TOLAND'S HISTORY.

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A

CRITICAL HISTORY

OF THE

CELTIC RELIGION,

AND

LEARNING:

CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF THE

' D R U I B &,-. .

/ OR, THE

PRIESTS AND JUDGES,

OF THE VAIDS, OR THE DIVINERS II AND OF THE BARDS, OR T AND PHYSICIANS; POETS AND HERALDS;

i i \ M • /. /

OF THE ,\ V

ANCIENT GAULS, BRITONS, IRISH AND SCOTS. )

BY JOHN TOJLAND, M. A.

WITH THE

HISTORY

OF

ABARIS, THE HYPERBORIAN, PRIEST OF

THE SUN.

TO WHICH IS ADDED,

An Abstract of the Life of the Author. '

EDINBURGH: V'*^

PRINTED BY JOHN FINDLAY ; AND, SOLD BY GILBERT

AND HODGES. AND THE OTHER PRINCIPAL

BOOKSELLERS IN DUBLIN.

1815.

TO THE

REV. PAUL O'BRIEN,

PROFESSOR OF THE IRISH LANGUAGE, ROYAL COLLEGE OF ST, PATRICK, MAYNOOTH.

SIR, -

I take the Liberty of

DEDICATING this Edition of Toland's HISTORY OF THE DRUIDS to you, as a Tes~

timony of High Esteem for your great Learning; Veneration for your Christian Virtues; and, as a public Acknowledgement of the liberal Encouragement, and generous Assistance which you have rendered

YOUR MUCH OBLIGED, AND OBEDIENT SERVANT,

JOHN FIND LAY.

The Editor having followed the Original Copy in order to make

no alteration in the Work, believes the following to be a

necessary Eratta thereto;

For the following	1	7or the following
irhcreTer they	Read,	wherever they Read.
occur,		occur,
48 Fourbery,	Forgery,	13(3 Onely, Only,
53 Instigation,	Instigation,	.. . Bein, Been,
78 Oontemt,	Contempt,	138 Soverain, Sovereign,
... Atchievments,	Achievements,	143 Neighbors, Neighbours,
,.. Diverse,	Divert,	146 Vocobulary, Vocabularly,
80 Symboll,	Symbol, > ^	160 Judgements, Judgments,
90 i on troll,	Controul,	151 Sufllciant. Sufficient,
... Exemted,	Exempted,	153 Welcom, Welcome,
91 Ounegall,	Donegal,	. . . Somthing, Something,
92 ;ovemg,	Moving,	154 Gray, Grey,
...Dy,	Die,	156 Hony, Honey,
93 Sucoedeing,	Succcjeding,	160 Olde, Old,
... "Murdrung,	Murdering,	.. . Croos'd, Crossed,
94 Then,	Than,	161 Shooi, Shoes,
96 Forcn,	Foreign,	lb'5 Maritim, Maritime,
... Bnttish,	British,	16(3 Neighboring,Neighbouring,
... Hands,	Islands,	167 Scepter, Sceptre,
...lie,	Isle,	179 Felow, Fellow,
97 Pyramyds,	Pyramids,	184 Shipwreck, Shipwreck,
99 Fheatei,	Theatre,	188 Submitt, Submit,
100 Is,	His,	190 Endeavored, Endeavoured,
103 Conterptible,	Contemptible,	196 Vail, Veil,
104 Throout,	Throughout,	201 Sault, Salt.
106 Volum,	Volume,	..* Begetting, Begeting,
109 Travellers,	Travellers,	203 Harbors, Harbours,
.... Fanletched,	Farfetched,	205 Ly, Lie.
112 Fntrals,	Entrails,	... Ey- witness, Eye-witness,
115 Treble,	Trouble,	210 Mony, Money,
119 lewith,	Elueish,	212 Suteable, Suitable,
122 *-xcede,	Exceed,	. . . Widdojv, Widow,
183 Ban an,	Barren,	215 Harki n, Hearken,
,... Entitling,	Entitleing,	216 Faboulouslv, Fabulously.
.,,. Mettals,	Metals,	.

ABSTRACT

OF THE

LIFE OF JOHN TOL AND.

J OHN TOLAND was born on the 30th November, 1670, in the most northern Peninsula in Ireland, OR the Isthmus whereof stands Londonderry. That Pen- insula was originally called I?iis*Eogan, or Inis-Eogain, but is now called Enis-Owcn. Toland had the name of Janus Junius given him at the font, and was call* ed by that name in the school roll every morning; but the other boys making a jest of it, the master ordered him to be called John, which name he kept ever after.

Mr. Toland, as far as now can be collected, was the son of a Popish Priest ; and, he hath been abused by Abbot Tilladet, Bishop Huetius and others, on the ground of his alleged illegitimacy: which, were it true, is a most base and ridiculous reproach ; the child, in such a case, being entirely innocent of the guilt of his parents* Had Mr. Toland been really illegitimate,

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which was not the case, no infamy could have at- tached to him on that account, unless he can be sup- posed to have had the power of directing the mode of His coming' into existence. The following testimonial given him at Prague, wrhere he was residing in 1708, will however, sufficiently remove so foolish and ground- less an imputation,- It runs thus :

Infra scripti" testamur Dom. Joamrem Toland; ortum esse ex honesty. Aobili et antiquissima familia, qua& per plures eenfeios annosr ut Regni Historia et con- tinua monstranfc memoria, in Peninsula Hiberniae Enis-Oitien dicta prope urbem Londino-Deriensem in Ultonia, perduravit. In cujus rei firmiorem fidem, nos ex eadem- patria eriundi propriis manibus subscripsi- mus, Pragae in Bohemia, hac die 2. Jan.. 1708.

Joannes O'Niell svtporior Collegii Hibernorum, L. S. Francisus O'Deulm, S. Theologiae Professor, Rudolphus O'Niellr S.Theol. Lector,

TRANSLATION ;

" We Subscribers t€stiry, that Mr. John Toland is a descended of an honourable, noble, and very ancient " family, which resided several centuries on the Pen- " insula of Ireland, called Enis-Oiuen, near the city of " Londonderry in Ulster, which the history of that •< kingdom, and continual mention of the family " clearly establish. For the sure* credence of this, w we natives of the same country have subscribed with

•" our own hands at. Prague in Bohemia, this 2d Jan. « 1708."

The Reader will see from this Certificate of the Irish Franciscans at Prague, that Mr. Toland was lionourably, nobly and anciently descended.

We may however take it for granted, that his rela- tions were Papists; for in his preface to Christianity not Mysterious, he tells us, " that he was educated from " the cradle in the grossest Superstition and Idolatry, •'•' but God was pleased to make his own reason, and " such as made use of theirs, the happy instruments -" of his Conversion." He again 'informs us, in his Apology, " that he was not sixteen years old when •ft he became as zealous against Popery, as he has ever * since continued."

From the scliool at Redcastle, near Londonderry, he went in 1687> to the College of Glasgow ; and after jthree years stay there, visited Edinburgh, where he was created Master of Arts on the 30th of June, 1690, .and received the usual Diploma from the Professors, of which the following is a copy,

Universis et singulis ad qtios praesentes literae perve- aiient, NOS universitatis Jacobi Regis Edinburgenae Professores, Salutem in Domino sempiternam compre- >ramur : Unaque testamur ingenuum hunc bonae Spei Juvenem IMagistrum Joannem Toland Hibernum, mo- :vibus, diligentia, et kudabili successu se nobis ita ap-

probasse ut post editum Philosophic! profectus examen, Solenni more Magister in Artibus liberalibus renunti- aretur, in Comitiis nostris Laureatis anno Salutis Mil- lesimo, Sexcentesimo et Nonagesimo, trigesimo die Junii : Quapropter non dubitamus eum nunc a Nobis in patriam redeuntem, utegregiumAdolescentem, om- nibus quos adire, vel quibuscum versari contigerit, de meliori nOta commendare, sperantes ilium (opitulantfc divina gratia) LiterishisceTestimonialibus fore abunde responsumm. In quorum fidem inclyta Civitas Edin- burgum Academic hujus parens et Altrix sigillo suo publico literassyngraphis Nostris porro confirmari jussit.

Al. Monro, S.S.T.D. Professor Primarius.

Jo.'Strachan, S. S. T. D. ejusdemque Professor.

D. Gregorie, Math. P.

J. Herbertus Kennedy, P. P. L. S. J. Drummond, II. L. P.

Tho. Burnet, Ph. P.

Robertus Henderson, B. et Academise ab Archivis &c.

Dabamus in supradictol Athenaeo Regio 22do. I die Julii anno ^Erae [ Christianas 1690. J

TRANSLATION.

" To all and every one, to whom the present letter 4- may come, We the Professors of the University of E- k- diuburgh,founded by King James, wish eternalsalva- «4 tion in the Lord : and at the game time testify, that

« this ingenuous youth, Mr. John Toland of excellent " promise, has so highly satisfied us by his good conduct, " diligence andlaudable progress, that after ya public ex- " animation of his progress in Philosophy, he was after ** the usual manner declared Master of the liberal Arts, <( in our Comitia Laureata, in the year of Redemption " 1 690, 30th June : Wherefore we do not hesitate to re- " commend him now returning from us, to his native " country, as an excellent young man, to all persons of " better note, to whom he may have access, or with " whom he may sojourn, hoping that he (through the " aid of Divine Grace,) will abundantly answer the cha- " racter given him in this Diploma. In testimony of " which, the ancient city of Edinburgh, the Parent and " Benefactress of this Academy has ordered this writ- " ing with our subscriptions, to receive the additional " confirmation of their Fublic Seal."

Given in the aforesaid Royal } Athenseum, 22d July, 1690. j

Mr. John Toland having received his Diploma, re- turned to Glasgow, where he resided but a short time. On Ins departure, the magistrates of that city gavtf him the following recommendation.

" We the Magistrates of Glasgow under subscribing, <; do hereby certifie and declare, to all whom these pre- w sents may concern, That the bearer John Toland, " Master of Arts, did reside here for some yeares, as a 45 student at the Universitie in this City, during which

« time he behaved himself as ane trew Protestant, and 46 Loyal Subject, as witness our hands at Glasgow, the (f penult day of July one thousand six hundred and nine- " tie yeares, and the common Seal of Office of the said *> City is hereunto affixt,

" JOHN LECK. " L. S, GEORGE NISBITT."

It is worthy of remark, that Mr. Toland resided at Glasgow during the years 1688 and 1689, the two last of the Bloody Persecution of the Church of Scotland, and must have been an eye witness of many tyranni- cal and relentless scenes. It is well known, that the students of Glasgow, as a collective body, repeatedly joined the citizens, in repelling several of the military parties sent against them ; and there can hardly re- main a doubt, that Poland made one of the number* This sufficiently accounts for the Certificate given him by the Magistrates of Glasgow*

Mr. Toland dates his con version, from the 16th year of his age, which nearly coincides with his arrival m Glasgow ; for it will be recollected, that he did not complete his 20th year, till the 30th of November af- ter leaving this city. It is therefore most probable, that he was here converted from Popery, and imbibed these notions of the simplicity and purity of Christiani- ty which he afterwards retained. 9

Instead of returning to Ireland, Mr. Toland went to

England, where he lived, (as he informs us in gy,) in as good Protestant families as any in the king- dom, till he went to 'the famous university of Leyden, to perfect his studies, under the celebrated Spanhemius, Triglandius, &c. There he was supported by some eminent Dissenters in England, who had conceived great hopes from his uncommon parts, and might flat- ' ter themselves, he would one day become the Colossus of the party ;- for he himself informs us, in a Pamphlet published at London in 1697, that he had lived in their communion, ever since he quitted Popery. " Mr. To- land (says he, in answer to the imputation of being a rigid Non-conformist) will never deny but the real sim- plicity pf the Dissenters' worship ; and the seeming e- quity of their discipline, (into which, being so young, he could not distinctly penetrate,) dUl gain extraordi- narily on his affections, just as he was newly delivered from the insupportable yoke of the most pompous and tyrannical policy that ever enslaved mankind, under the name or shew of religion. But, when greater ex- perience and more years had a little ripened his judg- ment, he easily perceived that the differences were not so wide, as to appear irreconcileable, or at least, that rnen who were sound Protestants on both sides, should barbarously cut one anothers' throats ; or indeed give any disturbance to the society about them. And as soon as he understood the late heats and animosities did not totally, if at all, proceed from a concern for mere religion, he allowed himself a latitude in several

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things, that would have been matter of scruple to him before. His travels increased, and the study of Ec- clesiastical History perfected this disposition, wherein he continues to this hour ; for, whatever his own opin- ion of these differences be, yet he finds so essential an agreement between French, Dutch, English/ Scottish, and other Protestants, that he is resolved never to lose the benefit of an instructive discourse, in any of their churches, on that score ; and, it must be a civil, not a religious interest that can engage him against any of these parties, not thinking all their private notions wherein they differ, worth endangering, much less sub- verting, the public peace of a nation. If this (pursues he,) makes a man a Non-conformist* then Mr. Toland is one unquestionably."

In 1692, Mr. Daniel Williams, a Dissenting Minis- ter, published a Book, entitled, Gospel Truth Stated and Vindicated, in opposition to Dr. Crisp. Mr. Tol- and desired the Author of the Bibliotheque Universellc to give an Abstract of it in that Journal. The Jour- nalist complied ; and, to the Abstract of Mr. William's book, prefixed Mr. Toland's recommendatory letter, and styles him Student in Divinity. Bibliotheque Uni- verselle, torn 23rd, page 506.

Having staid about two years at Ley den, he returned to England, and soon after went to Oxford, where, be- sides the conversation of learned men, he had the ad- vantage of the public library. Here he collected ma-

terials on various subjects ; and, composed some pieces, among others, a Dissertation, wherein he proves the received history of the tragical death of Atilius Regu- lus, the Roman Consul, to be a fable ; and, with that candour which uniformly characterizes him, owns him- self indebted for this notidh to Palmerius*

In 1695, he left Oxford, and came to London. In 1696, he published his Christianity not Mysterious; or, a Treatise, shelving that there is nothing in the Gospel contrary to reason^ nor above it ; and, that no Christian Doctrine can properly be called a Mystery. Mr. To- land defines, MYSTERY to be, a thing intelligible in it- self, but which could not be known, without special Revelation. And, to prove the assertion, he examines all the passages in the New Testament, where the word MYSTERY occurs; and shews, lst,That MYSTERY is read for the Gospel ; or, the Christian Religion in gener- al, as it was a future dispensation, totally hid from the Gentiles, and but imperfectly known to the Jews. Secondly, That some peculiar doctrines, occasion- ally revealed by the Apostles, are said to be mani* fested mysteries ; that is, unfolded secrets : and 3dly, that mystery is put for any thing veiled under parables, or enigmatical forms of speech. But, he declares, at the same time, that, if his adversaries think fit to call a mystery, whatever is either absolutely unintelligible to us, or whereof we have but inadequate ideas ; lie

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is ready to admit of as many mysteries in religion as they please.

So far, the candid reader will be apt to think there is no great harm done. If Mr. Toland's adversaries did not choose to adopt his definition of the word mys- tery, he processes himself willing to accede to theirs ; and indeed, all that has bef n advanced on either side of the question., is merely a dispute about words. He pretends, that he can give as clear and intelligible an explanation of the mysteries of the gospel, as of the phe- nomena of nature: and, do not our divines do the same thing, by attempting to give a rational explanation of the Trinity, and the Resurrection, the greatest mys- teries of the Christian religion ? Such explanations are the tests of the soundness of their doctrine ; and, who, knows but Mr. Toland's explanation, had he given one, might liave been orthodox.

This Treatise alarmed the public ; and several cler- gy replied to it. Messrs. Beconsal> Beverley, Norris, and Elys ; Doctors PAIN, and STILLINGFLEET ; the Author of the Occasional Papers ; Messrs. Millar, Gailhard, and Synge, all entered the lists. It was even presented by the Grand Jury of Middlesex ; but, this measure had no other effect, than to promote the sale of the book, mankind being naturally prone to pry into What is forbidden them.

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This same year, Mr. Toland published a Discourse

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en Coins, by Signior Bernardo ;Pavanzati, a gentle- man of Florence, delivered in the academy there, annt 1588 ; translated from Italian by John Toland.

Christianity not Mysterious having found its way in- to Ireland, made some noise there, as well as in Eng- land ; but, the clamour was considerably increased, on the author's arrival there, in the beginning of 1697. Mr. Mollineux, in a letter to Mr. Locke, dated 10th April, 1697, says, " The Irish clergy were alarmed a- *• gainst him to a mighty degree ; and, £hat he had his " welcome to that city, by hearing himself harangued " against, from the pulpit, by & Prelate of that <•' Country."

Mr. Toland himself tells us, in his Apology, that he was hardly arrived in that country, when lie found himself warmly attacked from the pulpit, which at first could not but startle the people, who till then, were equal strangers to him and his book ; but that in a short time, they were so well accustomed to this sub- j'ect, that it was as muck expected, as if it had bee A prescribed in the Kubrick. He also informs us, that -his own silence respecting the book in question, made liis enemies insinuate that he was not the author of it.

When this rough treatment of Mr. Toland from the pulpit proved insignificant, the Grand Jury was solicit- ed to present him, for a Book ^ ritten and published i$ , fhe presentment of the Grand Jury ofMidlr

dlesex, was printed with an emphatical title, and cried about the streets. Mr. Toland was accordingly pre- sented there, the last day of the term, in the Court of King's Bench,

At that time, Mr, Peter Brown, Senior Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, published a book against Mr. Toland's Christianity not Mysterious, in which he repre- sented him, as an inveterate enemy to all revealed religi- on ; a knight errant ; one who openly affected to be the head of a sect, and designed to be as famous an im- poetor as Mahomet. Mr. Brown was afterwards made bishop of Cork ; and Mr. Toland used frequently to say, " That he made him a bishop." This is the same jacobitical gentleman, who, because he -could not bear that any person should drink the health of King Wil- liam, wrote a pamphlet against health-drinking, as being a profanation of the Lord's Supper f

Mr. Mollineux sent Mr. Brown's book to Mr. Locke., and in a letter to him, dated 20th of July, 1697, says, '• Mr. Toland has had his opposers here, as you will •' find by a book I have sent you. The author is my " acquaintance ; but, two things I shall never forgive, *• in his book : the one, is the foul language and op- c; probrious epithets he has bestowed on Mr. Toland. <; The other is, upon several occasions, calling in the <f aid of the civil magistrate, and Delivering Mr. To- " land up to secular punishment. This indeed is akil- u ling argument ; but, may dispose some to think,

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" that where the strength of reason failed him, there " he flies to the strength of the sword," &c.

Mr. Toland, it seems, was dreaded in Ireland as a second Goliath, who at the head of the Philistines de- fied the armies of; Israel, in so much, that Mr. Han- cock, the Recorder of Dublin, in his congratulatory ha- rangue, to the Lords Justices of that kingdom, in the name of his corporation, begged their Lordships would protect the Church from all its adversaries ; but, parti- cularly from the Tolandists.

But to give the last and finishing stroke to Mr. To- land's book, it was brought before the parliament. Se- veral persons eminent for their birth ; good qualities, and fortune, opposed the whole proceedings ; but, finding themselves over-ruled in this, they urged, that the objectionable passages should be read. That Toland should be heard in his defence personally ; or at least, by letter. All these propositions were rejected, and Mr. Toland, unheard and undefended, was ordered to be taken into the custody of the serjant at arms. Mr. Toland made his escape, but his book was burnt by the common hangman, on the llth September, 1697* before the gate of the parliament-house ; and also, in the open street, before the town-house ; the sheriffs and all the constables attending.

Dr. South in the preface to his third volume of Ser- compliments the Archbishop of Dublin, on his

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treatment of Tolancl, whom he calls a Mahometan Christian ; and particularly, that he made the kingdom too hot for him, without the help of a faggot. The fag- got had been kindled in Scotland from the one end to the other, during the twenty-eight years persecution, and innocent and holy men burnt alive, merely for being non-conformists .' or in other words, for not preferring the dogmas of arbitrary and interested men, to the sa- cred Scriptures. Toland's crimes appear to have been much of the same land, and it was very consistent in the Doctor to hint at a similar punishment.

On Mr. Toland's return to London, he published his Apology, (giving an account of his conduct, and vindi- cating himself from the aspersions and persecutions of Ms enemies.

In 1698, party-disputes ran high. The partizans of the house of Steuart wished to facilitate the Preten- der's return, by keeping up no standing army at all.

Their opponents took different ground. — * Several

pamphlets appeared ; and among the rest, one from the pen of Mr. Tolancl, wherein he recommends model- ling the militia on such a p]an, as to render it adequate to the maintenance of internal tranquillity, and repul- sion of foreign invasion. Indeed, on every occasion, we 'find Mr. Toland a staunch friend to the revolution, and .the Protestant succession ; and, thcfugh this was not the .ostensible, still there is every reason to reckon it

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— *

the real cause of his persecution ; his enemies, almost to a man, entertaining very different sentiments.

This same year, he published the life of John Milton, which was prefixed to his works, in three volumes folio. In the course of Milton's life, Mr. Toland prov- ed that Icon Basilike was not written by Charles 1st, but by Dr. Gauden, and took occasion to remark, that, when this imposition was practised on the nation, at no greater distance of time than forty years, he ceased to wonder how so many suppositions pieces, under the. name of Christ and his Apostles, should be published, approved, $c. Had he denied the Trinity, or bias-, phemed the Holy Ghost, it would have been nothing in comparison of curtailing the literary fame of the roy* al Martyr of the church of England.

Accordingly, Mr Blackall, chaplin to the king, in a Sermon preached before the house of commons, 30th January, 1689, says, " We may cease to wonder, that « he (Mr. Toland,) should have the boldness, without " proof, and against proof, to deny the authority of " this book, who is such an Infidel to doubt, and ig •" shameless and impudent enough, even in print, and " in a Christian country, publicly to affront our holy " religion, by declaring his doubt, that several pieces " under the name of Christ and his Apostles, ,(he must " mean those received by the whole Christian church, " for I know of no other,) are supposititious," 8p. The

reader will here smile, to see that Mr. Blackall rests the whole stress of Mr. Toland's Infidelity, on his own ignorance. Mr. Blackall expressly says, " Mr. To- « land must mean the Books of the New Testament," because he knows of no other. Excellent Logician !

In order to vindicate himself, Mr. Toland published Amyntor, in which he fe-doubles his arguments, to prove Dr. Gauden the author of Icon Basilike ; and, at the same time, published a list of supposititious pieces, ascribed to Christ, his Apostles, and other emi- nent men, extending to no less than forty-three octavo pages. After having given that catalogue, he proceeds thus :

" Here is a long catalogue for Mrj Blackall, who, « it is probable, will not think the more meanly of " himself, for being unacquainted with these pieces ; « nor, if that were all, should I be forward to think the " worse of him on this account : but I think, he is to « blame, for denying that there were any such, be- " cause he knew nothing of them ; much less should " he infer from thence, that I denied the Scriptures ; " which scandal, however, as proceeding from igno- " ranee, I heartily forgive him, as every good Christian " ought to do."

