ker, within a short distance of which village there are at least thirty objects well deserving the closest examination. But far superior to every thing else, both there and elsewhere, standing without the slightest approach to rivalry, and compared with which all other monuments, not even excepting the pride of our own country, Stonehenge, sink into comparative insignificance, are the Stones of Carnac, as they are called. What shall we say of a remain which can be distinctly traced in its windings for upwards of seven miles, and which almost beyond a doubt extended yet further, which is composed of eleven parallel rows of stones varying in height from five to seventeen feet; the number of which, at no extravagant computation, must have consisted of at least ten thousand, and the whole width of the avenues varies from two hundred to three hundred and fifty feet. In connection with it, we find two perfect tumuli, one near Crukenho, the other Dear Kerdescant, with the ruin of a third not far from Kerzerho, besides the very large one near Carnac, on which a chapel is built dedicated to St. Michael; one curvilinear area, near Le Maenec, with traces of a second; two kistvaens, the table stone of one of which is thirteen feet long, and eight feet wide; of the other, fifteen feet long, ten wide, and four feet thick; besides natural mounds, on all which one or more cromlechs are placed. Taking all these things into consideration, we may well join with Godfrey Higgins in saying that this monument "certainly sets all history, and almost (?) all theory at defiance."

From this account of it we can excuse our readers even if they indulge a little incredulity. We ourselves plead guilty to the charge; for when Monsieur Loroy was describing it with all the enthusiasm of a Frenchman, we could not help thinking that the obliging and gentlemanly prefect was at least painting it somewhat poetically. But on visiting the monument, all doubt and misgiving was swallowed up in surprise and astonishment. Those of our readers who may wish for a very detailed account of the whole of this monument, may consult volume xxv. of the Archæologia, where a beautiful plan is given by the Rev. J. B. Deane, from a survey made under his own inspection. From this paper we shall make two extracts, one describing the view from a mound about three quarters of a mile from Kerzerho, the other,

This is according to the computation of M. Sauvagére, a French engineer, who estimated the number of stones between Le Maneac and Kerdescant at four thousand, the distance between the two places being 24 miles; if then the stones were uniformly disposed, the whole number would be above ten thousand. Many have been used to build the chateaus of Kergonant, Plouharmel and Du Lac. Cottages and walls, and perhaps the village of Carnac, have been formed from its stores. Mr. Deane was told by a man at Auray, the master of the Hotel-en-bas, that from removed between Carnac and St. Barbe.

1500 to 2000 had been

the description of a stone, the fourteenth of the monument situated on the road from Erdeven to Carnac. Speaking of the former, Mr. Deane, says,

"I cannot imagine a scene more interesting. A heathen temple sur viving the storms of at least two thousand years, retaining for the space of eleven furlongs almost its original unity, and the whole spread out like a picture at the spectator's feet, while each extremity points to a distant Christian church (those of Erdeven and Carnac), built perhaps out of the ruins of some portion of this once magnificent temple: a lake below, the sea beyond, barren plains and rocky hills, form a combination of art, nature, and religion, which cannot be regarded by a contemplative mind without feelings of peculiar pleasure."—Archæologia, vol. xxv. p. 217.

Upon the sloping surface of the stone, to which we have alluded

"There is an artificial cavity, having every appearance of being designed to receive the body of a human victim preparatory to sacrifice. There is, however, another stone exactly similar, and more distinctly marked, and perfect upon a rock altar, on the east side of the Lake of La Trinité, at a short distance from the path leading from the ferry to Lockmariaker. Lying down upon the stone, I found that the shoulders were received by a cavity just sufficient to contain them; while the neck reclining in a narrow trench, was bent over a small ridge, and the head descended into a deep, circular groove beyond it. From the narrow trench which received the neck, was chisselled a small channel down the inclined plane of the stone. This being on the left side of the recumbent victim, was well adapted to carry off the blood which flowed from the jugular vein. A person lying in these cavities is quite helpless, and in such a position a child may sacrifice the strongest man. Cæsar and Strabot both speak of the homicidal sacrifices of the Celtic nations. The latter describes with pictorial effect the chief Druidess cutting the throats of the victims one after the other, and receiving the trickling blood in basins, and pronouncing omens according to the manner in which the stream flowed."

Extraordinary and immense as the monument at Carnac is, no record whatever exists to show its object and design. The Breton peasants preserve a tradition, taught perhaps by the first preachers of Christianity among them, that these stones represent a heathen army which pursued St. Cornelius, because he had renounced paganism, and that being hemmed in and unable to escape, he had recourse to prayer, upon which they all were turned into stones. Others have ascribed it to the work of super

Among the stones of the monument near Carnac, the botanist may find the Lobelia urens in great abundance.

+ Strabo, tom. 1, p. 451, B. Casaubon, Amstel. 1707.

natural dwarfs, who to show their own strength, compared with the feebleness of ordinary men, brought the stones from the neighbouring quarries, and fixed them where they are. With others Cæsar was the architect. Some who view all ancient monuments, the object of which is buried in oblivion, as connected with astronomy, believe that the parallelitha represent the eleven signs of the primitive zodiac. Mr. Deane, in an extremely interesting book on the Divine worship of the Serpent, is of opinion that it was a Dracontium, or Temple dedicated to the serpent; and supposes its windings to represent the sinuosities of the reptile's path. He remarks in the paper in the Archæologia already quoted, "The sinuosities are evidently designed, and not accidental. In many places the ground is so level that it might easily have been carried on in a straight line, bad straight lines only been required. But even in the levels, the deviations are frequent; and in other places hills are ascended which not only might have been avoided, but which are actually out of course."

