There is perhaps no subject on which antiquarians have more employed their learning and industry, on which their theories have been so fruitful, or their discussions so endless, as on the origin and history of those ancient stones generally denominated Druidical. But, who were the founders—when were they founded—and what was the immediate object of their foundation, are questions which at this period we cannot fully answer. At the same time the undoubted antiquity of these remains, the tolerably accurate glimpses of their original condition which the antiquarian writers afford us, and the very mystery in which they are enveloped, altogether make their study peculiarly attractive. But more than all this, there is one fact connected with these antique monuments, which renders them of very high interest indeed, and that is, their dispersion over every part of the world, bearing evidently a common impress of the ideas and habits of their founders, even in places so remote from each other as to make it appear impossible that there should have been any mutual intercourse in those ancient times. Monuments of large and rude stones, disposed in the forms known respectively in our country by the names of circles, cromlechs, kistvaens, and stones erect, are found extensively dispersed through Great Britain, Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey, Denmark, Sweden, France, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Malta, Gaza, Phœnicia, Malabar, Bombay, and other parts of India, Palestine, Persia, Northern Africa, North America, and in the Islands of the Indian Archipelago, and of the South Sea. What conclusions then can we draw from these phenomena, but that those common ideas and habits of which we have spoken must have existed prior to the dispersion of the great family of man, of which the Scriptures tell us? If the identity of the monuments known as Druidical in this country with those existing in Palestine and other parts mentioned in the sacred writings be acknowledged, this important result follows:—that whilst, on the one hand, “the form of existing monuments illustrates the form of those mentioned in Scripture;” on the other, “the uses of those described in Scripture illustrates the uses of those now existing.” The Sacred Scriptures furnish us with many indications as to the use of the altar and circle of stones. (Gen. xx. 24, 25, Josh. v. 5–7, 1 Sam. vii. 16, 17–x. 8.)