S T O N E-H E N <TE. 105 
.thofe times were interred. Near them might hand fuch planta- 
tions as were neceffary to the performance of the religious rites 
of the druids : you know they held the mifleto in great vene- 
ration, and oak branches were alfo ufed at their facrifices. 
It was fo late as the reign of henry viii. when plates of tin 
were dug up here, with infcriptions on them ; no body could 
then decypher the characters, and fince that time they have 
been loft. Much later refearches have difcovered urns with afhes 
and the bones of human bodies ; alfo the heads and bones of 
oxen, and other animals, fuppofed to be ufed in the facrifices 
which the druids were wont to make. 
Let 11s conclude, for there can be no great harm in it, that 
this was the st. Paul’s of the druids, of that time ; and that 
no lefs honors were paid to it, than the mahommedans now 
fhow to mecca and Medina, or the romish chriftians to Jeru- 
salem. 
But whilft we look back with reverence for more than 2250 
years, we may contemplate the condition of mankind, by con- 
fidering the fate of the roman empire ; and, if we may judge 
from its prefent ftate, the almoft total diffolution of the Persian 
monarchy, fo often fub verted within this period. How many 
lefier kingdoms have been eftablifhed ; and what numbers of 
ftates difTolved and changed their form 1 How many great cities 
have been deflroyed, by the hoftile hands of enemies, fwallowed 
up by earthquakes; or mouldered into ruins, from various caufes! 
— And, laftly, with how many millions of inhabitants the re- 
gions beyond the grave have been recruited ! 
P 
If 
