ten-millionth of the earth's axis of rotation, or fifty Pyramid inches, cubed (to express bulk), then divided by 10, or reduced to five places of figures in conformity with the characteristic build of the Pyramid; and finally multiplied by the earth's mean-density* in terms of water (to express in the grandest manner the dependence of weight on cubic contents combined with specific gravity), will give 71,250 of the same inches cubed, or the very coffer quantity apparently that we are in search of.

No sooner had this method of accounting, on strictly Great Pyramid principles, for the reputed size of the hollow of the coffer been reasoned out, than revolutionary statements were spread, that it did not measure, as heretofore believed, 71,250, or anything near it, but was much closer to 77,250 cubic inches; this being the result of the very scientific measurements made by the many French Academicians who accompanied the first Bonaparte to Egypt in 1799-and consequently much more likely to be true, it was avowed, than the comparatively rude and unscientific measurings taken from time to time by those single, wandering, and by the Academyunauthorised travellers who had actually recorded 71,000 and odd cubic inches only. With whom, then, could the burden of so dismal an error lay?

With pressing haste, therefore, in those hot and close interiors, did the writer, among his earliest labours of remeasurement at the Great Pyramid, work his way up to the coffer, to test this huge discrepance among published accounts; but, at the very moment of standing over it, and being about to apply the fiducial measuring scales, his eye caught on something else on something not alluded to by any previous author, and looking for the moment so awfully important, nay so utterly subversive of all scientific theories yet ventured, that for a time he knew not what to do, or in whom to continue to believe. Three grim Arabs who were watching his every movement from the further depths of the granite room, must have thought he had seen an "efreet." Nor were they very far from the mark; for had a learned enemy been there to behold, he would have said: "There now! Confess you are "beaten; for does not that low ledge cut so neatly "in the top of the coffer show that there once was "a lid, to what all modern history has been erro"neously calling a lidless' box of stone? and a "lid, too, it must have been, sliding on in such

*ie., the density, or heaviness, of all the different materials of which the earth is made up, taken in the same proportions in which they exist within it. Thus gold is very heavy, iron lighter, stone lighter still, and water yet lighter; and it will depend on the comparative amounts of each (after the linear size of the earth has been ascertained), how much it (the earth) weighs. If the whole earth-globe were composed of nothing but water, its density or specific-gravity would be called 1; if of ordinary rock, 3; if of iron, 7; and if of pure gold, 19: but its actual measure is 5 and a fraction, probably 5-7, from which any one may safely infer that there is a great deal of the curious, rare, and heavy laid up by the Creator in this wondrous abode of man, besides mere barren rock and water, either fresh or salt.

"a manner from one side as to show that the reputed "coffer' is nothing but a sarcophagus after all; just "a common idolatrous Egyptian sarcophagus to de"posit a dead man's body in. So pack up your mea"suring instruments, and get home as speedily as you can. I knew all along that there was never "anything scientific or sacred either in this paltry "coffer; and I could have saved you a deal of need"less trouble, if you had only applied to me at the "first."

The writer, however, was not to be moved from his purpose of careful measurement. He began a thorough examination of sizes and shapes of whole as well as details; and these, besides proving that the coffer was "ahead," in its size, of all known cases of human intended sarcophagi throughout Egypt, soon showed also pretty clearly that the "ledge," which looked so fatal at first, was merely a very minor and insignificant feature, cut subsequently into part of the top of the sides of an originally equal-sided coffer. Eliminating, therefore, the said ledge (which, notwithstanding the probability that three-quarters of the world would stumble at it, was attended with no more difficulty than supplying the missing portion of the following inscription, or 2 + 1⁄2 4), and, measuring by many portions still happily remaining intact, the size of the hollow of the vessel as it was originally, there came out 71,317 cubic inches; or practically, quite close to the 71,250 required by theory; while the 77,000 and odd of the French savants was shown to be nowhere possible, and to have been the result only of some most unfortunate, though egregious, blunder on their part!

