ON ANCIENT ORACLES, ETC.
Remote Origin of Oracles--Influence of Oracles--Opinions respecting
them--Cause of the Cessation of Oracles--Superstition early
systematized in Egypt--Bœotia early famous for Oracles--Origin of
the Oracle of Dodona--Ambiguity of Oracular Responses--Stratagem
of a Peasant--Oracles disbelieved by Ancient Philosophers--Cyrus
and the Idol Bel--Source of Fire-Worshipping--Victory of
Canopus over Fire--The Sphinx--Sounds heard from it--Supposed
Cause of them--Mysterious Sounds at Nakous--Frauds of the
Priests of Serapis--The Statue of Memnon--Oracle of Delphi--Its
Origin--Changes which it underwent--The Pythoness--Danger
attendant on her office--Tricks played by Heathen Priests--Origin
of the Gordian Knot--The Knot is cut by Alexander--Ambrosian,
Logan or Rocking Stones--Representations of them on Ancient
Coins--Pliny’s Description of a Logan Stone in Asia--Stones
at Sitney, in Cornwall, and at Castle Treryn--The latter is
overthrown, and replaced--Logan Stones are Druidical Monuments.
The knowledge of the origin of the ancient oracles is lost in the
distance of time; yet it seems reasonable to suppose, that traditionary
accounts and confused recollections of the revelations graciously
vouchsafed to Noah, to Abraham, and the Patriarchs, more especially
Moses, may have been the foundation of these oracles, which were
venerated in ancient times; and established in temples, which were, in
some instances, supposed to be even the abode of the gods themselves:
thus, Apollo was supposed to take up his occasional residence at
Delphos, Diana at Ephesus, and Minerva at Athens.
The manner of prophecy was various, but that employed by oracles
enjoyed the greatest repute; because they were believed to proceed,
in a most especial manner, from the gods themselves. Every thing of
essential consequence being, therefore, referred to them by the heads
of states, oracles obtained a powerful influence over the minds of the
people; and this popular credulity offered tempting opportunities to
the priests for carrying on very lucrative impostures, nor did they
disdain or neglect to take advantage of those opportunities. Added to
this, the different functions of the gods, and the different and often
opposite parts which they were made to take in human affairs by the
priests and poets, were plentiful sources of superstitious rites, and
therefore of emolument to those who, in consequence either of office
or pretension, were supposed to have immediate communications with the
deity in whose temples they presided.
Much has been written on this subject; and some have even gone so far
as to suppose that Divine permission was granted to certain demons,
or evil spirits, to inhabit pagan shrines, and thence, by ambiguous
answers, to deceive, and often to punish, those who sought by their
influence to read the forbidden volume of futurity.
This doctrine was strenuously opposed by Van Dale; and Mœbius (of
Leipsic), although opposed to Van Dale’s opinion, allows that oracles
did not cease to grant responses _immediately_ at the coming of Christ;
and this has been considered a sufficient proof as well as argument,
that demons did not deliver oracular responses; but that those
responses were impostures and contrivances of the priests themselves.
The true cause of the cessation of oracular prophecy, however, appears
to be, that the minds of men became enlightened by the wide-spreading
of the Christian faith; and by the circumstance, that their
superstition was compromised by the metamorphoses of their favourite
heroes and deities into saints and martyrs. As an instance of which,
it will hereafter be shown, that the statues of the ancient gods, even
to this day, are allowed to stand and hold places in the churches and
cathedrals of many Catholic countries.
Those who argue that oracles _ceased_ immediately at the coming of
Christ, relate, in confirmation of their opinion, that Augustus having
grown old, became desirous of choosing a successor, and went, in
consequence, to consult the oracle at Delphos. No answer was given, at
first, to his inquiry, though he had spared no expense to conciliate
the oracle. At last, however, the priestess is reported to have said,
“the Hebrew Infant, to whom all gods render obedience, chases me hence;
He sends me to the lower regions; therefore depart this temple, without
speaking more.”