What a calm, dignified, Christian reply to the very man, who, without the least shadow of fact, proclaim-

ed Mr. Toland an impudent and shameless Infidel, be- fore the whole House of Commons. Poor Mr. Blackall was obliged to say something or other in his own de- fence. He published a pamphlet, wherein he labours hard to prove, that Mr. Toland's words were liable to misapprehension ; and says, " I charged Mr. Toland with doubting of the bodks of the New Testament, but he declares, he does not mean those books, there- fore we are now agreed : there can be no dispute be- tween us on that subject."

« •

In the same year, 1699, Mr. Toland published the Memoirs of Denzil, Lord Hollis, Baron of Ifield in Sussex, from 1641 to 1648. The manuscript was put into his hands, by the Duke of Newcastle, who was one of his patrons and benefactors ; and he dedicated the work to his Grace.

In 1 700, he published in folio, Harrington's Oceana, with some other pieces of that ingenious author, not be- fore printed, to which he prefixed the life of the author. From the preface to this work, which is dated 30th November, 1699, we learn Mr. Toland's exact age, for he there informs us, that this very day he was begin* ning his thirtieth year.

About the same time, appeared a pamphlet, entitled Clito ; or the force of Eloquence. The printer gave Mr, Toland as the author. This piece, consists of a

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dialogue between Clito and Adcisidannon. This K a? poetical performance. Mr. Toland is known by the name ABEISIDIEMON, which he translates, unsupersti- tious. This was animadverted on, Jby an anonmyous clergyman, Who, after a torrent of Billingsgate abuse, translates Adeisicfaemoa, (in open violation of all the rules --of etymology and common sense,) one that fears neither God nor devil. To such pitiful lengths will the rancour of party-spirit drive men, when they are deter- mined to calumniate with,; or without reason.

In the beginning of 1 701 , he published, The Art of Governing by Parties, which he dedicated to King William the Hid. ; and, about the same time, published 3 pamphlet, in quarto, entitled Propositions for uniting the two East-India Companies.

In March following, the lower and upper house of Convocation, with, the concurrence of the bishops, re- solved to proceed against Mr. Toland's CHRISTIANITY NOT MYSTERIOUS, and his AMYNTOR, with all possible rigour. After passing some resolutions against these books, they found they could not proceed without a license from the king. Rather than solicit this BOON, they dropped their proceedings against Mr. Toland. Can any circumstance speak more strongly in the vin- dication of Mr. Toland ? Can any tiling shew the in- nocence of our author, in a clearer jfoint of view, than that the whole united English hierarchy, durst not so-

licit a license from the king to prosecute him, because they were sure it would be refused ? This circum- stance affords more than a presumption, that .Mr- To- land's principal crimes, in the eyes of his enemies, were his predilection for Presbyterianisrn ; and, attachment to King William.

Be that as it may, when -on the death pf the Duke of Gloucester, an act was passed in June, 1701, for the better securing1 the Protestant succession to the crown. Mr. Toland published his ANGLIA LIBERA ; or the Li- mitation and Succession of the Crown of England ex- plained and asserted ; as grounded on his Majesty's Speech ; the proceedings of Parliament 4 the desires *>f the People ; the -safety of our Religion ; the Nature of our Constitution ; the Balance of Europe ; and, the Rights of Mankind. This Treatise, he dedicated to his patron, the duke of Newcastle.

The king having sent tlie earl o'f Macclesfield t& Hanover, with the act of succession, Mr, Toland ac- companied him, and presented his ANXJLIA LIBERA to her Electoral Highness the Princess Sophia ; and was the first who had the honour of kneeling and kisaing her hand, on account of the act of succession. The Earl cf Macclesfield recommended him warmly to her Highness. Mr, Toland staid there five or six weeks, and at his departure, their Highnesses the Electress Dow- iiger, and the Elector presented him with several gold ..medals, as a princely remuneration for the book he had

written, about the succession, in defence of their title and family. Her- highness condescended to give him likewise, portraits of herself, the Elector, the young Prince, and of her Majesty the Queen of Prussia, done in oil colours. The Earl of Macclesfield, on his return, waited on the king at London, and presented Mr. To- land, who had the honour of kissing his Majesty's hand.

The Parliament was dissolved 1 1th November, and a new one summoned to meet the 30th December. The Tory party appeared horribly afraid that Mr. Toland would obtain a seat in the ensuing Parliament, and circulated a report that he was to be returned for Blechingley in Surry, a borough in the interest of Sir Robert Clayton. Mr. Toland, who had no intention whatever of this kind, contradicted the report, by an advertisement in the Post-man. Even this harmless act could not pass without censure, but gave occasion to an anonymous author to publish a pamphlet, entitled " Modesty mistaken ; or a Letter to Mr. Toland, up- *£ on his declining to appear in the ensuing Parlia- « ment"

On the opening of parliament, Mr. Toland publish- ed his Paradoxes of State, grounded chiefly on hi? •majesty's princely, pious, and most gracious speech.

Soon after, he published " Reasons for addressing his " Majesty to invite into England, frhe Electress Dow- " ager, and the Electoral Prince of Hanover ; and for t; attainting -and abjuring the pretended Prince of

21

« Wales," tyc. This was answered by Mr. Luke Mil- burn. But, Mr. Toland had the high gratification to see parliament attend to his suggestions. An act was accordingly passed for the attainder of the pretended Prince of Wales ; and another, for the better security of his Majesty's Person, and the Protestant succession, $c. and enjoining an oath of abjuration of the Preten- der. Thus, instead of an enemy to religion, or civil liberty, we find him strenuously recommending the most efficacious measures for the preservation of both.

Some difference leaving arisen between the lower and upper house of Convocation, on a point of jurisdic- tion, respecting their proceedings against Christianity not Mysterious,- the year before, a paper war commen- ced between them, and several pamphlets appeared on both sides. Those written by the partizans of the upper house, were favourable to Mr. Toland'; but, those written in favour of the Jower house, the reverse. He therefore, seized this opportunity of publishing his Vindicius Liberius ; being a vindication of his Chris- tianity not Mysterious ; — a full and clear account of his religious and civil principles ; and, a justification of those called Whigs and Common-wealth men, against the mis-representations of all their opposers.

After the publication of this book, Mr. Toland went to the courts of Hanover and Berlin, where ho was very graciously received by the Princess Sophia, and the Queen of Prussia* He was often admitted to their

conversation ; and wrote some pieces, which he pre- sented to herMajesty. There he wrote also, an account of the courts of Prussia and Hanover.

On his return to England, 1704, he published seve- ral philosophical letters ; three of which, he inscribed to the Queen of Prussia, under the designation of Serena.

1st, The Origin and Force of Prejudices.

2d, The History of the Soul's Immortality among fhe Heathens.

3d, The Origin of Idolatry, and Reasons of Heathenism.

4th, A Letter to a Gentleman in Holland, shewing Spinoza's System of Philosophy, to be without Princi- ple or Foundation,

5th, Motion essential to Matter ; in answer to some remarks, by a noble Friend, on the confutation of Spinoza. Mr. Toland informs us, that the Queen of Prussia was pleased to ask his opinion, respecting the Subjects treated of, in the three Letters inscribed to her.

These Letters were animadverted on, by Mr. Wot- tcn, in a pamphlet, entitled, " Letters to Eusebia."

At the same time, he published arj English transla- tion of the Life of JEsop, by Monsieur De Meziriae, and dedicated it to Anthony Collins, Esq.

In 1705, he published the following pieces*

1st, Socinianism truly stated, <%c.

2d, An Account of the Courts of Prussia and Han- over, dedicated to the Duke of Somerset.

3rd, The Ordinances, Statutes and Privileges of the Royal Academy at Berlin. Translated from the origi- &al.

The same year, Counsellor Pooley, and Dr. Drake, wrote the Memorial of the Church of England, with $ view to influence the ensuing parliamentary election* by representing the Whig Administration, as plotting the ruin of the Church.

By the direction of Mr. Harley, secretary of state, this memorial was answered, by Mr. Toland, in a Pamphlet, entitled, « The Memorial of the State of * England, in Vindication of the Queen, the Church, *'« and the Administration : designed to rectify the mu- « tual mistakes of Protestants ; and, to unite their af- ** fections, in defence of our Religion and Liberty ? On the suggestion of Mr. Harley, who was one of Mr, Toland's patrons and benefactors, this treatise was published, without the author's name.

This pamphlet was answered, by Thomas Raulins* Esq., who made a direct attack on the duke of Marl- borough's, and Mr. Harley's conduct. Mr. William Stephens, rector of Sutton, in Surry, being found the publisher; and, refusing to bear, evidence against Mr.

24

Ruulins, was sentenced ; to stand on the pillory ; but* the sentence was afterwards remitted.

Mr. Toland was directed by Mr. Harley to answer Pamphlet, which he did ; but, for some reasons, now unknown, the design was dropped, after part of Mr. Toland's answer had been printed.

Mr. Harley having found among his manuscripts, a Philippic against France, written in Latin, by one Cardinal Matthew, in 1514, gave it to Mr. Toland who edited it, both in English and Latin : along with o- ther violent expressions, it contains the following, Gallontm Ungues non resecandos, sed pentius cvellendos cssg ; i. e. That the nails of the French were not to be pared, but torn out by the roots.

Soon after, he published the Elector Palatine's De- claration, lately published in favour of his Protestant Subjects, <|c. This Mr. Toland did, at the particular request .of the Elector Palatine's minister.

In the Spring, Mr. Toland went to Germany, and visited Berlin, Hanover, Dusseldorp, Vienna and Pra- gue in Bohemia. At Dusseldorp, he was most graci- ously received by his Electoral Highness, who, in con- sideration of the English pamphlet, published by him, presented him with a gold chain and medal, besides a hundred ducats. From Prague, he^ returned to Hol- land, where he staid till 1710.

In Holland, he published the following Di.sserta1.ion5>

25

vix. 1st, Adeisidcemon, sive Titus Livius a Superstitions Vindicatus, &c.

2d o. OrigneS Judaicce, &c. In the course of this Dis- sertation, he animadverted on Huetius' Demonstratio Evangelica. He ridicules Huetius for affirming that several eminent persons recorded in the Old Testament are allegorized in the Heathen Mythology; and parti- culary Moses tinder the names of Bacchus, Typho, Silenus, Priapus, and Adonis. Though Mr. Toland was unquestionably in the right, Huetius was greatly incensed, and expressed his resentment in a letter, first published in the Journal of Trevoux, and after- wards printed by Abbot Tilladet. It will be recollec- ted, that these are the two gentlemen, who endeavoured to convict Mr. Toland of the high and unpardonable crime, of not directing his parents to propagate him legitimately.

In 1709, he published at Amsterdam, a second edi- tion of his Philippic against France.

In 1710, he published without his name, a French pamphlet, relating to Dr. SachevereU.

While in Holland, he had the good fortune to get acquainted with prince Eugene of Savoy, who gave him several marks of his generosity.

After his return to England in 1711? he published

D

26

the Humours of Epsom ; and at the same time, a translation of four of Pliny's Letters.

In 1712, he published Imo. a Letter against Popery, written by Sophia Charlotte, late Queen of Prussia. 2do. Her Majesty's reasons for creating the Electoral Prince of Hanover a Peer of that realm. 3t io. The Grand Mystery laid open ; namely, by dividing the Protes- tants, to weaken the Hanoverian Succession, <%c.

About the same tiirie, he published a new edition of Cicero's works, an undertaking for which he was emi- nently qualified. This work alone, is sufficient to trans- mit Mr. Toland's name to posterity. It is extremely scarce, he having printed only a few copies, at his own charge, to serve his particular friends.

In 1713, he published "An Appeal to Honest Peo- ple, against wicked Priests," <%c. : And much about the same time, a pamphlet on the necessity of de- molishing Dunkirk,,

In 1714, he published a pamphlet relative to the res- toration of Charles the lid. by General Monk ; also, a collection of letters, written by the General relating ta the same subject.

The same year, he published the Funeral Elogy of her royal highness, the late Princess Sophia, &c. ; and much about the same time, " Reaspns for naturalizing the Jews in Great Britain," «%c. This he dedicated ra-

27

ther ironically, to the Archbishops and Bishops of both Provinces,

In 1717, he published the State Anatomy of Great Britain. This was answered by Dr. Fiddes, chaplain to the Earl of Oxford, and by Daniel De Foe. In reply, Mr. Toland published the second part of the State Anatomy.

In 1717, he published Nazarewiis. In this treatise, according to Mr. Toland, the original plan of Chris- tianity was this : " that the Jews, though associating with the converted Gentiles, and acknowledging them for brethren, were still to observe their own laws ; and that the Gentiles, who became so far Jews as to ac- knowledge one God, were not, however, to observe the Jewish law : but, that both of them were to be e- ver after, united into one body or fellowship, in that part of Christianity particularly, which, better than all the preparative purgations of the philosophers, requires the sanctification of the Spirit, and the renova- tion of the inward man ; and wherein alone, the Jew and the Gentile; the Civilized and and the Barbarian; the Free-man and the Bond-slave, are all in oneCkrist, however differing in other circumstances." This trea- tise was animadverted on, by Messrs. Jllangei/ and Paterson ; and by Dr. Brett.

This year, he also edited a pamphlet, called the Destiny of Ifome; or, the speedy and final destruction

28

of the Pope, founded partly on natural and political reasons, and partly on the^famous prophecy of St. Ma- lachy, Archbishop of Armagh, in the thirteenth century, <§<?.

In the beginning of 1720, Dr. Hare published the fourth edition of , his Visitation Sermon ; and, ani- madverted on Christianity not Mysterious ; asserting that Mr. Toland often quoted Mr. Locke, to support notions he never dreamed of. As this assertion was totally groundless, the doctor had Mr. Locke, and Mr. Toland on his back at once. Finding his ground un- tenable, he published the following advertisement in Daily Courant.

" Just published, the fourth Edition of

" The Dean of Worcester's Visitation Sermon. In " the Postscript, line nintk from the end, instead of, is " often quoted, read, makes great use of Mr, Locke's " principles.

« London, Feb. 1st. 1720."

Thus the reverend doctor had the contemptible meanness to shelter a bare-faced falsehood, under the subterfuge of a typographical error.

This pitiful conduct of Dr. Hare, produced from Mr.Toland, a pamphlet, entitled « Short Essay on the Art of Lying; or, a Defence of a Reverend Dignitary,

who suffers under the Persecution of Mr. ToLAND/or a LAPSUS CALAMI.

About this time, he published Pantheisticon ; sive formula celebrandce Sodalitatis Socraticce, &c. Some of his enemies pretended this tract was written to ri- dicule the Romish, and Episcopal Liturgies ; and, as it was made up of Responses, Lessons, a Philosophical Canon, and aLitany ; and, the whole written both in red and black ink, their opinion is perhaps well founded. Mr. Toland was, at all times, a rigid advocate for the primitive apostolic simplicity of the Christian religion. This tract, ihstead of being a proof of our author's heterodoxy, is so far the reverse, that had John Knox been alive, I am persuaded, he would have thanked him for it. To this treatise, he prefixed the name of Janus Junlus Eoganesius, which, though it was his real Christian name, and the name of his country, was as good a disguise as he could have invented.

A Bill having been introduced into the House of Lords, ' to make the parliament of Ireland more de- pendent on that of Great Britain, Mr. Toland wrote a Treatise in opposition to that measure.

Some time after, he published a book, entitled Te- Iradymus: containing Imo. Hodegus ; or, the Pillar of cloud and fire that guided the Israelites in the wilder- ness, not miraculous, §c. <2do. Ctydophorus ; or the Exoteric and Esoteric Philosophy of the antients,

30

8$c. 3tio. Hypatia ; or, the History of a most beautiful, most virtuous, most learned, and every way accomplished young Lady, who was torn to pieces by the clergy of Alexandria, to gratify the pride, emula- tion and cruelty of their Archbishop Cyril, commonly, but, undeservedly styled St. Cyril &to. Man- goncutes ; or, a Defence of Nazarenus, addressed to the right Rev. John Lord, Bishop of London, against his Lordship's Chaplin Dr. Mangey, his dedicator Mr. Paterson, and the Rev. Dr. Brett, once belonging to his Lordship's church.

In this last Address to the Bishop of London, Mr. Toland, states the injurious treatment he had received from Dr. Hare at considerable length ; and, concludes with the following account of his own conduct, and sentiments : " Notwithstanding, says he, the imputa- tions of Heresy and Infidelity, so often published by the clergy, as lately, in the vauntingest manner, by one not unknown to you ; the whifling and the igno- rant, being ever the most arrogant and confident, I as- sure your Lordship, that the purity of religion, and the prosperity of the state have ever been my chiefest aim. Civil liberty, and religious toleration, as the most desirable things in this world ; the most condu- cing to peace, plenty, knowledge, and every kind of happiness, have been the two main objects of all my writings. But, as by liberty, I did not mean licenti- ousness ; so by toleration, I did not mean indifference.

31

and much less an approbation of every religion I could suffer. To be more particular, I 'solemnly profess to your Lordship, that the religion taught by Jesus Christ and his Apostles, but not as since corrupted by the sub- tractions, additions, and other alterations of any pa** ticular man, or company of men, is that which I in- finitely prefer before all others. I do over and over ai- gain, repeat Christ and his Apostles, exclusive of either oral traditions, or the determinations of synods, adding what I declared before to the world, that religion as it came from their hands, was no less plain and pure, than useful and instructive ; and that, as being the busi- ness of every man, it was equally understood by every body. For, Christ did not institute one Religion for the learned and another for the vulgar," <|c.

In 1721, Dr. Hare published a Book, entitled "Scrip- ture Truth vindicated ; from the misrepresentations of the Lord Bishop of Bangor," <%c. ; and, in the Preface, takes occasion to observe, that none are prevented from settling in Carolina, but down-right Atheists, such as Mr.Toland ; and most unjustly asserts, that in some copies of the Pantheisticon, he inserted a prayer to the following effect : Omnipotens et sempiterne Bacche ; gui humanam societatem maxime in bibendo constituisti ; concede propitius, ut istorum capita, qui he sterna com- potatione gravantur, hodierna leventur ; idque fiat per pocula poculorum. Amen. i. e. " Omnipotent and e- verlasting Bacchus, who foundedst human society

principally by drinking, propitiously grant, that, the heads of those, which are made heavy by yesterday's drinking, may be lightened by this day's, and that by bumper after bumper. Amen."

M. Maizeuz> a Frenchman, and Mr. Toland's bio- grapher assures us, that Mr. Toland never dreamed of such a matter. He assures us, that he knows the author, but forbears to mention him, on account of his profession. Indeed, there can hardly be a doubt, that Dr. Hare himself was the author.

The same year, Mr. Toland published Letters from the Earl of Shaftesbury to the Lord Viscount Moles- worth ; as also, two Letters written by Sir George Cropsley.

Mr. Toland had these four years past lived at Putney, whence he could conveniently go to London, and re- turn the same day. Being in town about the middle of December, he found himself very ill, and an ignorant physician, by his improper prescriptions, very much in- creased his disorder. But, he made a shift to return to Putney, where he grew better, and entertained some hopes of recovery. In the interval, he wrote two 'Treatises ; the one, entitled, Physic without Physicans ; and the other, The Danger of mercenary Parliaments. This last, he did not live to finish ; for, he died on Sunday the llth March, 1722, attout four o'clock in the morning. He behaved himself throughout the

whole course of his sickness, with the greatest calm- ness and fortitude ; and, looked on death without the least perturbation of mind ; biding farewell to those about him, and telling them, he was going to fall a- sleep. A few days before his death, he composed the following

EPITAPH :

H. S. E.

JOANNES TOLANDUS, Qui, in Hibernia prope Deriam natus,

In Scotia et Hibernia Studuit, Quod Oxonii quoque fecit Adolescens ;

Alque Germania plus semel petita, Virilem circa Londinum trans egit cetatem.

Omnium Literarum excultor

Ac Linguarum plus decem Sciens.

Veritatis Propugnator

Liber tatis Assertor:

i

Nullius autem Spectator, aid Cliens-,

Nee minis, nee malis est injlexus,

Quin, quam elegit, viam perageret,

Utili honestum antefcrens.

Spiritus cum JEthereo Patre,

A Quo prodiit olim, conjungitur :

Corpus Hem naturae cedens, In Materno grcemio reponitur. Ipse vero ceternum est resurrecturus9 At Idem futurus TOLANDUS nunquam. Natus Nov. 30. 167O.

G&tera ex Scriptis pete, E

TRANSLATION.

" Here lies JOHN TOLAND, born in Ireland, near " Londonderry, who in his youth studied in Scotland, <e Ireland, and at Oxford ; and, having repeatedly vi- " sited Germany, spent his mahhood about London. *•' He was ^cultivator of every kind of Learning ; and " skilled in more than ten languages : the champion " of Truth, and the assertov of Liberty, but the fol- " lower or client of none ; nor was he ever swayed " either by menaces or misfortunes, from pursuing the " path, which he chalked out to himself, uniformly " preferring his integrity to his interest. His Spirit " is re-united to his heavenly Father, xfrom whom it " formerly proceeded ; his Body yielding to Nature, u is also re-placed in the Bosom of the Earth. He " himself will undoubtedly arise to Eternal Life, but " will never be the same Toland. Born 3Oth No- rt vember, 1670. Seek the rest from his Writings."

Mr. Toland's belief, that he will never be the same Toland after the resurrection, is not heterodox, though his enemies have not failed to represent it in this light, The gospel uniformly declares, that a considerable change will take place in the human body at the re- surrection ; and, that we shall all be changed. Mr. Toland must therefore not be considered as here de- nying his absolute future Identity, but merely as allud- ing to that partial change whicn the Scriptures s* clearly point out.

35

Hitherto, I have almost implicity followed M. Maizeuz ; and, as far as the nature of this Abstract would admit, have a/lopted his own words, being well aware, that by so doing, no body will accuse me of partiality to Mr.Toland. M. Maizeuz was a French- man, a friend to Popery and arbitrary power, — he did not undertake our Author's Biography voluntarily, nor from any motive of respect. On the contrary, when requested by a friend of our author's, (who was at the same time the Frenchman's benefactor,) to undertake the task, he positively declined it. A second request more peremptory than the first had the desired effect. M. Maizeuz has not in one single instance, made the slighest allusion to the complexion of the times in which Mr.Toland lived, without a knowledge of which, it is impossible duely to appreciate either his princi- ples, or the scope of his writings. He seems, however, to have been under great obligations to his benefactor, and knowing him to be a friend of our deceased au- thor, was obliged to confine himself to matters of fact. But, what will place the conduct of M. Maizeuz in a very unfavourable point of view, is, that when Mr. To- land's works were printed at London, in 1726. M. Maizeuz not only with-held his own name from his life, but also, that of the gentleman, at whose request it was written.

This gentleman, having been guilty of these unpar- donable omissions, I shall endeavour, as concisely as possible, to remedy the defect, and shall .principally

confine myself to Mr.Toland's Christianity not Mysteri- ous, which has made so much noise in the world.

