Choir gaur; the grand orrery of the ancient Druids commonly called Stonehenge, on Salisbury Plain, astronomically explained, and mathematically proved to be a temple erected in the earliest ages, for observing the motions of the heavenly bodies. Illustrated with three copper plates / by Dr. John Smith.

  • Smith, John, M.D., active 1710-1770.
Date:
1771
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Choir gaur; the grand orrery of the ancient Druids commonly called Stonehenge, on Salisbury Plain, astronomically explained, and mathematically proved to be a temple erected in the earliest ages, for observing the motions of the heavenly bodies. Illustrated with three copper plates / by Dr. John Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    76/94 (page 66)
    influence over the feafons; they never gathered plants, &c. but under the afpedts ol one or other of them ; a practice continued ai¬ med to our times, by botanids of great repute. All nature is fen- fible of the genial warmth of the fun ; the water of the feas would become flagnant, were it not for the moon’s preffureon our atmof- phere, which caufes tides, and many other phenomena unaccounted for ; what influence the other planets may have over us, I mud leave to the reader. Whatever the Druids did, was myderious, and reh- giouflv kept from the knowledge of the vulgar ; from thence, I con¬ clude, thefe trilithons exprefled the three feafons of the year; the word autumn not being known, in any of the Celtic languages, nor among the Jews; for in the holy feriptures you-have only feed time, harvefl, and winter ; or fpring, dimmer, and winter. Thefe planets, with two dones of the inner circle, give that ovi¬ form, or egg-like fhape to theeartn. This is the ferpent s egg, or ovum mundi, of the ancients, who were entirely ignorant from whence it proceeded. The Druids, in the creation of the world, conceived all nature to fpring from this egg of the earth, which myf- tery they concealed from the world, in other works, befldes this of Stonehenge. Vid. the ancient univerfal hidory, Vol. i, p. 27, 34, 35’ 36- Vid. Pliny’s natural hidory on the ferpent’s egg. Vid. plate 1. fig, 1. The ferpent’s egg with the Equator, the Tropics of Cancer, and Capricorn, the Polar circles and the Ecliptic, which the Druids wore fufpended from their necks on all public occafions. To find out the elevation of the north pole, or latitude of the place : Draw aline (as in plate 1) through the temple, and divide it into ninety equal parts, which is a quadrant of the great circle, and you will find the center, between the two focus’s of the ellipfis, to be