But a moment of exultation is too often a moment of weakness to the exulter; so my fanciful opponent steps in with the taunt: "Well! rash and headlong

explorer, what have you accomplished now? Oh! "grand result that you have attained as the conclu"sion of all these laborious inquiries; for, have you "not now proved to my very hand that the hollow "interior of the coffer measures 71,250 cubic inches "nearly? Yes, to my very hand it is that you have "brought out this quantity; for what are 71,250 "but the cube, or third power almost exactly of two "of the well-known cubits of the most ancient and "idolatrous city of Memphis, hard by the Pyramids "here; seeing that the Memphian cubits have been "reckoned at 20.73 inches each ?"

Yes, it was even so indeed: because up to this point the number 71,250 suited either of the two theories professing to account for the size of the coffer, equally well. It was a neck and neck race therefore now between the sacred earth-axial standard, with its profound "mean-density" reference, and the profane Egyptian, or Memphian, cubit, simply doubled and cubed.

"Where doctors differ, who shall decide?" says the old proverb. But, "when two results, on absolutely

* An error of no more than three hundredths of an inch in measuring the breadth of the coffer would fully account for this difference.

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"different foundations, come out to the same figure, "how shall we discover which to prefer?" was the question just then to be settled at the coffer's side. "How? Why, how otherwise, of course, than by 'making a still severer examination," thought the writer; "therefore, let us next," said he, "if we have "exhausted the coffer itself, or rather our powers of “measuring and ideas of testing it, let us next direct our attention to the place where it stands, and to "its most orderly surroundings."

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"No occasion for attempting that," put in my adversary, "because Sir Isaac Newton has already given 'the whole chamber containing the coffer in my 'favour; stating that the ceiling is composed of "seven whole, and the halves of two other, beams, "each of which must be two-and-a-half profane "Egyptian cubits broad, to make up the length of "the room; while the breadth of the floor is ten, and "the length is twenty, of the self-same cubits in measure; all which proves that the apartment itself was erected by profane Egyptians for their own "purposes only; and shows that they may rightfully "claim the coffer also against any chance comer."

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"Hold there, if you please," said the writer; "the "modern scientific, and to some extent sacred, theory "allows freely that the Pyramid was erected by the "hands of Egyptian workmen; and that, to facilitate "their handicraft proceedings, they were allowed to "use their own measures in all unimportant detail; "but that, nevertheless, the same Superior Power "which planned the Pyramid, controlled the workmen "so effectually as to make them, even when using "those measures of theirs with more or less looseness, "construct with exceeding exactness the symbolisms "of other standards and other important relations "altogether unsuspected by themselves."

"But what is there more important in the con"struction of a room," urged my adversary again, "than the length and breadth of its floor, and the "beams of its ceiling?"

"There may be something of very much higher "nature," returned the writer, "in the ultimate ob"jects for which the whole building was erected. To "ascertain, however, just now, and merely in a rude, "though undoubted, mechanical way, whether the "architect of the Great Pyramid-and who is a very "superior person to the mere mason-builders-thought "those cubit references you speak of were of vital 66 consequence to his system, let us see how much "trouble he took to have them exact. Of the seven "whole beams of granite forming the ceiling, no two "of them are of the same breadth, and one of them "differs from another occasionally by so much as a "third part; so there was no attempt at exactness there. "And next, as to the supposed cubits of the floor; well, "they are of the same size there each way, if you "assign 20 to the length and 10 to the breadth; yea, "of the same size even to the hundredth of an inch; "but as that size is only 20-63 inches, the doubling of “that gives 41-26, and the cubing of that, according "to your own rule, presents you with no more than 70,241 cubic inches, or 1,000 too little for the proved

"and measured size of the coffer! Bad enough truly; "but why did you not mention the height of the "room, for height is just as important to be taken "into account as either length or breadth ?" "Oh! you need not look at that," my enemy argued, rather anxiously.

