_This second sort of temples made by the circle and snake, was call’d in very old times_, Dracontium, _and not understood. The first temples made in form of the symbol of the deity. Why mankind should make the serpent the symbol of the deity? Of symbols in general. Their antiquity and use. It was the first kind of writing, even_ antediluvian. _The serpent of high account from_ China _to_ Britain. _Of the nature of the serpent. The extraordinary beauty of the creature. Its wonderful motion without legs, thought to be like that of the gods. The wisdom of the serpent consider’d. Symbolically understood. Its bifid tongue the symbol of eloquence. Its enchanting power real. By the eyes, by the ears. Whence emblematic of the preachers of the gospel, and of our Saviour himself. On these, and many other accounts, esteem’d a divine animal, and chosen to symbolize the first begotten son of God, or first product of the divine fecundity._ 2. _Of the nature of the formation of symbols. The serpent a prophylactic symbol. Of the brazen serpent, typical of our Saviour. Of the emerods of the_ Philistines, _whence the_ Phalli _of the heathen. A serpent the symbol of Messiah in many views._ In my description of _Abury_, and its parts, I endeavour’d to make every thing as plain as I could from fact and view; but now we come to our speculative part, I can only propose to entertain, perhaps, the reader’s curiosity, with what light I could gather from ancient learning concerning it. We have seen by our description, that the plan on which _Abury_ is built, is that sacred hierogram of the _Egyptians_, and other ancient nations, the circle and snake. The whole figure is the circle, snake, and wings. By this they meant to picture out, as well as they could, the nature of the divinity. The circle meant the supreme fountain of all being, the father; the serpent, that divine emanation from him which was called the son; the wings imported that other divine emanation from them which was called the spirit, the _anima mundi_. This is that figure which _Kircher_ names _ophio cyclo-pterygomorphos_, and discourses largely of. But that we may have a better understanding of it than hitherto has been, we shall open our mind concerning this abstruse matter by degrees. _Dracontia_ was a name among the first learned nations, for the very ancient sort of temples, of which they could give no account, nor well explain their meaning upon it. _Strabo_ XIV. this was a name of this kind of patriarchal temple, of which _Abury_ is one, deduc’d to later times, whilst the thing itself, and manner of building, was disus’d and forgot. [Illustration: TAB. XXVIII. _Stukeley f. 1723._ _The Geometry of Silbury hill._]