CHA P. III. Of the State of KNOWLEDGE and RELIGION in BRITAIN, more particularly from the first Propagation, and confequent ESTABLISHMENT of CHRISTIANITY, to the Comcement of the Reign of WILLIAM the CONQUEROR, 1066. W E fhall now take a retrospective view of thofe dark and babarous ages of the world, when paganism and the groffeft idolatry had overfpread these ifles, and fuccinctly point out fome remarkable occurrences and circumftances that intervened, and at length made way for the introduction and prevalence of Chriftianity, though for a long time after incumbered with a variety of Romish fuperftitions. The antient inhabitants of Britain, not only at first fettling here, but for a confiderable time, were in a ftate of ignorance and barbarity; nor indeed could it from the nature of things be otherwife, unless countries fhould happen to be peopled by large colonies from focieties that have already arrived to a confiderable proficiency of knowledge and government, which could not poffibly be the cafe in early periods. The perfons who originally fettled in thefe remote parts of Europe, being rude and unpolished themfelves, were able to carry nothing along with them but their own favage manners, and their own grofs conceptions. The first inhabitants of an uncultivated region generally apply themselves to fuch employments and exercifes as the want of provifion may urge them to; probably to hunting as the moft fpeedy means of fubfiftence; the next ftage is pafturage, and a third agriculture; the laft ftep is regulated governments: all these $ 2 must, muft, as it were, make way for the introduction of knowledge, the trueft fource of religion. Though England might be peopled feveral centuries before the first accounts we have of it, yet the barbarous condition in which we perceive it to have been, is no more than might reafonably be expected. At the time when Cæfar invaded the island, even husbandry itlelf does not feem to have been univerfally followed: our ancestors however do not appear to have been without fome fkill in war; for tho' in this refpe&t they were greatly inferior to the Romans, yet they conducted ther oppofition to Cæfar in a manner that redounds highly to their credit, confidering the amazing abilities of that general, and the excellent difcipline of his army. Ambition and refentment feemed at this time to have gained the afcendancy of their reafon and humanity; that they had brought the wretched arts of mutual deftruction much fooner to perfection than thofe which refine the foul, and are cultivated to adorn, improve, and blefs fociety. To rectify this great diforder and unhappiness, fome perfons were pretty early diftin. guifhed, by a fuperior penetration into the difference of principles and actions, whofe difpofitions likewife led them to compaffionate the unhappy state of man. kind at that time, fo far funk in ignorance and bar. barifm. Some of the firft thus diftinguished and employed, famous in hiftory, were the Druids *. Hiftory of the Druid's. The DRUIDS, according to the general hiftory of them, we are apt to look upon as perfons of very extraordinary accomplishments. This deception has been affifted by our poets, who have spread a glory round them, and have painted them in a manner that difpofes us to regard them as almost divine. No one has more charmingly contributed to carry on the delufion than the ingenious and elegant Mafon, in his Caractacus. But if we re * Rapin's Hift. tranflated by Lidiard, Introd. p. 10, duce duce our ideas to the teft of fober reafon, we shall not find much in the Druids that was particularly excellent and valuable. They were the priests of the time, and, like other priefs, had addrefs and fubtility enough. to acquire a vaft authority, and to keep the people in abfolute fubjection. They were likewife magiftrates as well as priests, and had the determination of civil caufes; a circumftance which was the natural effect, both of their fuperior quality, and fuperior knowledge; for what knowledge then prevailed, was principally confined to them. However, the remains we have of the Druids do not give us a very high opinion of the progrefs they had made, though undoubtedly they went far beyond the rest of their countrymen, and it is probable that individuals among them might be men of great wisdom. They entertained the notion of tranfmigration; a notion which has fpread from the farthest east to the remoteft weft, and which has been fo widely embraced, that a philofophical perfon cannot help locking on this fact as a fingular phænomenon in the history of human nature, and imagine that either there is fomething in it very natural to the unenlightened mind of man, or that it proceeded from an antient and general tradition. The beft principles advanced by the Druids were, that the Deity is one, and infinite, and that his worship ought not to be confined within walls; that all things derive their origin from heaven; that the foul is immortal, and that children fhould be educated with the utmost care. But their prodigious veneration for the mifletoe, and the great effects they attributed to it, their opinion that the moon is a fovereign remedy for difeafes, with others of their fentiments and cuftoms, fhewed a ftrong fuperftition; as their prohibiting an intercourfe with ftrangers, if not merely a political law, teftified a favagenefs of manners; and their allowance, nay, command, of human facrifices carries in it the evidence of the most fhocking cruelty. In truth, they were little more than the barbarous priefts of a barbarous and unlettered people. Their knowledge is faid to have reached to phyfics, to the mathematics, to aftronomy, and to medicine; but as it was never committed to writing, it could not be very extenfive: indeed it chiefly confifted of the arcana of their doctrines and worship, and had a special relation to magic. Whatever their wifdom was, if we may give credit to the teftimony of Cæfar, it was found here in greater perfection than in Gaul; from whence children were fent into Britain, to be instructed in the difcipline of the Druids. The fame author informs us, that it had its original in this country; but that is a circumftance much difputed. There were likewife prielts of an inferior order, called Bards, whofe principal bufinefs was to celebrate the praises of the gods and departed heroes, in odes and verfes, and to fing them to their harps, at their religious affemblies, public festivals, and private entertainments. Thefe men were, in fact, the heralds, the chronologers, and the hiftorians, as well as the poets of the land, for they kept up the memory of illuftrious tranfactions; and by their compofitions, which tradition handed down to pofterity, they tranf mitted from age to age the names and characters of patriots and warriors *. The divine Homer himself can be confidered as no other than one of them, whofe confummate excellency, and a number of circumftances, contributed to preferve his works from oblivion, and to raise him to the highest feat in the temple of Fame. Bards have been found in many countries, and continued in Scotland and Ireland nearly to our own time. As to the antient British ones, we have few remains of their productions; but we may venture to affert that many of them were truly valuable. * Abftract from the Library, p. 73. There There was another order of perfons called Eubates, who applied themfelves to the contemplation of the works of nature, and the ftudy of philofophy. What progress they then made, we have very little account of; but they rather feem to have had fome wild notions in aftrology, than any proper principles of philofophical knowledge, that might have improved their minds in the right knowledge of God, and the true principles of religion. Such was the general ftate of things, till the island came under the dominion of the Cæfars, which may be confidered as a new epocha in the hiftory of the knowledge of antient Britain. Roman Em pire united in Theodous, A. D. 387. Whoever has a strong regard to the caufe of freedom, can fcarce avoid being filled with indignation, when he beholds the Romans fpreading defolation and flaughter around them; wantonly fubduing the nations of the earth, and unjustly depriving them of their liberty. But all this time, wherever they conquered, they were for polifhing and reforming the manners of the inhabitants, and diffufing the knowledge of arts and fciences; though it must be owned, that, during the warm contefts which fubfifted between the Romans and the Britons, when the latter fo gloriously, fo bravely, though fo unfucceffively, ftruggled to maintain their independence, little progrels could be made in literature: but when the country was peaceably fettled into provinces, then civility began to spread itself, and knowledge more generally diffused, infomuch that many of the British nobles ftudied the Roman learning, and valued themfelves on their magnificence and politenefs, becoming pleased with what was in fact the badges of their flavery. During this time there were, no doubt, fchools of philofophy, and feveral eminent men; but who were moft celebrated, or what fciences were moft cultivated, we are not able to fay, no traces of them being now S 4 to |