"But it pleases me to look at it," returned the writer; and therewith he found, on measuring, that the profane Egyptian cubit, as just deduced from the floor, did not control the height of the room in any even numbers; for it measured itself therein the odd quantity of 11-2 times nearly; or, dividing the actual height into 11 parts evenly, such parts, if to be called cubits, were 20.91 inches long; which quantity doubled and cubed, amounts to 73,140 cubic inches, or near 2,000 too much !*

"Why! what is this?" next exclaimed the writer, astonied with a more exceeding astonishment still, as he went up and down a ladder in the King's Chamber, in order to test the correctness of his measure for the whole height of the walls. "These walls "of polished red granite,” remarked he, with something of the emphasis required by the occasion, "these walls, the most solid and admirable the world "has ever seen, are composed in a most special and "peculiar manner, as compared with any other wall, "floor, or builded surface throughout the Great Pyra- | "mid; for they are arranged in five equal courses, “which run round the room at the same level, and, "with a single exception, at the same height on every "side, even to the tenth of an inch. This extreme "regularity, and in such an intractable material as "red granite, in a part of the world, too, more than "four hundred miles from any granite quarries, is re"markable enough, because both unusual and imply. | "ing great extra labour and expense; but there "being five such courses renders it much more re"markable; for, what have travellers hitherto been "saying on the point?"

And therewith the writer seated himself studiously on the floor, and his eyes opened wider and wider, as he read from one learned and world-respected book after another, printed descriptions of the walls of this very King's Chamber in the Great Pyramid.

"Eight stones flag the ends and sixteen the sides," said one book.

"From the top of it (the wall) descending to the "bottom there are but six ranges of stone," said another.

"Six tiers of stones, of equal breadth, compose the "sides," averred another.

"There are only six ranges of stone from the floor "to the roof," repeated another.

"Lined all round with broad flat stones, each stone "ascending from the floor to the ceiling;" that is, pronouncing for one course only instead of six, protested another.

* Some persons contend also for the profane cubit having been a twelve-millionth, as the sacred cubit was a tenmillionth, of the earth's semi-axis of rotation. But such twelve-millionth amounting to 20-8333, &c., will not represent the contents of the coffer nearer than 1,000 inches of the Pyramid.

"A noble apartment," declared another, confirmatory of the previous author; "and cased with enor"mous slabs of granite, twenty feet high;" but which is ten inches higher than the whole room.

"An oblong apartment, the sides of which are "formed of enormous blocks of granite, reaching from the floor to the ceiling," asserted another author still; though with more scholars and men of the pen in the background, ready to assert that they had counted the courses themselves and found them to be six; which would give each course a height of 38 inches only.

But these violent misstatements in so simple and pure a case, proved at last rather too much for the writer of the present article; for he felt such inconsistencies left him in a position to finish off the more quickly the account of the contest between the sacred and profane cubits; or to prove in honour, and in terms, of which of them, the unique and primeval coffer of the same chamber was originally formed with its interior hollow of the size we find it still to be. These concluding reasons may therefore be stated shortly as follows:

(A.) The walls of the coffer's surrounding chamber are divided into five horizontal, equal courses; and there is a sign of a "division into five" over the door of the room outside, as if to call the attention of all entrants to such a principle as a notable and ruling fact in that room.

Now a division into five has no place or representative in the subdivisions in vogue at any historical time for the profane cubit, either Memphian, Theban, or Karnac, amongst the Egyptians. But it is a leading feature in the sacred cubit, which is the scientific, or earth-axis-commensurable, Pyramid cubit.

(B.) From the lowest course of the room a quantity of depth is everywhere taken off, virtually, amounting to "five inches."

And five inches forms no recognised aliquot part of the profane Egyptian cubit, but is one-fifth of the sacred cubit, and is the fifty-millionth exactly of the earth's semi-axis of rotation, on which the said sacred cubit is formed.

(C.) The lowest course of the room, with that five inches of depth taken off, measures in cubic contents almost precisely fifty times the bulk of the hollow of the coffer.

And fifty has nothing to do with the number of palms, digits, or any other subdivisions ever applied to the profane Egyptian cubit-while it is at once the exact number of Pyramid inches contained in the double sacred cubit referred to, on the sacred or scientific hypothesis for the coffer's bulk.

