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guide, who has composed the history of his own times without indulging the prejudices and passions which usually affect the mind of a contemporary." And what does the historian thus spoken of tell us about the Druids? Does he sneer at them, or denounce them as savages? Let the historian himself answer, and let him also give us his estimate of the Bards and Eubages, nay, of the Celtic people in general, only premising that if a Welshman, an Irishman, or any one supposed to be Celtic himself, had spoken in similar terms, he would be laughed at as a credulous dupe by the class of writers alluded to. After speaking in general terms of the Celts and their influence on the countries of which they took possession, Marcellinus proceeds to inform us that, throughout these provinces, the people gradually becoming civilized, the study of liberal accomplishments flourished, having been first introduced by the Bards, the Eubages, and the Druids. The Bards were accustomed to employ themselves in celebrating the brave achievements of their illustrious men in epic verse, accompanied with sweet airs on the lyre. The Eubages investigated the system and sublime secrets of nature, and sought to explain them to their followers. Between these two came the Druids, men of loftier genius, bound in brotherhoods according to the precepts and example of Pythagoras; and their minds were elerated by investigations into secret and sublime matters, and from the contempt which they entertain for human affairs they pronounced the soul immortal.”+

We think few will deny that the really credulous and silly are those who represent men of this character as savages. All we learn from authentic history of the Celtic Bards alone would show, from their connection, as an order, with the Druids, that the latter must have been men who would be considered learned in any age or country. It is not strange that those who ridicule the Druids also ridicule the Bards, and represent them either as myths or as ignorant balladmongers, like those who sing in the streets for the entertainment of the peasantry at the fairs throughout Europe. They

* Eubages scrutantes seria et sublimia naturæ pandere connabantur. Inter hos Druidos ingeniis celciores, &c.

The Roman History of Ammianus Marcellinus, B. xv., c. ix.

Those who have devoted most attention to the subject do not hesitate to believe that the Druids had regular academies: "Academia auplissima estimatur fuisse in sylva Carnotensi, eo loco ubi nunc urbs a Druidibus nuncupata Gallice Dreux, et in Pagis sylvæ vicinis (ut Rovillardus) Druidarum domus dicuntur et non procul Augustoduno (ubi imagines Druidarum de Montfaucon erutæ sunt) altera Academia in Monte Gallice Montedue.-Frikius, Commentatio de Druidis, p. 147.

Pliny calls the Druids the Gaulish Magi-.Nat. Hist., lib. xvi., c. xliv., sub finem.

either forget that they were men like Ossian, or they deny that the latter had any other existence as a poet than that which has been bestowed upon him by Macpherson. In other words, whatever theory is unfavorable to the Celts, their Bards, or their Druids, is readily accepted as truth, while whatever has the opposite tendency is scoffed at as absurd and ridiculous. Diodorus informs us that the Bards, or sacred poets, of the Celts chanted on the national instrument (the harp) the exploits of their heroes, and stigmatized in their hymns the cowardly; that they accompanied their chiefs to battle, and that their person as well as their character was inviolable. Such was their influence that frequently during the civil wars in Gaul they caused the immediate cessation of bloodshed among the most furious of the combatants by simply calling on them to desist. In speaking of the same order, M. Alfred Maury remarks that they were at once the military heralds, the legislators, and the poets of the Celts. Each prince or chief of a tribe had his own bard, who ranked with the first officers of his court. They were exempt both from taxes and military service, even when their country was in most imminent danger. When they accompanied their chiefs to battle, as already observed, for the purpose of celebrating their exploits, they were furnished with a bodyguard to protect them from the enemy; and in all public assemblies and fêtes they occupied the post of honor next to their chiefs. Besides being splendidly entertained in the castle to which they were attached, they received valuable presents.t

*

None aware of these well-attested facts are disposed to doubt the genuineness of the best of the poems attributed by Macpherson to Ossian. History informs us also that much honor and influence as the bards possessed, they deserved both, even in their degenerate days, when they had no longer the same means of improving their minds and acquiring knowledge, which they formerly had, but were persecuted

* Diod. Sic., v. 31, p. 354.

† If Maury be objected to because a Frenchman and consequently Celtic, it can hardly be pretended that Gibbon was prejudiced in favor of the Celts or their priests. In speaking of the Bards he makes the following remarks:"That singular order of men have most deservedly attracted the notice of all who have attempted to investigate the antiquities of the Celts, the Scandina vians, and the Germans. Their genius and character, as well as the reverence paid to that important office, have been sufficiently illustrated. But we cannot so easily express, or even conceive, the enthusiasm of arms and glory which they kindled in the breast of their audience."-Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 1, p. 291, New York, 1860.

wherever they showed themselves. Even so late as the close of the thirteenth century their influence was felt by rulers disposed to oppress their subjects. Thus the historian relates with horror and indignation that when Edward I. was wearied with the prolonged independence of the Celtic tribes, he caused their Bards to be assembled and massacred-an atrocious and cruel act, which has been justly compared to that of Ægisthus of old, who, when, desiring to corrupt Clytemnestra, caused the minstrel placed near her by Agamemnon as a protector of her virtue to be put to death. One of the finest efforts of Gray, the poet, is the ode inspired by this massacre, and in which he introduces a bard, who, from the top of a rock beaten by the waves, devotes to destruction the crowned assassin, predicting for him all the misfortunes of his race, and terminates his imprecations by precipitating himself into the waves.*

the

Now be it remembered that the Bards were Druids, but belonged only to the second, or, as some think, to the third order of that learned and powerful body. Most historians concur in giving all credit for noblest patriotism. "They were the most strenuous assertors of their country's liberty against the Romans," says Mr. Higgins, "constantly exciting their countrymen, after every defeat, to fresh insurrections. This was the true reason why they were, in a particular manner, sought after by the Romans and put to the sword whenever they could be taken. So determined were they, that neither by the Romans, Danes, nor Normans could they ever be conquered, either in Britain or Ireland; but as they could not successfully resist the overwhelming numbers and superior discipline of their enemies in the plain country, they retreated, with the highest-spirited and most intractable of their countrymen, into the mountains of Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, where they successfully defied the legions of the Roman and Saxon barbariaus."+

