William Stukeley

“ So in Wales to this day they call the Kromlechea, Arthur’s Coyts.
Thus therefore we may in imagination view a solemn sacrifice of magnanimous Britons, the Druids and other priests, the kings and people assembled: we may follow them imitating the course of the Sun, and, like the ancient Greeks at their solemn games, celebrating splendidly, in honour of their Gods, upon the winding banks of the rivers. ”

“ I turned out of the road to the west, through some inclosures, to see Cester-over, induced by the name. I found a house in a little square deeply intrenched upon the side of a hill, but the earth rather thrown outward than inward as a vallum, and the level within much lower than the field around it. I perceived it was a religious house; some part of the building left; and without the ditch a fine chapel, built of brick with good stone coins and mullioned windows, converted into a barn: and a-cross a valley hard by I saw dams, or stanks, for fish-ponds. ”

“ No part of England boasts of so many beautiful churches, having generally lofty spires of fine squared stone, fetched from Barneck pits, which are a coarse rag full of petrified shells of all kinds of small fish, and not, as some think, from Norway. And in no very distant times, not a parish without great numbers of gentry, lords, knights, and great families, who made a figure in the world: now scarce any remains of them, but the site of their houses moted round, their tombs in the churches, their arms in the painted windows, where they have by chance escaped the fury of fanatic zeal. ”

“ In the gravelly soil of London; and where the two shocks were felt by us, in the beginning of the year; we know, there is not a house in the whole extent of this vast city, and all around it, but a spring of water is ready, upon digging a well. Whence we have much reason to believe, that the interior of the earthy is like a sponge soak’d in water. So that the only dry part is the superficies, which is the object, and the subject of that electric vibration; wherein, according to my sentiments, an earthquake consists. ”

“ Still by considering the matter intimately, they would find it impossible to conceive, that there should ever be a time, when there was but one being in the universe, which we call the first and self-originated being, possessing in himself all possible perfections, and remaining for endless myriads of ages, torpid, unactive, solitary,87 useless. This is a notion so abhorrent to reason, so contrary to the nature of goodness, so absolutely absurd, that we may as well imagine this great being altogether absent, and that there was no being at all. ”

“ The church stands much higher than the town. The Wye is a very rapid river; it never overflows, so great is the descent from it. The castle is a square plot of high ground, with a large tumulus hollow at top. I cannot affirm there is any thing Roman. This town stands in a flat valley, where the river passes in meanders; and the prospect every way is very romantic. A cold bath at the Angel inn, arched over, and made very convenient. Derbyshire marble wrought here, very beautiful, bears a good polish, full of belemnites and other curious shells petrified together. ”

“ We may venture to write on a distemper when we have a sure remedy for it: and when the very cure will enable us to reason upon it. Nor will this be an useless labor, or a speculation of curiosity only: because by searching out the true nature of it, we are instructed best in a prophylactic regimen, and may provide for its extirpation, at least to weaken it very much and make it easy and gentle. No wise man will wish for a fever or willingly stand the chance of it, tho' we have so noble a remedy as the cortex, nor ought we to be careless and intemperate, because we can cure the gout. ”

“ But there was a time before creation, before this beautiful fabric of the world was made, before even chaos itself, or the production of the rude matter, of which the world was made. And this time must be affirmed, not only as to material creation, but to that of angels and spiritual beings. Reckon we never so many ages, or myriads of ages, for the commencement of creation, yet it certainly began, and there was a time before that beginning. For, by the definition, creation is bringing that into being which was not before. ”

“ All the sculptures are religious, being processions of the priests to sacrifice; which has nothing to do with a palace: the work of pillars never had a roof on it, because of the flower-work at top: besides, there are no walls, never were; and what the incurious spectators take for walls, are only single stones set like those of our monument: and the doors are no more than one stone laid across two more, as those of Stonehenge: the mouldings of them go quite round; so that, had there been a wall, half of them would have been covered. ”