Superstition was formed into a system in Egypt at an age prior to
our first accounts of that country. Vast temples were built, and
innumerable ceremonies established; the same body, forming the
hereditary priesthood and the nobility of the nation, directed with a
high hand the belief and consciences of the people; and prophecy was
not only among their pretensions, but perhaps the most indispensable
part of their office.
Bœotia was also a country famous for the number of its oracles,
and from its localities was well suited for such impostures, being
mountainous and full of caverns, by means of which sounds and echoes,
apparently mysterious, could be easily multiplied to excite the
astonishment and terror of the supplicants.
Herodotus informs us, that one of the first oracles in Greece was
imported from the Egyptian Thebes. It happened, says Mr. Mitford in his
History of Greece, that the master of a Phœnician vessel carried off
a woman, an attendant of the temple of Jupiter, at Thebes on the Nile,
and sold her in Thesprotia, a mountainous tract in the northwestern
part of Epirus, bordering on the Illyrian hordes. Reduced thus
unhappily to slavery among barbarians, the woman, however, soon became
sensible of the superiority which her education in a more civilized
country gave her over them; and she conceived hopes of mending her
condition, by practising upon their ignorance what she had acquired of
those arts which able hands imposed upon a more enlightened people. She
gave out that she possessed all the powers of prophecy to which the
Egyptian priests pretended; that she could discover present secrets,
and foretell future events.
Her pretensions excited curiosity, and brought numbers to consult her.
She chose her station under the shade of a spreading oak, where, in
the name of the god Jupiter, she delivered answers to her ignorant
inquirers; and shortly her reputation as a prophetess extended as far
as the people of the country themselves communicated.
These simple circumstances of her story were afterwards, according to
the genius of those ages, turned into a fable, which was commonly told,
in the time of Herodotus, by the Dodonæan priests. A black pigeon,
they said, flew from Thebes in Egypt to Dodona, and, perching upon an
oak, proclaimed with human voice, “That an oracle of Jupiter should be
established there.” Concluding that a divinity spoke through the agency
of the pigeon, the Dodonæans obeyed the mandate, and the oracle was
established. The historian accounts for the fiction thus: the woman on
her arrival speaking in a foreign dialect, the Dodonæans said she spoke
like a pigeon; but afterwards, when she had acquired the Grecian speech
and accent, they said the pigeon spoke with a human voice.
The trade of prophecy being both easy and lucrative, the office of the
prophetess was readily supplied both with associates and successors. A
temple for the deity and habitations for his ministers were built; and
thus, according to the evidently honest, and apparently well-founded
and judicious, account of Herodotus, arose the oracle of Jupiter at
Dodona, the very place where tradition, still remaining to the days of
that writer, testified that sacrifices had formerly been performed only
to the nameless god.
The responses of the oracles, though given with some appearance of
probability, were for the most part ambiguous and doubtful; but it
must be acknowledged that the priests were very clever persons, since,
while they satisfied for the time the wishes of others, they were so
well able to conceal their own knavery. A fellow, it is said, willing
to try the truth of Apollo’s oracle, asked what it was he held in his
hand--holding at the time a sparrow under his cloak--and whether it
was dead or alive--intending to kill or preserve it, contrary to what
the oracle should answer--but it replied, that it was his own choice
whether that which he held should live or die.
Many of the sages and other great men evidently paid no regard, or real
veneration, to the oracles, beyond what policy dictated to preserve
their influence over others.
The researches of modern antiquaries and travellers have discovered the
machinery of many artifices of the priests of the now deserted fanes,
which sufficiently account for the apparent miracles exhibited to the
eye of ignorance. There remain many instances of this kind to show how
general this system of imposture has been in all ages; and, as may
be supposed, the priests did not fail to exact a liberal payment in
advance.
