el, but until recently
its signification has been wholly unknown.

Regarding the upright shaft which stands sentinel over the mysterious
circles of mammoth stones called Stonehenge, Forlong says that it is
no Friar's Heel, but an emblem of fertility dedicated to the Friday
divinity. It is represented as the "Genius of Fire," not the genius of
ordinary fire, "but of the super-sensual Divinity, celestial fire."

Regarding these remarkable stones to which the Lingham god is a mere
introduction, Forlong says:

"No one who has studied phallic and solar worship in the East could make
any mistake as to the purport of the shrine at Stonehenge... yet the
indelicacy of the whole subject often so shocks the ordinary reader,
that, in spite of facts, he cannot grant what he thinks shows so much
debasement of the religious mind; facts are facts, however, and it only
remains for us to account for them. Perhaps indeed in these later times
an artificial and lower phase of sensuality has taken the place of the
more natural indulgence of the passions, for procreative purposes, which
principally engrossed the thoughts of early worshippers."(158)

158) Rivers of Life, vol. ii., p. 233.

Higgins is of the opinion that Stonehenge is the work of the same era
with the caves of India, the pyramids of Egypt, and the stupendous
monument at Carnac--a structure which, it is claimed, must have required
for its construction an amount of labor equal to that of the pyramids.

Undoubtedly there has never been a religious shrine which has excited
more curiosity than has Abury, of which, unfortunately, nothing now
remains, although in the early part of the eighteenth century enough
had been preserved to prove the identity of its signification with
other ancient religious monuments both in the British Isles and in the
countries of the East. Perhaps there is no way by which this shrine can
be better understood than by quoting the exact language of those who
have written upon the subject. Especially is this true concerning the
testimony of those who, after personal investigation, have given to the
public the results of their research.

In the History of Wiltshisre, published by Sir R. Colt Hoare, Bart.,
appears the following from Dr. Stukeley:

"The situation of Abury is finely chosen for the purpose it was destined
to, being the more elevated part of a plain, from whence there is almost
an imperceptible descent every way. But as the religiou