Previous to the Reformation, the infallibility of the Pope, in spiritual ; and, the divine right of Kings in temporal matters, were carried to the very highest pitch, and the servile, ignorant and debased state, to wliich mankind were reduced, by the operation of these abominable doctrines, is too well known to need any comment. At the dawn of the Reformation, a better prder of things began. The Scriptures were read and studied, and the monstrous impositions, for more than ten centuries, practised on mankind clearly displayed. Neither the infallibility of the Pope, nor the divine right of Kings, could stand the criterion either of rea- son, or Revelation ; and, both were discarded. After a long struggle, during more than a century and a half, our civil and religious liberties were effectually secured, by the. glorious Revolution. That the Whig interest placed King William on the throne ; and,- that the Tory -party, to a man, were attached to the cause of the abdicated Monarch, are facts that can admit of no dispute. From the date of the Revolution, the Torys, as far as regarded state affairs, were obliged to alter their tone. To have declaimed in support of the Indefeasible, Hereditary right of Kings, would have been a direct insult to King William, who had en- croached on this right, and might have been construed high-treason. The Toleration Act secured all deno- minations in the free exercise of their religion. This

37

v/as another source of discontent to the Torys, who had uniformly aimed at religious and exclusive supre- macy.

That the Torys thwarted King William's measures, meditated the restoration of the abdicated Monarch ; and, shook the stability of the Protestant succession, for more than half a century, needs ne demonstration. Their absurd tenets, respecting civil and religious ty*- ranny were founded on a perversion of the Sacred Re- cords. With the exception of the Whig-party, all ranks of mankind were kept in profound ignorance of the Divine Writings, under pretence of mystery and un- intelligibility. By these means, the bulk of mankind were blindly led, without using their senses, or their. reason.

To drive arbitrary power from this last resource, Mr. Toland wrote CHRISTIANITY NOT MYSTERIOUS. In this Treatise he clearly proves, that man's reason was not given him, in order to lie dormant. That if he wasallo wed to judge for himself in the ordinary occur- rences of life ; and respecting the Phenomena of Na- ture, he cannot be denied the same privilege, as far as respects matters of Religion, and the principles of Christanity. Mr. Toland was well aware, that if he could once induce mankind to read the Scriptures with impartial attention, no man's interpretation on earth could mislead them.

However convenient this mode of conduct might be

for the interests of true religion, it was in fact, a death blow to Popery, which had reared its monstrous fab- ric on ignorance, mystery and superstition. The gos- pel was by the Popish priests, as carefully kept from the vulgar, as if it had contained the antidote, instead of the means of their salvation. When Mr. Toland wrote, not one-fourth of the population of the British empire were allowed to read the Scriptures ; and, even at the present day, nearly five millions are denied this important privilege.

Had Christianity been so intricate and mysterious, as designing and interested men have represented it> certainly the twelve Apostles were very ill calculated to propagate the Gospel. In many Popish countries, not one of them would have been considered qualified to read or explain a single verse of it. That the con- duct of Christ, and of his pretended Vicegerents, has been widely different, I readily admit, but, the simple question is this, " Whether Christ was, or was not, best qualified to judge of the nature of the Christian System, and the instruments best calculated to pro- mote it ?"

When we have duly weighed Mr. Toland's definition of the word Mystery ; CHRISTIANITY NOT MYSTERI- OUS, means no more, than, Christianity intelligible to all Christians. This was certainly sappjng the very foun- dations of Papal and Tyrannical Poicer, by asserting that every Christian had a ri^t to read and under-

39

stand the Gospel, That the Treatise was considered by the adherents of the abdicated Monarch, as having this tendency, is evident from this circumstance, that Mr. Toland's antagonists, were to a man, advocates for arbitrary power ; and, religious intolerance. The Church of Scotland, has at all times been forward to stem the torrent of impiety and irreligion ; but, it is not known that any one of that venerable Body , ever ob- jected to Mr. Toland's Orthodoxy ; a circumstance which could not have happened, had his writings been hostile to true religion. On this head, I shall only add, that the same party which persecuted Mr. To- land, would have treated King William, and the CHURCH OF SCOTLAND with as little ceremony, had they stood as unprotected as the illustrious Subject of these Memoirs.

Mr. Toland's Amyntor, and his Panthcisticon, have been already taken- notice of. The first, proved that King Charles was not the author of Icon Basilike ; and the last, is supposed to contain a sarcastical allu- sion to the Romish and Episcopal Liturgies ; — The torrent of abuse consequently poured on him, by the Torys, is no more than might have been naturally anticipated.

His Biographer has descended so low, as to inform us, that Mr. Toland was sometimes under pecuniary difficulties, and as running in debt for his Wigs, <%<". But. as this was a charge of the same nature, with his

40

Deism, Atheism, Mahometanism, Pantheism, Illegiti- macy, c%c. I shall not detain the Reader with a confu- tation of it.

Mr. TOLAND's CHARACTER.

It is difficult* to determine in what department of Literature this great man most excelled. He seems to have been a kind of universal genius. — In contro- versy he was irresistible; and, at the very moment when his adversaries thought they had confuted him, they found they had only furnished materials for their own degradation. — He was skilled in more than ten Lan- guages, and the Celtic was his native tongue. — Educat- ed in the grossest superstition of Popery, at the early age of sixteen, he became a Convert to Presbyterianism, and remained steadily attached to it, till the hour of his death.— Popery, Prelacy, and arbitary Power he utter- ly detested ; and, on every occasion, resisted them to to the utmost of his power.— —To the Revolution in 1689, he was a warm and steady friend. — Real and un- affected piety, and the Church of Scotland, which he thought bore the greatest resemblance to the primitive simplicity of the Apostlic times, always found in him, an able, and inflexible advocate. — Though his pen was his estate, yet he never prostituted it to serve the inter- est of his party, at the expence of truth. — There was interwoven with his whole frame, a high degree of stub- bom and inexorable integrity, which totally unfitted fcim for the tool of a party ; aud, like poor YorkJs, he

4i

invariably called things by their right names, regard- less of the consequences.- — There was not in his whole composition, one single grain of that useful quality which Swift calls modern discretion. Like an impreg- nable rock in the midst of the tempestuous ocean, he stood immoveable, against all his assailants ; and, his calm, dignified answers, in reply to their most vim- lent and unmerited calumnies, equally characterize the Hero, the Philosopher, and the Christian. — To his trans- cendant literary abilities even the most inveterate of his enemies have paid the most ample tribute of re- spect.— His Latin compositions, in point of classical purity, have not been excelled, even by Cicero him- self. To him the Celtic tribes are highly indebted for that unequalled production, the HISTORY OF THE DRUIDS. — Pinkerton, as often as his Gothic Manlaled him to controvert any of Toland's positions, respecting the Druids and Celts, is obliged to shrink from the con- test.— Dr. Smith with a non-candour, for which, even his best friends must blush, has borrowed the whole of Toland's materials, for his History of the Druids ; not only without making any acknowledgement, but, with a studied and deliberate design to conceal the pla- giarism. Wherever Mr. Toland enters into detail, Dr. Smith is concise ; and, wherever Mr. Toland is concise, Dr. Smith enters into detail. The important history of Abaris, the Hyperborean Priest of the Sun, is dis- missed by Dr. Smith in a few words ; whereas, in Mr. Toland's history, it takes up several pages.— — -In the

F

space Of twenty-five years, Mr. Toland published about one hundred different works ; some of them on the most intricate subjects; but, the far greater part, on con- troversial matters, in opposition to those, who wished to restore the abdicated Monarch, and re-establish arbitra- ry power, and religious intolerance. As it was the first, so it was the last effort of his pen, to render Civil Govern- ment consistent with the mialienable rights of mankind; and, to reduce Christianity to that pure, simple, andun- pompous system, which Christ and his Apostles e- stablished. It has often been objected to John Kuox> as well as Mr. Toland, that he was a stubborn, ill- bred fellow. But, when the Augcean Stable of Civil and Religious corruptions is to be cleansed, the Her- culean labour, requires Herculean instruments. Per- haps the delicacy and refinement of the present day, might have shrunk from the arduous task, and left the desireable work not only unfinished, but unattempted. Toland's fame has triumphed over all opposition ; and>v will be transmitted to the latest posterity. That very party which branded him, when alive, with the Epithets of Atheist, Infidel, Deist, Mahometan^ &c. h-ave now discovered, that he was only tinctured with Socinian- ism ; and, in less than fifty years, the same party will discover* that he was a rigid Presbyterian, — peace to

his Manes. It were ardently to be wished, that the

British Empire, in all great and critical emergencies, may possess many Christians, like JOHN TOLAND.

THE FIRST

LETTER,

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE LORD VISCOUNT MOLESWORTH.

men, my Lord, from a natural greatness of soul, and others from a sense of the want of learning in themselves, or the advantages of it in others, have many times liberally contributed towards the ad- vancement of letters. But when they, whose ex- cellent natural parts are richly cultivated by sound literature, undertake the protection of the Muses, wri- ters feel a double encouragement ; both as they are hap- pily enabled to perfect their studies, and as their Pa- trons are true judges of their performances. 'Tis from this consideration alone (abstracted, My Lord, from all that you have already done, or may hereafter deserve from your country, by an unshaken love of liberty) that I presume to acquaint your Lordship with a design, which I form'd several years ago at Oxford, and which I have ever since kept in view ; collecting, as occasion presented, whatever might any way tend to the advan- tage or perfection of it. 'Tis to write the History of the Druids, containing an account of the ancient Cel- tic Religion and Literature ; and concerning which I beg your patience for a little while. Tho' this be a

44 THE HISTORY

subject, that will be naturally entertaining to the curi- ous in every place ; yet it does more particularly con- cern the inhabitants of antient Gaule, (now France, Flanders, the Alpine regions, and Lombardy) and of all the British Islands, whose antiquities are here part- ly explain'd and illustrated, partly vindicated and re- stor'd. It wrill sound somewhat oddly, at first hear- ing, that a man born in the most northern (1) Peninsula

(1) This peninsula is Jnis-Eogain, vulgarly Enis-owen, in whose Isthmus stands the city of Londonderry, itself a peninsula, and, if the tradition be true, originally a famous Grove and School of the Druids. Hence comes the very name Doire, corruptly pronounced Derry, which in Irish signifies a Grove, particularly of Oaks. The great COLUM- EA changed it into a College for Monks (\vho in his time were retir'd Laymen, that lived by the labour of their hands) as most commonly the sacred places of the Hea- thens, if pleasant or commodious, were converted to the like use by the Christians after their own manner. This Derry is the Roboreturn or * Campus roborum, mentioned by BEDE in his Ecclesiastical History : but not Ardmacha, novtr Armagh, in the same province of Ulster, as many have erroneously conceived ; nor ye^ Durramh, now Durrough, irt that of Leinster, as some have no less groundlesly fan- cied, among whom Archbishop U^IIER. Dearmack is com- pounded of Dair an oak and the anr.ient word Much (now Machaire) a field. They who did not know so much, have imagined it from the mere sound to be Armagh, which, far from Campus roborum, signifies the height >rmount of MACH A, (surnamed Mongruadh or redhair'd) a Queen of Ireland, and the only woman that ever sway'd the sovereign sceptre of that kingdom. But Armagh never was a monastery found- ed by COLUMBA, who in BEDE'S time was called f Co- XiUiM-ciLLE, as he's by the Irish to tins day: whereas it was from the monasteries of Dcrry and 1-colmkill (which

1 Fecerat antem (CoLtTMBA) priiis quam in Britanniam venirot mn^ast?H',)m no!)i'-» in Hibcrnia, quod a copia roborum Dcarmach ling-ia S-'otorurn, hoc cst carr-.pus r»~ borum, vocatnr. Hist. Fc"lcs. lib. 3. cap. 4.

t Qni, videlicet COT.UMBA, mine a nonnullis, rnTinjosito a €<•"<*$• C COLIT»ICEI.I.I vocatar. Ibid. lib. 5 c»n. 1«>. *

OF THE DRUIDS. 4 ;

of Ireland, shou'd undertake to set the antiquities of Gaule in a clearer light than any one has hitherto done. But when 'tis consider'd, that, over and u- bove what he knows in common, relating to tlie Druids, with the learned of the French nation, (whose works he constantly reads with uncommon esteem) he has also certain other advantages, which none of those writers have ever had : when this, I say, is consider'd, then all the wonder about this affair will instantly ce'ase. Yet let it be still remember'd, that whatever accom- plishment may consist in the knowledge of languages, no language is really valuable, but as far as it serves to converse with the living, or to learn from the dead ; and therefore were that knowledge of times and things contain'd in Lapponian, which we draw from the Greec, and that this last were as barren as the first : I shou'd then study Lapponian, and neglect Greec ; for all its superiority over most tongues, in respect of sonorous pronunciation, copiousness of words, and variety of ex- pression. But as the profound ignorance and slavery of the present Greecs does not hinder, but that their an- cestors were the most learned, polite, and free of all European nations ; so no revolution that has befallen any or all of the Celtic colonies, can be a just preju-

last, though the second erected, became the first in digni- ty) that ail the other monasteries dedicated to COLT. MB A, whether in Scotland or Ireland, were so many rolcnies. This is attested by the just mentioned + BLDE. nolesst'infc by ali the Irish Annalists since their several foundations.

$ Fx quo utrocjue nvona^teno perplurima exinde monasteria, per aiscipalos <•* ;•», A. la Britannia & ia Hibornia propajrala sunt : in qtiibus onimlms idem mon&i'-.? ilun! insulanum, ia quo ipsf ivqniesrit torpoiv. prim iwitum t?r.ot. Ihia. Hit. $ ca:>. •* >

46 THE HISTORY

dice against the truly antient and undoubted monu- ments they may be able to furnish, towards improving1 or restoring any point of Learning. Whether there be any such monuments or not, and how far useful or agreeable, will in the following sheets appear.

II. Among those institutions which are thought te be irrecoverably lost, one is that of the Druids ; of which the learned have hitherto known nothing, but by some fragments concerning them out of the Greec and Roman authors. Nor are such fragments always Intelligible, because never explain'd by any of those, who were skill'd in the Celtic dialects, which are now principally six ; namely Welsh or the insular British, Cornish almost extinct, Armorican or French British, Irish the least corrupted, Manks or the language of the Isle of Man ; and Eqrse or Highland Irish, spoken also in all the western Hands of Scotland. These, having severally their own dialects, are, with respect to each other and the old Celtic of Gaule, as the several dialects of the German language and Low Dutch, the Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and Islandic ; which are all descendants of their common mother, the Gothic. Not that ever such a thing as a pure Go- thic or Celtic language either did or cou'd exist in any considerable region without dialects, no more than pure elements: but by such an original language is meant the common ro^t and trunk, the primitive words, and especially the peculiar, construction that runs thro* all the branches ; whereby they are intelligible to each other, or may easily become so, but different from aU

OF THE DRUIDS. 47

kinds of speech besides. Thus the Celtic and the Gothic, which have been often taken for each other, are as dif- frent as Latin and Arabic. In like manner we con- ceive of the several idioms of the Greec language for- merly, in Greece itself properly so call'd, in Mace- donia, in Crete and the Hands of the Archipelago, in Asia, Rhodes, part of Italy, in Sicily, and Marseilles ; and at this time of the Sclavonian language, whose dialects not only prevail in Russia, Poland, Bohemia, Carinthia, and Sei via, but in a great many other places, too tedious to recite. But of this subject we shall treat professedly in a (2) Dissertation, to be annex'd to the work, whereof I am giving your lordship an ac- count. Neither shall I in this Specimen dwell on some things, whereof I shall principally and largely treat in the designed History ; I mean the Philosophy of the Druids concerning the Gods, human Souls, Nature in general, and in particular the heavenly Bodies, their magnitudes, motions, distances, and duration ; where- of CJ:SAR,DIODORUS SICULUS, STRABO, POMPONIUS ME- LA, and AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS write more specially than others. These subje.cts, I say, will be copiously handled and commented in my History. In the mean time I do assure you, My Lord, from all authors, that no Heathen Priesthood ever came up to the perfection of the Druidical, which was far more exquisite than any other such system ; as having been much better calculated to beget ignorance, and an implicit disposir

(2) A DISSERTATION concerning the Celtic Language ami

43 THE HISTORY

lion in the people, no less than to procure power and profit to the priests, which is one grand difference be- tween the true worship and the false. This Western Priesthood did infinitely exceed that of ZOROASTER, and all the Eastern sacred policy : so that, the His- tory of the Druids, in short, is, the complete History of Priestcraft, with all its reasons and ressorts ; which to distinguish accurately from right religion, is not only the interest of all wise princes and states, but likewise does especially concern the tranquillity and happiness of every private person. I have used the word Priest- craft here on purpose, not merely as being the best ex- pression for the designed abuse, and reverse of religion, (for superstition is only religion misunderstood) but al- so because the coming of the very word was occasion- ed by the DRUIDS : since the Anglo-Saxons having learnt the word Dry (3) from the Irish and Britons for a Magician, did very appositely call Magic or In- chantment Drycrceft (4>) ; as being nothing* else but trick and illusion, the fourbery of . Priests and their confederates.

III. Now, this Institution of the Druids I think myself, without any consciousness of vanity, much abler to retrieve (as having infinitely better helps in many respects, of which, before I have done) than Dr. HYDE was to restore the knowledge of the ancient Persian Literature and Religion ; which yet he left imperfect for want of due encouragement, as I have

(3) Pronounced as Dree in English. (V- Dry magus, Dnjcrwjt incantaUo, JElJric. in Glossar,

OF THE DRUIDS. 49

shown in the first chapter of Nazarenus. From un- doubted Celtic monuments, join'd to the Greec and Roman remains, I can display the order of their Hier- archy, from the ARCH-DRUID down to the meanest of their four orders of Priests. Of these degrees, the ARCH-DRUID excepted, there's little to be found in the Classic authors, that treat of the Druids : but very much and very particularly, in the Celtic writings and monuments. For many reasons their History is most interesting and entertaining : I mean, as on the one hand we consider them seducing their followers, and as on the other hand we learn not to be so deceiv'd. They dextrously led the people blindfold, by commit- ting no part of their Theology or Philosophy to writ- ing, tho' great writers in other respects ; but their dictates were only hereditarily convey'd from masters to disciples by traditionary Poems, interpretable (con- sequently) and alterable as they shou'd see convenient : which is a much more effectual way, than locking up a book from the Laity, that, one way or other, is sure to come first or last to their knowledge, and easy perhaps to be turn'd against the Priests. The Druids, as may be seen in the 6th book of CESAR'S Commentaries, , drew the decision of all controversies of Law and Equity to them selves, the distribution of all punish- ments and rewards ; from the power that was first given, or afterwards assumed by them, of determining matters of Ceremony and Religion. Most terrible were the effects of the Drnidical (5) Excommunication

(5) If the learned reader, who knows any of the passages, or the unlearned reader who wants authorities for proving

G

*

THE HISTORY

on any man, that did not impliciny follow their di- rections, and submit to their decrees : not only to the excluding of private persons from all benefits of society, and even from society itself ; but also to the depos- ing1 of the princes who did not please them, and often devoting them to destruction. Nor less intolerable was their power of engaging the nation in war, or of making a disadvantageous and dishonourable peace ; while they Kad, the address to get themselves ex- empted from bearing arms, paying taxes, or contribut- ing any thing to the public but charms : and yet to have their persons reputed sacred and inviolable, by those even of the contrary side,, which veneration how- eve.r was not always strictly paid. These privileges allur'd great numbers to enter into their communities, for such Sodalities or Fraternities they had ; and to take an them the EXruidical profession., to be per- fect in which, did sometimes cost them twenty years study. Nor ought this to seem a wonder, since to ar- rive at perfection in Sophistry requires a long habit, as well as in juggjing, in which last they were very ex-

tbe following assertions, should wonder I do not always cite them; let it be known to bath, that as in this Specimen I commonly touch but the heads of things (and not of all things neither) so I would not crowd the margin with long passages, nor yet. curtail what in my History shall be pro- duced at large: and therefore all the folio wing citations (the original manner of writing Celtic words excepted) are ei- ther samples of the quotations I shall give, or proofs of what I would not for a moment have suspected to be precarious- ly advanced, or, finally, for the better understanding of certain matters which come in by way of digression or il- lustration. Otherwise they wou'd not be necessary in a mere Specimen,, though in a finished work indispensable.

OF -THE DRUIDS. £1

pert : but to be masters of both, and withal to learn the art of managing the mob, which is vulgarly call- ed hading the people by the nose', demands abundant study and exercise.

IV. The children of the several kings, with those of all the nobility, were committed to the tuition of the Druids, whereby they had an opportunity (contrary to all good politics) of moulding and framing them to their own private interests and purposes ; considering which direction of Education, Patr-ic, had they been a landed clergy, wou'd not have found the conversion of Ireland so easy a task. Soeasyindeeditwas, thatthellea- then monarch Laogiriiis (who, as some assert, was ne- ver himself converted) and all the provincial kings, granted to every man free liberty of preaching and professing Christianity. So that, as Giraldus Cam- brensis remarks, this is the only country of Christians, where nobody was obliged to suffer (6) Martyrdom for the gospel. This justice therefore I wou'd do to Ire- ' land, even if it had not been rny country, viz. to main- tain that this tolerating principle, this impartial liber- ty (ever since unexampled there as well as elsewhere, China excepted) is a far greater honour to it, than whatever thing .most glorious or magnificent can be

(6) Omnes sancti terrue isiius cpnfessorcs mnt, § nullus martyr ; quod in alio regno Christiana .difficile erit invenire. 'Mir um itaque quod ge ns crudeUssima cV sanguinis sitibunda* fides ab antique fundata $ semper tepiditsima, pro Christi 'ecclesia corona 'martyrii nulla. Non igitur inventus est in partibus istis, qui eccletiae surgcntis fundamenta sanguints effusioJte cementaret : uon fuit, qni faceret hocbonum; no ft juit usque ad unum. Topograph. Jtlibern. Distinct, S, cap. 2»,

52 THE HISTORY

said of any other country in the world. Girald an the contrary (as in his days they were wont to over-rate Martyrdom, Celibacy, and the like, much above the positive duties of religion) thinks it a reproach to the Irish, That none of their Saints cemented the founda- tions of the growing Church with their blood, all of them being Confessors, (says he,) and not one able to boast of the crown of Martyrdom. But who sees not the vanity and absurdity of this charge ? It is blaming the princes and people for their reasonableness, moderation and humanity ; as it is taxing the new Converts for not seditiously provoking them to persecute, and for not madly running themselves to a voluntary death, which was the unjustifiable conduct of many elsewhere in the primitive times of Christianity. ?Tis on much better grounds, tho' with a childish and nauseous jingle, that he accuses the Irish Clergy of his own time : and so far ran I from being an enemy to the clergy, that I heartily wish the like could not be said of any clergy, whether there, or here, or elsewhere, from that time td this. Well then : what is it ? They are Pastors, (says he) (7), who seek not to feed, but to be fed : Pr elates 9 who desire not to profit, but to preside : Bishops, who embrace not the nature, but the name ; not the burden, out the bravery of their profession. This, My Lord, I reckon to be no digression from my subject, since .what little opposition there happened to be in Ireland to

(7) Sunt enim pastores, qui non pascfrre qnaerrmt> fed p/i- sci : sunt praclati, qui non prodesse cupiunt, sed prcressc : sunt episcopi, qui non omen, sed nomen ; non onu?9 fed Tern amplcctuntnr. Id. Ibid.