Cyrus,--according to the apocryphal tradition,--a devout worshipper of
the idol Bel, was convinced by the prophet Daniel of the imposture of
this supposed mighty and living god, who was thought to consume every
day twelve measures of fine flour, forty sheep, and six vessels of
wine, which were placed as an offering on the altar. These gifts being
presented as usual, Daniel commanded ashes to be strewed on the floor
of the temple, round the altar on which the offerings were placed; and
the door of the temple to be sealed in the presence of the king. Cyrus
returned on the following day, and seeing the altar cleared of what
was placed thereon, cried out “Great art thou, O Bel, and in thee is no
deceit!” but Daniel, pointing to the floor, the king continues, “I see
the footsteps of women and children!” The private door at the back of
the altar leading to the dwellings of the priests was then discovered;
their imposture clearly proved, they were all slain, and the temple was
destroyed.
The circumstance of fire being so frequently an object of veneration
amongst pagans, is thought to have arisen thus: the sun, as a source of
light and heat, was the most evident and most benignant of the natural
agents; and was worshipped, accordingly, as a first cause, rather than
as an effect; as however it was occasionally absent, it was typified by
fire, which had the greatest analogy to it.
This element, first respected only as the representative of the sun,
in time became itself the object of adoration among the Chaldeans; and
Eusebius relates the following circumstance with respect to it. The
Chaldeans asserted that their god was the strongest and most powerful
of all gods; since they had not met with any one that could resist his
force; so that whenever they happened to seize upon any deities, which
were worshipped by other nations, they immediately threw them into
the fire, which never failed of consuming them to ashes, and thus the
god of the Chaldeans came to be publicly looked upon as the conqueror
of all other gods: at length a priest of Canopus, one of the Egyptian
gods, found out the means to destroy the great reputation which fire
had acquired. He caused to be formed an idol of a very porous earth,
with which pots were commonly made to purify the waters of the Nile;
the belly of this statue, which was very capacious, was filled with
water, the priest having first made a great many little holes and
stopped them with wax. He then challenged the fire of the Chaldeans to
dispute with his god Canopus. The Chaldeans immediately prepared one,
and the Egyptian priest set his statue on it; no sooner did the fire
reach the wax than it dissolved, the holes were opened, the water
passed through, and the fire was extinguished. Upon this a report was
soon spread, that the god Canopus had conquered and destroyed the god
of the Chaldeans. As a memorial of their victory, the Egyptians always
afterwards made their idols with very large bellies.
The celebrated sphinx, still more interesting as a wonderful production
of art, is said to have been made by an Egyptian king, in memory of
Rhodope of Corinth, with whom he was passionately in love: yet it
was subsequently considered as an oracle, which, if consulted at the
rising of the sun, gave prophetic answers. There has lately been
discovered a large hole in the head; in which the priests are supposed
to have concealed themselves, for the purpose of deluding the people.
At sunrise music was said to be heard. The latter might even occur
from natural causes. Messieurs Jomard, Jollois, and Devilliers heard
at _sunrise_, in a monument of granite, placed in the centre of that
spot on which the palace of Karnak stood, a noise resembling that of
a string breaking; this was found on attentive examination to proceed
from a natural phenomenon, occurring near the situation of the sphinx.
Of this circumstance the ingenuity of the priests would no doubt be
sure to avail themselves; and this may also account for the hour of
sunrise being chosen for the oracular responses.
To confirm the probability of this solution of the mystery, it may be
mentioned that Baron Humboldt was informed by most credible witnesses,
that subterranean sounds, like those of an organ, are heard towards
sunrise by those who sleep upon the granite rocks on the banks of the
Oroonoko. Those sounds he philosophically supposes may arise from the
difference of temperature between the external air and that contained
in the narrow and deep crevices of the rocks; the air issuing from
which may be modified by its impulse against the elastic films of
mica projecting into the crevices; producing, in fact, a natural and
gigantic eolina, the simple but beautiful arrangement of musical chords
which is now so commonly heard.
