By another calculation, founded upon the three pyramids south of the Third Pyramid, he obtains the result of 365.

The author of the Solar System of the Ancients, as well as M. Dufeu, and other writers, confirm the opinion of Mr. Wild, that the pyramids of Gizeh were constructed upon one plan, and that they form a truly family group.

41. AGREEMENT WITH THE CAUSEWAY.

According to Mr. Agnew's mathematical plan, "the Great Causeway was in length equal to the circumference of the chief circle, or parent of the whole scheme, that of which the First Pyramid was radius, and of which the square of the base of the Second Pyramid was the inscriptible square. The Causeway was the circumference rolled out, as it were."

If the perpendicular of the pyramid be 480 feet, the circumference of the circle would be 3016. Estimating a stadium at

P

603 feet, he obtains 3015 for the length of the five stadia of Herodotus, given as the extent of the Causeway.

"I believe," says Mr. Agnew, "this Great Causeway led up to the eastern side of the Great Pyramid, and terminated in front at 159 feet from the base, or at the eastern verge of the circle descriptible about the base."

The width of the Causeway was 62 Greek feet. Upon this he remarks that if the radius of the inner circle, 1000, be subtracted from that of the outer, 1131 3698, half the difference between the two rings would be about 62; this nearly corresponds with the width of the Causeway.

42. TO TYPIFY THE GENERATIVE PRINCIPLE.

There has been a time in the history of the world when a Babel confusion existed through the contention of two parties : one holding the masculine origin of being, and the other the feminine. Certain nations, as the Phoenicians, Greeks, &c., favoured the latter in their forms of worship; in Peru, Britain, &c., it was the former. India has for ages been the scene of this religious strife. The enormous popularity of Siva proclaims the triumph at last of the masculine principle there.

The pyramid is said to typify the same thing as the conical stone worshipped in so many lands, and from the remotest period. The revolution of a pyramid describes a cone. The cone represents the Phallic theory of creation.

A mystic, the Chevalier de B- thus connects the astronomical and Phallic ideas :-"Its apex represents the Phallus, the sign ever deemed throughout the East the symbol of Deity, or the creative principle. The descent of the sun upon its apex

at the two solemn epochs of the year (equinoxes), which signify life eternal, and death through the ever-constant adverse principle of evil, completes the series of allegorical ideas which this building was designed to celebrate."

But he suggestively reminds us that while the number one shows the masculine principle, and three the feminine, four illustrates the harmony of both. "Its base," says he, "is the perfect square, which symbolises in its four corners the sacred number four, the union of the masculine and feminine principles." The scholar is reminded of the speaking numbers of Pythagoras and of the Cabbala.

In the above sense it is held that the pyramid is the most simple and suggestive type of creative force, and the conjunction of both active and passive agencies in the operations of Divine mind on matter. This is a large question, but must be

abruptly closed.

43. EMBLEM OF THE SUN OR SACRED FIRE.

The shape of the pyramids has suggested that of tongues of fire. To Jablonski it appeared as sunbeams streaming down from a point. Mr. Wild, of Zurich, calls attention to the tradition that they were erected to the sun. Mr. Yeates truly remarks that they are a just imitation of fire.

Syncellus in

forms us that Venephres built the pyramids of Co-chone. Bryant finds Co-chone to mean the house of Chon, the sun; "which," says he, "seems to betray the purpose for which the chief pyramid was erected; for it was undoubtedly nothing else but a monument to the deity whose name it bore." As it had been called Domus Opis Serpentis, the learned man remarks,