n the Great Pyramid"), I
find that, if measured along the base of the entrance passage from the
lowest edge of the vertical stone, it falls exactly upon the spot where
he has marked in the probable outline of the uncased pyramid, while, if
measured from the upper edge of the same stone, it falls just about as
far within the outline of the cased pyramid as we should expect the
outer edge of a sloped end stone to the tunnel to have lain.

It may be said that from the floor of the entrance passage no star could
have been seen, because no eye could be placed there. But the builders
of the pyramid cannot reasonably be supposed to have been ignorant of
the simple properties of plane mirrors, and by simply placing a thin
piece of polished metal upon the floor at this spot, and noting where
they could see the star and the upper edge of the tunnel's mouth in
contact by reflection in this mirror, they could determine precisely
where the star could be seen touching that edge, by an eye placed (were
that possible) precisely in the plane of the floor.

I have said there is another explanation of this peculiarity in the
entrance passage, but I should rather have said there is another
explanation of a line marked on the stone next below the vertical one. I
should imagine this line, which is nothing more than a mark such "as
might be ruled with a blunt steel instrument, but by a master hand for
power, evenness, straightness, and still more for rectangularity to the
passage axis," was a mere sign to show where the upright stone was to
come. But Professor Smyth, who gives no explanation of the upright stone
itself, except that it seems, from its upright position, to have had
"something representative of setting up, or preparation for the erecting
of a building," believes that the mark is as many inches from the mouth
of the tunnel as there were years between the dispersal of man and the
building of the pyramid; that thence downwards to the place where an
ascending passage begins, marks in like manner the number of years which
were to follow before the Exodus; thence along the ascending passage to
the beginning of the great gallery the number of years from the Exodus
to the coming of Christ; and thence along the floor of the grand gallery
to its end, the interval between the first coming of Christ and the
second coming or the end of the world, which it appears is to take place
in the year 1881. It is true not one of these intervals accord