A somewhat similar phenomenon, which gives rise to an Arab
superstition, occurs about three leagues from Tor, on the Red Sea. The
spot, which is half a mile from the sea, bears the name of Nakous, or
the Bell. It is about three hundred feet high, and eighty feet wide,
presents a steep declivity to the sea, and is covered by sand, and
surrounded by low rocks, in the form of an amphitheatre. The sounds
which it emits are not periodical, but are heard at all hours and at
all seasons. The place was twice visited by Mr. Gray. On the first
visit, after waiting a quarter of an hour, he heard a low continuous
murmuring sound beneath his feet, which, as it increased in loudness,
gradually changed into pulsations, resembling the ticking of a clock.
In five minutes more it became so powerful as to resemble the striking
of a clock, and, by its vibrations, to detach the sand from the
surface. When he returned, on the following day, he heard the sound
still louder than before. Both times the air was calm, and the sky
serene; so that the external air could have had no share in producing
the phenomenon; nor could he find any crevice by which it could
penetrate. The noise is affirmed by the people of Tor to frighten and
render furious the camels that hear it; and the Arabs of the desert
poetically ascribe it to the bell of a convent of monks, which convent
they believe to have been miraculously preserved under ground. Seetzen,
another visiter, attributes the phenomenon to the rolling down of the
sand.
Rufinus informs us that, when it was destroyed by order of Theodosius,
the temple of Serapis at Alexandria was found to be full of secret
passages and machines, contrived to aid the impostures of the priests;
among other things, on the eastern side of the temple, was a little
window, through which, on a certain day of the year, the sunbeams
entering fell on the mouth of the statue of Memnon. At the same moment
an iron image of the sun was brought in, which, being attracted by a
large loadstone fixed in the ceiling, ascended up to the image. The
priests then cried out, that the sun saluted their god.
This Memnon was said to be the son of Tithonus and Aurora, and a
statue of him in black marble was set up at Thebes. It is also related
that the mouth of the statue, when first touched by the rays of the
rising sun, sent forth a sweet and harmonious sound, as though it
rejoiced when its mother Aurora appeared; but, at the setting of the
sun, it sent forth a low melancholy tone, as if lamenting its mother’s
departure.
On the left leg of one of the colossal figures called Memnon are
engraved the names of many celebrated personages, who have borne
witness, at different times, of their having heard the musical tones
which proceeded from the statue on the rising and setting of the sun.
Strabo was an _ear_-witness to the fact that an articulate sound was
heard, but doubted whether it came from the statue.
The oracle which held the greatest reputation, and extended it over
the world, was Delphi; yet upon what slight grounds were the minds of
people led captive by the love of the marvellous and a proneness to
superstition! Of this celebrated place so many fables are related, some
of them referring to times long before any authentic account of the
existence of such an oracle, that it is difficult to decide upon the
real period.
On the southern side of Mount Parnassus, within the western border of
Phocis, against Locris, and at no great distance from the seaport towns
of Crissa and Cirrha, the mountain-crags form a natural amphitheatre,
difficult of access, in the midst of which a deep cavern discharged
from a narrow orifice a vapour powerfully affecting the brain of those
who came within its influence. This was first brought into public
notice by a goatherd, whose goats, browsing on the brink, were thrown
into singular convulsions; upon which the man, going to the spot, and
endeavouring to look into the chasm, became himself agitated like
one frantic. These extraordinary circumstances were communicated
through the neighbourhood; and the superstitious ignorance of the age
immediately attributed them to a deity residing in the place. Frenzy
of every kind among the Greeks, even in more enlightened times, was
supposed to be the effect of divine inspiration; and the incoherent
speeches of the frantic were regarded as prophetical. This spot,
formerly visited only by goats, now became an object of extensive
curiosity. It was said to be the oracle of the goddess Earth. The
rude inhabitants from all the neighbouring parts resorted to it, for
information concerning futurity; to obtain which any one of them
inhaled the vapour, and whatever he uttered in the ensuing intoxication
passed for prophecy. This was found dangerous, however, as many,
becoming giddy, fell into the cavern and were lost; and in an assembly
it was agreed that one person should alone receive the inspiration,
and render the responses of the divinity. A virgin was preferred for
the sacred office, and a frame prepared, resting on three feet, whence
it was called tripod. The place bore the name of Pytho, and thence
the title of Pythoness, or Pythia, became attached to the prophetess.