The last hypothesis which we shall mention is that of Godfrey Higgins.

"I take the liberty of suggesting, whether it may not have been used as an instrument to mark the passing years, like the Etrurian nails. May it not have been made when the Bull with his horn opened the vernal year, and the instrument itself have been formed at first of a number of stones, equal to what the Druids suppose to be the number of years, which had passed from the creation or any other grand epoch, as tradition says (?) they annually added a stone to it."*

Whatever may have been its object, there it now stands, the wonder of the world. And we feel some, we hope, pardonable pride, that Mr. Deane, an Englishman, should have been the first to survey it as it deserves, and to hand down to posterity a full and correct plan of it. We think that even in this brief notice we have said enough to satisfy our readers that Britanny is well worthy of the full investigation of the Celtic antiquary. And we wish that some zealous, well informed, but not visionary traveller, would devote the same attention to the other parts of Morbihan, which Mr. Deane has given to Carnac, and to the neighbourhood of Locmariaker. A little inconvenience he must make up his mind to bear, from a want of some of those things which he has been accustomed perhaps to consider as necessary to his comfort; but he will find a people, kind, simple-hearted, reserved indeed, but perfectly willing to render him any service in their power; while from the authorities he will meet with the greatest attention, and the promptest readiness to assist him in his researches. Time is of course gradually working his slow

Higgin's Celtic Druids, LXXXVIII; Anacalypsis, vol. i., p. 340. VOL. XXVII. NO. LIII.

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progress of decay with these monuments, but the wanton hand of man is far more destructive. As the only records of the earliest traces of civilization in Europe, and of the earliest worship of our common ancestors, it would be matter of great regret not to possess the most accurate accounts, the most minute details of them, and glad should we be if any remarks of ours should lead to so desirable and to so good a result.

ART. VIII.-Industrie Française. Rapports sur l'Exposition de 1839. (French Manufactures. Reports on the Exhibition of 1839.) By J. B. A. M. Jobard. Paris, 1841.

M. JOBARD commences his labours with a flattering dedication to the King of the Belgians on the immense progress of art in Belgium, and especially her railroads. These encomiums certainly appear well merited by the nation; but the king has in reality very little to do with the matter. This writer, in an introduction of great merit, next proceeds to contrast ancient and modern inventions, in which his tendencies naturally lead him to immensely exaggerated statements of the power of the latter; and an enumeration of the progress of manufactures in France then follows. We shall proceed step by step with these stages of the introduction, and then lay before our readers such topics from his review of the Exposition of 1839 in Paris as may command general interest. It is with us matter of deep regret that something similar and equally comprehensive in its objects with the Exposition in France does not exist in England and Belgium, for the Society of Arts is, alas, a poor approximation to it, and is nearly unknown to the country at large. Such an exhibition of the entire progress in arts and manufactures of the country, opening the eyes of the public to the value of an article, possessing them with right notions on the important question of its production, either at a lower rate, or of superior quality or duration, constituting a check on the extortionate tradesman, encouraging the industry of our artizans also by proportionate rewards, would at least be as edifying a spectacle as the Smithfield show of fat oxen, sheep, and pigs. The intimate knowledge acquired of the value and improved process of manufacture, the close inspection into the gradual progress of art, the ingenious devices to attain particular objects, the immense impetus given to the thinking principle, and the resources which chemistry especially is everywhere displaying, could not but produce amongst our countrymen results of the highest importance to civilization. But we must not hope, we fear, especially under present circumstances, that England will receive any intuition towards bettering her social condition from

France; nor, we fear, is France likely to amend her still more numerous defects by the example of England. The proper interest of each country appears likely to be buried in the turmoil of military preparations, and their relative retardation in improvement will be of course in proportion to the years consumed on belligerent matters. War is the bane to civilization among the equally civilized, though the sword may become the propagator of science in the case of inequality of natural endowments. M. Jobard falls foul at the onset of the Greeks, denying to them even the name of industrious: certainly to no ancient nation could he have done less injury by such an observation. Since were we to describe a nation whose technical skill appears far in advance of the surrounding powers, we should assign this honour to them. Even Juvenal, though he charged them with quackery, admits their varied talents.

"Grammaticus, rhetor, geometres, pictor, aliptes,

Augur, schoenobates, medicus, magus, omnia novit." Costume, dice, needles, pins, combs, all fall under one sweeping censure. Yet M. Jobard might remember that the cogged dice found in Pompeii would seem to indicate, in the second article at least, considerable mechanical skill; and, when we consider that the needle is a quotation, and a fair one, of high excellency in art, needing the rare combinations of temper, sharpness, pliancy, in a most wondrously small compass, and that, probably, that fatal implement wielded in the time of that martyr to good housewifery, who is reported to have died by its prick, scarce matched the Greek, the boasted modern improvement seems rather questionable. We are, we confess, of that unpopular class that lean to periods of revival and decline:

"Alter erit tunc Tiphys, et altera quæ vehat Argo

Delectos heroas: erunt etiam altera bella,

Atque iterum Troja magnus mittetur Achilles."

We admit the clumsiness of much of what is Greek; we know the ancients did not possess the principle that velocity may supersede power. The cannon ball surpasses their battering ram. But we cannot think the screw of Archimedes so low an invention as M. Jobard appears to rate it. If not a water mill, it at least is a valuable instrument for the raising of water, and he who reduced the quadrature of the circle to the determination of the ratio between the diameter and circumference at least deserves respectful mention by those who have as yet never trisected the obtuse angle, nor arrived at the duplicature of the cube after a trial of 2,000 years. The clock we allow to be one of the most superb trophies of modern invention, though clock-work was probably known to Homer; but

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