OF THE DRUIDS. 55

Christianity, was wholly made by the Druids, or at their instignation : and that when they perceiv'd thi$ new religion like to prevail, none came into it speedier, or made a more advantageous figure in it, than they, The Irish however have their Martyrologies (lest this shou'd be objected by some trifler) but they are of such of their nation as suffered in other countries, or under the Heathen Danes in their own country, some hund- reds of years after the total conversion of it to Chris- tianity.

V. Those advantages we have nam'd in the two last Sections, and many the like articles, with the Druids pretences to work miracles, to foretel events by augury and otherwise, to have familiar intercourse with the gods (highly confirm'd by calculating Ec- lipses) and a thousand impostures of the same (8) na- ture, I can by irrefragable authorities set in "such a light, that all of the like kind may to every one ap- pear in as evident a view ; which, as I hinted before, cannot but be very serviceable both to religion and morality. For true religion does not consist in cun- ningly devis'd fables, in authority, dominion, or pomp ; but in spirit and in truth, in simplicity and social vir- tue, in a filial love and reverence, not in a servile dread and terror of the Divinity. As the fundamental Law of a Historian is, daring to say whatever is true, and

(8) The heads of the two last Sections, with these here mentioned (though conceived in few words) will yet eack make a separate chapter in the History ; this present Spe- cimen being chiefly intended for modern instances, as by the seqnel will appear.

THE HISTORY

not daring to write any falsehood ; neither being sway- ed by love or hatred, nor gain'd by favour or interest : go he ought of course to be as a man of no time or country, of no sect or party ; which I hope the se- veral nations concern'd in tlfis enquiry, will find to bt particularly true of me. But if in clearing up antient rites and customs, with the origin and institution of certain religious or civil societies (long since extinct,) any communities or orders of men, now in being, should think themselves touched ; they ought not to impute it to design in the author, but to the conformity of tilings, if indeed there be any real resemblance : and, In case there be none at all, they should not make people apt to suspect there is, by crying out tho' they are not hurt. I remember, when complaint was made against an honourable person (9), that, in treat^ ing of the Heathen Priests^ he had whipt some Christian Priests on their backs ; all the answer he made, was only asking, What made them get up there? The benefit of which answer I claim before-hand to myself, without making or needing any other apology. Yet if the correspondence of any Priests with heaven be as slenderly grounded as that of the Druids, if their miracles be as fictitious and fraudulent, if their love of riches be as immoderate, if their thirst after power be as insatiable, and their exercise of it be as partial and ty- rannical over the Laity : then, I am not only content

i

they should be touched, whether I thought of them or

not ; but, that they shouldbe blasted too, without the pts-

(9) Sir ROBERT HOWARD.

OF THE DRUIDS.

sibility of ever sprouting up again. For truth will but shine the brighter, the better its counterfeits are shewn : and all that I can do to shew my candour, is to leave the reader to^make such applications himself, seldom making any for him ; since he that is neither clear- sighted, nor quick enough of conception to do so, may to as good purpose read the Fairy-tales as this history.

VI. Besides this impartial disposition, the com- petent knowledge I have of the Northern languages, dead and living (though I shall prove, that no Druids, except such as towards their latter end fled thither for refuge, or that went before with Celtic invaders or co- lonies, were ever among the Gothic nations) I say, these languages will not a little contribute to the per- fection of my work, for a reason that may with moiftr advantage appear in the book itself. But the know- ledge of the ancient Irish, which I learnt from my childhood, and of the other Celtic dialects, in all which I frave printed books or manuscripts (not to speak of their vulgar Traditions) is absolutely necessary ; these having preserved numberless monuments concerning the Druids, that never hitherto have come to the hands of the learned. For as the Institutions of the Druids were formerly better learnt in Britain, br CAESAR said to be the native seat of this superstitious race, than in Gaule where yet it exceedingly flourished : so their memory is still best preserved in Ireland and the High- lands of Scotland, comprehending the Helridce, Hebri- des, or Western Isles, among which is the Isle of Man ; where they continued long" after their extermination in

56 THE HISTORY

Gaulc and South-Britain, mostly by the Romans, but finally by the introduction of Christianity. Besides, that much of the Irish Heathen Mythology is still ex tant in verse, which gives such a lustre to this matter, and of course to the Greek and Roman Fragments concerning the Druids, as could not possibly be had any other way.

VII. Thus (togive an example in the Philological part) the controversy among the Grammarians, whether they should write Druis or (10) Druida in the nominative case singular, can only be decided by the Irish writ- ings, as you may see demonstrated in the margin^, where all Grammatical remarks shall be inserted a- mong the other Notes of the History, if they do not properly belong to the annexed Dissertation concerning ike Celtic Language and Colonies. This conduct I ob- serve, to avoid any disagreeable stop or perplexity iij

(10) The Irish word for Druid is Drui, corruptly Droi, and more corruptly Draoi; yet all of the same sound, which in Etymologies is a great matter; and in the nominative plural it is Dniidhe, whence comes no doubt the Greek and Latin Druides; as Druis in the singular was formed by only adding s to Drui, according to those nation's way of terminating. But as these words in Irish as well as the British Drudion, are common to both sexes; so the Romans, according to iheir inflection, distinguished Druida for a She-Druid (which sort are mentioned by authors) where- of the nominative plural being Druidce^ it ought by us to be used in that sense only: and so I conclude, that in on* modern Latin compositions Druides and Druidce should Dot be confounded ; as they have frequently been by the Transcribers of old writings, who mislead others. We are not to be moved therefore by reading Druidce in any Latin Author in the masculine gender, or in the Greek writers, \vho certainly used it so. All equivocation at least will be thus taken away.

OF THF. DRUIDS

the work itself, by uncouth words or of difficult pro- nunciation. For as every thing in the Universe is the Subject of writing, so an author ought to treat of every subject smoothly and correctly, as well as pertinently and perspicuosly : nor ought he -to be void of ornament and Elegance, where his matter peculiarly requires it Some things want a copious stile, some a concise ; o- thers to be more floridly, others .to be more plainly handl'd : but all to be properly, methodically, and handsomely exprest Neglecting these particulars, is neglecting, and consequently affronting, the reader, Let a Lady be as well-shap'd as you can fancy, let all her features be faultless, and her complexion be ever so delicate : yet if she be careless of her person, tawdry in her dress, or aukward in her gate and behavior, a man of true taste is so far from being touched with the charms of her body, that he is immediately preposr:est against the beauties of her mind ; and apt to believe there can be no order within, where there is so much disorder without In my opinion therefore, the Muses themselves are never agreeable company without the Graces. Or if, as your Lordship's stile is remarkabty strong, you wou'd, with (11) CICERO, take this simile from a man; you'll own 'tis not enough to make him be lik'd, that he has' well-knit bones, nerves and sinews : there must be likewise proportion, muscling, and coloring, much blood, and some softness. To relate facts without their circumstances, whereon de- pends all instruction ; is to exhibit a skeleton without the flesh, wherein consists all comeliness. This I say

f!l) DC Orator e, lib. 1.

II

5S THF HISTORY

to your Lordship, not pretending to teach the art of writing to one, who's so fit to be my master ; but to obviate the censures of those, and to censure 'em in their turns, who not only do not treat of such subjects as I have now undertaken in a flowing and continu'd Stile, but peremtorily deny the fields of Antiquity and Criticism to be capable of this culture : and indeed as suffering under the drudgery of their hands, they generally become barren heaths or impassable thickets; where you are blinded with sand, or torn with bryars and brambles. There's no choice of words or expres- sions. All is low and vulgar, or obsolete and musty ; as the whole discourse is crabbed, hobbling* and jejune. Not that I wou'd have too much license taken in this respect ; for though none ought to be slaves to any set of words, yet great judgement is to be employed in creating a new, or reviving an old word : nor must there be less discretion in the use of figures and sen- tences ; which, like embroidery and salt, are to set off and season, but not to render the cloth invisible, or the meat uneatable. To conclude this point, we are told by the most eloquent of men, that a profuse (12) volubility, and a sordid exility of words, are to be e- qually avoided. And now after this digression, if any thing that essentially relates to my task can be pro- perly call'd one, I return to the Druids, who were so prevalent in Ireland, that to this hour their ordinary word for Magician is Druid (13), the art Magic, is

(12} CICERO de Oratore, lib. 1- (13)

OF THE DRUIDS.

call'd Druid ity (14), and the wand, which was one of the badges of their profession, the rod ofDruidlsm (15). Among antient Classic authors Pliny is the most ex- press concerning the Magic of the Druids, whereof the old Irish and British books are full: which Leger- demain, or secrets of natural Philosophy, as all magic is either the one or the other, or both, we shall en- deavour to lay open in our history of the Druids ; not forgetting any old author that mentions them, for there's something particular to be learnt in every one of them, as they touch different circumstances. Hav- ing occasionally spoken of the Wand or Staff which every Druid carry'd in his hand, as one of the badges of his profession, and which in a chapter on this sub- ject will be shewn to have been a usual thing with all pretenders to magic, I must here acquaint you further, that each of 'em had what was commonly call'd the Druid's Egg, which shall be explain'd in the history, hung about his neck, inchas'd in gold. They all wore short hair, while the rest of the natives had theirs very long ; and, on the contrary, they wore long beards, while other people shav'd all theirs, but the up- per lip. They likewise air wore long habits; as did the Bards and the Vaids : but the Druids had on a white -surplice, whenever they religiously officiated. In Ireland they, with the graduate Bards and Vaids, had the privilege of wearing six colours in their Breacans or robes, which were the striped Braccae of the Gauls, still worn by the Highlanders, whereas the king and

(14) Druidheacht.

(15) Sfatnan Druidheachi,

THE HISTORY

queen might have in theirs but seven, lords and ladies five, governors of fortresses four, officers and young gentlemen of quality three, common soldiers two, and common people one. This sumtuary law most of the Irish historians say, was enackted under King (16) AcJiaius the 1st. .; {ho1* others, who will have this to be but the reviving of an old law, maintain it was first established by king Tigernmhas.

VIIL As the Druids were commonly wont to re* tire into grots, dark woods, mountains, and (17) groves, in which last they had their numerous schools, not without houses as some have foolishly dreamt, so many such places in France, Britain, and Ireland, do still bear their names : as Dreux* the place of their annual general assembly in France ; Kerig-y-Drudi~ on, or Druid-stones,, a parish so call'd in Denbigh* shire, from a couple of their altars there still remain- ing. In Anglesey there is the village of Tre'r DriuY the town of the Druid, next to which is Tre'r Bcirdh or Bards-town : as also in another place of the same island Mazn-y-Dnftt, that is, the Druid's stone ; and Caer-Dreuiiiy or the city of the Druids, in Meri- oneth-shire.. The places in Ireland and the Hebrides are infinite. The present ignorant vulgar, in the first of the last-men tion'd places, do believe, that those in- dianters were at last themselves, inchanted by thek

(1(5) EOCHAID EUDGHATHACH.

(17) These Groves for pleasure and retirement, as well a* i'«>r awe and reverence, were different from the lurking pla- ces in forests and cayes, into vvbicli they were tbrc'd when interdicted in Gaule and Britain,

OF TTIF DRUIDS.

Apostle Patric and his disciples, miraculously confin- ing them to the places that so bear their names ; where they are thought to retain much power, and sometimes to appear, which are (18) fancies like the English notionof Fairies. Thus theDru^d O Murnin in- habits the hill of Creag-a-Vanny, in Inisoen ; Aunius (19) in Benavny from him so call'd in the county of Londonderry, and Gealcossa, (20) in Gealcossa's mount in Inisoen aforesaid in the county of Dune- gall. This last was a Druidess> and her name is of the Homerical strain, signifying White-legged (21). On this hill is her grave, the true inchantment which confines her, and hard by is her temple ; being a sort of diminutive Stone-henge, which many of the old Irish dare not evjen at this day any way prophane. I shall discover such tilings about these temples, where- of multitudes are still existing, many of them entire, in the Hebrides, in Orkney, and on the opposie Con- tinent; as also many in Wales, in Jersey and Guernsey, and some in England and Ireland, the most remarkable to be accurately described and delineated in our history, I shall discover such things, I say, about the famous Egg of the Druids, to the learned hitherto a riddle, not to speak of their magical gems and herbs : as also a-

(18) Such fancies came from the hiding of the persecut- ed Dmids, from the reign of TIBERIUS, -who made the first law against them (having been discountenanced by AU- GUSTUS) but strictly put in execution by CLAUDIUS, and the following Emperors, till their utter extirpation by the general conversion of the people to Christianity.

(19) AlBHNE Or OlBHNE.

(20) GEALCHO^SACH.

Cnuc ?ia GEALCHOSSAIGHI

THE HISTORY

bout their favourite All-heal or (22) Misselto, gather'd with so much ceremony by a Priest in his white Sur- plice, as PLINY (23) tells us, and with a gold priming- knife ; as well as about the abstrusest parts of their Philosophy and Religion, that the like has not yet ap- pear'd in any author, who has treated of them. The books of such are either bare collections of fragments, or a heap of precarious fables ; I mean especially some French writers on this subject, as PICARD, FORCATU- LUS, GUENEBAUT, with others of no better allay in Bri- tain and Germany ; for as I admit nothing without good authority, so I justly expect, that, without as good, nothing will be admitted from me.

IX. But, My Lord, besides these Druids, the antient Gauls, Britons, and Irish, had another order of learned men, call'd Bards, whereof we shall sufficiently dis- course in our propos'd work. Bard is still the Irish and Scottish word, as Bardh the Armoric and British. There's no difference 'in the pronunciation, tho', according to their different manner of writing in ex- pressing the power of the letters, they vary a little in k the orthography (24). The Bards were divided into

(22) All these heads will be so many intire Chapters.

(23) Sacerdos, Candida vestc cultus, arborem scandit : Jake aurea demetit. Hist. Nat. Lib. 16. Cap. 44.-

(24) Let it be noted once for all, that as in other tongues, so in Irish and Welsh particularly, t and d are commonly put for each other, by reason of their aflinity ; and that dk and gh being pronounc'd alike in Irish, and therefore often confounded, yet an exact writer will alVays have regard to the origin as well as to the analogy of any word : and so he'll write Druidhe (for example) aii'd not Druighe, much less Draoithe broadly and aspirate ly ; nor will he use any other

OF THE DRUIDS. 63

m

three orders or degrees ; namely, to give an example now in the British diale<#, as I shall give their turns to all the Celtic colonies, Privardh, Posvardh, and Aruyvardh : but, with regard to the subjects whereof they treated, they were call'd Prududh, or Tevluur, or Clerur; which words, with the equivalent Irish names, shall be explain'd in our history, where you'll find this division of the Bards well warranted. The first were Chronologers, the second Heralds, and the third Comic or Satyrical Poets among the vulgar : for the second sort did sing the praises of great men in the heroic strain, very often at the head of armies, like him in VIRGIL

Cretea musarum comitem, cui carmina semper Et citharae cordi, numerosque intendere nervis ; Semper equos, atq ; arma virum, pugnasq ; canebat :

VIKG. AEN. Lib. 9.

And the first, who likewise accompany'd them in peace, did historically register their genealogies and atchiev- ments. We have some proofs that the panegyrics of the Gallic Bards did not always want wit no more than flattery ; and particularly an instance out of A- theneus, who had it from Posidonius the Stoic, con- cerning (26) Luernius, a Gallic Prince, extraordinary

mis pell ings, tho' ever so common in books. This is well observ'd by an old author, who writing of CONLA a hea- then freethinking Judge of Connncht, thus characterizes him ; Se do rinne an choinbhliocht ris na Druidhi.bk : 'twas he that disputed against the Druids. These Criticisms, -some wou'd say, are trifles : but

Hae nu°'ae in seria ducunt.

o

Whether it be LUERNIUS, or as STKABO writes it

04 THE HISTORY

rich, liberal, and magnificent. He was the father of that same Bittits, who was beaten by the Romans. Now this Luerniits, says (27) my author, " Having " appointed a certain day for a feast, and one of the 46 Barbarous Poets coming too late, met him as he " was departing ; whereupon he began to sing his 46 praises and to extol his grandeur, but to lament 46 his own unhappy delay. Luernius being delighted, ts call'd for a purse of Gold, which he threw to him, " as he ran by the side of his chariot : and he taking " it up, began to sing again to this purpose ; THAT

" OUT OF THE TRACKS HIS CHARIOT HAD FLOWED ON THB " GROUND, SPRUNG UP GOLD AND BLESSINGS TO MAN-

" KIND." As some of the Gallic Bards were truly in- genious, so were many of them mere quiblers : and among the bombast of the British and Irish Bards, there want not infinite instances of the true sublime. Their Epigrams were admirable, nor do the modern I- talians equal them in conceits. But in stirring the passions, their Elegies and Lamentations far excede those of the Greecs, because they express nature much more naturally. These bards are not yet quite extinct, there being of them in Wales, in the High- lands of Scotland, and in Ireland : nor did any coun- try in the world abound like the last with this sort of

LUERIUS. the name is frequent either way in the antient- cst Irish Writers, as LOARN, and Luinc orLuiGHAiRB.

(27) Apliorisar.tos (P autou prolhestniavi pote tea t homes aphysteresanta tina toa Barbara n poieten aphikesthai ; kai syuautesaita mpt' ode> hynm.an autou ten kyperocheu, heauton d' hypothre;;.?iu holi hyslercke : tonde terpbtlienta thylalana, aitesai chrysiou, kai ripsai autu paratrechonti ; anclomenon de ekeiaon palin kymnein, leg-onta, dio kai ta icbne tT>s g-es (cph* lies harmatelatei) cbrvsor. kii «uergesias anthropois ph'er«i. Edit. Lugd. Lib. 4. Pa*. 152-

OF THE DRUIDS.

men, whose licentious panegyrics or satyrs have not a

little contributed to breed confusion in the Irish his-

tory. There were often at a time, a thousand Ollaws

(28) or graduate Poets, besides a proportienable num-

ber of inferior Rhymers, who all of 'em liv'd most

of the year on free cost : and, what out of fear of their

railing, or love of their flattery, no body durst deny

them any thing, be it armour, fewel, liorse, mantle, or

the like ; which grew into a general custom, whereof

the Poets did not fail to take the advantage. The

great men, out of self-love and interest, encouraged

no other kind of learning, especially after they profes-

sed Christianity : the good regulation, under which

they were in the time of Druidism, as then in some

manner belonging to the temples, having been destroy-

ed with that religion. In a small time they became

such a grievance, that several attempts were made to

rid the nation of them : and, which is something comi-

cal, what at least our present Poets would not extra-

ordinarly like, the orders for banishing them were al-

ways to the Highlands of Scotland ; while they were

ES often harbour'd in Ulster, till upon promise of a-

mendment of their manners I mean and not of their

poetry, they were permitted to return to the other

provinces. At last, in a general national assembly, or

parliament, at Drumcat, (29) in the country we now

call the county of Londonderry, under [30] Aidiis

Anmireus, Xlth. Christian king, in the year 597, where

(C28) Ollamh is a Professor cr Doctor in any faculty.

('29) Druim-ceat alias Druimcheat.

[30] AODHMHAC AlNMHIRE

THE HISTORY

was also present (31) Adius king of Scotland and the great (32) Columba, it was decreed : that for the better preservation of their history, genealogies, and the purity of their language, the supreme monarch, and the subordinate kings, with every lord of a can- tred, should entertain a Poet of his own, no more be- ing allowed by the antient law in the iland ; and that upon each of these and their posterity a portion of land, free from all duties, shou'd be settl'd for ever ; that, for encouraging the learning these Poets and Antiquaries profest, public Schools shou'd be appoint- ed and endow'd, under the national inspection ; and that the Monarch's own Bard should be Arch-poet (33), and have super-intendency over the rest. 'Tis a com- mon mistake, into which father Pezron has fallen a- mong others, that the Bards belonged to the body of the Druids : but this is not the place to rectify it. They made hymns for the use of the temples, 'tis true, and manag'd the music there ; but they were the Druids that officiated as Priests, and no sacrifices were offer'd but by their ministry.

X. In the History likewise shall be fully explain'd the third order of the Celtic Lilerati, by the Greecs call- ed OUATEIS, and by the Romans VATES ; which yet is neither Greec nor Roman, but a mere Celtic word, viz. FAIDH, which signifies to this day a prophet in all Irish books, and in the common language, particularly in the

(31) AODHANMHAC (32). COLUIM-CILLE.

(33) Ard-Ullamh.

OF THE DPUins. 67

Irish translation of the Bihle ; where Druids (34)) are also commonly put for Inchanters, as those of Egypt, and especially for the Mages , or as we translate, the wise men (3.5) that came from the East, to visit JESUS in his cradle. So easily do men convey their own ideas into other men's books, or find 'em there ; which has been the source of infinite mistakes, not onely in Divi- nity, but also in Philosophy and Philology. The Cel- tic (36) VAIDS were Physicians and Diviners, great proficients in natural Philosophy, as were likewise the Druids, v/ho had the particular inspection of Morals, but CICERO, who was well acquainted with one of the prime Druids, remarks, that their predictions were as much grounded on (37) conjecture, as on the rules of Augury : both equally fortuitous and fallacious. For the saying of EURIPIDES will ever hold true, that (38)

(34) Draoithe. F.xod. 7. 11. Anois Draoithi* na Herripte dorinnedursanfosa anmodh<?ceadnal nan 'roigheachtuibb.

(35) Mat. 2. 1. Feuch Tangadar Draoithe o naird shoir go Hiarusalern.

(36) The word is Faidh (or Vail bv the usual conversion of the Letters F into FandDitjto T ) whence the Latins made Vales ; and their Critics acknowledge, that they took many words from the Gauls. The Euchages <ind Eubages, in some copies of AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS, are false readings, as in time will appear. So are Drusi, Drusides, and Drvslades for Druides : as likewise Vardi9 from the Brittish and Irish oblique cases o? Bard.

(37) Sifptidem & in GaUla Druides sunt, e quibus ipse Dr- VITIACUM Aeduttm, hospitem tuwrt laudatoremque* cognovi (inquit QCJINTUS) qui §• naturae ratio nem,f/uam physiologi- am Graeci appellant, notam esse sibi profitebatur ; $partim Au0uriist partim conjee tura, quae cssent futura dicebat. De Divinat. lib. 1. cap. 41.

(38) Mantis aristos, ho>Us eikazci kalor.

