152 Silbury. 



but as a pigmy to a giant : imagine a mountain half a mile in 

 diameter at its base, and soaring into the clouds one mile and a 

 half in height, that would be the size of the mountain of earth 

 which these earthworks would form : while St. James's Park, from 

 the Horse Guards to Buckingham Palace would scarcely afford 

 space for its base." 1 But to return to Silbury, which we will 

 not attempt to compare to these modern labours. I apprehend it 

 will be allowed on all sides, that it could not have been thrown up 

 without a vast expense of time and severe toil, but at what cost, 

 and whence the workmen derived their supplies of food during their 

 labours, 2 it were idle now to speculate : we may also assume that 

 its promoters must have had some great motive, when they set 

 about and accomplished so Herculean a task : and now comes the 

 question, what can we assign as the probable object, likely to have 

 given rise to such a stupendous work ? 



I believe that if we search into the existing remains of the most 

 ancient times, and if we continue our enquiries through more mod- 

 ern ages, in heathen countries, we shall find that, almost without 

 an exception, the greatest works of man have been devoted either 

 to objects of religious worship or of sepulture. To accomplish 

 either of these ends, no labour seems to have been too great. As 

 regarded worship, however misguided might be the worshipper, 

 however false the god, the object of providing a suitable temple 

 was enough to smooth away all difficulties, and overcome every 

 obstacle : while on the other hand, to leave behind him a sepul- 

 chral monument which should continue as long as time should 

 last, and remain an imperishable memorial of him to distant ages, 

 this was enough to rouse all the energies of the ambitious barba- 

 rian, and spur him on to perseverance in the most arduous tasks 3 . 



1 The author of the " Lost Solar System of the Ancients discovered " calculates 

 that in the last fifteen years, 250,000,000 cubic yards, or 400,000,000 tons of 

 earth and rock have in tunnel embankment and cutting been moved to greater 

 or less distances in the construction of railways, [vol. ii., p. 296]. 



2 Compare Herodotus, book ii., chap. 125, where the good old historian 

 delighted to compute the garlic and onions consumed by the workmen at the 

 Pyramids as amounting to 1600 talents of silver, a sum equal to £345,600. 

 [See too Rollin's Anc. Hist., book i., part i., chap. 2, sect. 2.] 



3 The Lost Solar System of the Ancients discovered, vol. ii., 209. 



