reverence for what was high and spiritual: that not only were the Druids the instructors of youth, but the preservers and disseminators of science, the proclaimers of an existence beyond this finite and material world-idolaters, but nevertheless teaching something nobler than what belongs to the mere senses, in the midst of their idolatry. We give entire what Cæsar says of the religious system of this remarkable body of men :

"It is especially the object of the Druids to inculcate this-that souls do not perish, but after death pass into other bodies; and they consider that by this belief more than anything else men may be led to cast away the fear of death, and to become courageous. They discuss, moreover, many points concerning the heavenly bodies and their motion, the extent of the universe and the world, the nature of things, the influence and ability of the immortal gods; and they instruct the youth in these things.

"The whole nation of the Gauls is much addicted to religious observances, and, on that account, those who are attacked by any of the more serious diseases, and those who are involved in the dangers of warfare, either offer human sacrifices or make a vow that they will offer them; and they employ the Druids to officiate at these sacrifices; for they consider that the favour of the immortal gods cannot be conciliated unless the life of one man be offered up for that of another: they have also sacrifices of the same kind appointed on behalf of the state. Some have images of enormous size, the limbs of which they make of wicker-work, and fill with living men, and setting them on fire, the men are destroyed by the flames. They consider that the torture of those who have been taken in the commission of theft or open robbery, or in any crime, is more agreeable to the immortal gods; but when there is not a sufficient number of criminals, they scruple not to inflict this torture on the innocent.

"The chief deity whom they worship is Mercury; of him they have many images, and they consider him to be the inventor of all arts, their guide in all their journeys, and that he has the greatest influence in the pursuit of wealth and the affairs of commerce. Next to him they worship Apollo and Mars, and Jupiter and Minerva; and nearly resemble other nations in their views respecting these, as that Apollo wards off diseases, that Minerva communicates the rudiments of manufactures and manual arts, that Jupiter is the ruler of the celestials, that Mars is the god of war. To Mars, when they have determined to engage in a pitched battle, they commonly devote whatever spoil they may take in the war. After the contest, they slay all living creatures that are found among the spoil; the other things they gather into one spot. In many states, heaps raised of these things in consecrated places may be seen: nor does it often happen that any one is so unscrupulous as to conceal at home any part of the spoil, or to take it away when deposited; a very heavy punishment with torture is denounced against that crime.

"All the Gauls declare that they are descended from Father Dis (or Pluto), and this, they say, has been handed down by the Druids: for this reason, they distinguish all spaces of time not by the number of days, but of nights; they so regulate their birth-days, and the beginning of the months and years, that the days shall come after the night."*

The precise description which Cæsar has thus left us of the religion of the Druids -a religion which, whatever doubts may have been thrown upon the subject, would appear to have been the prevailing religion of ancient Britain, from the material monuments which are spread through the country, and from the more durable

Cæsar de Bell. Gall., lib. vi. Our translation is that of the article "Britannia," in the Penny Cyclopædia.

records of popular superstitions-is different in some particulars which have been supplied to us by other writers. According to Cæsar, the Druids taught that the soul of man did not perish with his perishable body, but passed into other bodies. But the language of other writers, Mela, Diodorus Siculus, and Ammianus Marcellinus, would seem to imply that the Druids held the doctrine of the immortality of the soul as resting upon a nobler principle than that described by Cæsar. They believed, according to the express statement of Ammianus Marcellinus, that the future existence of the spirit was in another world. The substance of their religious system, according to Diogenes Laertius, was comprised in their three precepts-to worship the gods, to do no evil, and to act with courage. It is held by some that they had a secret doctrine for the initiated, whilst their ritual observances were addressed to the grosser senses of the multitude; and that this doctrine was the belief in one God. Their veneration for groves of oak and for sacred fountains was an expresion of that natural worship which sees the source of all good in the beautiful forms with which the earth is clothed. The sanctity of the mistletoe, the watch-fires of spring and summer and autumn, traces of which observances still remain amongst us, were tributes to the bounty of the All-giver, who alone could make the growth, the ripening, and the gathering of the fruits of the earth propitious. The sun and the moon regulated their festivals, and there is little doubt formed part of their outward worship. An astronomical instrument found in Ireland, is held to represent the moon's orbit and the phases of the planets. They worshipped, too, according to Cæsar, the divinities of Greece and Rome, such as Mars and Apollo: but Cæsar does not give us their native names. He probably found ascribed to these British gods like attributes of wisdom and of power as those of Rome, and so gave them Roman names. Other writers confirm Cæsar's account of their human sacrifices. This is the most revolting part of the Druidical superstition. The shuddering with which those who live under a pure revelation must regard such fearful corruptions of the principle of devotion, which in some form or other seems an essential part of the constitution of the human faculties, produced this description of Stonehenge from the pen of a laborious and pious antiquary, Mr. King :-" Although my mind was previously filled with determined aversion, and a degree of horror, on reflecting upon the abominations of which this spot must have been the scene, and to which it even gave occasion, in the later periods of Druidism, yet it was impossible not to be struck, in the still of the evening, whilt the moon's pale light illumined all, with a reverential awe, at the solemn appearance produced by the different shades of this immense group of astonishing masses of rock, artificially placed, impending over head with threatening aspect, bewildering the mind with the almost inextricable confusion of their relative situations with respect to each other, and from their rudeness, as well as from their prodigious bulk, conveying at one glance all the ideas of stupendous greatness that could well be assembled together." And yet the "determined aversion and degree of horror" thus justly felt, and strongly expressed, might be mitigated by the consideration that in nations wholly barbarous the slaughter of prisoners of war is indiscriminate, but that the victim of the sacrifice is the preserver of the mass. If the victims thus slain on the Druidical altars were culprits sacrificed to offended justice, the blood-stained stone of the sacred circle might find a barbarous parallel in the scaffold and the gibbet of modern times. Even such fearful rites, if connected with something nobler than the mere vengeance of man upon his fellows, are an advance in civilization, and they are not wholly inconsistent with that rude cultivation of our spiritual being which existed under the glimmerings of natural impulses, before the clear light of heaven descended upon the earth.

