98 THE CHRISTIAN NATURALIST. 



however, it is, that religious worship of some kind was 

 anciently performed on these hills. These wild soli- 

 tudes might have been selected for this purpose, either to 

 promote a feeling of mystery or terror, or with a due 

 veneration for that which is most grand and awful in 

 the works of the Divinity. If, as some have supposed, 

 the worship of the host of heaven was that which made 

 the devotees of this ancient idolatry to fix upon those 

 elevated spots, which commanded an uninterrupted 

 view of the Sun, and Moon, and Stars, in their varied 

 courses, then we have only a remarkable instance of the 

 manner in which a taste for the sublime and beautiful 

 of God's work may be so perverted, as to lead to the 

 idolatry of the creature, rather than the worship of the 

 Creator. Certainly, a finer observatory than the tops 

 of one of the Cornish Tors could hardly have been 

 selected. It is worthy of observation that in an age of 

 superstition, no pains, nor self-denial, were deemed too 

 great to obtain the privilege of holding intercourse 

 with the Deity. We have a proof of this in the many 

 extraordinary monuments of antiquity which are yet 

 remaining. The works ascribed to the Druids in the 

 Northern regions of Europe : the temples of Elora in 

 the East, and the Pyramids of Egypt in the South, all 



