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OF THE DRUIDS. 183trymeii had their tin from hence*, tho' he cou'd givelittle «accoimt of the iland. But this commercebeing interrupted for several ages afterwards, thelater writers did not onely themselves vend abundanceof fables about these northern parts of theworld; but treat as fabulous, what their predecessorshad recorded with no less honesty than exactness.Of this I shall have occasion to give some^'onvincing proofs in this very letter. But not toforget the passages of the antients, when you callto mind those rocking-stones set up by the Druids,described inthe 14th and 16th section of our secondletter, and w^iereof several are yet standingyou'll not doubt but 'tisone of them, that is mention'din the abridgement we have of PtolomyHephestion's history: who, in the third chapterof the third book, is said " tohave written aboutthe Gigonian Stone f standing near the ocean;which is mov'd with such a small matter as thestalk of asphodel, tho' immoveable against thegreatest force imaginable."This passage needs,in my opinion, no comment. But we are to note,when those old writers talk of any thing near theocean with respect to the straights of Hercules :[:,and without specifying the place; that it may then;* Cure ns-ovg oiS^a Kaa-a-in^i^ct^ iovraqj ex t«v 9 Has-^rjTSpsf >3/*iy ^oira. Lib,$. cap. 115.t Ilfpt TTJi? crept Toy iineavoy Hy^vtaf TTExpa?, x«t tri fjiQVii as-^pQ^iXcii x