By degrees, a rude temple was built over the cavern, priests were
appointed, ceremonies were prescribed, and sacrifices were performed.
A revenue was necessary. All who would consult the oracle henceforward
must come with offerings in their hands. The profits produced by the
prophecies of the goddess Earth beginning to fail, the priests asserted
that the god Neptune was associated with her in the oracle. The
goddess Themis was then reported to have succeeded mother Earth. Still
new incentives to public credulity and curiosity became necessary.
Apollo was a deity of great reputation in the islands, and in Asia
Minor, but had at that time little fame on the continent of Greece.
At this period, a vessel from Crete came to Crissa, and the crew
landing proceeded up Mount Parnassus to Delphi. It was reported that
the vessel and crew, by a preternatural power, were impelled to the
port, accompanied by a dolphin of uncommon magnitude, who discovered
himself to be Apollo, and who ordered the crew to follow him to Delphi
and become his ministers. Thus the oracle recovered and increased
its reputation. Delphi had the advantage of being near the centre of
Greece, and was reported to be the centre of the earth; miracles were
invented to prove so important a circumstance, and the navel of the
earth was among the titles which it acquired. Afterwards vanity came
in aid of superstition, in bringing riches to the temple: the names
of those who made considerable presents were always registered, and
exhibited in honour of the donors.
The Pythoness was chosen from among mountain cottagers, the most
unacquainted with mankind that could be found. It was required that
she should be a virgin, and originally taken when very young; and
once appointed, she was never to quit the temple. But, unfortunately,
it happened that one Pythoness made her escape; her singular beauty
enamoured a young Thessalian, who succeeded in the hazardous attempt to
carry her off. It was afterwards decreed that no Pythoness should be
appointed under fifty years of age.
This office appears not to have been very desirable. Either the
emanation from the cavern, or some art of the managers, threw her into
real convulsions. Priests, entitled prophets, led her to the sacred
tripod, force being often necessary for the purpose, and held her on
it, till her frenzy rose to whatever pitch was in their judgment most
fit for the occasion. Some of the Pythonesses are said to have expired
almost immediately after quitting the tripod, and even on it. The
broken accents which the wretch uttered in her agony were collected and
arranged by the prophets, and then promulgated as the answer of the
god. Till a late period, they were always in verse. The priests had
it always in their power to deny answers, delay them, or render them
dubious or unintelligible, as they judged most advantageous for the
credit of the oracle. But if princes or great men applied in a proper
manner for the sanction of the god to any undertaking, they seldom
failed to receive it in direct terms, provided the reputation of the
oracle for truth was not liable to immediate danger from the event.
Theophrastus, bishop of Alexandria, showed the inhabitants of that
town the hollow statue into which the former priests of the pagan
oracle had privately crept whilst delivering their responses; and a
modern traveller corroborates this fact, by a similar discovery made
among the excavations at Pompeii. “In the temple of Isis,” says Dr.
J. Johnson, “we see the identical spot where the priests concealed
themselves, whilst delivering the oracles that were supposed to proceed
from the mouth of the goddess. There were found the bones of the
victims sacrificed; and in the refectory of the abstemious priests
were discovered the remains of ham, fowls, eggs, fish, and bottles of
wine. These jolly friars were carousing most merrily, and no doubt
laughing heartily at the credulity of mankind, when Vesuvius poured out
a libation on their heads which put an end to their mirth.”[2]
“To cut the Gordian knot” has long been proverbial for an independent
and unexpected way of overcoming difficulties, however great. It took
its rise from a circumstance related with some variations by several
ancient authors, and with great simplicity by Arrian; it is the more a
curiosity as coming from a man of his eminence in his enlightened age.
