ance could not possibly
have been known to the builders of the pyramid; or both hypotheses may
be rejected: but to admit both is out of the question.

Considering the multitude of dimensions of length, surface, capacity,
and position, the great number of shapes, and the variety of material
existing within the pyramid, and considering, further, the enormous
number of relations (presented by modern science) from among which to
choose, can it be wondered at if fresh coincidences are being
continually recognised? If a dimension will not serve in one way, use
can be found for it in another; for instance, if some measure of length
does not correspond closely with any known dimension of the earth or of
the solar system (an unlikely supposition), then it can be understood to
typify an interval of time. If, even after trying all possible changes
of that kind, no coincidence shows itself (which is all but impossible),
then all that is needed to secure a coincidence is that the dimensions
should be manipulated a little.

Let a single instance suffice to show how the pyramidalists (with
perfect honesty of purpose) hunt down a coincidence. The slant tunnel
already described has a transverse height, once no doubt uniform, now
giving various measures from 47.14 pyramid inches to 47.32 inches, so
that the vertical height from the known inclination of the tunnel would
be estimated at somewhere between 52.64 inches and 52.85. Neither
dimension corresponds very obviously with any measured distance in the
earth or solar system. Nor when we try periods, areas, etc., does any
very satisfactory coincidence present itself. But the difficulty is
easily turned into a new proof of design. Putting all the observations
together (says Professor Smyth), 'I deduced 47.24 pyramid inches to be
the transverse height of the entrance passage; and computing from thence
with the observed angle of inclination the vertical height, that came
out 52.76 of the same inches. But the sum of those two heights, or the
height taken up and down, equals 100 inches, which length, as elsewhere
shown, is the general pyramid linear representation of a day of
twenty-four hours. And the mean of the two heights, or the height taken
one way only, and impartially to the middle point between them, equals
fifty inches; which quantity is, therefore, the general pyramid linear
representation of only half a day. In which case, let us ask what the
entrance passage has to do with half