William Stukeley

“ 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. ”

“ And hence the fables of the greeks make Vulcan the only son of Juno, without the help of her husband. Again, they make Pallas produc’d out of Jupiter’s brain, who wore the Ægis or snaky breast-plate, which originally was no other than our great prophylactic hierogramma, the circle and snake, us’d by the most ancient warriors as a sacred preservative. Medusa’s head is the very same, a circle, wings, and snakes. But the delicate greeks new drest it, and made the circle into a beautiful face, more agreeable to their taste of things. ”

“ Some set round with stones. Some with great stoneworks at the end. SO many ages as Abury was the great cathedral, the chief metropolitical or patriarchal temple of the island, no wonder there are an infinite number of these barrows about it. Great princes, and men within a considerable tract of country round here, would naturally choose to leave their mortal remains in this sacred ground, more peculiarly under the divine regard. Every hill-top within view of the place is sure to be crowned with them. ”

“ We may therefore make this deduction from what has been said, that the christian doctrine of distinct personalities in the deity, is so far from being contrary to reason, as some would have it, or above human reason as others, that ’tis evidently deducible therefrom, at least highly agreeable thereto, when seriously propos’d to our reason. And when most undoubtedly the ancients had such a notion, even from the creation, those minds that were of a contemplative turn, would embrace it and cultivate it, as being the most exalted knowledge we are capable of. ”

“ 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. ”

“ I mean the Welsh, the descendants of those invaders from the continent, Belgæ, Gauls and Cimbrians, who drove away the aboriginal inhabitants, that made the works we are treating of, still northward. Hence they gave them these names from appearances; as Rowldrich, the wheel or circle of the Druids; as Stonehenge they call’d choir gaur, the giants’ dance; as our saxon ancestors call’d it Stonehenge, the hanging-stones, or stone-gallows. Every succession of inhabitants being still further remov’d from a true notion and knowledge of the things. ”

“ Passing from Marlborough hither, ’tis the common topic of amusement for travellers, to observe the gray weathers on Marlborough downs, which are the same kind of stones as this of our antiquity, lying dispers’d, on the surface of the ground, as nature originally laid them. When we come to this village, we see the largest of those stones in great numbers, set upright in the earth, in circles, in parallel lines and other regular figures, and a great part inclos’d in a vast circular ditch, of above 1000 foot diameter. ”

“ The wisdom of the Chaldeans, Phœnicians, Egyptians, Jews, of Zoroaster, Sanchoniathon, Pherecydes Syrus, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, of all the ancients, that is come to our hand, is symbolic. “It was the mode,” says Serranus, on Plato’s Symposium, “of the ancient philosophers, to represent truth by certain symbols and hidden images. It leads us gradually, sweetly, yet most efficaciously, towards the contemplation of the first being, which is the end of all philosophy and theology.” We may add, it was the method of ancient divines too, from the beginning to our Saviour’s time. ”

“ Goodness was the beginning, the middle, the end of the creation. To explain, to prove, or illustrate this topic, would be an affront to the common understanding of mankind. The sum of what we can know of him is, that he is good, essentially good. We are not more assured of the existence of the first being, than that he is good, the good, goodness itself, in eminence. He is God, because he is good ”

“ Nothing is more manifest, than that the stones of Stonehenge have been chizel’d, some quite round, some on three sides, easily to be distinguish’d. The stones of Abury are absolutely untouch’d of tool. No doubt, at that time of day, the aboriginal patriarchal method from the foundation of the world was observ’d, not to admit a tool upon them. Even when Solomon’s temple was built, tho’ the stones were all carv’d with great art, yet that was done before they were brought to the building; for no ax or hammer was heard thereon. The like, probably, may be said of Stonehenge. ”

“ I believe the Chinese method of writing to be the antediluvian one; and the like, perhaps, may be affirmed of the Egyptian hieroglyphics. The Egyptians had the good sense, when alphabet writing was communicated to them, to embrace it, tho’ the Chinese will not. Still the Egyptians retain’d a particular veneration for their former method, and dedicated it to sacred uses altogether.
This symbol of the snake and circle, which is the picture of the temple of Abury, we see on innumerable Egyptian monuments. Always it holds the uppermost, the first and chief place; which shews its high dignity. ”

“ The boldness of the imagination we cannot sufficiently admire. When this whole area, which is about four miles square, was entirely sacred ground, under the care and custody of the Druids, one of their great seminaries or academies, every where a fine turf, cover’d over with an infinite variety of barrows, it was a most agreeable scene, and merely a picture. ”

