Stone-Worship

IN many lands shapeless stones have been adored. Among several ancient nations the idea of Divinity was symbolized by a rough stone. That aërolites should be revered is not surprising, since they, as the idol stone of Ephesus, came down from heaven. A single pillar stone might well, in rude times, typify generative force. Jupiter, Apollo, Venus, Mercury, and Diana Patroa were adored as stone columns. A circle of upright stones has been reverenced from the Pacific, across the Old World, to the Atlantic.

Ireland was no exception to this lithic faith.

It has been customary to call circles, cromlechs, Logan stones, pillar stones, serpentine and allignment stones, by the appellation of Druidical. As these, however, are found in Japan, China, India, Persia, Arabia, Palestine, Barbary, every country of Europe, North and South America, as well as in the Pacific Isles, it would imply certainly a very wide range of Druids. No one could deny that in some parts, as Brittany and the British Isles, so-called Druids probably used such stones, as being already objects of reverence, without crediting them either as their builders, or as the originators of Stone-Worship.

Because of the superstition attached to such megalithic objects, Mahometan and Christian priests have alike sought their destruction. But Ireland and the islands adjacent exhibit many remains of so-called Druidical monuments. Some of these may be mentioned.