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Article AN ACCOUNT OF DRUIDISM. ← Page 3 of 6 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
An Account Of Druidism.
probably , sacerdotal and secret , or a sacerdotal cypher ; and that the word Og ham is Sanscrit , and means " mysterious knowledge . " That similar inscriptions are to be found-in Ireland is abundantly proved by Colonel Vallancey . But the most extraordinary circumstance is , that the word O g ham still continues among the people of Indostan , Persia , and Irelandwith the same sacred meaning annexed to it ! The Druids
, not only concealed , in this manner , their sacred tenets from the know ,-ledge of the people , but they often instructed their pupils by symbolical representations , with the same view of involving their doctrines in mystery , and rendering them too dark for the vulgar apprehension . This mode of instruction was truly oriental , - and , to prove that the Druids were even refined in their allegoriesthe picture of Hercules
, Ogmius , as described by Lucian , need only be produced * . There is another evidence of the . symbolical learning of the Druids in- basso relievo , discovered , some time since , over the door of the temple of Montmorillon , in Poictou . It is a liyely representation of the several stages of life at which the Druid disciples were gradually admitted into
the mysteries of the- Druid system . '" -. ' From these mysteries of the Druids let us pass . to their popular doc , trines . Amidst the sublimer tenets of this priesthopd , jye have every ? where apparent proofs of their polytheism ; and the grossness of their relig ious ideas , as represented by some writers , is very inconsistent with that divine p hilosophy which we have considered as a part of their , character . These ^ oweverwere popular divinities which the Druids
, , ostensibly worshipped , 3 n d popular notions which they ostensibly adopted , ' in conformity with the prejudices of the . vulgar mind . The Druids well knew that the common people were no philosophers ; There is reason , also , to think that a great part of the idolatries I am about to mention , were not orig inally sanctioned by the Druids , but afterwards introduced bthe Phenician colony . But it would be imr
y possible to say how far the primitive Druids accommodated . themselves to vulgar superstition , or to separate their exterior doctrines and peref monies from the fables and abs . uj-d rites of subsequent times . Cssar thus recounts the popular divinities : " Deum maxime Mercurium col ; mt fittjus sunt p lurima simulacra , Hunc omnium arlium inventoreni ferunt 5
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
An Account Of Druidism.
probably , sacerdotal and secret , or a sacerdotal cypher ; and that the word Og ham is Sanscrit , and means " mysterious knowledge . " That similar inscriptions are to be found-in Ireland is abundantly proved by Colonel Vallancey . But the most extraordinary circumstance is , that the word O g ham still continues among the people of Indostan , Persia , and Irelandwith the same sacred meaning annexed to it ! The Druids
, not only concealed , in this manner , their sacred tenets from the know ,-ledge of the people , but they often instructed their pupils by symbolical representations , with the same view of involving their doctrines in mystery , and rendering them too dark for the vulgar apprehension . This mode of instruction was truly oriental , - and , to prove that the Druids were even refined in their allegoriesthe picture of Hercules
, Ogmius , as described by Lucian , need only be produced * . There is another evidence of the . symbolical learning of the Druids in- basso relievo , discovered , some time since , over the door of the temple of Montmorillon , in Poictou . It is a liyely representation of the several stages of life at which the Druid disciples were gradually admitted into
the mysteries of the- Druid system . '" -. ' From these mysteries of the Druids let us pass . to their popular doc , trines . Amidst the sublimer tenets of this priesthopd , jye have every ? where apparent proofs of their polytheism ; and the grossness of their relig ious ideas , as represented by some writers , is very inconsistent with that divine p hilosophy which we have considered as a part of their , character . These ^ oweverwere popular divinities which the Druids
, , ostensibly worshipped , 3 n d popular notions which they ostensibly adopted , ' in conformity with the prejudices of the . vulgar mind . The Druids well knew that the common people were no philosophers ; There is reason , also , to think that a great part of the idolatries I am about to mention , were not orig inally sanctioned by the Druids , but afterwards introduced bthe Phenician colony . But it would be imr
y possible to say how far the primitive Druids accommodated . themselves to vulgar superstition , or to separate their exterior doctrines and peref monies from the fables and abs . uj-d rites of subsequent times . Cssar thus recounts the popular divinities : " Deum maxime Mercurium col ; mt fittjus sunt p lurima simulacra , Hunc omnium arlium inventoreni ferunt 5