6S THE HISTORY

the best giicsser is the best Prophet. He that is nearly acquainted with the state of affairs, that understands the springs of human actions, and, that, judiciously al- lowing for circumstances, compares the present time with the past : he, I say, will make a shrewd guess at the future. By this time, My Lord, you begin to per- ceive what is to be the subject of the History I intend ta write ; which, tho' a piece of general learning and great curiosity,, yet I shall make it my business so to digest •, as ta render it no less intertaining than instruc- tive to all sorts of readers, without excepting the la- dies,, who are. pretty much concern'd in this matter ; throwing, as. I told you before, all my Critical observa- vations, and Disquisitions about words, into the mar- gin, or the Dissertation annext to the History. As to what I say of the ladies being concern'd in this His- tory, there were not only Druidesses ; but some even of the highest rank, and Princesses themselves were educated by the Druids: for in our own Annals we read, that the two daughters of king (39) Laogirius, in whoss reign Patric preach'd Christianity, were educated by them ; and we have the particulars of a long dispute those young ladies maintained against this new Rer ligion, very natural but very subtil. Several other la- dies bred under the Druids became famous for their writings and proficiency in learning, of some of whom we shall occasionally give an account : but lest I shou'd be thought in every thing to flatter the Sex, how much soever I respect them, I refer the* reader to a story in my third Letter. But, in order to complete my design v

(39.) LAOGJIAIRE.

OF THE DRUIDS.

so as to leave no room for any to write on this subject after me ; and also to procure several valuable Manu- scripts, or authentic copiesof them, well knowing where they ly, I purpose towards the Spring to take a journey for at least six months : which, at our next meeting, I shall do myself the honour to impart to your Lordship very particularly,

XI. The Irish, a few Scandinavian and Danish words

1 excepted, being not only a Dialect of the antient Cel-

tic or Gallic, but being also liker the mother than her o-

ther daughter the British ; and the Irish Manuscripts

being more numerous and much antienter than the

Welsh, shows beyond all contradiction the necessity of

this language for retrieving the knowledge of the Cel-

tic Religion and Learning. CAMDEN and others have

long since taken notice of the agreement between the

present British and those old Gallic words collected by

learned men out of Greec and Roman authors : and

the industrious Mr. EDWARD LHUYD, late keeper of the

Museum at Oxford, perceiv'd this affinity between the

same words and the Irish, even before he study'd that

language, by the demonstration I gave him of the same

in all the said instances. Nor does he deny this agree-

ment in i he comparative Etymologicon he afterwards

made of those languages, where he quotes CAMDEN and

BOXHORNIUS affirming it about the Gallic and British;

"but there being, says he (4*0), no Vocabulary extant, mean-

ing no doubt in print, of the Irish, or antient Scottish,

they coiCd not collate that language therewith^ which fae

'40} In the preface to his Archccologia Britanmcat pag. 1,

To THR HISTORY

curious in these studies will now fnd to agree rather more than oursy with the Gaulish. That it does so, is absolute fact, as will be seen by hundreds of instances in this present work. I am aware that what I am go- ing" to say will sound very oddly, and seem more than * a paradox ; but I deserve, My Lord, and shall be con- tent with your severest censure, if, before you have finish'd reading these sheets, you be not firmly of the same mind yourself: namely, that, without the know- ledge of the Irish language and books, the Gallic Anti- quities, not meaning the Francic, can never be set in any tolerable light, with regard either to words or to things'; and numerous occasions there will occur in this History of illustrating both words and things even in the Greec and Roman authors. I shall here give one example of this, since I just come from treating of the several professors of learning common to the antient Gauls, Britons, and Scots, viz. the Dniids, Bards, and Vaids. Lucian (41) relates that in Gaule he saw HER- CULES represented as a little old man, whom in the language of the country they call'd OGMIUS ; drawing- after him an infinite multitude of persons, who seem'd most willing to follow, tho5 drag'd by extreme fine and almost imperceptible chains : which were fasten'd at the one end to their ears, and held at the other, not in cither of HERCULES' s hands, which were both otherwise imploy'd ; but ty'd to the tip of his tongue, in which there was a hole on purpose, wherp all those chains centefd. Lucian wondering at this manner of portray-

(41) Ton Herdclr-a hoi Keltoi OGMION" cmomazousi phone te ft qiHK sequnntiir in IlERctiiE GAI.UCO: Gra=ca ctcnim lonpiora swt, cuam ut Kic commode insert v..-3lnt-

OF THE DRUIDS. 71

ing HERCULES, was inform'd by a learned Druid who stood by, that HERCULES did not in Gaule, as in Greece, betoken Strength of Body, but the Force of Eloquence ; which is there very beautifully displayed by the Druid, in his explication of the picture that hung in the temple. Now, the Critics of all nations have made a heavy po- ther about this same word OGMIUS, and laboriously sought for the meaning of it every where, but just where it was to be found. The most celebrated BO- CHART, who, against the grain of nature, if I may so speak, wou'd needs reduce all things to Phenician; says it is an oriental word, since the Arabians (42) call strangers and barbarians Agemion : as if, because the Phenicians traded antiently to Gaule and the British Hands, for Colonies in them they planted none, they must have also imported their language ; and, with their other commodities, barter'd it for something to the natives, naming their places, their men, and their Gods for them. Our present Britons, who are at least as great traders, do not find they can do so in Phenicia, nor nearer home in Greece and Italy, nor yet at their own doors in this very Gaule : besides that Lucian does positively affirm OGMIUS was a Gallic word, a word (43) of the country. This has not hinder'd a learned Eng- lish Physician, Dr. EDMUND DICKENSON, from hunting still in the East for a derivation of it; conjecturing HEII-

(42) In Geographia Sacra, sive Canaan, part. £. cap. 42.

O3) Phone te rpichoric. Ubi supra.

THE HISTORY

CULES to bs (44) JOSHUA, who was surnamed OGMIUS, for having conquer'd OG King of Bashan :

O / sanctas gentes ! quibus haec nascuntur in hortis

Numina.

JUVENAL. 'Sat. 15 ver. 10.

I could make your Lordship yet merryer, or rather an- grier, at these forc'd and far-fetch'd Etymologies, to- gether with others hammer'd as wretchedly out of Greec, nay even out of Suedish and German. But the word OGMIUS, as Lucian was truely inform'd, is pure Celtic; and signifies, to use TACITUS'S (45) phrase about the Germans, the Secret of Letters, particularly the Letters themselves, and consequently the learning that depends on them, from whence the Force of Eloquence procedes : so that HERCULES OGMIUS is the learned HERCULES, or HERCULUS the protector of learning, hav- ing by many been reputed himself a (46) Philosopher. To prove this account of the word, so natural and so apt, be pleas'd to understand, that, from the very be- ginning of the Colony, OGUM, sometimes written

(44) JOSUAM quotjue spcctasse videtur illud nomen, quo Galll antiquilus HERCULEM nuncupabant. Unde vcro O^-' mios ? Annon ab OG victu? Del ph. Fhccnicizant. cap. 3.

(45) Litcrarum Sccreta viri pariter ac foeminac ingno- rant. De moribus Germanorum, cap. 19.

(46) En de tois chronois tea Basileias tou Phoiuicos en HeracH'S ho Philoso- phos Tyrios hostis epheure ten con^ch^'leu, &c. Palacphatifragmcntum in CVom- co Alcxandrino. Heracles Alkmeuta hyios, Teuton Pliilosophou hystorousi, &c. Suidas in Voce Hcra/:les. Et din. tints Suidam awiiobat apud Htraclitum, in Allegoriis Homericis, Auer eraphron, kai sophias ouraniou mvstes, hospcrci ka- ta Batheias achlyos epithedykyian cphotize ten philcsopbian, Kathaper horao- logousi koi SwikTu h&i d^kimo'tatoi.

OF THE DRUIDS. 73

OGAM, and also (47) OGMA, has signify'd in Ireland the Secret of Letters, or the Irish Alphabet ; for the truth of which I appeal to all the antient Irish books, with- out a single exception. Tis one of the most authentic words of the language, and originally stands for this notion alone. Indeed after Patric had converted the nation, and, for the better propagating of Christian books, introduced the use of the Roman letters, instead of the antient manner of writing, their primitive let- ters, very different from those they now use, began by degrees to grow obsolete ; and at last legible only by Antiquaries and other curious men, to whom they stood in as good stead as any kind of occult characters : whence it happen'd that Ogum, from signifying the se- cret of writing^ came to signify secret writing, but still principally meaning the original Irish Characters. There are several Manuscript Treatises extant, describ- ing and teaching the various methods of this Secret Writing ; as one in the College-Library of (48) Dub- lin, and another in that of IIM Grace the Duke of (49) Chandois. Sir James Ware, in his Antiquities of Ire- land, relating how the antient Irish did, besides the vulgar characters, practise also divers ways and arts of occult writing, caWd Ogum, in which they wrote their

(47) As in the Dublin College Manuscript, to be pre- sently cited.

(4S) 'Tis, among other pieces, in the Book of Baltimore ; being the 25oth volume in the Dublin Catalogue, in parch merit, folio, D. 18.

(49) Anonymi cujusdam Tractates de variis apud Hiber- nos.vcteres occultis scribe?idiformulis9 Hibernice OGUM dictis,

K,

f i THE HISTORY

seer els ; I have, continues (50) he, an antient parchment book full of these, which is the same just now said to belong to the Duke of Chandois : and Dudley (51) Forbes, a hereditary Antiquary, wrote to the rather laborious than judicious Chronologist (52) O Flaherty, in the Year 1688, that he had some of the primitive (53) Birch-tables, for those they had before the use of parchment or paper, and many sorts of the old occult writing by him, These are principally the Ogham- beith, the Qgh&ifrcvll, and the (54) Ogham-craoth, which last is the old one and the true. But that the primary Irish letters, the letters first in common use, which in the manner we have shown, became acciden- tally occult, were originally meant by the word Ogum ; besides the appeal made above to all antient authors, is plain in particular from Forchern, a noted Bard and Philosopher, who liv'd a little before Christ. This learned msfn ascribing with others the invention of let- ters to the Phenicians, cr rather more strictly and pro- perly to Phenix, whom tke Irish call Fenius far sal dh> or Phenix the aniient, says, that, among other Alpha- bets, as the Hebrew, Greec, and Latin, he also coin- pos'd that of (55) Bethluisnion an Oghum, the Alphabet

(50) Proeter characteres vulgarcs utebantur etiam vettres liiberni variis occultis fcribendiformntis scu artifciis, Ogum dictis, quilms secreta sua scribtbani: his refcrtum habco Hbsl* lum memnranactum antiquum. Cap. 2.

(51) DUALTACH MHAC FlRBIS.

(52) RUJMIRUIGH O FLAITH-BHEARTUIGII.

(53) Ogygia, part. 3. cap. 30. • ^54) Ogum>branch( s.

(55) FENIUS FA.RSAIVH Alphabet® prima

OF THE DRUIDS. 75

tf Ogum, or the Irish Alphabet, meaning that he in- vented the first letters, in imitation of which the Al- phabets of those Nations were made. Ogum is also taken in this sense by the best modern writers : as William (56) O Done II ', afterwards Archbishop of Tuam, in his preface to the Irish New Testament, de- dicated to King James the First, and printed at Dub- lin in the Year 1602, speaking of one of his assistants, .says, that he enjoin d him to write the other part ac- cording to the Ogum and propriety of the Irish tongue; where Ogum must necessarily signify the Alphabet, Orthography, and true manner of writing Irish. Frfjna all this it is clear, why among tlie Gauls, of whom the Irish had their Language and Religion, Hercules, as the protector of Learning, shou'd be calld Ogmius, the termination alone being Greec. Nor is this all. Og- ma was not only a known proper name in Ireland, but also on s of the most antient ; since Ogma Grianann, the father of King (57) Dalboetius, was one of the first of the Danannan race, many ages before Luicans time. He was a very learned man, marry d to Eathna, a fa- mous Poetess, who bore, besides the fore-mention'd Monarch, Cairbre likewise a Poet : insomuch that Og- ma was deservedly surnamed (58) Grianunn, which is

Grcecorum, Latinorum, et Eethluisnion AN OGHUIM, compo- suit. Ex FORCHERNI libro, octiugentis retro annis Latine reddito.

(56) WILLIAM ODOMHNUILL.

(57) DEALBHAOITH.

(58) Grianis the Sun, and Grianann Sun like, or belong* ing to the Sun,

7G THE HISTORY

to say Phebean, where you may observe Learning* still attending this name. The Celtic Language being now almost extinct in Gaule, except onely in lower Britanny, and such Galic words as remain scatter'd among the French ; subsists however intire in the se- veral (59) dialects of the Celtic Colonies, as do the words Ogum and Ogma particularly in Irish. Nor is there any thing better known to the learned, or will appear more urraeniable in the sequel of this work, than that words lost in one dialect of the same common lan- guage, are often found in another : as a Saxon word, fof example, grown obsolete in Germany, but remain- ing yet irf England, may be also us d in Switzerland ; or another word grown out of date in England, and florishing still; in Denmark, continues likewise in Ice- land. So most of the antiquated English words are more or less corruptly extant in Friezland^ Jutland, and the other Northern countries ; with not a few in the Lowlands of Scotland, and in the old English Pale in Ireland.

XII. Now, from the name of HERCULES let's come to his person, or at least to the person acknowledged to have been one of the Heros worship'd by the Gauls, and suppos'd by the Greecs and Romans to be HER- CULES. On this occasion I cannot but reflect on the opposite conduct, which the learned and the unlearned formerly observ'd, with respect to the Gods and divine matters. If, thro' the. ignorance or superstition of the

(*9) These are British, Welsh, Cornish, Irish, Manks, and Earse.

OF THE DRUIDS. 77

people, any fable, tho' ever so gross, was generally re- ceiv'd in a Religion ; the learned being asham'd of such an absurdity, yet not daring openly to explode any thing wherein the Priests found their account, explain- ed it away by emblems and allegories importing a rea- sonable meaning, of which the first authors never thought : and if the learned on the other hand, either to procure the greater veneration for their dictates, or the better to conceal their sentiments from the profane vulgar, did poetically discourse of the elements and qualities of matter, of the constellations or the planets, and the like effects of nature, veiling them as persons; the common sort immediately took them for so many persons in good earnest, and render'd 'em divine wor- ship under such forms, as the Priests judg'd fittest to represent them. Objects* df divine worship have been coin'd out of the rhetorical flights of Orators, or the flattering addresses of Panegyrists : even metaphors and epithets have been transformed into Gods, which procur'd mony for the Priests as well as the best ; and this by so much the more, as such objects were multi- ply'd. This is the unavoidable consequence of deviat- ing ever so little from plain Truth, which is never so heartily and highly reverenc'd, as when appearing in her native simplicity; for as soon as'her genuine beauties are indeavour'd to be heightn'd by borrow'd ornaments, and that she's put under a disguise in gorgeous ap- parel ; she quickly becomes, like others affecting such a dress, a mercenary prostitute, wholly acting by vani- ty, artifice, or interest, and never speaking but in am-

78 THE HISTORY

biguous or unintelligible terms ; while the admiration of her lovers is first turn'd into amazement, as it com- monly ends in contemt and hatred. But over and above the difficulty, which these proceedings have occasion- ed in the history of antient time, there arises a greater from time itself destroying infinite circumstances, the want whereof causes that to seem afterwards obscure, which at the beginning was very clear and easy. To this we may join the preposterous emulation of nations, in ascribing to their own Gods or Heros, whatever qua- lities were pre-eminent in those of others. That most judicious writer (60) about the nature of the Gods, commonly call'd PHURNUTUS, tho' his true name was CORNUTUS, a Stoic Philosopher, whom I shall have fre- quent occasion to quote hereafter, " Owns the great " (61) variety, and consequently the perplexedness and " obscurity, that occurs in the history of HERCULES ; " whereby it is difficult to know certainly what were " his real atchievments, or what were fabulously father- " ed upon him: but having been an excellent General, « who had in diverse countries signaliz'd his valor, he

(60) Phournoulou theoria peri tes ton theon physeos, vulgo : sed, ut Ravii codex $ Vaticanus legunt (not ante doctissima Galeo) veru.s titulus est Kornouteu epidrorae ton kata ten Helleuiken theorian paradidorneuon.

(61) To ce dysdiakrita gegonenai ta tou theou idia, apo ton peri tou HtJ- roos historoumenon. Tacha d'an he leonte kai to ropalon ek tes palaias the- ologias epi touton metenenegmena eie ; strategon g-ar auton genomenon agathon, kai poila mere tes ges raeta dynameos epelthonta ouch* hoion te gymnon edox- an perielelythenai xylo mono hoplismenon : alia tois * episernois tou theou, meta ton apalhanatismon, hypo ton euerg-etoumenon Jkekosraesthai ; symbalon gar hekateron eie romes kai gennaiotitos, &c.

• Alii pisynois.

OF THE DRUIDS. 79

" thinks it not probable, that he went onely arm'd " with a Lion's skin and a Club ; but that he was re- " presented after his death with these, as symbols of " generosity and fortitude, for which reason he was " pictur'd with a bow and arrows." To this let me add, that several valiant men in several nations having, in imitation of some one man any where, been called or rather surnam'd HERCULES ; not only the works of many, as subduing of Tyrants, exterminating of wild beasts, promoting or exercising of commerce, and pro- tecting or improving of learning have been ascrib'd to one : but that also wherever any robust person was found represented with a skin and a club, a bow and arrows, he was straight deem'd to be HERCULES; whence the Egyptian, the Indian, the Tyrian, the Cretan, the Grecian or Theban, and the Gallic HERCULES. This was a constant way with the Greecs and Romans, who, for example, from certain resemblances perfectly acci- dental, conjectur'd that Isis was honour'd by the (62) Germans, and BACCHUS worship'd by the (63) Jews, which last notion is refuted even by their enemy (64)

9) Pars S?ievorum fy Iftidi sacrlficat. Unde causa et origo peregrino sacro pantm comperi\ nisi quod signum ip- sum> in modum Liburnaefiguratum, docet advectam Religi- onern. TACIT, de mor. German, cap. 9.

(63) PLUTARCH. Symposiac. lib. 4. quern prolixius dis« serentem oiiosus consulas, lector.

(64) Qtiia sacerdotes eorum tibia tympanisque concinebant, hedera mnciebantur , vitisque aurea templo reperta, Liberum patrem coli, domitorem Orientis, yuidam wbitrati sunt, ne- quaquam congruentibus institiitis: quippe Liber festos lae~ fasque ritus posuit, Judccorum mos absurdus sordidusque. Lib. 5. c%ap, 5.

80 THE HISTORY

TACITUS. Such superficial discoveries about the Cel- tic Divinities I shall abundantly expose. Yet that OGMIUS might be really the Grecian HERCULES, well known in Gaule, it will be no valid exception that he was by the Druids Theologically made the symboll of the Force of Eloquence, for which that country has been ever distinguish'd and esteem'd : since even in Greece he was, as PHUKNUTUS assures us, mystically accounted (65) that Reason ibhich is diffused thro" all things, according to which nature is vigorous and strong, invincible and ever generating \ being the power that communicates virtue and firmness to every part of things. The Scholiast of APOLLONIUS affirms, that the natural Philosophers understood by HEIICULES, the (66) intel- ligence and permanence of beings : as the Egyptians held him to be (67) that Reason, which is in the ivhole of things, and in every part. Thus the learned allego- riz'd away among others, as I said before, the fabulous atchievments and miraculous birth of this Hero, on which we shall however touch again, when we come to explain the Heathen humor of making all extraor- dinary persons the Sons of Gods, and commonly begot on Virgins ; tho' this last is not the case of Hercules, who was feign 'd to be the Son of Jupiter by Alcme?ia,

(65) Heracles de estin ho en tois holois logos, kath* hon he physis isrhyra fcai krataia estin, aniketos kai apmigenueto^ ousa ; metadotikos ischyos, ka.i tea para meros alkes hyparehon.

(66) Para tois Physikois ho H entiles synesis kai alke lanibanetai.

(G7) Ton en pasi, kai d;a panton, log-on ; non HClion, ui corrv.yt& legi own GALEO suspiear in MAC^IOBIO, Saturtal. lib. 1. cap. 20.

OF THE DRUIDS. 81

another rr.an's wife. This wou d be reckon d immoral among men, but Jupiter, said the Priests, can do with hie own what he pleases : which reason, if it contented the husbands, cou d not. displease the batchelors, who mHit chance to be sometimes Jupiter's substitutes. The Druidical allegory of Ogmius, or the Gallic Her- cules, which in its proper place I shall give you at large, is extremely beautiful : and as it concerns that Eloquence whereof you are so consummate a master, cannot but powerfully charm you.

XIII. In the mean time 'tis probable your Lord- ship will be desireous to know, whether, besides the language and traditions of the Irish, or the monuments of stone and other materials which the country affords, there yet remain any Literary records truly antient and unadulterated, whereby the History of the Druids, with such other points of antiquity, may be retrieved, or at least illustrated ? This is a material question, to which I return a clear and direct answer; that not onely there remain very many antient Manuscripts undoubtedly genuine, besides such as are forg d, and greater num- bers (68) interpolated, several whereof are in Ireland itself, some here in England, and others in the Irish Monasteries abroad: but that, notwithstanding the long

state of barbarity in which that nation hath lain, and |

i

(68) As the Uraic-eacht na neigios, i. e. the Accidence of the Artists, or the Poets; which being the work of FOR- CHERN before-nam'd, was interpolated, and fitted to his own time, by CEANN FAOLADU the Son of OILIOLL, in the Year oftfott* 628.

L

THE HISTORY

after all the rebellions and wars with which the king- dom has been harrass'd ; they have incomparably more antient materials of that kind for their history, to which even their Mythology is not unserviceable, than either the English, or t&e French^ or any other European na- tion, with whose Manuscripts I have any acquaintance. ©£ these I shall one day give a catalogue, marking the places- where they now ly, as many as I know of them ; But no£ aaeaning every Transcript of the same Manu- scriptf^wJuclLWQu'd be endless, if not impossible. In all conditions the Wsh have been strangely sollicitous, if not in som« degree superstitious, about preserving their books and parchments ; even those of them, which are so old, as to Be now partly or wholly unintelligible. Abundance thro* overcare have perished under ground, the concealer not having skill,. or wanting searcloth and otlteE proper materials; for, preserving them. The most? valuable pieces*, both ii* verae and prose, were written. by their Heatheir ancestors r whereof some indeed have been interpolated after die prevailing of Christianity, which additions or alterations- are nevertheless easily distinguished : and in these books the rites and formu- laries of the Druids, together with their Divinity and Philosophy ; especially their two grand doctrines of the eternity and incorruptibility of* the universe, and the incessant Revolution of all beings and- forms, are very specially^ tho' sometimes very figuratively express'd. Hence their Allanimation and Transmigration. Why none of the natives have hitherto made any better use of these treaswes ; or why both they, and s^ch others

OF THE DRUIDS. 83

;asliave written concerning the History of Ireland, have onely entertain'd the world with the fables of it, as no country wants a fabulous account of its original, or the succession of its Princes, why the modern Irish His- torians, I say, give us such a medley of relations, un- pick'd and unchosen, I had rather any man else shou'd tell. The matter is certainly ieady, there wants but will or skill for working of it; separating the Dross from the pure Ore, and distinguishing counterfeit from sterling coin. This in the meantime is undeniable, that learned men in other places^ perceiving the same dishes to be eternally servld up at every meal5 are of opinion that there is no better fare hi the country ; while those things have been conceal'd from them by the ignerant or the lazy, that would have added no small ornament €ven to their classical studies. Of this I hope to con- vince the world by the lustre, which, m this work, I shall impart to the Antiquities not only of Gaule and Britain, but likewise to numerous passages of the Greec and Latin authors. How many noble discoveries of the like kind might be made in all countries, where the use of Letters has long subsisted ! Such things in the mean time are as if thej were not : for

Paulum sepultce distat inertia; Celata virtus.

if ORAT. lib. 4. Od. 9.