At a remote period, says he, a Phrygian yeoman, named Gordius, was
holding his own plough on his own land, when an eagle perched on the
yoke and remained whilst he continued his work. Wondering at a matter
so apparently preternatural, he deemed it expedient to consult some
person among those who had reputation for expounding indications of
the divine will. In the neighbouring province of Pisidia the people of
Telmissus had wide fame for that skill; it was supposed instinctive
and hereditary in men and women of particular families. Going thither,
as he approached the first village of the Telmissian territory, he saw
a girl drawing water at a spring; and making some inquiry, which led
to further conversation, he related the phenomenon. It happened that
the girl was of a race of seers; she told him to return immediately
home, and sacrifice to Jupiter the king. Satisfied so far, he remained
anxious about the manner of performing the ceremony, so that it might
be certainly acceptable to the deity; and the result was that he
married the girl, and she accompanied him home.
Nothing important followed till a son of this match, named Midas, had
attained manhood. The Phrygians then, distressed by violent civil
dissensions, consulted an oracle for means to allay them. The answer
was, “that a cart would bring them a king to relieve their troubles.”
The assembly was already formed to receive official communication
of the divine will, when Gordius and Midas arrived in their cart to
attend it. Presently the notion arose and spread, that one of those in
that cart must be the person intended by the oracle. Gordius was then
advanced in years. Midas, who already had been extensively remarked for
superior powers of both body and mind, was elected king of Phrygia.
Tranquillity ensued among the people; and the cart, predesigned by
heaven to bring a king the author of so much good, was, with its
appendages, dedicated to the god, and placed in the citadel, where it
was carefully preserved.
The yoke was fastened with a thong, formed of the bark of a cornel
tree, so artificially that no eye could discover either end; and rumour
was become popular of an oracle, which declared that whosoever loosened
that thong would be lord of Asia. The extensive credit which this
rumour had obtained, and the reported failure of the attempts of many
great men, gave an importance to it. Alexander, in the progress of his
campaign in Asia, arrived at Gordium, and of course visited the castle
in which was preserved the Gordian knot. While, with many around, he
was admiring it, the observation occurred that it being his purpose
to become lord of Asia, he should, for the sake of popular opinion,
have the credit of loosening the yoke. Some writers have reported that
he cut the knot with his sword; but Aristobulus, who, as one of his
generals, is likely to have been present, related that he wrested the
pin from the beam, and so, taking off the yoke, said that was enough
for him to be lord of Asia.
Thunder and lightning on the following night, says Arrian, confirmed
the assertion that Alexander had effected what the oracle had declared
was to be done only by one who should be lord of Asia. Accordingly
on the morrow he performed a magnificent thanksgiving sacrifice, in
acknowledgment of the favour of the gods, thus promised: a measure as
full of policy as devotion.
In Cornwall are to be found enormous piles of stone, which bear
the name of Ambrosian, Logan, or Rocking Stones. Structures of this
kind, as they may, perhaps, reasonably be called, are of very great
antiquity, being represented on medals of Tyre. They appear to have
been composed of cones of rock let into the ground, with other stones
adapted to their points, and so nicely balanced, that the wind could
move them; and yet so ponderous, that no human force, unaided by
machinery, could displace them. The figures of Apollo Didymus, on the
Syrian coins, are placed sitting on the point of the cone, on which the
more rude and primitive symbol of the Logan stone is found poised; and
we are told, that the oracle of the god near Miletus existed before
the emigration of the Ionian colonies, more than eleven hundred years
before Christ.
