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OF THE DRUIDS. 153bald, has discover'd in the appendix to his Historyof Fife and Kinross. That gentleman speakingo^ the rocking-stone near Baivaird (or the bardstown) " I am informal," says he, '' that this stonewas broken by the usurper (Cromwel's) soldiers;and it was discovered then, tliat its motion wasperformed by a yolk extuberant in the middle ofthe under-surface of the upper stone, which wasmserted in a ca\ity in the surface of the lowerstone." To which let me add, that as the lowerstone w^as flat, so the upper stone was globular;and that not onely a just proportion inthe motion,was calculated from the weight of the stone,and the wideness of the cavity, as w^ell as the ovalfigure of the inserted prominence; but that thevast bulk of the upper stone did absolutely concealthe mechanism of the motion ;and the betterstill to impose, there w ere tw o or three surroundingflat stones, tho' that onely in the middle wasconcern'd in the feat. By this pretended miraclethey condemn'd of perjury, or acquitted, as theirinterest or their aflection led them; and oftenbrought criniinals to confess, what could be noother way extorted from them. So prevalent isthe horror of superstition in some cases, w hich ledmany people to fancy (and among them the otherwisemost judicious Strabo) that it might be auseful cheat to society; not considering, that inother cases (incomparably more numerous andimportant) it is most detrimental, perniciouS; andT