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130 THE K I STORYfigure at London, men of penetration and uncorruptedjudgements will never question. But weare not merely left to our judgements, for the factissufficiently arrested by that prodigy of know-oppose?^ of superstition?, Mar-ledge, and 2)erpetualCVS Varro; who, as Servius on the above-cited passageof Virgil affirms*, descrih'd the very ointmentofnhieh the Hirpins rnade use, hesmeariag theirfeet ivith it, ivheii they ivalkd thro' the fire. Thusat all times have the multitude (that common preyof priest and princes) been easily gull'd ;swallowingsecrets of natural philosophy for divine miracles,and ready to do the greatest good or hurt,not under the notions of vice or virtue;but barelyas directed by men, who find it their interest todeceive them.VIII. But leaving the Druids for a w^hile, thereare over and above the earns, in the highlands ofScotland and in the adjacent iles numberless Obelises,or stones set up an end ; some 30, some 24foot high, others higher or low^er: and this sometimeswhere no such stones are to be dug, Walesbein^' likew ise full of them ; and some there are inthe least cultivated parts of England, with verymany in Ireland. In most places of this last kingdom,the common people believe these Obelises to* Sed Varro, ublque Reljglonis expugnator, aif, cum quotldamxnedicamentum describeret, eo uii soletit lURPlNr, qui ambiiia.turi per igvem^ iiiedUamento Flanias iui^uni. Ad ver. 787.lib.Jl. Aindd.