Papers On The Great Pyramid.

of the wonders ho met Avith in his researches , he laboured on , and ultimately found the solution of many of the mysteries veiled in the allegories of the Sacred and Royal Art . We do not then invent any new theory Avhen Ave attach no little importance to the position which the "Seven Stars " occupied in the heavens in the year of the founding of the Great Pyramid ,. 2170 B . C ., " the year of the Pleiades . " It Avas in this year of the foundation of the Great Pyramid that at midnight of the Autumnal Equinox , Avhen a

Draconis was on the meridian below the Pole , that Alcyone , the central star of the Pleiades group , and , according to the Bev . Hugh MacmElan , AVIIO gives as his authority , if . Macller , of Dorpat , * the centre of the Avhole universe , Avas on the meridian above the Pole , and therefore . in that year also coincident ivith the Vernal Equinox . Thus we have the year 2170 , B . O . specially marked by astronomical phenomena Avhich would not repeat themselves until 25827 years had run their course .

, Professor Smyth sayst : — " NOAV Alcyone , or i \ Tauri as the stricter astronomical observers choose at present to call it , is not a very large or bright star in itself , but then it is the centre of a group of stars more bound up with human history , hopes , and feelings than any other throughout the sky , viz ., the Pleiades ; and there have been traditions for long , whence arising I knoAV not , that the seven overlappings of the grand

gallery , so impressively described by Professor Greaves , had something to do Avith tho Pleiacles , those proverbiaUy seven stars of the primeval Avorld , though already reduced to six ( i . e ., six visible to the ordinary naked eye ) , so early for certain as the time of the Latin poet Virgil ; ancl probably , according to poetic tradition , as the siege and burning of Troy . Here then is - Avhat those overlappings had to do ; viz , to symbolize the Pleiades on the celestial meridian and to the south , though not at their actual altitude

therein , ancl as part of the memorial , rather than observing , astronomy of the Pyramid at the time of its construction ; for the Pleiades evidently Avere , de facto , the superior , southern ancl equatorical , or- time , star to be taken in concert with the inferior transit of the cireumpolar a Draconis star on the opposite or northern side of tho sky , ancl twelve Polar hours distant therefrom . And hoAV Avell they performed their part , as Avell as how capable they Avere of itappeared from this further result of calculationthat Avhen

, , thoy , the Pleiades , crossed the meridian at midnight above the Pole , at the same instant that a Draconis was crossing beloAV the Pole , and at the particular- distance from the Pole indicated by the entrance-passage , then , in the autumn season of that one year of the northern hemisphere , the equinoctial point of the heavens coincided with the Pleiades as to their respective meridians . "

Mr . Proctor also considers this fact as one of those proofs which fix the beginmii" - of exact astronomy at this period . He says that" in the year 2170 B . C . cpuim prozimfi , the Pleiades rose to their highest above the horizon at noon ( or teclmicaUy made their noon culmination ) , at the Spring Equinox . " He then proceeds to comment on the importance that Avould be attached to " the remarkable star-cluster coming then close b y the sun m the heavens though unseen" bminds which Avere fuUy impressed Avith belief in

, y a the hifluence of the stars on this earth . It Avas at or about tins time also , that the Chaldean astronomers Avho had come doAvn into Egypt painted figuratively in the heavens those ancient constellations Avhich in their order of procession so forcibly associate themselves with that dread catastrophe

. . . " When raging ocean burst his bed , O ' ertopt the mountains , and the earth o ' eispread . Jr . Hales refers to this subject in his great work on Chronology , and ascribes—though J- believe Avrongly—the origin of the constellation figures representing the Deluge to the ^ boEious folloAvers of Nimrod . Some AVEI say , "All these fancies connecting the constellations Avith the early traditions belong to a school that has passed aAvay . " May be , bough , that old learning , of which Bryant appears to have been so eloquent an expositor !