Richard A. Proctor

“ It is wonderful and most significant, no doubt, to think of a system by which the rulers of a country could keep together one hundred thousand men working in relays, day and night and every day for twenty years; but it would not be less wonderful or significant to learn that during two hundred years, or for seven generations of rulers and people alike, an army of ten thousand laborers had been constantly kept at work on this one alone of the pyramids of Ghizeh. ”

“ Lastly,—a point I have not seen noted yet,—we should direct our attention first, not to the more easily explained facts, but to those which seem most perplexing and least readily to be interpreted; it is among these that we are most likely to find a key to unlock the mystery of our problem. A theory which explains them can hardly fail to he the true theory; whereas several theories, of which one only can be true—if any is—may explain the ordinary commonplace matters to which many direct their first attention. ”

“ Thus viewed, as the most ancient and the most impressive works of the human race, the pyramids have an interest to all students of human history and of human nature. It is impossible to consider carefully any of the works of man without learning something of the events which took place when those works were carried on, and something also of the character, the ideas, and the beliefs of the men to whom those works were due. ”

“ We learn, in any case, that the rulers of ancient Egypt possessed despotic power over the people, but not necessarily that the kings possessed excessive power over the aristocracy, who must, in all probability, have taken part in urging on these stupendous and, at a first view, almost useless labors. We note also that labor must have been cheap, since otherwise self-interest would have prevented Cheops, Chephren, and the rest, from devoting so much of it to these structures. ”

“ Thirdly, it should be noticed that the true theory must accord, not with this fact or that, but with all the known facts. It is singular what mistaken notions are held by some on this point, who seem to think that the holder of a theory ought to be ready to concede that some facts are inconsistent with it. A true theory must accord with all known facts; that is, though we may not always be able to show how certain facts are to be explained by it, we must no longer hold a theory after we have been forced to admit that even a single fact is opposed to it or inconsistent with it. ”

“ In the first place, we must resolutely determine that, when setting forth to find a theory, no theory shall lay hold of us, and, taking possession of our minds, prevent us from duly weighing the evidence for and against not only that theory, but others. ”

“ If we can solve the problem presented by these strange structures, we shall have learned a lesson in the most ancient of all histories; we shall have gleaned some knowledge worth having about the ways and thoughts of the oldest civilized race whose material records have reached our time. ”

“ What, however, do we find? The walls are aslant to suit architectural requirements, but they are vertical to meet the wants of the astronomer. They run up in a series of vertical steps, very shallow measured horizontally, very long measured vertically. Every part of the walls is thus vertical, yet the cross breadth of the long, lofty slice thus cut through the pyramid in the plane of the meridian, diminishes gradually toward the top, insuring perfect architectural stability.
This means more than astronomical orientation ”

“ Not one of all the features which have attracted attention, and have been interpreted in more or less fanciful ways, but is found to be essential to the exact orientation of the pyramid,—when it is remembered that not the base only, but the whole structure was to have its faces four-square to the four quarters of the heavenly sphere. ”

“ It was not only that they might worship the stars that the kings of Egypt built these temple tombs: their priests were also to read the stars, and, by reading, to rule the stars. The old tradition recorded by Ibn Abd Alkokm, that "in the beginning of the Great Pyramid was a fortunate horoscope," was no mere fable. This tomb-temple was the horoscope of the king-priest. We might infer this from the sacred character attributed to their rulers by the Egyptians ”

“ We may hope then, in examining the best known and most striking facts respecting the Great Pyramid, to learn the nature of the religion of the Ancient Egyptians. Yet in passing, be it remembered (for our guidance as we go, perhaps) , that we do know some things about Egyptian religion. ”

“ Sunrise and sunset were considered in the morning and evening sacrifices, the movements of the moon and planets in the weekly observances, [1] the new moon in the monthly festival, still named after her by the Jews, the passage of the sun over the celestial equator ascendingly in the Feast of the Passover, and his passage over the same chief circle of the heavens descendingly in the Feast of Tabernacles, the two great annual festivals of the Jewish ceremonial system. ”

“ Nothing, it should seem, but some vast natural catastrophe ingulfing them beneath a new ocean, or hurling them down from the slopes of a new-formed mountain range, can destroy them utterly, unless the same race of beings which undertook to rear these vast masses should take in hand the task of destroying them. ”

“ Like clouds, they shape themselves and go."
Knowing this, and that even the everlasting hills remain but for an instant when their duration is compared with the life-times of planets and suns, the astronomer is half disposed to smile at the thought of attributing a hoar antiquity to these monuments, which had not even been built when already the now existing hills were hundreds of times older than these stone mounds will ever be. The geologist, too, finds in the very stone of which the pyramids are built the evidence of æons of years for each day that they themselves have lasted. ”

“ So far as the significance of the enormous amount of labor involved is concerned, it matters little at the outset whether we consider that more men worked for a shorter time or fewer men for a longer time. ”

“ They were ancient when temples and abbeys whose ruins now alone remain, were erected, and it seems as though they would endure till long after the last traces of any building now existing, or likely to be built by modern men, has disappeared from the surface of the earth. ”

“ The population of Egypt must at that time have been very great, food very cheap, labor abundant, and (it would seem) the lives of the people of little value either to themselves or in the eyes of their rulers. So far, indeed, as mere labor was concerned, we can hardly speak of the pyramids as costly structures, for probably Pliny was not far from the truth in conjecturing that the rulers of Egypt built the pyramids partly out of state policy, to keep the people in employment,—not, however, "to divert them," as he imagined, "from mutinies and rebellions," but because, as Dr. ”

“ The kings and princes, high priests, chief ministers, generals, governors, court officers, stewards, and so forth, who provided tombs and cemeteries to protect the embalmed body of each according to his position, but always in a place effectually closed up and removed from all communication with the outer world, did so because they believed it to be worth their while. ”