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. CHAPTER III. FALSE MESSIAHS, PROPHETS, AND MIRACLES. Susceptibility of the Imagination in the East--Mahomet--His Origin--He assumes the Title of the Apostle of God--Opposition to him--Revelations brought to Him by the Angel Gabriel--His Flight to Medina--Success of his Imposture--Attempt to poison him--His Death--Tradition respecting his Tomb--Account of his Intercourse with Heaven--Sabatai Sevi, a false Messiah--Superstitious Tradition among the Jews--Reports respecting the Coming of the Messiah--Sabatai pretends to be the Messiah--He is assisted by Nathan--Follies committed by the Jews--Honours paid to Sabatai--He embarks for Constantinople--His Arrest--He embraces Mahometanism to avoid Death--Rosenfeld, a German, proclaims himself the Messiah--His knavery--He is whipped and imprisoned--Richard Brothers announces himself as the revealed Prince and Prophet of the Jews--He dies in Bedlam--Thomas Muncer and his Associates--Their Fate--Matthias, John of Leyden, and other Anabaptist Leaders--They are defeated and executed--The French Prophets--Punishment of them--Miracles at the Grave of the Deacon Paris--Horrible Self-inflictions of the Convulsionaries--The Brothers of Brugglen--They are executed--Prophecy of a Lifeguardsman in London--Joanna Southcott--Her Origin, Progress, and Death--Folly of her Disciples--Miracles of Prince Hohenlohe.