Myths and Marvels of Astronomy
Whewell should have stated that 'various accounts are given, all the
methods proceeding upon certain arbitrary arithmetical processes
connected in some way with astrological views.' Speaking of the
arrangement of the planets in the order of their supposed distances, and
of the order in which the planets appear in the days of the week, he
says, 'It would be difficult to determine with certainty why the former
order was adopted, and how and why the latter was derived from it.' But,
in reality, there is no difficulty about either point. The former
arrangement corresponded precisely with the periodic times of the seven
planets of the old Egyptian system (unquestionably far more ancient than
the system adopted by the Greeks), while the latter springs directly
from the former. Assign to the hours of the day, successively, the seven
planets in the former order, continuing the sequence without
interruption day after day, and in the course of seven days each one of
the planets will have ruled the first hour of a day, in the
order,--Saturn, the sun, the moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus.
What arbitrary arithmetical process there is in this it would be
difficult to conceive. Arithmetic does not rule the method at all. Nor
has any other method ever been suggested; though this method has been
presented in several ways, some arithmetical and some geometrical. We
need then have no difficulty in understanding what seems so perplexing
to Whewell, the universality, namely, of the notions 'which have
produced this result,' for the notions were not fantastic, but such as
naturally sprang from the ideas on which astrology itself depends.
[15] The following remarks by the Astronomer-Royal on this subject seem
to me just, in the main. They accord with what I had said earlier in my
essay on Saturn and the Sabbath of the Jews ('Our Place among
Infinities,' 11th essay). 'The importance which Moses attached to it
[the hebdomadal rest] is evident; and, with all reverence, I recognise
to the utmost degree the justice of his views. No direction was given
for religious ceremonial' (he seems to have overlooked Numbers xxviii.
9, and cognate passages), 'but it was probably seen that the health
given to the mind by a rest from ordinary cares, and by the opportunity
of meditation, could not fail to have a most beneficial religious
effect. But, to give sanction to this precept, the authority of at least
a myth was requisite. I believe it was simply for this reason that the
myth of the six days of creation was preserved. It is expressly cited in
the first delivery of the commandments, as the solemn authority (Exodus
xxxi. 17) for the command. It is remarkable that at the second mention
of the commandment (Deuteronomy v.) no reference is made to the
creation; perhaps, after the complete establishment of Jehovistic ideas
in the minds of the Israelites, they had nearly lost the recollection of
the Elohistic account, and it was not thought desirable to refer to it'
(Airy, 'On the Early Hebrew Scriptures,' p. 17). It must be regarded as
a singular instance of the persistency of myths, if this view be
correct, that a myth which had become obsolete for the Jews between the
time of Moses and that of the writer (whoever he may have been) who
produced the so-called Mosaic book of Deuteronomy, should thereafter
have been revived, and have come to be regarded by the Jews themselves
and by Christians as the Word of God.
[16] Of course it may be argued that nothing in the world is the result
of _mere_ accident, and some may assert that even matters which are
commonly regarded as entirely casual have been specially designed. It
would not be easy to draw the precise line dividing events which all men
would regard as to all intents and purposes accidental from those which
some men would regard as results of special providence. But common sense
draws a sufficient distinction, at least for our present purpose.
[17] This star, called _Thuban_ from the Arabian _al-Thuban_, the
Dragon, is now not very bright, being rated at barely above the fourth
magnitude, but it was formerly the brightest star of the constellation,
as its name indicates. Bayer also assigned to it the first letter of the
Greek alphabet; though this is not absolutely decisive evidence that so
late as his day it retained its superiority over the second magnitude
stars to which Bayer assigned the second and third Greek letters. In the
year 2790 B.C., or thereabouts, the star was at its nearest to the true
north pole of the heavens, the diameter of the little circle in which it
then moved being considerably less than one-fourth the apparent diameter
of the moon. At that time the star must have seemed to all ordinary
observation an absolutely fixed centre, round which all the other stars
revolved. At the time when the pyramid was built this star was about
sixty times farther removed from the true pole, revolving in a circle
whose apparent diameter was about seven times as great as the moon's.
Yet it would still be regarded as a very useful pole-star, especially as
there are very few conspicuous stars in the neighbourhood.
[18] Even that skilful astronomer Hipparchus, who may be justly called
the father of observational astronomy, overlooked this peculiarity,
which Ptolemy would seem to have been the first to recognise.
[19] It would only be by a lucky accident, of course, that the direction
of the slant tunnel's axis and that of the vertical from the selected
central point would lie in the same vertical plane. The object of the
tunnelling would, in fact, be to determine how far apart the vertical
planes through these points lay, and the odds would be great against the
result proving to be zero.
[20] It may, perhaps, occur to the reader to inquire what diameter of
the earth, supposed to be a perfect sphere, would be derived from a
degree of latitude measured with absolute accuracy near latitude 30 deg.