“ Tediousness in any thing is a fault, more so in this than other sciences. ’Tis an offence, if either we spend much time in a too minute description of things, or enter upon formal and argumentative proofs, more than the nature of such accounts will well bear. Nevertheless the dignity of the knowledge of antiquities, will always insure a sufficient regard for this very considerable branch of learning, as long as there is any taste or learning left in the world. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Therefore was the sabbath instituted; the very first command of our maker, even in the happy seat of Paradise, and before our fatal transgression. ’Tis the positive institution of God, and founded upon the strictest reason. So that if we allow the patriarchs to have built these temples, wherein to assemble for publick devotion, and disallow of the sabbath, because not particularly mention’d in the scripture that they did celebrate it, we think absurdly, and err against common sense and reason. The scriptures were given to teach us religion, but not to inform us of common sense and reason. ”

“ We may hence see the origin of idolatry, soon after these heroes we have recited; and it seems to have begun first in Phœnicia, which Eusebius always puts before Egypt, when speaking of the matter. Demaroon was Jupiter the supreme, Phut they deify’d into his son, Canaan they made the third divine person. But wherever idolatry began, whether in the call of Asia, or the west, it flew too soon into other countries, and they made a Jupiter, a Son, and a Mercury or Neptune who are the same, of their own; ’till with every hero and benefactor to mankind they fill’d the heaven of the heathens. ”

“ Their vicinity, their lying on the surface of the ground, the soil here being solid chalk, was the great inducement for the Druids, in these most early ages, to build this temple. The manner of their mechanics, which undoubtedly was very simple, must be equally surprizing. I apprehend, they brought the stones upon strong carriages, and drew them by men. For even in Cæsar’s time, there was an infinite multitude of people. Their manner of raising the stones seems to have been with tall trees, us’d for leavers, and no doubt very artfully apply’d. ”

“ And what will further excite one’s curiosity, the vallum or earth, which is of solid chalk, dug out of that ditch, thrown on the outside; quite contrary to the nature of castles and fortifications. The ditch alone, which is wide and deep, is a very great labour, and the rampart very high, and makes the appearance of a huge amphitheatre, for an innumerable company of spectators; but cannot possibly be design’d for offence or 15 defence. This is twice passed by all the travellers: and its oddness would arrest one’s attention, if the stones escap’d it. ”

“ I have given the reader as plain and as concise a description of these works about Abury, as I possibly could. We cannot but make this general reflexion upon the whole: 1. That this temple, with the things belonging to it, when in perfection, must have been the work of a very great and learned people. The kind, manner, and idea of it, shews its extreme antiquity. When we view the ruins of Rome, of Greece, Egypt, Syria, Persia, or the like, we readily enough enter into a notion of the wisdom and flourishing estate of the people that performed them. The like we must do of these british Druids. ”

“ For magick is nothing else but the science that teaches us to perform wonderful and surprizing things, in the later acceptation of the word. And in very many ages after the Druid times, mankind had the same notion, and the vulgar have to this day, concerning these works. And most probably from them sprung the character, which Pliny gives of our british Druids practising magic, and being so great proficients therein, as to equal the persian and chaldean magi, “so that one would even think,” says he, “the Druids had taught it them.” ”

“ Creation is external fecundity. The Druids would naturally apply the term generation, to this act of producing this person, or divine emanation from the supreme, which we are oblig’d to admit of: and to affirm him coeval with the supreme. The difficulty of priority in time, between father and son, would easily be remov’d, by considering the difference between divine and human generation, the production of necessary and contingent beings. ”

“ And this son must be a self-existent, all-perfect being, equally as the father, self-origination only excepted, which the necessary relation or oeconomy between them forbids. If he is a son, he is like himself; if he is like himself, he is God; if he is God, an eternity of existence is one necessary part of his divine nature and perfection.
If the son be of the same substance and nature as the father, an eternity of being is one part of his nature; therefore no time can be assign’d for this divine geniture, and it must be what we call eternal. ”

“ A snake’s body has some variation in its thickness, as slenderer toward the neck, than at its middle. This the Druids imitated in making the avenue broader toward this southern entrance of Abury; and drawing it narrower as it approached Overton-hill. Again, when a snake is represented in its sinuous motion, the intervals of the stones sideways must have a variation, as set in the inner or the outer curve; so as to make them stand regularly opposite to one another: yet this necessarily makes some little difference in the intervals, and this too is properly regarded in the work. ”

“ Here then occurs the difficulty, of filling up that infinite gap before creation. Consider the supreme first being sitting in the center of an universal solitude, environ’d with the abyss of infinite nothing, a chasm of immense vacuity! what words can paint the greatness of the solecism? what mind does not start at the horror of such an absurdity? and especially supposing this state subsisted from infinite ages.
’Tis in vain to pretend, that a being of all perfections can be happy in himself, in the consciousness of those perfections, whilst he does no good to any thing ”

“ Tho’ this be the general and stated measure, which was proposed by the founders, where the stones suited, and of the largest dimensions, yet we must understand this, as in all their works, with some latitude. The ancients studied a certain greatness: to produce an effect, not by a servile exactness no way discernible in great works, but in securing the general beauty; especially we must affirm this of our Druids, who had to do with these unshapely masses, and where religion forbad them applying a tool. ”