Mr. Kendal’s account of the Dighton rock. 167 
might justify the belief of ruder workmanship. After all I am of 
opinion, that this configuration is from the hand of nature, and that 
the artist, who engraved the inscription, rather chose his rock on ac- 
count of the symmetry, which he observed in it, than prepared it to 
his taste ; a conclusion, to which I am the rather inclined, not only 
from a disposition to avoid a too eager aggrandisement of this ancient 
relic, but from some internal evidence of the sculpture. _ First, that 
in more than one instance the drawing appears to have been accom- 
modated to the irregular outlines of the rock, such as we now behold 
them ; and secondly, that on the end, fronting the northeast, there are 
two or three figures, resembling the letter O, sculptured, not upon. 
the remaining part of what might be esteemed the original surface, 
but within one of the recesses, or parts, where that surface has been 
broken or worn away. Indeed, if the face and ends had been the 
work of tools, it is scarcely to be imagined, that the same tools would 
not haye been employed to form the summit according to an horizon- 
tal line ; and that such horizontal line ever existed the situation of the 
upper figures, partly made to follow the actual line of the summit, 
and partly deficient in precision, as to their base line, renders altogeth- 
er improbable. It might however be contended, that the figures rep- 
resenting the letter O, and formed on the northeast end, are modern ; 
that is, engraved since the surface has been worn or broken ; or-per- 
haps, with less danger of overthrow, an opinion might be maintained, 
that nature bestowed only the general pyramidal form, and that art has. 
smoothed the face, and done no more. Against sucha theory the lat- 
eral figures, when or by whomsoever executed, would prove nothing ; 
and in its favour it might be argued, with plausibility, that to smooth 
the surface of a rock is a work of less art, than to engrave that sur- 
face ; and that, what it was thus comparatively easy to execute, it 
was in the highest degree natural to desire ; for the value ofa smooth: 
