Gabb, Thomas: Finis pyramidis or Disquisitions concerning the antiquity and scientific end of the great pyramid of Giza, or ancient Memphis, in Egypt, and of the first standard of linear measure (Retford, 1806)

C 149 )

if that of 10 cubits be assumed, and the increased height•
of sty lobate be subtracted from the 33, there still rests'
31 for the entablature ; equal to 4 diameters and some-
thing more than 25 minutes : and, to procure this
reduction of the height, the stylobate, even with the
same base and cornice, will be 12, instead of the IO
cubits, which I have assigned to it. And the columns
must be confined to the height of the metal columns,
viz, 77 cubits. It only now remains to account for this
extraordinary symmetrical height of entablature, equal,
in absolute measure, to 33 cubits of Cairo.

But, though I undertake to shew the purpose of
such an excessive height of entablature, which Hiram
was fully aware of, when he designed that portico; I by
no means pledge myself to defend it. And whether the
reasons that induced Hiram to adopt such a symmetri-
cal height, or those which shall be adduced against it,
as« best; is a decision submitted to the judgment of the
learned.

We are informed, then, from Vitruvius, that those
artists whom he styles his ancients, had a rule of optics,•
of which they were extremely tenacious ; that all ob-
jects, with the natural size whereof we are familiar, aré
always to be enlarged, in proportion as they are more
and more elevated above the eye of the beholder. Thus
if the statue of a hero, of a common stature, be placed
®n a pediment 2 or 300 feet high, it was to be made of 9,
12, or 15 feet in height, that it might appear to the eye
a statue 6 feet high.

Hence, Vitruvius, embracing this rule of optics, re-
gulates the heights of epistyles over columns, by which
the freeze and cornice are also regulated, by the greater
or less height of the column : and the proportion he es-

T 2 tablishes