The Druidical circles in their uniformity of character present the indubitable

evidence that they were symbolical of the mysteries of the prevailing religion of the country. They were essentially religious edifices. They were probably, at the same time, what the Icelandic writers call Doom rings, or Circles of Judgment. That these monuments, in association with religious rites and solemn decisions, had a deep influence upon the character of our rude forefathers, we cannot reasonably doubt. They were a bold and warlike race, an imaginative race, not placing the sole end of existence in the consumption of the fruits of the earth, but believing in spiritual relations and future existences. Degrading as their superstitions might be, and blind their notions of the future, their belief was not a mere formal and conventional pretence; it was a principle operating upon their actions. We have the express testimony of an ancient poet to this effect of the old worship of this land. Lucan, in a noble passage in the first book of the Pharsalia, addresses the Druids in the well known lines beginning "Et vos barbaricos." The translation of Rowe is generally quoted: but it appears to us that the lines are rendered with more strength and freedom by Kennett, who translated the poetical quotations in Gibson's edition of Camden's Britannia :'

"And you, O Druids, free from noise and arms,
Renew'd your barbarous rites and horrid charms.
What Gods, what powers in happy mansions dwell,
Or only you, or all but you can tell.

To secret shades, and unfrequented groves,
From world and cares your peaceful tribe removes.
You teach that souls, eas'd of their mortal load,
Nor with grim Pluto make their dark abode,
Nor wander in pale troops along the silent flood,
But on new regions cast resume their reign,
Content to govern earthy frames again.
Thus death is nothing but the middle line
Betwixt what lives will come, and what have been.
Happy the people by your charms possess'd!
Nor fate, nor fears, disturb their peaceful breast.
On certain dangers unconcern'd they run,

And meet with pleasure what they would not shun;
Defy death's slighted power, and bravely scorn

To spare a life that will so soon return."

In reading this remarkable tribute to the national courage of our remote ancestors, let us not forget that this virtue, like all other great characteristic virtues of a community, was based upon a principle, and that the principle, whatever might be its errors, rested upon the disposition of man to believe and to reverence.

7.-SEVERUS.

(From the Translation in the 'Monumenta Historica Britannica.')

XIPHILINE.

Among the Britons the two greatest tribes are the Caledonians and the Mæatæ ; for even the names of the others, as may be said, have merged in these. The Mæatæ dwell close to the wall which divides the island into two parts; the Caledonians beyond them. Each of these people inhabit mountains wild and waterless, and plains desert and marshy, having neither wall nor cities nor tilth, but living by pasturage, by the chace, and on certain berries; for of their fish, though abundant and inexhaustible, they never taste. They live in tents, naked and bare

Their

footed, having wives in common, and rearing the whole of their progeny. state is chiefly democratical, and they are above all things delighted by pillage; they fight from chariots, having small swift horses; they fight also on foot, are very fleet when running, and most resolute when compelled to stand: their arms consist of a shield and a short spear, having a brazen knob at the extremity of the shaft, that when shaken it may terrify the enemy by its noise: they use daggers also; and are capable of enduring hunger, thirst, and hardships of every description for when plunged in the marshes they abide there many days, with their heads only out of water, and in the woods they subsist on bark and roots; they prepare for all emergencies a certain kind of food, of which if they eat only so much as the size of a bean, they neither hunger nor thirst. Such then is the island Britannia, and such the inhabitants of that part of it which is hostile to us; for it is an island, and so, as I have said, at that time was it clearly ascertained to be: its length is seven thousand one hundred and thirty-two stadia; its greatest breadth two thousand three hundred and ten, its least three hundred.

