, 147 



rapean column is pronounced by Dr. Young, in his Essay on Hie- 

 roglyphics* to express stability; that this idea was one of those 

 most strongly attached to the pillar in patriarchal times, appears in 

 Scripture from the often repeated expression " the shepherd, the 

 stone of Israel." The rock-born deities, and the worship paid to 

 them, are probably alluded to in those passages which seem at once 

 to reprehend that worship, and to claim it. " I am the Rock of 

 thy Salvation." " Thy Rock of defence," &c. &c. 



The mountain-born Cybele was in Phrygia adored in the shape 

 of a stone, which was believed to possess life;* and in Greece 

 Mercury was frequently represented by a stone column. Thus the 

 spirit of idolatry perverted the ancient symbolic meaning of these 

 stones of testimony ; from having been first venerated as emblems, 

 they came to be considered as in themselves containing a divine 

 essence, *' statues furnished with some thing within them that had 

 life and perception ;"-f- even tlie memorial of the dead was at last 

 thought to be " instinct with life," since the spirit of the deceased 

 was imagined to be an inhabitant of the pillar placed over his 

 grave ; and thence divine honours were paid to the stone. 



The Welsh to this day regard these rude columns with much 

 veneration, still calling them Meini-Gwyr, men-pillars,J as hav- 

 ing marked the sepulchres of their ancient heroes ; and in times 

 of heathen superstition this veneration probably amounted to 

 worship. 



So amongst the Mongols they have divine stones, which receive 

 a share of their worship ; they call them Sindamanih Erdenih, which 



* Origin of Pagan Idolatry, II. p. 387. 



f Mona Antiq. p. 226, and Jamblichus there cited. 



t Ibid. p. 226. 



u2 