A degree of latitude measured in polar regions would indicate a diameter
greater even than the equatorial; one measured in equatorial regions
would indicate a diameter less even than the polar. Near latitude 30 deg.
the measurement of a degree of latitude would indicate a diameter very
nearly equal to the true polar diameter of the earth. In fact, if it
could be proved that the builders of the pyramid used for their unit of
length an exact subdivision of the polar diameter, the inference would
be that, while the coincidence itself was merely accidental, their
measurement of a degree of latitude in their own country had been
singularly accurate. By an approximate calculation I find that, taking
the earth's compression at 1-300, the diameter of the earth, estimated
from the accurate measurement of a degree of latitude in the
neighbourhood of the great pyramid, would have made the sacred
cubit--taken at one 20,000,000th of the diameter--equal to 24.98 British
inches; a closer approximation than Professor Smyth's to the estimated
mean probable value of the sacred cubit.
[21] It is, however, almost impossible to mark any limits to what may be
regarded as evidence of design by a coincidence-hunter. I quote the
following from the late Professor De Morgan's _Budget of Paradoxes_.
Having mentioned that 7 occurs less frequently than any other digit in
the number expressing the ratio of circumference to diameter of a
circle, he proceeds: 'A correspondent of my friend Piazzi Smyth notices
that 3 is the number of most frequency, and that 3-1/7 is the nearest
approximation to it in simple digits. Professor Smyth, whose work on
Egypt is paradox of a very high order, backed by a great quantity of
useful labour, the results of which will be made available by those who
do not receive the paradoxes, is inclined to see confirmation for some
of his theory in these phenomena.' In passing, I may mention as the most
singular of these accidental digit relations which I have yet noticed,
that in the first 110 digits of the square root of 2, the number 7
occurs more than twice as often as either 5 or 9, which each occur eight
times, 1 and 2 occurring each nine times, and 7 occurring no less than
eighteen times.
[22] I have substituted this value in the article 'Astronomy,' of the
_British Encyclopaedia_, for the estimate formerly used, viz. 95,233,055
miles. But there is good reason for believing that the actual distance
is nearly 92,000,000 miles.
[23] It may be matched by other coincidences as remarkable and as little
the result of the operation of any natural law. For instance, the
following strange relation, introducing the dimensions of the sun
himself, nowhere, so far as I have yet seen, introduced among pyramid
relations, even by pyramidalists: 'If the plane of the ecliptic were a
true surface, and the sun were to commence rolling along that surface
towards the part of the earth's orbit where she is at her mean distance,
while the earth commenced rolling upon the sun (round one of his great
circles), each globe turning round in the same time,--then, by the time
the earth had rolled its way once round the sun, the sun would have
almost exactly reached the earth's orbit. This is only another way of
saying that the sun's diameter exceeds the earth's in almost exactly the
same degree that the sun's distance exceeds the sun's diameter.'
[24] It has been remarked that, though Hipparchus had the enormous
advantage of being able to compare his own observations with those
recorded by the Chaldaeans, he estimated the length of the year less
correctly than the Chaldaeans. It has been thought by some that the
Chaldaeans were acquainted with the true system of the universe, but I do
not know that there are sufficient grounds for this supposition.
Diodorus Siculus and Apollonius Myndius mention, however, that they were
able to predict the return of comets, and this implies that their
observations had been continued for many centuries with great care and
exactness.
[25] The language of the modern Zadkiels and Raphaels, though
meaningless and absurd in itself, yet, as assuredly derived from the
astrology of the oldest times, may here be quoted. (It certainly was not
invented to give support to the theory I am at present advocating.) Thus
runs the jargon of the tribe: 'In order to illustrate plainly to the
reader what astrologers mean by the "houses of heaven," it is proper for
him to bear in mind the four cardinal points. The eastern, facing the
rising sun, has at its centre the first grand angle or first house,
termed the Horoscope or ascendant. The northern, opposite the region
where the sun is at midnight, or the _cusp_ of the lower heaven or
nadir, is the Imum Coeli, and has at its centre the fourth house. The
western, facing the setting sun, has at its centre the third grand angle
or seventh house or descendant. And lastly, the southern, facing the
noonday sun, has at its centre the astrologer's tenth house, or
Mid-heaven, the most powerful angle or house of honour.' 'And although,'
proceeds the modern astrologer, 'we cannot in the ethereal blue discern
these lines or terminating divisions, both reason and experience assure
us that they certainly exist; therefore the astrologer has certain
grounds for the choice of his four angular houses' (out of twelve in
all) 'which, resembling the palpable demonstration they afford, are in
the astral science esteemed the most powerful of the whole. '--Raphael's
_Manual of Astrology_.
[26] Arabian writers give the following account of Egyptian progress in
astrology and the mystical arts: Nacrawasch, the progenitor of Misraim,
was the first Egyptian prince, and the first of the magicians who
excelled in astrology and enchantment. Retiring into Egypt with his
family of eighty persons, he built Essous, the most ancient city of