The Pyramid and the Bible. By a Clergyman. (Edmonston and
Douglas.)—This is a very thoughtful and ingenious little volume. The writer, who does not give his name, has made a special study of all that has in reoent times been written about the " Great Pyramid " by Taylor, Piazzi Smyth, and others. His information, consequently, is perfectly reliable, and it is remarkable to find how much matter the author puts into a few pages, while yet none of his statements suffer from the com- pression. That the Great Pyramid was erected by an anti-idolatrous monarch (Cheops) some 4,000 years ago ; that it was constructed at a particular astronomical conjuncture, which could not be repeated until after the lapse of 25,000 years—a period said to be represented by the united inches of the two diagonals of the base of the pyramid ; that the sun's distance from the earth was known to the architect of the pyramid, and that thus, by special illumination, the calculations of the latest science were anticipated ; that the solitary relic found in one of the two interior chambers of the pyramid, an arca, or chest, is a metri- cal standard with which our own English measures correspond, are a few of the affirmationa made by this clergyman and endorsed by Professor P. Smyth in a prefatory note. Of course, if these and other state- ments could be scientifically demonstrated, the Great Pyramid would have an additional claim to being designated, as it was, one of the Seven Wonders of the World; but that the demonstration, if made, would indicate that the Millennium is even at the door is not so very clear to us. Our author still accepts the antiquated notions about Edenic and Noahic dispensations in the past, and as far as we can gather, has fancies about the future not very different from those of Dr. Cumming. But in spite of these, he shows himself to be dominated by a sense of justice and of the fatherly goodness of the Almighty which one never detects in the poor rhetoric of the London divine. The book is, at all events, a "curiosity of literature," and well deserves perusal.
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