he unskilled observer.
Formerly comprising some hundreds of unhewn Sarsen stones, barely a
score remain in position at the present day. In Avebury, as it was,
can be found the early typic model of which Stonehenge is the final
product. The use of the circle as a basic form is common to both. In
Avebury the Sarsen is a rough unhewn monolith; in Stonehenge it is
squared, dressed, and crowned with its lintel. All evidences of a slow
evolution from Neolithic to Bronze culture. But whereas the circle
alone is used at Avebury, Stonehenge has in addition the horseshoe
series of Trilithons and foreign uprights, and in this particular
differs from all other Cromlechs in this country. It is the climax of
the Megalithic monument, and its use very certainly must have been
connected with the religion of the race which set it up. It was, in
short, a religious structure, probably used for the observation of the
sun, and possibly connected with "nature worship."

The fact that the sun rises over the Hele Stone on the Summer
Solstice, and that it can be observed in direct alignment with the
centre of the Great Trilithon, can hardly be due to accident. Chance
might bring two stones into such a position on the Solstice, but, in
this case, the entire monument is so arranged as to place the rising
sun in a due line with its axis on this particular day.

It will be well to consider the facts which must have been within the
knowledge of the builders of Stonehenge, and to trace as far as may be
their reasoning in the building of it.

To begin with, it is almost certain that at the time of building,
there existed some primitive form of priesthood, or body of "wise
men." This is quite compatible with the culture of the period. The
existence of the Neolithic Long Barrows is sufficient evidence that
man had, by this time, arrived at that particular culture which grasps
the existence of a "spirit."

Death only terminated the existence of the body, and not that of the
spirit. It was even able to return and enter another body, say that of
a new-born infant, an animal, or tree. And being after the manner of
human beings, spirits could understand human language and become
accessible to human petitions. Thus a spirit might even prove a
powerful friend or enemy. And the dwellings of these spirits would be
those great powers which meant so much to a primitive people; the sun,
moon, stars, rivers, forests, and clouds; from which arose the two
great cl