The use of letters has been very antient in Ireland, at first were cut on the bark Of trees (69), pre- for that purpose ; or on smooth tables x)f birch- (69) Oralum,

84 THE HISTORY

wood, which were call'd [70] Poets tables ; as their characters were in general namd [71] twigs and branch-letters, from their shape. Their Alphabet was call d Beth-luis-nion, from the three first letters of the same, B, L, N, Beth, Luis, Nion [72] : for the parti- cular name of every letter was, for memory-sake, from some tree or other vegetable ; which, in the infancy of writing on barks and boards, was very natural. They had also many characters signifying whole words, like the Egyptians and the Chinese. When Patric intro- ducd the Roman letters, as I said above, then, from a corruption of Abcedarium, they call'd their new Alpha- , bet [73] Aibghittir ; which, by the Monkish writers, has been Latiniz d [74] Abgetorium. But there florish- ed a great number of Druids, Bards, Vaids, and other authors in Ireland long before Patricks arrival ; whose learning was not only more extensive, but also much more useful than that of their Christian posterity this last sort being almost wholly imploy d in scholastic

[70] Taibhh Fileadh.

[71] Feadha : Craobh Ogham.

[72] Birch, Quicken, and Ash.

[73] At first it was very analogically pronounc'd Ab-ke« dazr, since the letter C then in Latin, as still in Irish and British, had the forte of K no less before E and I, than be- fore A, O, U ; having never been pronounc'd like S by the antieut Romans, who said KIKEKO, kenseo, koecus, but not SISERO, senseo, soecus, when the words CICERO, censeo, coccus, or such like occurred : so that Abkedair did natural- ly liquidate into Aibghittir > in the manner that all Gramma- rians know. *

[74] Scripsil Abgetoria [scilicet Patricius] 355, ct eo am* plius numero. NENN. Hist. Britan. cap. 59.

OF THE DRUIDS. 85

Divinity, Metaphysical or Chronological Dispute?, Le- gends, Miracles, and Martyrologies, especially after the eighth century. Of all the things committed to wri- ting by the Heathen Irish, none were more celebrated, or indeed in themselves more valuable, than their laws ; which were deliver d, as antiently among some other nations, in short sentences, commonly in verse, no less reputed infallible Oracles than the Lacedemo- nian Rethrcz (15) : and, what's remarkable, they are expresly term'd (76) Celestial Judgements ; for the pronouncing of which, the most famous were Forchern> Neid, Conla, Eogan, Modan^ Moran, King Cormac, his Chief Justice Fithil, Fachma, Maine, Ethnea the daughter of Amalgad, and many more. The Celestial Judgements were only preserv d in traditionary poems, according to the institution of the Druids, till commit- ted to writing at the command of (77) Concovar king of Ulster ; who dy'd in the year of Christ 48, where- as Patric begun his Apostleship but in the year 432. The Poets that wrote were numberless, of whose works several pieces remain still intire, with diverse fragments of others. The three greatest incouragers of learning among the Heathen Irish monarchs were, first, King (78) Achaius, surnamed the Doctor of Ire-* land, who is said to have built at Tarah an Acr? :lemy, calld The Court of the Learned (79). 'Twos he that

(75) Retrai.

(76) Breatha nimhe.

(77) CONCHOBHAR NESS AN, i. e. Mac NEASSA. (73) EOCHAIDH OLLAMHFODLA.

(79) Mur-Qllamhan.

86 THE HISTORY

ordain'd, for every principal family, hereditary Anti- quaries ; or, in case of incapacity, the most able of the same historical house, with rank and privileges imme- diately after the Druids. The next promoter of Let- ters was King (80) TUATHALIUS, whose surname is render'd Bonaventura, tho' not so properly, and who appointed a triennial revision of all the Antiquaries Books, by a committee of three Kings or great Lords, three Druids, and three Antiquaries. These were to cause whatever was approved and found valuable in those books, to be transcribed into the royal (81) Book of Tarah ; which was to be the perpetual standard of their history, and by which 'the contents of all other such books shou'd be receiv'd or rejected. Such good regulations I say there were made, but not how long or how well observed : or, if truth is to be preferr'd to all other respects, we must own they were but very slightly regarded : and that the Bards, besides their poetical license, were both mercenary and partial to a scandal- ous degree. The ordinance however is admirable, and deserves more to be imitated, than we can ever expect it to be so any -where. The third most munificent pat- ron of Literature was King CORM AC* surnamed (82) Long-beard, who renew'd the laws about the Antiqua- ries, re-built and inlarg'd the Academy at Tarah for history, law, and military prowess : besides that he was an indefatigable distributer of justice, having written

(80) TUATHAL TEACHTMHAB. »

(81) Leabhar Teamhra.

(82) ULFHADA.

OF THE DRUIDS. 87

himself abundance of laws still extant. So is his (83) Institution of a Prince (84t) or his Precepts to his son and successor CARBRE (85} LIFFECAIR, who in like manner was not superficially addicted to the Muses, CORMAC was a great proficient in Philosophy, made light of the superstitions of the Druids in his youth ; and, in his old age having quitted the scepter, he led a contemplative life : rejecting all the Druidical fables and idolatry, and acknowledging only one Supreme Being, or first Cause. This short account of the pri- mevous Irish Learning, whereof you'll see many proofs and particulars in the more than once mention'd Dis- sertation concerning the Celtic Language' and Colonies, to be annext to our Critical History, will, I am confi- dent, excite your curiosity.

XIV. The custom therefore, or rather cunning of the Druids, in not committing their rites or doctrines to writing, has not deprived us as some may be apt to imagine, of sufficient materials to compile their His- tory. For, in the first place, when the Romans be- came masters of Gaule, and every where mixt with the natives ; they cou'd not avoid, in that time of light and learning, but arrive at the certain knowledge of whatever facts they have been pleas'd to hand down

(83) 'Tis, among other most valuable pieces, in the Col- lection call'd O Du VEGAN'S, folio 190. a, now or late in the possession of the right honourable the Earl of CLANRIO KARD. There are copies of it elsewhere, but that's the oldest known.

(84) Teagarg Riogh. '35* CAIRBRB

88 THE HISTORY

to us, tho' not alway rightly taking the usages of o- ther nations : as it must needs be from a full convic- tion of the Druidical fraudulent superstitions, and bar- barous tyranny exercis'd over the credulous people, that these same Romans, who tolerated all religions, yet supprest this institution in Gaule and Britain, with the utmost severity. The Druids however were not immediately extinguish'd, but only their barbarous, tyrannical, or illusory usages. And indeed their hu- man sacrifices, with their pretended Magic, and an authority incompatible with the power of the magi- strate, were things not to be indured by so wise a state as that of the Romans. In the second place, the Greec colony of Marseilles, a principal mart of Learn- ing, could not want persons curious enough, to ac- quaint themselves with the Religion, Philosophy, and Customs of the country, wherein they liv'd. STRABO and others give us an account of such. From these the elder Greecs had their information, not to speak now of the Gauls seated in Greece it self and in Les- ser Asia, as the later Greecs had theirs from the. Ro- mans ; and, by good fortune, we have a vast number of passages from both. But, in the third place, among the Gauls themselves and the Britons, among the Irish and Albanian Scots, their IJistorians and Bards, did always register abundance of particulars about the Druids, whose affairs were in most things inseparable from those of the rest of the inhabitants : as they were not only the judges in all matters civil or re- ligious, but in a manner the executioners too in crimi-

OF THE DRUIDS.

nal causes ; and that their sacrifices were very public, •vliich consequently made their rites no less observable. One thing which much contributed to make them known j is, that the King was ever to have a Druid a- bout his person ; t^ pray and sacrifice, as well as to be judge for de terming emergent controversies, tho' he had a civil judge besides. So he had one of the chief Lords to advise him, a Bard to sing the praises of his ancestors, a Chronicler to register his own actions, a Physician to take care of his health, a Musician to in- tertain him. Whoever was absent, these by law must be ever present, and no fewer than three Controllers of his family : which Decemvirate was the institution of King CORMAC. The same custom was taken up by all the Nobles, whereof each had about him his Druid, Chief Vassal, Bard, Judge, Physician, and Harper; the four last having lands assign'd them, which descended to their families, wherein these professions were here- ditary, as were their Marshal, and the rest of their of- ficers. After the introducing Christianity, the Druid was succeeded by a Bishop or Priest, but the rest con- tinued on the antient foot : insomuch, that for a long time after the English Conquest, the Judges, the Bards, Physicians, and Harpers, held such tenures in Ireland. The ODuvegans were the hereditary Bards of the OKellies, the OClerys and the OBrodins were also hereditary Antiquaries : the O Sheils and the O Can- cans were such hereditary Doctors, the Maglanchys such hereditary Judges, and so of the rest ; for more examples, especially in this place, are needless : it

M

90 THE HISTORY

wou'd be but multiplying of names, without ever mak- ing the subject clearer. Only I must remark here, from the very nature of things, no less than from facts, that, tho' CESX\R be silent about it, there were civil Judges in Gaule just as in Ireland, yet under the direc- tion and controll of the Druids. This has led many to imagine, that, because the Druids influenced all, there were therefore no other judges, which is doubt- less an egregious mistake.

M

XV. Further, thoT the Druids were exemted from

bearing arms, yet they finally determined concerning * Peace and War : and those of that order, who attend- ed the King and the Nobles, were observed to be the greatest make-bates and incendiaries ; the most averse to Peace in Council, and the most cruel of all others in Action. Some of them were ally'd to Kings, and many of them were King's sons, and great numbers of them cull'd out of the best families : which you see is an old trick, but has not been always effectual enough to perpetuate an order of men. This however made Historians not to forget them, and indeed several of them render'd themselves very remarkable; as the Druid TROSDAN, who found an antidote against the poyson'd arrows of certain Brittish invaders : (86) CABADIUS, grandfather to the most celebrated cham- pion (81) CUCULAND; (88)T±GES the father of MQR-

(86) CATHBAID.

(87) CUCHULAID.

(88) TADHG.

OF THE DRUIDS. 91

NA, mother to the no less famous (89 ) FIN MAC CUIL : DADBR, who was kill'd by EOGAN, son to OLILL OLOM King of Munster ; which EOGAN was marry'd to MOINIC, the daughter of the Druid DILL. The Druid MOGRUTH. the son of Sinduinn, was the stoutest man in the wars of King CORMAC : nor less valiant was (90) Dubcomar, the chief Druid of King FIACHA ; and Lugadius Mac-Con the abdicated King of Ireland, was treacherously run thro' the body with a lance by the Druid (91) Firchisus. IDA and ONO, Lords of Corcachlann near Roscommon, were Druids ; wherof ONO presented his fortress of Imleach-Ono to Patric, who converted it into the religious house of Elphin, since an (92) Episcopal See. From the very name of (93) LAMDERG, or Bloody-hand, we learn what sort of man the Druid was, who by the vulgar is thought to live inchanted in the mountain between Bunncranach and (94) Fathen in the county of Dunegall. Nor must we forget, tho' out of order of time, King (95) NIALL of the nine hostage's Arch-Druid, by name (96)

(89) FINN MHAC CUBHAILL.

($0) DUBHCHOMAR.

{91} FEARCHIOS.

(•92) Ailfinn, from a vast Obelise that stood by a well m that place ; and that fell down in the year 1675. The word signifies the white Stone, and was corrupted into Qilfinn. £ome wou'd derive the name from the clearness of the fountain, but His by torture: others from one OILFINN, a Danish commander.

(93) LAMBHDEARG.

(94) Taobhsaoil-treach.

(95) NIALL NAOIGHI-ALLACH.

(96) LAICIUCHIN MHAC BARRECHEADHA,

92 THE HISTORY ~

LAGICINUS BARCHEDIUS ; who procured a most cruel war against EOCHA King of Munster, for committing manslaughter on his son ; and which the Druids mak- ing a common cause, there was no honor, law, or hu- manity observ'd towards this King ; whose story, at length in our book, will stand as a lasting monument of Druidical bloodiness, and a Priest-ridden State. I conclude with BACRACH, chief Druid to CONCHOBHAR NESS AN King of Ulster, who is fabl'd by the Monks long after the extinction of the Druids, to have before it happen'd, others say at the very time, describ'd the Passion of Jesus Christ, in so lively and moveing a manner ; that the King transported with rage drew his sword, and with inexpressible fury fell a hacking and hewing the trees of the wood where he then was, which he mistook for the Jews: nay, that he put him- self into such a heat as to dy of this frenzy. But even O Flaherty fully confutes this silly fiction, (97) not thinking it possible that such circumstances cou'd be any way inferred from an Eclipse, which is the foun- dation of the story, noi that a clearer revelation shou'd be made of those things to the Irish Druids, than to the Jewish Prophets ; and, finally, by shewing, that Conchobhar dy'd quietly in his bed fifteen years after the crucifixion of Christ. BACRACH however was a great man, and the King himself had a Druid for his step-father and instructor.

XVI, It can be no wonder therefore, that men thus (97) Ogyg.

OF THE DRUIDS. 93

sacred in their function, illustrious in their alliances, eminent for their learning, and honoured for their valor, as well as dreaded for their power and influence, should also be 'memorable both in the poetry and prose of their country. And so in fact they are, notwithstanding what DUDLEY FORBES, before mention'd, did, in a let- ter to an Irish writer, (98) in the year 1683, affirm: namely, that, in PATRICKS time no fewer than 180 Vo- lumes, relating to the affairs of the Druids, were burnt in Ireland. Dr. KENNEDY says, (99) that PATRIC burnt 300 volumns, shift with the fables and superstitions of Heathen Idolatry : unfit, adds he^ to be transmitted to posterity. But, pray, how so? why are Gallic or Irish superstitions more unfit to be transmitted to posterity, than those of the Greecs ^and Romans ? Why shou'd PATRIC be more squeamish in this respect than MOSES or the succeding Jewish Prophets, who have transmit- ted to all ages th* Idolatries of the Egyptians, Pheni- cians, Caldeans, and other Eastern nations ? What an irreparable destruction of history, what a deplorable extinction of arts and inventions, what an unspeakable detriment to Learning, what a dishonor upon human understanding, has the cowardly proceeding of the ig- norant, or rather of the interested, against unarm'd monuments at all times occasion'd! And yet this book- burning and letter-murdring humor, tho' far from being commanded by CHRIST, has prevailed in Christianity

(98) O FLAHERTY.

(99) Dissertation about the Family of the STUARTS, Pref, page 29.

94 THE HISTORY

from the beginning : as in the Acts of the Apostles we read, (100} that many of them which believ'd-and us'd curious arts, brought their books together, and burnt them before all men ; and they counted the price of them9 and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver, or about three hundred pounds sterling. This was the first in- stance of burning books among Christians ; and ever since that time the example has been better follow'd, then any precept of the Gospel.

XVIL From what we have hitherto observ'd, you see that our Historians, My Lord, do, in spite of all chances, abound with matter enough to revive and il- lustrate the memory of the Druids. Besides that the rites and opinions of other nations serve not only to give light to theirs, but were many of them of Druidi- cal or Celtic extraction. This no body will deny of the Aboriginal Italians, who having been often over- run by the Gauls, and having several Gallic Colonies planted among them, they partook both of their Lan- guage and Religion ; as will be very easily evinc'd in our Dissertation, and has been already tolerably done by father PEZRON in his Celtic Originals. Diogenes Laertius, in the Proem of his Philosophical History, reckons the Druids among the chief Authors of the Barbarous Theology and Philosophy, long anterior to the Greecs, their disciples: andPhurnutus, in his treatise of the nature of the Gods, says most (101) expresly, that (100) Acts 19. 19.

(101) Tou de pollas kai poikilas peri theon g-egonenai para tois palaiois Hel- lesi mjthopoias, hos allai men epi Magois gcgonasin, allai de par' aigyptiois

OF THE DRUIDS. 95

among the many and various fables which the antient Greecs had about the Gods, some were derived from the Mages, some from the Egyptians and Gauls, others from the Africans and Phrygians, and others from o- ther nations : for which he cites Homer as a witness, nor is there any thing that bears a greater witness to it self. This however is not all : for, over and above the several helps I have mention'd, there are likewise numerous monuments of the worship of the Druids, their valor, policy, and manner of habitation, still re- maining in France, in Britain, in Ireland, and in the adjacent Islands ; many of Jem intire, and the rest by the help of these easily conceiv'd. Most are of stone, as the lesser ones are of glass, and others of earth bak'd extremely hard. The two last kinds were ornaments or magical gems, as were also those of Chrystal and Agat, either perfectly spherical, or in the figure of a lentill ; or shap'd after any of the other ways, which shall be describ'd and portray'd in our book. The Glass Amulets or Ornaments are in the Lowlands of Scotland, call'd Adder-stanes, and by the Welsh Gleini na Droedh, or Druid-Glass, which is in Irish Glaine nan Druidhe, Glaine in this language signifying Glass, tho' obsolete now in the Welsh dialect, and preserv'd only in this Gleini na Droedh. But the more massy Monuments shall, in a day or two, be the subject of another Letter from, My LORD,

Your Lordship's most oblig'd and very June 25, 1718. Humble Servant.

kai Keltois, kai Libysi, kai Phryxi, kai tois allois ethnesi. Cap. 17. Thus the -Munusoipt very accurately:- f>iit the printed c^py has tois allois Hellesi superflu- ously in the end, and wants Phvjx. before, which is very essential.

THE SECOND

LETTER,

To the Eight Honourable the Lord VISCOUNT MOLESWORTH.

Jt ERMIT me at this time, My Lord, according to the promise with which I concluded my last, to send to your Lordship A Specimen of the Monuments relating to the Druids, that are still extant, either intire or im- perfect. I have ever indeavour'd to avoid deserving the blame, with which an approv'd author charges those ; who, while veiy conversant in the history of o- ther places, appear to be absolute strangers in their own country : and as I know no man better versed in foren affairs or in our own, which an able statesman will never separate, nor a greater master of antient or modern history than yourself ; so I am apt to hope, that the collection of Brittish and Irish Antiquities I here take the liberty to present to your Lord- ship, may not prove altogether disagreeable. The French examples, a few excepted, I reserve for the larger work, and in the mean time I precede. On the tops of mountains and other eminences in Ireland, in Wales, in Scotland, in the Scottish Hands and in the lie of Man, where things have been least disorder'd or displac'd by the frequency of inhabitants, or want of better ground for cultivation, there are great heaps of

OF THE DRUIDS.

stones, like the(l)MERcuRiAL heaps (2) of the Greecs, whereof when we treat of the Celtic MERCURY in par- ticular. The heaps, which make my present subject, consist of stones of all sorts, from one pound to a hundred. They are round in form, and somewhat ta- pering or diminishing upwards : but on the summit was always a flat stone, for a use we shall presently explain. These heaps are of all bignesses, some of them containing at least a hundred cartload of stones : and if any of 'em be grown over with earth, 'tis pure- ly accident in the long course of time wherein they have been neglected ; for HO such thing was intended In the first making of them, as in the sepulchral bar- rows of the Gothic nations, which are generally of earth. Such a heap is in the antient Celtic language, and in every dialect of it, call'd CARN ; and every Cam so dispos'd, as to be in sight of some other. Yet th«y are very different from the rude and much smaller pyramyds, which the old Irish erect along the roads in memory of the dead, by them call'd Leachda, and made of the first stones that offer. From the devotional rounds performed about the Cams in times of Heathen- ism, and which, we shall see anon, are jet continued in many places of the Scottish Highlands and the He- brides, any circle, or turning about, is in Armoric call- ed cern (3) as CERNA in that dialect is to make such a

(1) Prossoreuousi de tous lilhous tois Hermais herastos ton parion on ; hena t:n;i autnis prostetheis, &c. PnunNUT. dc Ndt, Dor. cap, lo«

(2) Kermaia, i. e. Acervi Mercuriales,

(3) C is pronounc'd as A'.

N

'

98 THE HISTORY

turn. On the Cam call'd Qng-y-dyrn, in the parish of Tre'lech in Carmarthenshire, the flat stone on the top is three yards in length, five foot over, and from ten to twelve inches thick. The circumference of this Carn at the bottom is about sixty yards, and 'tis about six yards high ; the ascent being very easy, tho' I sup- pose there was originally a ladder for this purpose.

II. Let this Carn serve for an example of the rest, as to their form and bulk ; only we may take notice here by the way, what odd imaginations men are apt to have of things they do not understand. Thus Mr. WILLIAM SACHEVERELL, Governor of the He of Man under the right honorable the Earl of Derby in part of King William's reign, mistaking these Cams in his (4) Description of that Hand, " The tops of the moun- « tains (says he), seem nothing but the rubbish of na- * ture, thrown into barren and unfruitful heaps, as " near two thirds of the Hand are of this sort. Some " seem particularly worthy our remark, as the two Ba- « rowls, Skeyall, the Watch-hill of Knock-a-low : but Gi particularly Sneafeld, where it is not unpleasant," (continues he), " when the weather is clear and se- w rene, to see three noble nations surrounding one of " the most obscure in the universe : which is, as it were, « the center of the Brittish empire." These heaps our author thought the work of chance, tho' artfully con- triv'd in all the Celtic countries ; as Dr. MARTIN thought a Carn in the He of SAINT*!ULDA, wherof pre- 14) Page 13.

s«

OF THE DRUIDS. 99

sentry, to be a signal effect of Providence : But as for the Mannian nation, which is visibly the center of the Brittish world, it is very undeservedly become obscure, whether we consider wha,t has been transacted in for- mer ages, it having been the theater of many surpriz- ing revolutions : or the particular usages in religious and civil affairs, that even now obtain there, especially their laws, which still continue mostly unwritten, for which reason they call them Breast-laws, being with- out expense or delay, and undoubted remains of the justice of the Druids. For, wherever they were not themselves a party, neither the Egyptians, nor Persians, nor Greecs, nor Romans, did surpass the wisdom, e- quity, and strictness of the Druids in the sanction or execution of their laws ; which made all sorts of men leave their controversies of every kind to their deter- mination, without any further appeal. Nor without some regard in fact, and a vast deal more in profession, to moral virtue, cou'd any set of Impostors in any count- ry possibly support their false doctrines and supersti- tious observances ; which receive credit from hence, as the teachers of 'em do all their power and authority, in proportion to the austerities they practise, or the ap- pearances they have of devotion. I say appearances, because this in most, join'd to real self-denial in a few, who by the rest are deem'd silly tho' useful creatures, will long uphold an institution both erroneous and ty- rannical : which is the reason that, to this hour, the memory of the Druids is highly venerable among those of the He of Man ; and that their laws are infinitely

100 i THE HISTORY

preferr'd to all others by the Manksmen, who say the family of Derby comes nearest their excellence of any race of men now in the world. Wherefore, as well in these regards, as in many others essential to my de- sign, I shall, in the body of the history, give a true idea of the past and present customs of this antientr though^ mixt people. Their numerous Cams, of whose origin anon, are not the onely monuments they have of the Druids. Bufe that the chief College of these Philoso- phers was ever established there, and much less any such College- appointed by the Kings of Scotland, as Hector Boethius feigivcf, I shall demonstrate to be pure romance : and at the same time will not fail doing jus- tice to the memory of the greatHero and Legislator of the Hand, MANANNAN ; reported, after the manner of those ages, to have been the Son of (5) LEAR, or the God of the Sea, from his extraordinary skill in navigation and commerce. He was truely the son of (6) ALLADIUS, who was of royal blood, and Is own name Orbsen ; but call'd Manannan from his country, and kill'd by one ULLIN near Galway, in Ireland: of all which the par- ticulars will be given in their proper place, especially the Republic of 'MAN ANN AN ; who, from his instruction? by the Druids, was reputed a consummate Magician, and was indeed most happy in stratagems of war both by land and sea. Mr. Sacheverell, except in affirming- Manannan, whom he mis-names Mannan, to have beea

(5) MANANNAN MHAC LEIR. • t (G) ALLAID*

OF THE DRUIDS. iOI

(1) the father, founder, and legislator of the Hand, is out in every thing he says concerning him : for, in- stead of living about the beginning of the fifth century, he liv'd as many centuries before Christ ; and so cou'd not be contemporary with Patric, the Apostle of Man as well as Ireland, Neither was Manannan the son of a King of Ulster, nor yet the brother of FERGUS II. (8) King of Scotland : and as for his not being able to get any information what became of him, I have already told that he was kill'd in Ireland, and by whom,

III. In process of time the Cams, to which we now return, serv'd every where for beacons, as many of them as stood conveniently for this purpose : but they were originally design'd, as we are now going to see, for fires of another nature. The fact stood thus. On May- eve the Druids made prodigious fires on those Cams, which being every one, as we said, in sight of some o- ther, cou'd not but afford a glorious show over a whole nation. These fires were in honour of Beal or Bealan, latiniz'd by the Roman authors into (9) Belenus, by which name the Gauls and their colonies understood the Sun : and therefore to this hour the first day of May is by the Ab-original Irish call'd La Bealteine, or the dayofRelejisfire (10). I remember one of those Cams

(7) Page 20.