The following lines will give those who may not have read the poem an idea of the combined spirit of sympathy for the Bard, and indignation against the exterminator, in which it is written:

Oa a rock whose haughty brow

Frowns o'er old Conway's foaming flood,

Rob'd in the sable garb of woe,

With hag ard eyes, the poet stood;

(Loose his beard, and hoary hair,

Streamed like a meteor to the troubled air)
And with a master's hand and prophet's fire

Struck the deep sorrows o: his lyre.

'Hark, how each giant oak, and desert cave,
Sighs to the torrent's awful voice beneath!

O'er thee, oh king, their hundred arms they wave,
Revenge on thee in hoarser murmurs breathe;

Vocal no more since Cambria's fatal day

[Pindoric ode.

To high-born Hoel's harp, or soft Llewellyn's lay.'"-The Bard; a

†The Celtic Druids, p. 275.

Those who wish to depreciate the Druids because they did not belong to "the Anglo-Saxon race," triumphally ask, Why did they not at least leave us some fine specimens of architecture, if they were the ingenious and cultivated people which their Celtic admirers represent them? Their architecture is, indeed, not distinguished for its beauty, but it is distinguished for its rude grandeur and sublimity. But is not this rudeness inconsistent with the character assigned to them? This by no means follows. It is more likely that a people who were unwilling to commit their discoveries either in the arts or sciences to writing had no ambition to erect fine edifices; especially when it is borne in mind that the groves were their favorite temples. Little doubt is now entertained, however, that Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England, is a Druidical work. "If I talk to you of a Doric, Ionic, or Corinthian temple," observes Mr. Higgins," you will readily form such an idea of the building in your mind as to be surprised on seeing it, for each of these orders has its fixed proportions, and each its appropriate ornaments; but were I to describe to you a rude temple composed of four circles, one within the other, with upright stones twenty feet high, and others of an immense size placed across them like architraves, I fear my description would prove very unsatisfactory." Of a similar character is the temple of Abury. A full description of either would fill the space designed for our whole article. Fortunately nothing of the kind is necessary; the structures alluded to are so famous as curiosities that there are few, if any, of our readers who are not acquainted with their character. That stones are rude and plain is no evidence that those who raised them were not acquainted with the science of architecture. We have abundant testimony that in ancient times it was deemed an impiety, if not a sacrilege, to use any tools on structures designed for the worship of God. Even the inspired historians testify to this fact. Thus, in the 27th chapter of Deuteronomy and 5th verse, the following command is given: "And there shalt thou build an altar unto the Lord thy God, an altar of stones; thou shalt not lift up any iron tool upon them." In the following verse it is added, "Thou shalt build the altar of the Lord thy God of

"We remark here," says a learned writer, "a very striking resem blance between the ancient places of devotion in Greece and the Druidical temple of the more northern countries. In short, the astonishing remains at Stonehenge present the best known, and perhaps the most stupendous examples ever erected of the open temple."-Mimes. Hist. of Sculpture, &c., p. 225.

whole stones." The temples of the Druids were circular; and so were those of all the Eastern nations, including the Jews.

The most learned archæologists of the present day are of opinion that the round towers found in all countries known to have been inhabited by the Celts, but chiefly in Ireland, are of Druidical origin. This view of the case is, indeed, nothing new; the same opinion was entertained centuries ago. Nay, the only reason why all archæologists who investigated the subject did not give the credit of those curious structures to the Druids from the beginning, is that nearly all have crosses on them. From this fact it has been taken for granted that they were built by the early Christians; but the researches made in different countries during the last century have proved this to be an erroneous conclusion. It has been found that the cross has been used as a sacred symbol in all parts of the world from the earliest records. "Let not the piety of the Catholic Christian be offended," says the Rev. Mr. Maurice, "at the preceding assertion, that the cross was one of the most usual symbols among the hieroglyphics of Egypt and India. Equally honored in the Gentile and Christian world, this emblem of universal nature, of that world to whose four quarters its diverging radii pointed, decorated the hands of most of the sculptured images in the former country, and in the latter stamped its form upon the most majestic of the shrines of their deities.*

All Egyptologists that can be regarded as authorities concur in the opinion that it was a sacred emblem among the Egyptians. They remind us how Ibis was represented with human hands, holding the staff of Isis in one hand and a globe and cross in the other. The cross is found on most of the Egyptian obelisks. Nor was it by any means unknown either in the Greek or Roman mythology. In almost all the old monograms of Jupiter he is represented as bearing a cross with a horn; and the most common we have of Saturn is a cross and a ram's horn. There is now in the British Muscum a medal of Ptolemy, King of Cyrene, the most conspicuous figure on which is a cross. It is a well-attested historical fact, that when one of the Christian emperors demolished the temple of Serapis at Alexandria, a monogram of Christ was discovered beneath the foundation. The Rev. Mr. Maurice and others inform us that the two principal pagodas of India, namely those of Benares and Mathusa, are built in the form of a cross.t

* Indian Antiquities, vol. ii., p. 361.

† Ib.

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