Pliny, in his second book, relates that there was one to be seen at
Harpasa in Asia, exactly answering the description of those found in
Cornwall. “Lay one finger on it, and it will stir; but thrust against
it with your whole body, and it will not move.” Hephæstion mentions the
Gigonian stone, near the ocean, which may be moved with the stalk of an
asphodel, but cannot be removed by any force. Several of these stones
may be seen in the neighbourhood of Heliopolis, or Baalbeck, in Syria;
and one in particular has been seen in motion by the force of the wind
alone.
The famous Logan stone, commonly called Minamber, stood in the parish
of Sithney, Cornwall. The top stone was so accurately poised on the one
beneath, that a little child could move it; and all travellers went
that way to see it; but in Cromwell’s time, one Shrubsoll, Governor of
Pendennis, with much ado caused it to be undermined and thrown down, to
the great grief of the country: thus its wonderful property of moving
so easily to a certain point was destroyed. The cause which induced
the Governor to overthrow it appears to have been that the vulgar used
to resort to the place at particular times, and pay the stone more
respect than was thought becoming good Christians.
A similar destructive act was committed, a few years since, by one
of his majesty’s officers, the commander of a revenue cutter. His
achievement had, however, not even the excuse of a mistaken religious
feeling to plead in its behalf; it seems to have been prompted merely
by the spirit of mischief. Having landed a part of his crew, he, with
infinite labour, succeeded in overturning the most celebrated Logan
stone in Cornwall. But such was the odium with which he was visited
in consequence of his exploit, that he undertook the gigantic task of
restoring the stone to its original situation; and he was fortunate or
skilful enough to succeed. A description of the situation and magnitude
of the enormous mass which he had to raise will give some idea of the
difficulty which he had to encounter. It is situated “on a peninsula of
granite, jutting out two hundred yards into the sea, the isthmus still
exhibiting some remains of the ancient fortification of Castle Treryn.
The granite which forms this peninsula is split by perpendicular and
horizontal fissures into a heap of cubical or prismatic masses. The
whole mass varies in height from fifty to a hundred feet; it presents
on almost every side a perpendicular face to the sea, and is divided
into four summits, on one of which, near the centre of the promontory,
the stone in question lies. The general figure of the stone is
irregular: its lower surface is not quite flat, but swells out into a
slight protuberance, on which the rock is poised. It rests on a surface
so inclined, that it seems as if a small alteration in its position
would cause it to slide along the plane into the sea, for it is within
two or three feet of the edge of the precipice. The stone is seventeen
feet in length, and above thirty-two in circumference near the middle,
and is estimated to weigh nearly sixty-six tons. The vibration is
only in one direction, and that nearly at right angles to the length.
A force of a very few pounds is sufficient to bring it into a state
of vibration; even the wind blowing on its western surface, which is
exposed, produces this effect in a sensible degree. The vibration
continues a few seconds.”
Such immense masses being moved by means so inadequate must naturally
have conveyed the idea of spontaneous motion to ignorant persons, and
have persuaded them that they were animated by an emanation from the
Deity or Great Spirit, and, as such, might be consulted as oracles.
“Behold yon huge
And unhewn sphere of living adamant,
Which, poised by magic, rests its central weight
On yonder pointed rock; firm as it seems,
Such is its strange and virtuous property,
It moves obsequious to the gentlest touch.”
It cannot be doubted that those Logan stones are druidical monuments;
but it is not certain what particular use the priests made of them.
Mr. Toland thinks that the Druids made the people believe that they
could only be moved miraculously, and by this pretended miracle they
condemned or acquitted an accused person. It is likely that some of
these stones were of natural formation, and that the Druids made and
consecrated others; by such pious frauds increasing their private gain,
and establishing an ill-grounded authority by deluding the common
people. The basins cut on the top of these stones had their part to
act in these juggles; and the ruffling or quiescence of the water was
to declare the wrath or testify the pleasure of the god consulted, and
somehow or other to confirm the decision of the Druids.