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On The Knowledge Of Freemasonry By The Druids.
ON THE KNOWLEDGE OF FREEMASONRY BY THE DRUIDS .
BY BROTHER C GOODWVN , No . 32 ? . tCandmlcd from p . 370 . ) IT will be almost unnecessary to extend the comparisons of the principles of religious belief , and their attendant ceremonials , as adopted by the Druids , with those of the spurious mysteries , to any further
extent , although it would be easy to do so , to induce something more than a doubt in the mind of the most sceptical , whether our order was known to the Druids ; but it may not be amiss to adduce some of their " heathenish practices , " with a view to confirm the impression that the principles which have ever been the unerring landmarks of Freemasonry formed no part of their creed : and it is almost impossible , as it seems to me , I can commence with a more powerful one in favour of the hypothesis
I have ventured upon , than the practice of the Druids of " offering human sacrifices to their gods , " which , on particular and solemn occasions , Ca-sar states , were of a most extensive character ; " they making huge images , whose limbs , formed of osiers , they filled with living men , and sometimes other animals , to which they set fire ; " and Strabo confirms Caesar ' s statement , "that although malefactors were preferred , if these were found wanting , innocent persons were forced to supply their
places . " This practice , it need scarcely be said , is , and ever has been , so totally opposed to , and inconsistent with , Masonic ceremonials , or religious belief , that it is impossible for Freemasonry to have existed ,, much more to have been practiced amongst a class of men by whom so
horrible and revolting a practice was even tolerated . It has been assumed , probably upon the authority of Diodorus , who states , " that condemned criminals used to be reserved for five years , and on a certain day all burnt together ; " that the persons sacrificed by the Druids were those persons only , who would otherwise have been liable to the punishment of death as malefactors ; and that , therefore , these sacrifices were only the Druidical mode of public execution . This
seems , however , to be too liberal a construction of their acts , to be consistent with truth ; inasmuch , as on a comparison of the statements ofthe authors to whom I have referred , although one may be more minute in particular details than another , no positive contradiction of the assertion that the Druids did offer innocent persons as sacrifices , will be found : and the great similarity in the ceremonies used at the Druidical sacrifices , to those used by some of the idolatrous nations in the Eastwould seem
, still further to weaken the assumption that malefactors alone were sacrificed ; but admitting that a doubt does exist of the truth of the statement that innocent persons were thus sacrificed ; the fact ( which forms the foundation of its inconsistency with regard to Freemasonry ) , that the victims executed by the Druids , were offered , in a heathenish character , as sacrifices to their gods , either as a propitiation for offences committed , or , as would seem to be the much more probable conjecture ,
in the vain hope of obtaining some particular favour from their cruel divinities , has never been disputed . In Egypt , which , like the Phoenician colonies , was peopled by the idolatrous descendants of the denounced Ham , thc offering of human
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On The Knowledge Of Freemasonry By The Druids.
ON THE KNOWLEDGE OF FREEMASONRY BY THE DRUIDS .
BY BROTHER C GOODWVN , No . 32 ? . tCandmlcd from p . 370 . ) IT will be almost unnecessary to extend the comparisons of the principles of religious belief , and their attendant ceremonials , as adopted by the Druids , with those of the spurious mysteries , to any further
extent , although it would be easy to do so , to induce something more than a doubt in the mind of the most sceptical , whether our order was known to the Druids ; but it may not be amiss to adduce some of their " heathenish practices , " with a view to confirm the impression that the principles which have ever been the unerring landmarks of Freemasonry formed no part of their creed : and it is almost impossible , as it seems to me , I can commence with a more powerful one in favour of the hypothesis
I have ventured upon , than the practice of the Druids of " offering human sacrifices to their gods , " which , on particular and solemn occasions , Ca-sar states , were of a most extensive character ; " they making huge images , whose limbs , formed of osiers , they filled with living men , and sometimes other animals , to which they set fire ; " and Strabo confirms Caesar ' s statement , "that although malefactors were preferred , if these were found wanting , innocent persons were forced to supply their
places . " This practice , it need scarcely be said , is , and ever has been , so totally opposed to , and inconsistent with , Masonic ceremonials , or religious belief , that it is impossible for Freemasonry to have existed ,, much more to have been practiced amongst a class of men by whom so
horrible and revolting a practice was even tolerated . It has been assumed , probably upon the authority of Diodorus , who states , " that condemned criminals used to be reserved for five years , and on a certain day all burnt together ; " that the persons sacrificed by the Druids were those persons only , who would otherwise have been liable to the punishment of death as malefactors ; and that , therefore , these sacrifices were only the Druidical mode of public execution . This
seems , however , to be too liberal a construction of their acts , to be consistent with truth ; inasmuch , as on a comparison of the statements ofthe authors to whom I have referred , although one may be more minute in particular details than another , no positive contradiction of the assertion that the Druids did offer innocent persons as sacrifices , will be found : and the great similarity in the ceremonies used at the Druidical sacrifices , to those used by some of the idolatrous nations in the Eastwould seem
, still further to weaken the assumption that malefactors alone were sacrificed ; but admitting that a doubt does exist of the truth of the statement that innocent persons were thus sacrificed ; the fact ( which forms the foundation of its inconsistency with regard to Freemasonry ) , that the victims executed by the Druids , were offered , in a heathenish character , as sacrifices to their gods , either as a propitiation for offences committed , or , as would seem to be the much more probable conjecture ,
in the vain hope of obtaining some particular favour from their cruel divinities , has never been disputed . In Egypt , which , like the Phoenician colonies , was peopled by the idolatrous descendants of the denounced Ham , thc offering of human