DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15#0112
loa THE GREAT PYRAMID.
render them impossible, is to ask that men should
set their reasoning faculties on one side when the
pyramid is in question. And lastly, we have not a
particle of evidence to show that the builders of the
pyramid had any idea that the date of the building
would be indicated by the position of the great slant
passages. They may have noticed that the Pole-
star was slowly changing its position with respect
to the true pole of the heavens ; and they may
even have recognised the rate and direction in which
the Pole-star was thus moving. But it is utterly
unlikely that they could have detected the fact that
the pole of the heavens circles round the pole of the
ecliptic in the mighty precessional period of
25,920 years ;1 and unless they knew this, they
1 If the architect of the great pyramid knew anything about the
great precessional period, then -unless such knowledge was mi-
raculously communicated—the astronomers of the pyramid's time
must have had evidence which could only have been obtained during
many hundreds of years of exact observation, following of course
on a long period during which comparatively imperfect astronomi-
cal methods were employed. Their astronomy must therefore have
had its origin long before the date commonly assigned to the Flood.
In passing I may remark that in a paper on the pyramid by Abbé
Moigno, that worthy but somewhat credulous ecclesiastic makes a
remark which seems to show that the stability and perfection of the
great pyramid, and therefore the architectural skill acquired by the
Egyptians in the year 2170 B.C. (a date he accepts), proves in some
unexplained way the comparative youth of the human race. To
most men it would seem that the more perfect men's work at any
given date, the longer must have been the preceding interval during
which men were acquiring the skill thus displayed. On the con-
render them impossible, is to ask that men should
set their reasoning faculties on one side when the
pyramid is in question. And lastly, we have not a
particle of evidence to show that the builders of the
pyramid had any idea that the date of the building
would be indicated by the position of the great slant
passages. They may have noticed that the Pole-
star was slowly changing its position with respect
to the true pole of the heavens ; and they may
even have recognised the rate and direction in which
the Pole-star was thus moving. But it is utterly
unlikely that they could have detected the fact that
the pole of the heavens circles round the pole of the
ecliptic in the mighty precessional period of
25,920 years ;1 and unless they knew this, they
1 If the architect of the great pyramid knew anything about the
great precessional period, then -unless such knowledge was mi-
raculously communicated—the astronomers of the pyramid's time
must have had evidence which could only have been obtained during
many hundreds of years of exact observation, following of course
on a long period during which comparatively imperfect astronomi-
cal methods were employed. Their astronomy must therefore have
had its origin long before the date commonly assigned to the Flood.
In passing I may remark that in a paper on the pyramid by Abbé
Moigno, that worthy but somewhat credulous ecclesiastic makes a
remark which seems to show that the stability and perfection of the
great pyramid, and therefore the architectural skill acquired by the
Egyptians in the year 2170 B.C. (a date he accepts), proves in some
unexplained way the comparative youth of the human race. To
most men it would seem that the more perfect men's work at any
given date, the longer must have been the preceding interval during
which men were acquiring the skill thus displayed. On the con-