(8) Ibid.

(9) Herodiin. Auson. Capitolin. Tertul. $c. Videantur ctiam Gruter. et Reines. in Inscriptionibus.

(10) Etiam Bealltaine, # antiquitus Belfeine.

102 THE HISTORY

on Fawn-hill within some miles of Londonderry, known by no other name but that of Bealteine, facing another such Cam on the top of Inch-hill : and GREGORY of Tours, in his book de Gloria Confessorum, mentions a (11) hill of the same name (12) between Artom and Kiom in Auvergne in France, from which Rioni might be fairly view'd. But tho' later writers affirm with Valesius, in his Galliarum notiiia, this hill to be now unknown; yet Helen's heap on the top of it, is a sure mark whereby to discover it. His circular tem- ple, as we shall see hereafter, is still there, if not the the Carn, having certainly existed in Gregory's time. Abundance of such heaps remain still on the mountains in France, and on the Alps. Those writers however are not to be blamed, as being strangers to the origin or use of such heaps ; and not able to distinguish them from certain other heaps, under which robbers and traitors were bury'd. These last are calTd in general by the Welsh Carn-Vraduyr and Carn-Lhadron (IS) ; or particularly after the proper names of the underly- ing criminals, as Carnedh-Leuelyn, Carnedh-David, and such like. As far from Auvergne as the Hand of Saint KILDA, in the 58th degree of northern latitude, there is another hill denominated from Belenus, which more consonant to the Celtic idiom Herodian (14.)

(11) Cum [ex Artonensi vico] venisset in, cacumen montis Belenatensis, de quo vici Ricomagenxis pvsitio cuntewplatur9 mdit hos, $c. De Gloria Confessor, cap. 5.

(12) Mons Belenatensis.

(13) Traitor and thiefs Carn : in Irish Carn-bhrateoir & Cam an Ladroin.

(14) Lib. 8. Cap. 7.

OF THE DRUIDS. 103

writesJBelin, corruptly call'd Otter-Veaul(\5),or Belerfs heigth ; on which is a vast heap, whereof Doctor Mar- tin, in his account of that Hand, did not know the use, as I said before (16) : but the Carn being on the hill just above the landing place, he thinks it so order'd by Providence ; that by rouling down these stones, the in- habitants might prevent any body's coming ashore against their will. In the church of Birsa, near which stands a very remarkable Obelise, at the west end of the Hand call'd Pomona, or the mainland, in Orkney, there is an erect stone, with the word BELUS inscribed on it in antient characters. Yet whether this be any remembrance of BELENUS, better according to the Irish idiom BELUS, or be the Monument of a native Prince so call'd, I shall not here decide. The fact it self is told us by Mr. BRAND (17), in his Description of Ork- ney and Zetland. I wish he had also told us, of what kind those antient characters are, or that he had exact- ly copy'd them : and if there be a man's portraiture on the stone; as Dr. Martin affirms (18), the dress and posture will go a great way towards clearing the matter.

IV. But to make no longer digression, May-day is likewise call'd La Bealteine by the Highlanders of Scotland, who are no contemtible part of the Celtic

(15) UachdarBHEtL.

(16) Page 64.

(17) Page 14.

(18) Page 358.

104 THE HISTORY

off-spring. So it is in the He of Man : and in Armoric a Priest is still call'd Belec, or the servant of Bel, and Priesthood Belegieth. Two such fires, as we have mention'd, were kindl'd by one another on May-eve in every village of the nation, as well throout all Gaule, as in Britain, Ireland, and the adjoining lesser Hands, between which fires the men and the beasts to be sa- crific'd were to pass ; from whence came the proverb, between Bel's (19) two fires, meaning one in a great strait, not knowing how to extricate himself. One of the fires was on the Carn, another on the ground. On the eve of the first day of November (20), there were also such fires kindl'd, accompany'd, as they constantly were, with sacrifices and feasting. These November fires were in Ireland call'd Tim tlach'd-gha, from tlach'd-gha (21), a place hence so call'd in Meath, where the Arch-Druid of the realm had his fire on the said eve ; and for which piece of ground, because origi- nally belonging to Munster, but appointed by the su- preme Monarch for this use, there was an annual ac- knowledgement, call'd sgreaboll, paid to the King of that Province. But that all the Druids of Ireland as- sembl'd. there on the first of November, as several authors injudiciously write ; is not only a thing impro- bable, but also false in fact : nor were they otherwise there at that time, nor all at any time together in one place, but as now all the Clergy of England are said

(19) Ittir dha theine BHEIL. (f^0) Samhbhuin. (21) Fire-ground.

OF THE DRUIDS. 105

to be present in their Convocations ; that is, by their representatives and delegates. Thus Cesar is likewise to be understood, when, after speaking of the Arch- Druid of Gaule, he says that (22) the Druids at a cer- tain time of the Year assembled in a consecrated grove in the country of the Carnutes (23), ivhich is reckoned the middle region of all Gaule. But of these assemblies in their place. On the foresaid eve all the people of the country, out of a religious persuasion instill'd into them by the Druids, extinguish'd their fires as intirely; as the Jews are wont to sweep their houses, the night before the feast of unleavened bread. Then every master of a family was religiously oblig'd, to take a portion of the consecrated fire home, and to kindle the fire a new in his house, which for the ensuing year was to be lucky and prosperous. He was to pay however for his future happiness, whether the event prov'd answerable or not : and tho' his house shou'd be afterwards burnt, yet he must deem it the punishment of some new sin, or ascribe it to any thing, rather than to want of virtue in the consecration of the fire, or of validity in the benedic- tion of the Druid ; who, from officiating at the Cams, was likewise call'd (24) Cairneach, a name that con- tnuTd to signify a Priest, even in the Christian times.

(22) //' [Dm icles"] ccrto anni tempore iriftnibus Carnut; quae regio totius Galfiae media habctur, consMunt ih consecrato. De hello Gallico. lib. 6. cap. 1

(C3) Now U P ' ais Chartrain, the place? ' J&reux.

(94) This is the true origin of the Uvwrd Qairnettcli, signifying a Priest : but not deriv'd, as men ignorant of

O

10(5 THE HISTORY

But if any man had not clear'4 with the Druids for the last year's dues, he was neither to have a spark of this holy fire from the Carns, nor durst any of his neighbors let him take the benefit of theirs, under pain of Ex- communication ; which, as managed by the Druids, was worse than death. If lie wou'd brew therefore or bake, or roast or boil, or warm himself and family, in a word, if he wou'd live the winter out, the Druids dues must be paid' by the last of October : so that this trick alone waa: mare effectual, than are all the Acts of Parliament nm-ie for recovering our present Cler- gy's dues : whicfr Acts are so many and so frequent, that the bare enumeration of them wou'd make an indifferent volume Wherefore I cannot but admire the address of the Druids, in fixing this ceremony of rekindling family-fires to the beginning of Novem- ber, rather than to May or Midsummer, when there was an equal opportunity for it.

V. A world of places (25) are denominated from those Carns of all sorts, as in- Wales C or n-Lhe chart, Carn-Lhaid ; in Scotland Cam- Wath, Carn-tullock> Drum-cairn, Glen-cairn ; in Ireland Cam-mail, Cam- aret, Carnan-tagher, Carnan-tober (26) ; and in Nor- thumberland, as in other parts of the North of Eng- land, they are sometimes call'd Laws or Lows, a name

aatiquity fancy, from Coroinectch, nlluding to the crown- forin'd tonsure of the Monks, not near so old as this word.

(25) The places are numberless in all these countries.,

(26) Carnan is the diminutive of Cam*

"OF THE DRUIDS. lor

they also give the Gothic Barrows. The Lowland Scots call 'em in the plural number Cairns, whence se- . veral Lordships are nam'd, as one in Lennox, another in Galloway, to mention no more, from which the sur- name of CAIRNS. The family of CARNE, in Wales, is from the like original.: but siot, as some have thought, the OK.EARNYS (27) of Ireland ; one of which, Mr, JOHN KEARNY, Treasurer of Saint PATRICKS in Dublin, was very instrumental in getting the New Testament translated into Irish, about the end of the last century but one. As to this fire-worship, which, by the way, prevail'd over all the world-, the Celtic nations kind- led other fires on midsummer eve, which are still con- tinued by the Roman Catholics of Ireland ; making them in all their grounds, and carrying flaming brands about their Corn-fields. This they do likewise all o- ver France, and in some of the Scottish lies. These Midsummer fires and sacrifices, w«ere to obtain a bles- sing on the fruits of the earth, now becoming ready for gathering ; as those of the first of May, that they might prosperously grow : and those of the last of Oc- tober, were a Thanksgiving for finishing their Harvest. But in all of 'em regard was also had to the several de- grees of increase and decrease in the heat of the Sun ; as in treating of their Astronomy, and -manner reckoning time, we shall clearly chow. Their ether treals, with their peculiar observations, shall be likewi:^ explain'd each in their proper Sections ; especially i of New-years day, or the tenth of March., their fourth

(27) 0 lucarAaig/t/besides QCcatharnaigh.

108 THE HISTORY

grand festival, which was none of the least solemn : and which was the day of seeking, cutting, and consecra- ting their wonder-working J^-te/? or Misselto of Oak. This is the ceremony to which VIRGIL alludes by his golden-branch, in the sixth book of the Aeneid, for which there is incontestable proof, which we shall give in a section on this subject. 'Tis PLINY who says, that the Druids call'd it, in their language, by a word sig- nifying (28) All-heal ; which word in the Armorican dialect is oll-yach, in the Welsh ol-hiach, and in the Irish Uil-iceach. Here by the way, we may observe, that as the Greecs had many words from the Barbarians, for which PLATO in his (29) Cratylus, judges it would be lost labor to seek Etymologies in their own langu- age : so it is remarkable, that certain feasts of APOLLO were call'd (30) Carnea, from the killing of no body knows what Prophet CARNUS. Some said that he was the son of JUPITER and EUROPA, kill'd for a Magician by one ALES ; and others yet, that Carni was a com- mon name for an order of Prophets in Acarnania. APOLLO himself was surnamed CARNUS (31) ; and, from him, May was call'd the Carman Month. Nay there were Carman Priests, and a particular kind of Music, which we may interpret the Cairn-tunes, was appro-

(2S) Qmnia-sgn&ntem appellantes suo vocabufa, $c. Lib. 1C. Cap

(£9) "Ei tls zetoi tauta kata t~n Helleniken plior.cn, hos coilotos I;eifai ; al- ia :r.5 kat' ckeinpr, ex li^s to ono-.r/.i tyftgchanei' on, oitiiha hoti av:. Inter opera, edit. Paris Vol. 1. P.IJ. -il

("Co Ta Kaniea. •

: Kuraoios .

OF THE DRUIDS. 109

priated to those festivals in May, perfectly answering those of the Celtic tribes. It is therefore highly proba- ble, that the Greecs did learn these things from the Gauls their conquerors, and in many places seated among them ; or from some of their travel lors in Gaule it self; if not from the Phocean colony at Marseilles. We know further, that the making of hymns was a special part of the Bards office ; who by STRABO, are expresly term'd Hymn-makers (32) : and I show'd be- fore, that the antient Greecs, by their own confession, learnt part of their Philosophy, and many of their sa- cred fables, from the Gauls. So that this criticism is not so void of probability, as many which pass current enough in the world. However, I fairly profess to give it onely for a conjecture ; which I think preferable to the farr-fetcht and discordant accounts of the Greecs : who, in spight of PLATO and good sense, wou'd needs be fishing for the origin of every thing in their own language. In the mean time it is not unworthy our remark, that as (33) Priz es were adjudg'd to the Vic- tors in this Carman Music among the Greecs : so the distributing of Prizes to the most successful Poets, was no less usual among the Gauls and their colonies ; where- of there is undeniable proof in the Brittish and Irish Histories, as will be seen in our Section concerning the Bards.

VI. Another Criticism relating immediately to

(32) JhzmnGtai.

(33) Timotheos— ta Kar&cia agouizomenos. Plutarch, in Apophthegm.

liO THE HISTORY

APOLLO, for which I think this a proper place, I give as something more than a conjecture. In the Lordship of Merchiston, near Edinburgh, was formerly dug up a stone with an Inscription to Apollo Grannus ; concern- Ing which Sir James Dalrymple Baronet, in his second edition of Cambderfs Description of Scotland, thus ex- presses himself after his (31) author. Who this Apol- lo Grannus might be, and whence he should have his \ name, not one, to my knowledge, of our grave Senate of Antiquaries hitherto cou'd ever tell. But if I might be allowed, from out of the lowest bench, to speak what I think ; I wou'd say that Apollo Grannus, among the Romans, was the same that (35) Apollon Aker- sekomes, that is, APOLLO with long hair, among the Greecs : for ISIDORE calls the long hair of the Goths GRANNOS. This consequence will by no means hold : for what are the Goths to the Rom ans, who exprest this Greec by mtonsus APOLLO ? And since Goths speak- ing Latin had as little to do in the shire of Lothian, it will not be doubted, but that it was some Roman who paid this vow ; as soon as 'its known, that, besides the man's name QUINTUS Lusius SAB INI AN us, Grian, among the many (36) Celtic names of the Sun, was

(34) This passage in CAMBDEN is in the 897th page of CHURCHILL'S edition, anno 1695.

(35) Appollon akcrsekoir.es item akeirekomes.

(36) Besides the Sun's religious attribute of BEL, HEAL, BELIN, or BELENUS, it is calPd Hat/I in Welsh, //ov* in. Cornish, Heul in Armoric; in all which the aspirate h is put for s, as in a world of such oiher words : for aiw word beginning with s in the autient Celtic, dees in the Oblique cases begin with h. Yet s is still rctnin'd in the Armorio Disul, in the Cambrian Qydhsye, and the Coruubian

OF THE DRUIDS. Hi.

one, being the common name of it still in Irish : and that, from his beams, Greannach in the same language signifies long-hair d, which is a natural epithet of the Sun in all nations^ There is no need therefore of go- ing for a Gothic derivation to Isidore, in whom now I read Scots instead of Goths ; and not, as I fancy, with- out very good reason, It wou'd be superfluous to produce instances, the thing is so common, to show that the Romans, to their own names of the Gods, added the names or attributes under which they were invok'd ir> the country,, where they happened on any occasion to sojjourn. Nor was this manner of topical worship un- known to the antient Hebrews, who are forbid to fol- low it by Moses in these words : (37) Enquire not af- ter their Gods, saying, how did these nations serve their Gods ? even so will I do likewise. GRIA.N therefore and GREANNACH explain the (38) Lothian Inscription

that is to say, Sunday. It was formerly Diasoil in Irish, whence still remain Solus light, Soillse clearness, Soillseach bright or sunny, Solleir manifest, and several more such. 'Tis nowcall'd Dia Domhnaigh, or Dies Dvminicus, accord- ing to the general use of all Christians.

(.37) Deut. xii, 30.

(38) This Inscription, as given us by CAMBDEN from Sir PETER YOUNG, preceptor to King JAMES VI, [for the. Laird of Merchistou's Exposition of the Apocalyps I never -. raris thus:

APOLLINI GRANNO

Q. L us i.us. SABINIA

KUS-

* Procurator,

112 THE HISTORY

very naturally, in the antient language of the Scots themselves, spoken still in5 the Highlands and Western lies, as well as in Ireland, without any need of having recourse to Gothland, or other foren countries.

VII. To return to our Cam-fires, it was customary for the Lord of the place, or his son, or some other person of distinction, to take the entrals of the sacri- fic'd animal in his hands, and walking barefoot over the coals thrice, after the flames had ceas'd, to carry them strait to the Druid, who waited in a whole skin at the Altar. If the Nobleman escap'd harmless, it was reckon'd a good omen, welcomed with loud accla- mations : but if he receiv'd any hurt, it was deem'd unlucky both to the community and to himself. Thus I have seen the people running and leaping thro' the St. John's fires in Ireland, and not onely proud of pas- sing unsing'd : but, as if it were some kind of lustra- tion, thinking themselves in a special manner blest by this ceremony, of whose original nevertheless they were wholly ignorant in their imperfect imitation of it. Yet without being appriz'd of all this, no reader, how- ever otherwise learned, can truely apprehend the be- ginning of the Consul FLAMINIUS'S speech to EQU AN- US the Sabin, at the battle of ThraL*imenus, thus intel- ligently related by (39) SILIUS ITALICUS.

Aua* * Augusti.

V. S. S. L. V. M * * Votum susceptum solvit

Mubens merito.

(39) Turn Soracte satum, praestantem corpora ct armis9

OF THE DRUIDS. 113

Then seeing Eg u AN us, near Soracte born, In person, as in arms, the comely est youth ; Whose country manner *tis-9 when thy archer keen Divine Avo^LOJoys in burning HEAPS, The sacred Entrals throy the f re unhurt To carry thrice : so may you always tread, With unscorclidfeet, the consecrated coals ; And o'er the heat victorious, swiftly bear The solemn gifts to plcas'd APOLLO'S Altar*

Now let all the Commentators on this writer be con- sulted, and then it will appear what sad guess-work they have made about this passage ; which is no less true of an infinite number of passages in other authors relating to such customs: for a very considerable part of Italy followed most of the Druidical rites, as the in- habitants of such places happened to be of Gallic ex- traction, which was the case of many Cantons in that delicious country. But this is particularly true of the Umbrians and S'abins, who are by all authors made the (40) antientest people of Italy, before the coming thither of any Greec Colonies. But they are by (41)

AEQUANUM noscens; patrio cui ritus in arvo, J)utn plus Accitenens incensis gaudet ACERVIS9 Exta ter innocuos late portare per ignes : Sic in APOLLINEA semper vestigia pruna Inmolata ter as ; victorque vaporis, ad aras * Dona serenato referas Solennia PHQSBO.

Lib. 5. ver. 175. /

(40) Dionys* Halicarnass. Antiq. Rom. lib, 1. Plin» Hist. Nat. lib/3, cap. 14. Flor. lib. 1. cap. 17, &c.

(41) BOCCHUS absolvit Gallorum veterttm propaginem Umbros esse, Polyhist. cap. 8.

p

114 THE HISTORY

Solinus from the historian Bocchus, by (42) Servius from the elder Marc Antony, by (4<3) Isidore also and (44) TZETZES, in direct -terms stil'd the issue of the antient Gauhi or a branch of them : and Dionysius Halicar- nasseus, the most judicious of Antiquaries,, proves- out of Zcnodotus, that the Sabins were descendants of the Umbrians ; or, (45) as he expresses it, Umbrians un- der the name of Sabins. The reason I am so particu- lar on this head, is, that the mountain (46) Soracte is in the Sabin country, in the district of the Faliscans, about twenty miles to the north of Rome, and on the west side of the Tyber.. On the top of it were the Grove and Temple of APOLLO, and also his Carn (47), to which SILIUS, in the verses just quoted out of him, alludes. PLINY has preserved to us the very (48) name of the .particular race of people, to which the performing of the above described annual ceremony be-

(42) Sane Umbros Qallorum vcierum propaginem esse> MARCUS ANTONIUS refert. In lib. 1-2. Aeneid. ante fin.

(43) Umbri Italiae gens est, sed Gallorum veterum pro- pago. Origin, lib. 9. cap. 2.

(44) Ombroi genos Galaticon e Galaton. Schol. in Lycophrwi. Alex, c.d ver. 1360.

(45) Sabinous ex Ombrikon. Antiq. Rom. lib. 1.

(46) Now Monte di San sylvestro.

(47) Acervus.

(48) Hand procul urbe Roma, in Faliscorum agro fami- liae sunt paucae, quae vocantur HIRPI^E ; quaeque aacrificio annuo, quod ft ad montem Soracte APOLLINI, super ambus- tarn ligni struem ambulantes, non aduruntur: tt ub id pcr-pe- tuo senatus consulto militiae, aliorumque munerum, vacatio* nem habent. Hist. Nat. lib. 2, cap. 2. Idem ex todem Sulin Polyhist. cap. &

OF THE DRUIDS. 115

longed : nor was it for nothing that they ran the risk of blistering their soles, since for this they were exemted from serving in the wars, as well as from the expense and Iroble of several offices. They were called HIR- PINS. VIRGIL, much elder than SILIUS or I'LINY, in- troduces AHUNS, one of that family, forming a design to kill CAMILLA, and thus praying for success to A-

POLLO,

0 patron O/SORACTE'S high abodes,

PHEBUS, the ruling pow'r among the Gods!

Whom first we serve, whole woods of unctuous pine

Earn on thy HEAP, and to thy glory shine:

By thee protected, with our naked soles

Thro flames unsingd we pass, and tread the Jri/idl'd coals.

Give me, propitious pow'r, to wash away

The stains of this dishonourable day (49J'.

DIIYDEN*S Version.