(D.) The position of the coffer in the King's Chamber, and of that in the heart of the Pyramid, is unmeaning for a vessel merely formed to represent the cube of an accidental linear standard; but is exceedingly appropriate for one that is founded on a pro

For the names and titles of their books, see p. 164, vol. iii., of the author's "Life and Work at the Great "Pyramid in 1865."

found reference to the specific gravity of all the earth's interior substance.

(E.) The place of the King's Chamber inside the Great Pyramid is further noteworthy, in that its floor rests, according to all the most accurate measurements yet made, on the fiftieth course of stones forming the whole mass of the giant building. All the more noteworthy still, when it is found that this grand symbolism in favour of the sacred cubit against the profane, though now so clearly visible, was most carefully concealed from all the world during the early ages of history, and was revealed only when the outside casing was pulled off, in comparatively recent times, by the Arab Sultans of Cairo.

Thus then had the architect of the Great Pyramid provided securely in its internal construction, and for when the right day should come, proof on proof, to tell the full tale of the coffer, and testify to its high derivation in the most thoroughly unmistakable manner. A counterfeit presentment had appeared theoretically alongside it for a time, but was totally unable to answer the requirements of the successive features which improved measures and closer examinations of the ancient structure readily gave. It was therefore precisely a case, in the manner of its final proof-and, as an eminent philosopher lately remarked when he was being shown by his own invention of photography some nature-painted pictures of these things-"a case of the very stones of the Pyramid "calling out." And what did they call out?

Why, that no one in the Pyramid-building day, by human knowledge alone, could have possibly penetrated to the real reason of the coffer being made of the internal size we now find it to be. That it is of a size richly symbolic of all those strange and precious materials which the Creator has enclosed within the compass of the earth-ball on which man lives and works; and it, the coffer, did form-in a more worthy and scientific manner than has ever been thought of since the original of both capacity, and weight, measure to many favoured branches of mankind. That it rules still the approximate size of our British quarters, tons, and pounds;* even as it represented with exactness not only the laver and four chomers of the Hebrews, but the internal size of the most sacred Ark of the Covenant as well; and, when multiplied by 50, the Molten Sea of Solomon also. The coffer, moreover, fulfilled this part, although it was sealed up in the centre of the Pyramid, from the primeval time of its formation down to very recent days; although, too, the idolatrous Egyptians neither knew nor cared anything about it.

This last is indeed a very surprising portion of the story, and incites a wish to ascertain when the coffer was thus shut up from the light of the Egyptian sky.

*The interior space of the coffer measures four quarters, while the weight of water required to fill that space forms the ton, and is divisible into 2,500 lbs., each of which is defined in nature as 5 cubic inches of the earth's meandensity, and practically constitutes a pound, one-thirtieth only different from the Imperial Avoirdupois pound.

"Certainly," answered the writer.

"Then I would exceedingly like to know how they "cry it out," returned he, with a thin smile which did not open his lips.

"You shall be answered to more than your heart's "content," said the writer, "in the course of the "next three minutes;" and therewith he began as follows, upon

2. The Date of the Great Pyramid.

By common consent, Egypt is allowed to have been one of the most ancient of civilized countries, and the Great Pyramid one of its earlier monuments. The genuine students, too, of Egyptian hieroglyphical antiquities, who pursue the subject from an intensely Egyptian point of view, and are first-rate in their knowledge of all the animal deities that were ever in vogue throughout the whole Coptic land-these men

eminence, let him overlook, if he can, their field of action; and he will then see "hierologist" smite "Egyptologist," and "hieroglyphiologist" come down on them both, while slashing blows resound on every side. One combatant stabs his neighbour under the fifth rib, with the midnight dagger of an anonymous review; while another horribly rips up his antagonist by open day, in the name, and for the cause of "the philosophy of history;" or others, profiting rather too much by constant studies of antique Egyptian idolaters, rush at their fellows with the fury of the Ombites and Tentyrites of old; and, in the absence of more trenchant weapons, virtually tear out with gory, dripping fingers each other's eye-balls, and gloatingly eat up the quivering organs in their literary rage.

With such scenes before us, therefore, in that department of letters-for our guidance, instruction, admonition, and improvement-we shall not ourselves attempt any interpretation either of hieroglyphics or