“ The aurora borealis, australis, all kind of coruscations, meteors, lightning, thunder, fire-balls are the effects, and may reciprocally be the cause of electricity; but how in particular we know not. Come we to the animal world, we must needs assert, that all motion voluntary, involuntary, generation, even life itself: all the operations of the vegetable kingdom, and an infinity more of nature’s works, are owing to the activity of this electric fire, the very soul of the material world. ”

“ Your deep insight into the materia medica, the theory and practice of physic, your great knowledge of antiquities, natural history, and all polite learning, and the excellence of your hand in designing, were as so many spurs to me in my young years, when we are most apt at imitation: and that the latter exercise of the pen is of importance to all the others, is too notorious, and universally allowed by all, to need any solemn proof. Who sees not that the defeats and confusion in anatomy and botany, and every part of philosophy, is owing to the want of drawing? ”

“ We shall not wonder that the Druids had a perception of this great truth, when we consider that it was known, as far as necessary, to all the philosophic and religious sects of antiquity, as shewn at large by several learned writers. My opinion is, that it was communicated to mankind, originally, by God himself. ’Tis the highest point of wisdom which the human mind can arrive at, to understand somewhat of the nature of the deity; and the studious, the pious, and thinking part of the world, would not fail to improve this knowledge by reflexion and ratiocination. ”

“ I am not afraid to set it in competition with the wall of China, which necessarily occurs to our thoughts upon this occasion: that we readily acknowledge to be a structure of greater bulk and length, which we esteem the least part of the wonder in ours: the Romans intended no more, by their walls around their forts and castles than to prevent a sudden surprise: their strength lay in a living arm and head: in the open field they never refused fighting, without much regard to opposite numbers; the additional security of a little wall was all they asked, against emergencies. ”

“ I have no fears, that aught here will be less acceptable to you, because perhaps in some things I may differ from your sentiments: the sweetness of your disposition, and your great judgement, I know, will discern and applaud what is really just, and excuse the errors: difference of opinions, though false, is often of great service in furthering a discovery of the truth: to think for one’s self is the prerogative of learning; and no one, but a tyrant in books, will persecute another for it. It is certain, Antoninus his Itinerary is an endless fund of inquiry. ”

“ They are not let in above two feet and a half deep. And the country being all a solid bed of chalk, was another reason why here, as at Stonehenge, they chose it for this extraordinary building. The conducting and rightly managing an immense number of hands, the providing for their maintenance, was a matter of wisdom and great authority. The marvellous effect produced, might well establish the glory of the Druids of Britain, which echoed across the ocean, and very much favour’d the opinion mankind had conceiv’d of their practising magick. ”

“ It is a most liberal gift of Nature, a compendious way of making salt; these springs being stronger than the ocean: the rock salt stronger than they; for it is perfect salt, transparent like crystal: it lies not in veins, or strata, as other minerals, or metals; but a solid rock, of unknown dimensions, which they hew away with steeled pick-axes, leaving pillars and spaces, as big as a cathedral. Poplar-trees are plentiful in this country: they all lean eastward, as continually pressed by the west winds from the sea. ”

“ Camden, and most strangers, have an injurious opinion of this country, and apply that to the whole which is true but of part of it: for in the main the land is admirably good, hard, and dry; produces excellent corn and grass; feeds innumerable sheep and oxen of a very large size, and good flesh and wool; bears wood extremely well, has several large woods in it, some intirely of oak of considerable size; is full of hedge-rows and quicksets, and in summer time looks like the garden of Eden: it is level, and most delightful to travellers, whether on horseback, or in a coach. ”

“ It would be senseless to think here, he meant only the wisdom of the supreme, the reason, the cunning of God, a quality, not a personality.
What difficulty here is in the thing, arises merely from the weakness of our conceptions, and in being conversant only with ordinary generation. A son of ours is of the same nature as his father. His father was begat in time, therefore the son the like. Not so in divine generation. But as the father is from eternity, so is the son. This only difference there is, or rather distinction; the father is self-existent, and unoriginate; the son is of the father. ”