Of this island very little more than one half is ours. Severus, therefore, being anxious to subjugate the whole, advanced into Caledonia; and, in traversing the country, underwent indescribable labour in cutting down woods, levelling hills, making marshes passable, constructing bridges over rivers; for he fought not a single battle, nor did he see any army in array. The enemy moreover threw sheep and oxen in our track, on purpose that the soldiers might seize them, and thus, being enticed farther onward, might be worn out by their sufferings. From the waters too they suffered dreadfully, and ambuscades were laid for them when dispersed. And if no longer able to proceed, they were dispatched by their very comrades, lest they should be taken; so that by these means to the amount of fifty thousand of them perished. Still, however, Severus desisted not until he had nearly reached the extremity of the island, and most carefully examined the parallax of the sun, and the length of the days and nights both in summer and winter. And so, borne, as one may say, throughout the whole hostile district, for truly he was for the greater part carried in a covered litter on account of his weakness, he came again into the friendly part of it, having compelled the Britons to a treaty on the condition that they should yield up no small portion of their territory.

Antoninus also was cause of much grief to him—and had even laid plots against him—and once when they went together against the Caledonians, that they might disarm them, and confer about treaties, Antoninus openly endeavoured to kill him with his own hand. They had gone out on horses, for Severus, although the soles of his feet had been punctured on account of disease, was nevertheless on horseback, and the rest of his army was following, and that of the enemy also was in sight. At this very juncture, Antoninus silently and dexterously checking his horse, drew ais sword, intending to strike his father in the back; but his companions observing this, shouted out; and being thus startled at the noise, he desisted from his purpose. Severus also turned round at their clamour, and saw the sword, although he uttered not a word: but having ascended a tribunal, and performed whatever was incumbent on him, he returned to his tent.

But the islanders again revolting, having called together his soldiers, he ordered them to advance into their country, and to kill whomsoever they might meet there, making use of these words :

Of these let none escape destruction dire,
Nor of your hands elude the vengeful ire;
Let not the babe within his mother's womb,
Babe tho' he be, avoid the mournful doom.

Which being done, and the Caledonians having joined the Mæatæ in revolt, he made ready as if going in person to war against them. But, while he was thus engaged, disease carried him off on the fourth of February; Antoninus, as it is said, in a measure contributing to his death. . . . After this his body, laid out in military order, was placed upon a funeral pile, and honourably attended both by the soldiers and his sons. Such of those present as had military offerings cast them on the pyre, and the flame was kindled by his sons. Lastly, his bones being deposited in an urn of porphyry, were carried to Rome, and placed in the sepulchre of the Antonines.

(From the Translation in the Monumenta Historica Britannica.') While Severus grieved at the dissolute life of his sons, and their unbecoming attachment to public spectacles, he received letters from the præfect of Britain relating that the barbarians there were in a state of insurrection, overrunning the country, driving off booty, and laying every thing waste; so that for the defence of the island there was need either of greater force, or of the presence of the emperor himself. Severus heard this with pleasure, by nature a lover of glory, and anxious, after his victories in the east and north and his consequent titles, to obtain a trophy from the Britons: moreover, willing to withdraw his sons from Rome, that they might grow up in the discipline and sobriety of a military life, far removed from the blandishments and luxury prevalent in Rome, he orders an expedition against Britain, although now old, and labouring under an arthritic affection; but as to his mind, he was vigorous beyond any youth. For the most part he performed the march carried in a litter, nor did he ever continue long in one place. Having completed the journey with his sons, and crossed over the sea more quickly than could be described or expected, he advanced against the Britons, and having drawn together his soldiers from all sides, and concentrated a vast force, he prepared for the war.

The Britons, much struck with the sudden arrival of the emperor, and learning that such a mighty force was collected against them, sent ambassadors, sued for peace, and were willing to excuse their past transgressions. But Severus, purposely seeking delay that he might not again return to Rome without his object, and, moreover, desirous to obtain from Britain a victory and a title, sent away their ambassadors without effecting their purpose, and prepared all things for the contest. He more especially endeavoured to render the marshy places stable by means of causeways, that his soldiers, treading with safety, might easily pass them, and, having firm footing fight to advantage. For many parts of the British country, being constantly flooded by the tides of the ocean, become marshy. In these the natives are accustomed to swim and traverse about being immersed as high as their waists for going naked as to the greater part of their bodies, they contemn the mud. Indeed they know not the use of clothing, but encircle their loins and necks with iron; deeming this an ornament and evidence of opulence, in like manner as other barbarians esteem gold. But they puncture their bodies with pictorial forms of every sort of animals; on which account they wear no clothing, lest they should hide the figures on their body. They are a most warlike and sanguinary race, carrying only a small shield and a spear, and a sword girded to their naked bodies. Of a breast-plate or an helmet they know not the use, esteeming them as an impediment to their progress through the marshes; from the vapours and exhalations of which the atmosphere in that country always appears dense.

Against such things, therefore, Severus prepared whatever could be serviceable to the Roman army, but hurtful and detrimental to the designs of the barbarians. And