"

More than this, the Druids probably erected the massive stone columns
of that strange stucture, open to the sky, whose ruins may still be
seen on the lonely expanse of Salisbury Plain. There, on one of the
fallen blocks, Carlyle and Emerson sat, when they made their
pilgrimage to Stonehenge[1] many years ago, and discussed the life
after death, with other questions of Druid philosophy.

[1] Stonehenge: This remarkable structure is believed to be the
remains of a pre-historic monument to the dead, which was, perhaps,
used also as a place of worship. It stands on Salisbury Plain about
nine miles northeast of the city of Salisbury. (See map facing
p. 38.) It consists of a broken circle of huge upright stones, some
of which are still connected at the top by blocks of flat stones.
Within this circle, which is about one hundred feet in circumference,
is a circle of smaller stones. The structure has no roof. The recent
discover of stains of bronze or copper on one of the great stones,
seven feet below the surface, strengthens the theory that Stonehenge
was constructed by the race who used bronze implements and who were
later known as Britons (S2). Consult Professor C. Oman's "England
before the Norman Conquest"; see also R. W. Emerson's "English
Traits," and O. W. Holmes's fine poem on the "Broken Circle,"
suggested by a visit to Stonehenge.

4. What we owe to Prehistoric Man.

We have seen that the Romans called the Britons "barbarians" (S2).
But we should bear in mind that all the progress which civilization
has since made is built on the foundations which those primitive races
slowly and painfully laid during unnumbered centuries of toil and
strife.

To them we owe man's wonderful discovery of the power to produce
fire. To them we are indebted for the invention of the first tools,
the first weapons, and the first attempts at architecture and
pictorial art. They too tamed the dog, the horse, and our other
domestic animals. They also discovered how to till the soil and how
to mine and manufacture metals. In fact those "barbarians" who lived
in "the childhood of the world," and who never wrote a line of
history, did some things equal to any which history records, for out
of wild plants and trees they developed the grains and fruits which
now form an indispensable part of "our daily bread."

Finally, through their incessant struggles with nature, and incessant
wars among themselves, those rude tribes learn