Masonic Notes And Queries.

Persians extinguish all their domestic fires , and , to rekindle them , go to tho bouses of their priests , and their light their tapers . To divination the Druids and Persians were both equally attached : 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 horses ; and , not long after Cyrus , the succession to the imperial throne was determined by the neig hing 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 iu a similar manner . The Druids cut their misletoe with a golden hook ; and tho Persians cut the twigs of ghez or haulm , called bursam , with a peculiar sort of consecrated knife . Tho candidates for the vacant _ British throne had recourse to the fatal stoneto determine their

, pretensions ; and , on similar , occasions , the Persians recurred to their artixoe . Dr . Borlase has pointed out other resemblances : but I have enumerated only the most striking . It is of consequence to observe that Dr . Borlase has formed the curious parallel without any view to an hypothesis . Every particular is related with caution and

scrupulousness ; no forced resemblances are attempted ; but plain 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 facts is always animated by bis subject . Every circumstance 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 presenced 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 tha secret history of the world , seems to shoot across his mind , but he is lost again in darkness . Such is his distressing situation . Observe how ho 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 Bzltons . Here , we seehe owned the independency of our Druids on the

, Druids of the continent ; though bis supposition that Druidism absolutely originated in Britian is evidently absurd . At this juncture it is a supposition that involves him in greater perplexity . It evidently cuts off all resources in tbe continent of Europe : however puzzled the doctor may be , he cannot look to the Gauls or the Germans for the solution of the difficulties he had started .

He cannot say that we received Druidism from the East ( as is commonly said ) , through the medium of Germany and Gaul : and hence account for those various similarities —since he traces the birth of Druidism on this island itself ! He has undoubtedly simplified tbe question ; and lie points put views through a very narrow vista to the East , or rather to Persia alone . He seems indeed to

have insulated himself , and to have rejected the common succours . To account for these resemblances be might have recurred , had he not fixed the origin of Druidism in . Britain to the continental tribes , whom he might have represented as bringing Druidism pure and uncorrupted from Asia over Europe , into this remote island ; he Avould in this case , have followed the beaten track . Dr . Borlase , indeed , seems to be sensible that this beaten track ought to be abandoned . If he had followed it he would have wandered far from the truth : in the

present case he is as near the truth as he possibly could have been , without reachinj *; it . But see his poor , his wretched conclusion—after such a noble accumulation of facts— -such a weight of circumstantial evidence as seems irresistible—see his miserable subterfuge : " It has been hinted before , that the Druids were , probably , obliged to Pythagoras for the doctrine of

the transmigration , and other particulars ; and there is no doabt but he was learned iu all the Magian religion ; it was with this Magian religion that the Druids maintained so great a uniformity . 'Tis not improbable , then , that the Druids might have drawn by his hands out of the Persian fountains . " What can be more improbable than this ? That a single manwhoby travelling through

, , a foreign country , had' acquired some knowledge of its religion , should have been able , on his return from travel , to persuade a whole priesthood , whose tenets were fixed , to embrace the doctrines and adopt tho rites he recommended , is purely a most ridiculous position . Besides , were this admitted , would it account for the strength and exactness of these resemblances ? If Pythagoras

introduced any of the Druidical secrets into Britain , it was , T suppose , through his friend Abaris—for it does not appear that this sage ever travelled into Britian himself . "Abaris , " the doctor slyly hints , " was very intimate with Pythagoras—so intimate , indeed , that he did not scruple to communicate to him freely the real sentiments of his heart . " And Abaris , it seems , paid a visit to the

Danmonians . Here then all is light . Pythagoras was fortunate enough , in a remote country , to dive into the hidden things of its inhabitants—to expiscate the profoundest of all secrets , the mysteries of religion . These arcana , it seems , he imparted to Abaris , his bosom friend ; and Abaris very civilly communicated the whole to our Devonshire and Cornish priests . And our Devonshire

and Cornish priests , with a versatility that showed thensense of his politeness , new-modelled their religion on his plan . Hence the resemblance of the Druids and the Persians in a thousand different points . Dr . Borlase , however , is by no means satisfied with this argument ; but , too timid to divest himself of the opinions which he bad long taken upon tru ° t , he makes stillanother effort to account for a likeness so

embarrassing . Whence , says he , " this surprising conformity in their priests , doctrines , worship , and temples , between two such distant nations as the Persians and Britons proceeded , it is difficult to say . There never appears to have been the least migration—any accidental or meditated intercourse betwixt them , after the one people was settled in Persia and the other in Britain . " This strict

agreement was too obvious to escape the notice of tho judicious Peloutier . Dr . Borlase attempts a solution of the difficulty in the following manner .- " The Phonicians were very conversant with the Persians for the sake of eastern trade ; and nothing is more likely than that the Pbenicians , and after them the Greeks , finding the Druids devoted beyond all others to superstition , should

make their court to that powerful order , by bringing them continual notices of oriental superstitions , in order to promote and engross the lucrative trade which they carried on in Britain for so many ages . And the same channel that imported the Persian , might also introduce some Jewish and iEgj-ptian rites . The Pbenicians traded with iEgyptand had Judea at their own doors ; and

, from the Pbenicians the Druids might learn some few ^ E gyptian and Jewish rites , and interweave them among their own . " That the Phenician merchants should have taught our Druids thc Persian , Jewish , and iEgyptian religion is too absurd a supposition to require a formal refutation . Admitting that these merchants wero in the habit of retailing religionand bartering it with the

, Britons for tin ; can we think th ? . t these religious tenets and ceremonies could be imported in such excellent preservation as we find thorn , in this island ; or , if so imported , would be , at once , honoured by our Druids with a distinguished place among their old religious posses-