Taere are many curious things to be learned from an intelligent study and comparison of the ancient astronomy of the principal nations of the world, bat the strange theories to which the beginnings of the study have led, have thrown temporary discredit on the method. There is little doubt in the minds of the astronomers, for instance, that the Pyramids of Egypt were intended to subserve some astronomical purpose, but what was this purpose? If we are to believe Professor Piazzi Smyth, the great Pyramid was inspired as a record of the state and condition of the earth and the solar system at the time of its erection. Its unit of length was a sacred cubit, exactly one twenty-millionth part of the earth's polar axis, and each side contained just 80 many of these cubits and parts of cubits as there are days and parts of days in the solar year. Its height bore to the perimeter of the base exactly the same ratio as the radius of a circle bears to its circumference.
Again, the pole of the earth describes circle in the heavens in some 25,000 years, and the exact period of this, not yet definitely settled by astronomers, is to be found in the great pyramid. The distance of the sun, more accurate than modern astronomers can determine it, is likewise to be found in the pyramid; and many other things too abstruse or too tedious to mention now.
Now leaving these things to one side as too transcendental for our present knowledge, there really seems little doubt that, so far as they could, the builders of the great pyramid really did have regard to astronomical phe-nomina in its erection. It is curious to observe how nearly the structure has been placed to the paralle} of 30° north latitude, though here there is room for the belief that a convenient site, rather then any particular object, decided the builders. Mr. R. A. Proctor, in his recently published "Myths and Marvels of Astronomy," is, however, prepared to go this length with the school of Professor Smyth, and even to acknow-edge that the sacred cubit may have taken its origin from an early attempt at measuring a degree of the meridian, not in Egypt but in Mesopotamia, this be the case, the circumstances of the length of the sides and the height may really have proceeded from the reasons assigned by the Pyramidists. On one point there seems, however, to be a general accord; and that is with respect to the direction of the tunnel beneath the pyramid and opening on its northern face. It seems clear that this tunnel was formed as a guide towards the subsequent erection of theedifice, and that it was intended to point due north. This work seems to have been performed with considerable exactitude, though it is certainly curious to observe that the moderns who have essayed to test its correctness differ considerably amongst themselves. Nouet, in 1779, found the orientation of the pyramid to differ from the true cardinal point no less than 20 minutes of are; while Piazzi Smyth more recently makes it only 44 minutes out, Again, its slope is peculiar. It does not point to the true pole, but to a spot in the heavens 3°22' below it. The usually received interpretation of this fact is curious. At the supposed time of the building of the pyramid, the pole star was a more conspicuous one than the present somewhat insignificant denizen of the sky. Alpha Draconis was then a much brighter star than it is at present, and it was situated just this distance from the north pole about the year 2160B.C. If then, the taund pointed due north and just this distance below the true pole, this star would be seen exactly in its line when at its lower meridian passage. We all know of the curious respect which seems in ancient times to have been paid to the small constellation of the Pleiades. In the book of Job we read of the "sweet influences of the Pleiades," and in classical literature allusions to them frequently occur. Strangely enough, they were generally mal & propos, but the poets did nob know the reason till Hipparchus di covered the precession of the equinox Now some 2170 years B.C. the Pleiades crossed the meridian with the sun at the vernal equinox, an honour now reserved for the constellation of Pegasus. Moreover, from the same cause, the apparent position of all of the constellations with regard to the horizon has changed considerably. There is a large space near the south pole, into which modern astronomers have introduced euch strange sounding constellations as the Telescope and the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.