A Celtic Antiquary, ignorant of the origin of the Um- brians and Sabins, wou'd imagine, when reading what past on Soracte, that it was some Gallic, Brittish, or Irish mountain, the rites being absolutely the same. We do not read indeed in our Irish books, what pre- servative against fire was used by those, who ran bare- foot over the burning coals of the Cams : and, to be sure, they wou'd have the common people piously be-

(49) Summe Dewn, sancii cuslos Soractis, APOLLO, Quern primi colimus, cui pineus ardor ACERlfUt Pascitur; et medium, freti pietate, per ignem Cultores multa premimds vestigia pruna : Da, pater, hoc nwtris auoleri dedccus ar/nis.

Aen. lib, 11. ver. 7S5,

116 THE HISTORY

lieve they used none. Yet that they really 'did, no less than the famous fire-eater, whom I lately saw making so great a figure at London, men of penetration and uncorrupted judgements will never question. But we are not merely left to our judgements, for the fact is sufficiently attested by that prodigy of knowledge, and perpetual opposer of Superstition, MARCUSVARRO; who, as SERVIUS on the above-cited passage of VIRGIL af- firms (50), described the very ointment of which the HIRPINS made use, besmearing their feet with it, when they walked thro' thejire, - Thus at all times have the multitude, that common prey of Priests and Princes, be&n easily gulFd ; swallowing the secrets of Natural Philosophy for Divine Miracles, and ready to do the greatest good or hurt, not under the notions of vice or virtue : but barely as directed by men, who find it their interest to deceive them.

VIII. But leaving the Druids for a while, there are over and above the Cams, in the Highlands- of Scotland, and in the adjacent lies numberless OBE- LISCS, or stones set up on end ; some thirty, some twenty-four foot high ; others higher or lower : and this sometimes where no such stones are to be dug, Wales being likewise full of them ; and some there are in the least cultivated parts of England, with very many in Ireland. In most places of this last kingdom,

(50) Sed YAIUIO, ubinuc-Religionis cxpugrtator, ait, cum cjitoddammcdicamtntum describerct, eo uti solent H1RPINI, qui ambulaturi per ignem, medieamento Plantas tingunt. Ad ver. 787, lib. 11. Aeneid.

OF THE DRUIDS. 117

the common people believe these Obelises to be men, transformed into stones by the Magic of the Druids. This is also the notion the vulgar have in Oxford- shire of Roll-wright stones, and in Cornwall of the Hurlers ; erect stones so call'd, but belonging to a different class from the Obelises, whereof I now dis- course. And indeed in every country the ignorant people ascribe to the Devil or some supernatural power, at least to Giants, all works which seem to them to excede human art or ability. Thus among other things, for recording their traditions will have its pleasure as well as usefulness, they account for the Roman Camps and Military Ways, calling such the DeviVs-Dykes, or the like : while the more reasonable part are persuad- ed, that the erect stones of which we speak, are the Monuments of dead persons, whose ashes or bones are often found near them ; sometimes in Urns, and some- times in Stone-coffins, wherein scales, hammers, pieces of weapons, and other things have been often found, some of them very finely gilt or polish'd. Dogs also have been found bury'd with their masters. The erect stones in the midst of stone-circles, whereof be- fore I have done, are not of this funeral sort ; nor does it follow, that all those have been erected in Christian times, which have Christian Inscriptions or Crosses on them : for we read of many such Obelises thus sancti- fy'd, as they speak, in Wales and Scotland. And, in our Irish Histories, we find the practice as early as

US THE HISTORY

PATRIC himself; who, having built the Church ot Donach-Patric on the brink of Loch-Placket (5 1 ) in the county of Clare, did there on three Colosses, erec- ted in the times of Paganism, inscribe the proper name of CHRIST in three languages : namely, JESUS in Hebrew on the first, SOTER in Greec on the second, and SALVATOR in Latin on the third. That Obelise, if I may call it so, in the Parish of Barvas, in the Hand of Lewis in Scotland, call'd the Thrushel-stone, is very remarkable ; being not onely above twenty foot high, which is yet surpass'd by many others : but likewise almost as much in breadth, which no other comes near.

IX. Besides these Obelises, there is a great num- ber of FORTS in all the lies of Scotland, very different from the Danish and Norwegian Raths in Ireland, or the Saxon and Danish Burghs in England : nor are they the same with the Gallic, Brittish, and Irish Lios, pronounc'd Lis (52) ; which are fortifications inade of un wrought stones and uncemented, whereof there , are two very extraordinary in the lies of Aran, in the Bay of Galway in Ireland. Dim is a general Celtic word for all fortifications made on an eminence, and the eminences themselves are so call'd ; as we see in many parts of England, and the Sand-hills on the Bel-

(51) Formerly Domhtiacli-mor and Loch-sealga.

(52) L?os in Irish, Les in Annoric, and Lhys in Welsh, ignifies in English a Court ; as Lis-Luhi, Lynscourt.

s

OF THE DRUIDS.

gic Coast. Yet Rath and Lls are often confounded together, both in the speech and writing of the Irish. But the Forts in question are all of wrought stone, and often of such large stones, as no number of men cou'd ever raise to the places they occupy, without the use of Engines ; which Engines are quite unknown to the present inhabitants, and to their ancestors for many ages past. There's none of the lesser lies, but has one Fort at least, and they are commonly in sight of each a- ther : but the Dun in St. KILDA, for so they call the Old Fort there, is about eighteen leagues distant from North Uist, and twenty from the middle of Lewis or Harries, to be seen only in a very fair day like a blewish mist : but a large fire there wou'd be visible at night, as the ascending smoak by day. In this same He of Lewis, where are many such Duns, there's north of the village of Brago, a round Fort composed of huge stones, and three stories high : that is, it has three hollow passages one over another, within a prodigious thick wall quite round the Fort, with many windows and stairs. I give this onely as an example from Dr. MARTIN an eye-witness, who, with several others, mention many more such elsewhere : yet, which is a great neglect, without acquainting us with their di- mensions, whether those passages in the wall be arch'd, or with many such things relating to the na- ture of the work ; and omitting certain other circum- stances, no less necessary to be known. I mention these Forts, my Lord, not as any way, that I yet know, appertaining to the Druids : but, in treating

120 THE HISTORY

of the Monuments truely theirs, I take this natural occasion of communicating, what may be worthy ©f your Lordship's curiosity and consideration ; es- pecially when, like Episodes in a Poem, they serve to relieve the attention, and are not very foren to the subject. Considering all things, I judge no Monuments more deserving our researches ; especi- ally, if any shou'd prove them to be Pheniciari or Massilian Places of security for their commerce : since 'tis certain that both People have traded there, and that PYTHE AS of Marseilles, as we are informed by STRABO> made a particular description of those Hands ; to which CESAR, among other Descriptions, without naming the authors, does doubtless (53) refer. But my own opinion I think fit at pre- sent to reserve.

X. From the conjectures I have about these numerous and costly Forts, in Hands so remote and barren, I pass to the certainty I have con- cerning the TEMPLES OF THE DRUIDS, whereof so many are yet intire in those Hands, as well as in Wales and Ireland ; with some left in England, where culture has mostly destroyed or impair'd such Monuments. These Temples are Circles of Obelises or erect stones, some larger,,

(53) In hoc medio ciirsu [inter Hiberniam scilicet & Bri- taimiam] est insitla, quae appellatur Mona. Complures prae- terea minores objectae insulae existimantur, de quibus insulis norwulli scripserunt, dies continuos 30 $ub bruma esse noctem> De Bello Gallico, lib. 5,

OF THE DRUIDS. 121

some narrower, as in all other Edifices, some more and some less magnificent. They are for the great- est part perfectly circular, but some of them semicir- cular : in others the Obelises stand close together, but in most separate and equidistant. I am not ignorant that several, with Dr. CHARLTON in his Stone-henge restored to the Danes, believe those Circles to be Danish works ; a notion I shall easily confute in due time, and even now as I go a- long. But few have imagin'd 'em to be Roman, as the famous Architect INIGO JONES wou'd needs have this same Stone-henge, according to me one of the Druid Cathedrals, to be the Temple of CE- LUM or TERMINUS, in his Stone-henge restored to the Romans. Nevertheless, My Lord, I promise you no less than demonstration, that those Circles were Druids Temples : against which assertion their fre- quenting of Oaks, and performing no religious rites without Oak-branches or Leaves, will prove no valid exception ; no more than such Circles being found in the Gothic countries, tho' without ALTARS, where- of we shall speak after the Temples. The out- side of the Churches in Spain and Holland is much the same, but their inside differs extremely. As for INIGO JONES, he cannot be too much commend- ed for his generous efforts, which shows an uncom- mon genius, to introduce a better taste of Architec- ture into England, where 'tis still so difficult a thing to get rid of Gothic Oddnesses ; and therefore 'tis no wonder he shou'd continue famous., when so

Q

THE HISTORY

few endeavour to excede him : but we must beg his pardon, if, as he was unacquainted with His- tory, and wanted certian other qualifications, we take the freedom in our Book to correct his mistakes,

XL In the Hand of Lewis beforemention'd, at the village of Classerniss, there is one of those Temples extremely remarkable. The Circle con- sists of twelve Obelises, about seven foot high each,, and distant from each other six foot. In the; center stands a stone thirteen foot high, in the perfect shape of the rudder of a Ship. Directly south from the -Circle* there stand four Obelises run- ning out in a line ; as another such line due east, and a third to the west, the number and distances of the stones being in these wings the same : so that this Temple, the most intire that can be, is at the same time both round and wing'd. But to the north there reach, by way of avenue, two straight ranges of Obelises^ of the same bigness and distances with those of the Circle; yet the ranges themselves are eight foot distant, and each consisting of nineteen stones, the thirty-ninth be- ing in the entrance of the avenue.. This Tem- ple stands astronomically, denoting the twelve signs of the Zodiac and the four principal wrinds, sub- divided each into four others ; by which, and the nineteen stones on each side the avenue betoken- iiig the Cycle of nineteen years, I can prove it to have been dedicated principally to the Sun ;

OF THE DRUIDS. 3*3

but subordinately to the Seasons and the Ele- ments, particularly to the Sea and the Winds, as appears by the rudder in the middle. The Sea, consider'd as a Divinity, was by the antient Gauls call'd ANVANA or ONVANA, as the raging Sea is still call'd Anafa in so many Letters by the Irish (54) ; and both of 'em, besides that they were very good Astronomers, are known to have paid honor not only to the Sea, but also to the Winds and the Tempests, as the (55) Romans were wont to do, But of this in the account of their worship. I for- got to tell you, that there is another Temple about a quarter of a mile from the farmer ; and that com- monly two Temples stand near each other, for rea- sons you will see in our History. East of Drum- cruy in the Scottish He of Aran, is a Circular Temple, whose area is about thirty paces over : and south of the same Village is such another Temple, in the center of which still remains the Altar ; being a broad thin stone, supported by three other such stones. This is very extraordi- nary, tho', as you may see in my last Letter, not

(54) They vulgarly call the sea mor or muir, mara, cuant f dirge, &c.

(55) Sic fatus, meritos aris maciamt honorcs : Taurum NEPTUNO, taurum tibi, pulcher APOLLO ; Nigram HYEMI pecudem, ZEBtpyqis/dicibus albqm*

Aen. lib, 3,

Videatur etlam Horativs, Epod. 10. ver. ult. Cic. de nat, Deer, lib, 3. Et Aristvph. in Ranis cum SUQ Scholiafte.

THE HISTORY

the onely example ; since the zeal of the Chris- tians, sometimes apt to be over-heated, us'd to leave no Altars standing but their own. In the greatest Hand of (56) Orkney, commonly call'd the Mainland, there are likewise two Temples, where the natives believe by Tradition, that the Sun and Moon were worshipt : which belief of theirs is very right, since the lesser Temple is semi-circular. The greater is one hundred and ten paces diameter. They know not what to make of two green Mounts erected at the east and west end of it : a matter nevertheless for which it is not difficult to account. There's a trench or ditch round each of these Temples, like that about Stone-henge ; and, in short, every such Temple had the like inclosure. Many of the stones are above twenty or twenty-four foot in heighth, above the ground, a- bout five foot in breadth, and a foot or two in thickness. Some of 'em are fallen down : and the Temples are one on the east and the other on the west side of the Lake of Stennis, where it is shallow and fordable, there being a passage o- ver by large stepping stones. Near the lesser Temple, which is on the east side of the Lake,

(56) The lies of Orkney are denominated from Orcas or Orca, which, in DIODORUS SICULUS and PTOLEMY, is the antient name of Caithness; and this from Ore, not a salmon fas by some interpreted] but a whale : so that in old Irish Orc-i is the Whale Hands. The words of DIODORUS are,

To de Hypolipomenon (tes Bretanias) anekein men hiatorousin eis to pelagon, ouomazestliai de Orcan. Lib. 4,

OF THE DRUIDS.

as the greater on the west, there stand two stones of the same bigness with the (57) rest ; thro* the middle of one of which there is a large hole, by which criminals and victims were ty'd. Like- wise in the Hand of Papa-Westra, another of the Orkneys, there stand, near a Lake, now call'd St. TR ED WELL'S (58) LOCH, two such Obelises, in one of which there is the like hole ; and behind them lying on the ground a third stone, being hollow like a trough.

XII. These few I only give for examples out of great numbers, as I likewise take the liberty to acquaint you, My Lord, that' at a place call'd Biscau-woon, near Saint Burien's in Cornwall, there is a circular Temple consisting of nineteen stones, the distance between each twelve foot ; and a twentieth in the center, much higher than the rest. But I am not yet informed, whether this middle stone has any peculiar figure, or whether inscrib'd with any characters ; for such characters are found in Scotland, and some have been ob- serv'd in Wales ; but, except the Roman and Christian Inscriptions, unintelligible to such as have hitherto seen them. Yet they ought to have been fairly represented, for the use of such as might have been able perhaps to explain them. They would at least exercise our Antiquaries. The Circle of

(57) Brand, pag. 44.

(58) Brand, pag. 58.

126 THE HISTORY

Rollrich-stones in Oxfordshire, and the Hurlers in Cornwall, are two of those Druid Temples. There is one at^ Aubuiy in Wiltshire, and some left in other places of England. In GREGORY of Tours time there was remaining, and for ought I know may still be so, one of those Temples on the top of BELEN'S Mount, between Arton and Riom in Auvergne. It was within this inclosure that MARTIN, the sainted Bishop, stood taking a (59) View of the country, as before mention'd. Now of such Temples I shall mention here no more, but procede to the Druids ALTARS, which, as I said before, do ordinarily consist of four stones ; three being hard flags, or large tho' thin stones, set up edge-wise, two making the sides, and a shorter one the end, with a fourth stone of the same kind on the top : for the other end was commonly left open, and the Altars were all ob- long. Many of 'em are not intire. From some the upper stone is taken away, from others one of the side-stones or the end. And, besides the alterations that men have caus'd in all these kinds of Monuments, Time it self has chang'd 'em much more. Mr. BRAND speaking of the Obelises in Ork- ney, many of 'em, says (60) he, appear to be much worn, by the washing of the wind and ram, luhich

(59) Extat nunc in hoc loco cancdlus, in quo Sanctus dt- citur stttiste. Gregor, Turon. de Gloria Confessor, cap. 5.

(60) Pag. 46.

OF THE DRUIDS. 127

shows they are of a long standing : and it is very strange to think, how, in those places and times, they got such large stones carry 'd and erected. Tis naturally impossible, but that, in the course of so many ages, several stones must have lost their figure ; their angles being exposed to all weathers, and no care taken to repair any disorder, nor to prevent any abuse of them. Thus some are be- come lower, or jagged, or otherwise irregular and diminished : many are quite wasted, and moss or scurf hides the Inscriptions or Sculptures of others ; for such Sculptures there are in seveial places, particularly in Wales and the Scottish He of A- ran. That one sort of stone lasts longer than another is true : but that all will have their period, no less than Parchment and Paper, is as true.

X,

XIII.. There are a great many of the AL- TARS to be seen yet intire in Wales, particu- larly two in Kerig Y Drudion parish mentioned in my other Letter, and one in Lhan-Hammulch parish in Brecknockshire ; with abundance else- where, diligently observ'd by one I mention'd in my first Letter, Mr. EDWARD LHUYD, who yet was not certain to* what use they were destin'd. Hera I beg the favor of your Lordship to take it for granted, that I have sufficient authorities fbr e- very thing I alledge : and tho' I do not always give them in this brief Specimen, yet in the his- tory it self they shall be produc'd on every pro-

128 THE HISTORY

per occasion. The Druids Altars were commonly in the middle of the Temples, near the great Co- lossus, of which presently ; as there is now such a one at Carn-Lhechart in the parish of Lhan- Gyvelach in Glamorganshire, besides that which I mentioned before in Scotland. They are by the Welsh in the singular number calPd Kist-vaen, that is a stone-chest, and in the plural Kistieu-vaen, stone-chests. These names, with a small variation, are good Irish : but the things quite different from those real stone-chests or coffins, commonly of one block and the lid, that are in many places found under ground. The vulgar Irish call these Altars (61) DERMOT and CRANIA'S bed. This last was the Daughter of King CORMAC ULFHADA, and Wife to (62) FIN MAC CUIL ; from whom, as invincible a General and Champion as he's reported to have been, she took it in her head, as women will some- times have such fancies, to run away with a no- bleman, call'd (63) DERMONT O DUVNY : but be- ing pursu'd every where, the ignorant country people say, they were intertain'd a night in every quar- ter-land (6&) or village of Ireland ; where the in- habitants sympathizing with their affections, and doing to others what they wou'd be done untOj.

(61) Leaba DHIARMAIT agus GHRAINE.

(62) FINN MHAC CUBHAILL.

(63) DlARMAlT ODUIBHNE.

(64) Seisreach & Ceathrauihach, *

OF THE DRUIDS.

made these beds both for their resting and hid- ing place. The Poets, you may imagine, have not been wanting to imbellish this story : and hence it appears, that the Druids were planted as thick as Parish Priests, nay much thicker. Wherever there's a Circle without an Altar, 'tis certain there was one formerly ; as Altars are found where the Cir- cular Obelises are mostly or all taken away for other uses, or out of aversion to this superstition, or that time has consum'd them. They, who, from the bones, which are often found near those Al- tars and Circles, 'tho' seldom within them, will needs infer, that they were burying places ; for- get what CESAR, PLINY, TACITUS, and other Authors, write of the human sacrifices offer'd by the Druids : and, in mistaking the ashes found in the Cams, they show themselves ignorant of those several an- niversary fires and sacrifices, for which they were rear'd, as we have shown above. The huge cop- ing stones of these Cams were in the nature of Altars, and Altars of the lesser form are frequent- ly found near them ; as now in the great Latin and Greec Churches, there are, besides the High Altar, several smaller ones.

XIV. There's another kind of Altar much bigger than either of these, consisting of a great number of stones ; some of 'em serving to sup- port the others, by reason of their enormous bulk. These the Britons term CROMLECH in the sin-

R

130 THE HISTORY

gular, Cromlechu in the plural number ; and the Irish CROMLEACH or Cromleac, in the plural Cromleacha or Cromleacca. By these Altars, as in the center of the Circular Temples, there com- monly stands, or by accident lyes, a prodigious stone, which was to serve as a Pedestal to some Deity : for all these Cromleachs were places of worship, and so call'd from bowing, the word sig- nifying the (65) bowing-stone. The original desig- nation of the Idol CRUM-CRUACH, whereof in the next Section, may well be from Cruim, an equi- valent word to Tairneach Taran or Tarman, all signifying Thunder : whence the Romans call'd the Gallic Jupiter Taramis or Taranis, the thun-

derer : and from these Cromleachs it is, that in the oldest Irish a Priest is call'd Cruimthear, and

Priesthood Cruimtheacd, which are so many evi- dent vestiges of the Druidical (66) religion. There's a Cromlech in Nevern-Parish in Pembrokeshire, where the middle stone is still eighteen foot high, and nine broad towards the base, growing nar- rower upwards. There lyes by it^a piece broken of ten foot long, which seems more than twen- ty oxen can draw : and therefore they were not

(65) From crom or crum, which, in Armoric, Irish, and Welsh, signifies bent ; and Lech or L?ac> a broad .stone.

((>(>) Of the same nature is Cuirneach, of which be- r« : for . the ordinary \ford for a Priest, is

» i > i f^e H t» f , , ,- «,* ' A f J-Q jj| Suc€rdos,

OF THE DRUIDS. 131

void of all skill in the Mechanics, who could set up the whole. But one remaining at Poitiers in France, supported by five lesser stones, excedes all in the British Hands, as being sixty foot in circumference (67). I fancy however that this was a Rocking-stone : There's also a noble Cromleach at Bod-ouyr in Anglesey. Many of them, by a modest computation, are thirty tun weight : but they differ in bigness, as all pillars do, and their Altars are ever bigger than the ordinary Kistieu- vaen. In some places of Wales these stones are call'd Meineu-guyr, which is of the same import with Cromlechu. In Caithness, and other remote parts of Scotland, these Cromleacs^afe^very num- erous, some pretty entire ; and others, not so much consum'd by time, or thrown down by storms, as disorder'd and demolished by the hands of men. But no such Altars were ever found by OLAUS WORMIUS, the great northern Antiquary, which I desire the abettors of Dr. CHARLTON to note, nor by any others in the Temples of the Gothic na- tions ; as I term all who speak the sevaral dia- lects of Gothic original, from Izeland to Switzer- land, and from the Bril in Holland to Presburg in Hungary, the Boehemiaps and Polanders ex- cepted. The Druids were onely co-extended with

(67) La pierre levee de Poitiers a soixante pieds de tour, § elle tst posce sur cinq autres pierres, sans sache non plus ni pourqiioi, ni comment. Memoires d' Angleterie, page 330.

13-2 THE HISTORY

the Celtic dialects : besides that CESAR says ex- presly, there were (68) no Druids among the Ger- mans^ with whom he says as expresly that seeing and feeling ivas believing, honoring onely the Sun, the Fire, and the Moon, by which they were ma- nifestly benefited, and that they made no sacri- fices at all : which of course made Altars as use- less there, tho' afterwards grown fashionable, as they were necessary in the Druids Temples, and which they show more than probably to have been Temples indeed ; nor are they call'd by any o- ther name, or thought to have been any other thing, by the Highlanders or their Irish progeni- tors. In Jersey likewise, as well as in the other neighbouring Hands, formerly part of the Dutchy of Normandy, there are many Altars and Crom- lechs. " There are yet remaining in this Hand,'* (says Dr. FALLE in the 115th page of his Account of Jersey) " some old monuments of Paganism. We " call them Pouqueleys. They are great flat stones, " of vast bigness and weight ; some oval, some " quadrangular, rais'd three or four foot from the " ground, and supported by others of a less size. " 'Tis evident both from their figure, and great " quantities of ashes found in the ground there-

(68) Germani neque Druides habent, qui rebus di»

mnis praesint, neque Sacrificiis student. Deorum nume- TO eos solos ducunty quos cernunt, et quorum operihus aperte juvantur; So/em, et Vulcanum, et Lunam: reli- quns ne farna quidem acceperunt. De Bella Galileo, lib. &

OF THE DRUIDS. 133

" abouts, that they were us'd for Altars in those " times of superstition : and their standing on emi- " nences near the sea, inclines me also to think, " that they were dedicated to the Divinities of w