for which tree they had a most superstitious veneration. For a long series of years the Druids enjoyed the highest honours, the greatest privileges, the most extensive influence in this island, and in Gaul and Germany. Their persons were held sacred and inviolable. They were exempted from all taxes and military services. They were esteemed to be the favourites of the gods, and the depositaries of their counsels. By them the people offered all their sacrifices, prayers, and thanksgivings; and to their commands they were perfectly submissive. So great was the veneration entertained for them, that when hostile armies inflamed with warlike rage, with swords drawn and spears extended, were on the point of engaging in deathful conflict, their intervention soothed the angry passions and produced a calm. The Druids were not all equal in rank and dignity. Some were more eminent than others, and the whole order was subject to one supreme head or Arch-Druid. This high station commanded so much power and wealth, that it was an object of great ambition, and the election to it sometimes lighted up the flames of civil war. Many of the Druids appear to have lived a kind of collegiate, or monastic life, united in fraternities. The service of each temple, indeed, required a considerable number of them; and those who were ministers of the same temple, lived together in its vicinity. The Arch-Druid of Britain is supposed to have had his common abode in the isle of Mona, now Anglesea, where he maintained great splendour and magnificence, surrounded by a numerous attendance of the most eminent

members of the sacred society. It is said that in that isle are found vestiges of the palaces of the Arch-Druid and of the houses of his attendants. Many of them lived in the courts of princes, and in the families of the nobles in order to discharge the duties of their functions; for no sacred rite or religious ceremony could be performed without a Druid, either in temples or private houses.

The Druids appear to have enjoyed the property of certain islands on the coasts of England and Scotland; such as Anglesea, Man, Harris, and others, and extensive territories near their several dwellings.

It was common among the tribes of Britain to dedicate the cattle, and other spoils of war, to that deity, by whose assistance they imagined that they had gained the victory. Of these devoted spoils the Druids were the keepers and managers. They were frequently consulted, likewise, by states and private persons concerning the success of intended enterprizes, and other future events, and were well rewarded for their advice and their predictions. They derived profit, also, from the administration of justice, the practice of physic, teaching the sciences, and initiating foreigners and persons of high rank into the mysteries of their theology,

There is reason to believe that the British Druids were very numerous; as the Britons, who were extremely superstitious, would scarcely transact any public or private business without the advice and sanction of their priests.

The Druids were divided into three different

classes, who applied themselves to different branches of science, and performed different parts in the ceremonies of their religion.

Besides the Druids, there were also, among the Britons, priestesses, or Druidesses, who assisted in the offices, and shared in the honours and emoluments of the priesthood. When the illustrious Roman commander, Suetonius, invaded Mona, the chief seat of British Druidism, his soldiers were terrified by the appearance of numbers of these consecrated females, who ran through the ranks of the Britons, like furies, with dishevelled hair, brandishing flaming torches in their hands, and with yellings of despair, imprecating curses upon the invaders of their sacred groves.

They were, likewise, divided into three classes; and were great pretenders to divination, prophecy, and miracles. They were highly respected by the people, who consulted them on all important occasions, and gave them the title of Senæ, or venerable women. Such were the ministers and teachers among the ancient Britons. With respect to the religious principles they taught, like the Gymnosophists of India, the Persian Magi, and most other priests of antiquity, the Druids had two sets of doctrines and opinions, differing widely. The one they communicated only to the initiated, their particular disciples, who were admitted into their order, and solemnly sworn to guard that system in the profoundest secresy; the other they declared to the people at large. It is supposed that their secret doctrine was that of there being but one God, the creator

of heaven and earth; of the immortality of the soul; which appears to have been the case with the Egyptian, the Elusinian, and other mysteries, and which was probably derived by tradition from the sons of Noah. The Supreme Being was worshipped by the Gauls and Britons, under the name of Hesus, or Hesuz; but when a plurality of gods was introduced, he was identified with the Grecian Mars; to him they offered human victims; and him they sought to propitiate by cruel rites. Teutates, the supposed deity of the infernal regions; Taranis, the god of the thunder; the Sun and Moon, under various titles, and deified human beings, were all, likewise, objects of their adoration. The sacrifices of the Druids were dreadfully cruel. Numbers of their fellow creatures were frequently imolated by their savage superstition. On particular occasions a gigantic human figure, formed of osier twigs, was filled with men, women, and children, criminals or captives, was surrounded with combustible materials, and then set on fire, and reduced to ashes with all that it contained.

Regarding it as unlawful to build temples to their gods, the Druids performed their rites in the deep recesses of groves and forests, planted for that purpose, and consisting principally of oaks, which trees they held in peculiar veneration. In the centre of each sacred grove was a circular area, inclosed by rows of huge stones set upright, and often connected together by other massive stones placed transversely on their summits. Within these circles stood the stones of sacrifice, which served as altars. Near to these

rude and open temples they raised mounds of earth, and placed stone tables, on which the offerings were prepared. The remains of many such places of sacrifices are still to be seen in different parts of Britain, and of this nature are supposed to be the immense stones on Salisbury Plain, called Stone Henge. The Misletoe, a parasitical plant which grows chiefly on the oak, was highly venerated by the Druids, and at particular seasons was gathered by the Arch-Druid with great pomp and solemnity.

ALFRED.

UPON the death of Ethelred, the dangers which threatened the country on every side induced the Earls and Thanes, with the unanimous consent of the gentry and the people, to raise Alfred to the throne of Wessex. It is said that he hesitated to accept this perilous honour; and well ́might he hesitate; for he could not but see that a crown taken up from the field of defeat, and droping with a brother's blood, slain in disastrous battle, must inevitably bring with it anxiety and the deepest gloom of misfortune. But the sublime mind of Alfred taught him that he lived not for himself alone, and that personal ease and individual feeling should be sacrificed on the altar of patriotism and benevolence. Under the influ

ence of such just principles and generous feelings, he complied with the wishes of his countrymen.