-
Articles/Ads
Article ACCOUNT OF DRUIDISM. ← Page 2 of 6 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Account Of Druidism.
people were obliged to rekindle the fires in their own houses , from the holy fires of the Druids ; and the same custom actually exists at this day in Persia . The day after their feast , which is kept on the 24 th of April , the Persians extinguish all their domestic fire ' s , and , to rekindle them , go to the houses of their priests , and there light their tapers . To divination . the Druids and Persians Were both
equallyattached ; and they had both the same modes of divining . Pliny tells us , that our Druids so far exceeded the Persians in magic , that he should conceive the latter to have learnt the art in Britain . The Druids foretold future events , from the neighing of their white oracular horses . Cyrus , king of Persia , had also his white and sacred Jiorses ; andnot long after Cyrus , the succession to the imperial
, throne was determined by the neighing of a . horse . The Druids regarded their misletoe as a general antidote against all poisons ; and they preserved their selago as a charm against all misfortunes . And the Persians had the same confidence in the efficacy of several herbs , and used them in a similar manner . The Druids cut their ' mishtei with a golden hook ; and the Persians cut the twigs of g hez of haulm ,.
called bur ' s am t with a peculiar sort of consecrated knife . The candidates for the vacant British throne had recourse to the fatal stone , to determine their pretensions ; and , on similar occasions , the Persians recurred to their artizoe . Dr . Bbrlase has pointed out other resemblances ; but I have enumerated only the most striking . It is of consequence to observe , that
Dr . Borlase has formed this curious parallel without any view to an hypothesis . Every particular is related with caution and scrupulousness ; no forced resemblances are attempted ; but p lain facts are brought-together , ' sometimes indeed reluctantly ; though the doctor seldom struggled against the truth . His mind was too candid and ingenuous for such a resistance . In the mean time , a systematical collector of / acts is always animated bhis subjectEvery
circumy . . stance that seems to strengthen his theory , imparts ' a briskness to his circulation . From the ardour of his spirits his expressions acquire new energy—his portraits a high colouring . But we cannot congratulate the doctor on such an enlivening glow : his narrative is tame , his manner is frigid . And , what is truly unfortunate , after he has presented us with all these accumulated facts , he is at a loss in what
manner to dispose of them . He sees , indeed—he is startled at the discovery that they make against his own and the common opinion : he perceives that they might . be brought in evidence against himself . A faint glimmering of the secret history of the ivorld seems to shoot across his mind ; but- he is lost again in darkness . Such is his distressing situation . Observe how he labours to get clear from the
difficulties in which he has involved himself . The Druids , he had maintained , were a sect which had its rise among the Britons ' . Here , we see ,- he owned the independency of our Druids on the' Druids of the continent ; though his supposition that Druidism absolutely originated in Britain is evidently absurd . At this juncture it is a suppositicii t ) iat . involves him -in greater perplexity . It-evidently cuts' ; off all re-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Account Of Druidism.
people were obliged to rekindle the fires in their own houses , from the holy fires of the Druids ; and the same custom actually exists at this day in Persia . The day after their feast , which is kept on the 24 th of April , the Persians extinguish all their domestic fire ' s , and , to rekindle them , go to the houses of their priests , and there light their tapers . To divination . the Druids and Persians Were both
equallyattached ; and they had both the same modes of divining . Pliny tells us , that our Druids so far exceeded the Persians in magic , that he should conceive the latter to have learnt the art in Britain . The Druids foretold future events , from the neighing of their white oracular horses . Cyrus , king of Persia , had also his white and sacred Jiorses ; andnot long after Cyrus , the succession to the imperial
, throne was determined by the neighing of a . horse . The Druids regarded their misletoe as a general antidote against all poisons ; and they preserved their selago as a charm against all misfortunes . And the Persians had the same confidence in the efficacy of several herbs , and used them in a similar manner . The Druids cut their ' mishtei with a golden hook ; and the Persians cut the twigs of g hez of haulm ,.
called bur ' s am t with a peculiar sort of consecrated knife . The candidates for the vacant British throne had recourse to the fatal stone , to determine their pretensions ; and , on similar occasions , the Persians recurred to their artizoe . Dr . Bbrlase has pointed out other resemblances ; but I have enumerated only the most striking . It is of consequence to observe , that
Dr . Borlase has formed this curious parallel without any view to an hypothesis . Every particular is related with caution and scrupulousness ; no forced resemblances are attempted ; but p lain facts are brought-together , ' sometimes indeed reluctantly ; though the doctor seldom struggled against the truth . His mind was too candid and ingenuous for such a resistance . In the mean time , a systematical collector of / acts is always animated bhis subjectEvery
circumy . . stance that seems to strengthen his theory , imparts ' a briskness to his circulation . From the ardour of his spirits his expressions acquire new energy—his portraits a high colouring . But we cannot congratulate the doctor on such an enlivening glow : his narrative is tame , his manner is frigid . And , what is truly unfortunate , after he has presented us with all these accumulated facts , he is at a loss in what
manner to dispose of them . He sees , indeed—he is startled at the discovery that they make against his own and the common opinion : he perceives that they might . be brought in evidence against himself . A faint glimmering of the secret history of the ivorld seems to shoot across his mind ; but- he is lost again in darkness . Such is his distressing situation . Observe how he labours to get clear from the
difficulties in which he has involved himself . The Druids , he had maintained , were a sect which had its rise among the Britons ' . Here , we see ,- he owned the independency of our Druids on the' Druids of the continent ; though his supposition that Druidism absolutely originated in Britain is evidently absurd . At this juncture it is a suppositicii t ) iat . involves him -in greater perplexity . It-evidently cuts' ; off all re-