TO THE ANCIENT ORDER OF DRUIDS, IN THE West-Riding of the County of York. GENTLEMEN, Permit me at length to offer to your notice my long-promised MANUAL OF ANCIENT BRITISH DRUIDISM. The subject is one in which you feel a deep and, I hope, increasing interest. In accordance with the venerable name which you have assumed, you purpose to keep alive the remembrance of that primitive community—the ANCIENT Order of DRUIDS, who, by their policy and zealous exertions became the chief source," not of power, but of moral improvement and national prosperity among the Aboriginal Britons," whose descendants many of you really are, though few of you probably know it. And moreover, your " endeavours are directed to the preserving of any valuable information connected with the Antiquity of the Order,-to the cultivation of those social and moral virtues which distinguished the original Institution,—and to the furtherance of such intellectual and charitable purposes, as each United Lodge may establish for the benefit of its Members." With an anxious wish for your success in the prosecution of these noble and patriotic objects, and in the hope of contributing in some measure to their advancement, the following HISTORY OF PRIMITIVE DRUIDISM, compiled and written expressly for your ORDER, is now most humbly submitted to your perusal and recommended to your fostering care. I have the honour to be, GENTLEMEN, Your most obedient and faithful Servant, ALMONDBURY, D. JAMES. THE PATRIARCHAL RELIGION OF BRITAIN. DRUIDISM is the term usually employed to designate the primitive Religion and Learning of the ancient Gauls, and first inhabitants of the British Isles:—a religion which obtained and flourished in Britain from the time it was first colonised, down to the period of its subjugation by the Romans in the first century. That event by the over-ruling providence of God, who always bringeth good out of evil, opened a way for the introduction of the Christian religion, which was first preached and proclaimed in Britain about the year of our Lord 62. From that date, Druidism, which had been the religion of the Aborigines from the beginning, happily gave way, and in less than a century, Christianity became established in its room. Our inquiries will thus be necessarily directed and confined to a period of great antiquity; purposing, as we do, to enter into a full and impartial investigation of Ancient British Druidism,-the Religion of our venerable Ancestors who lived many ages before the Star of Bethlehem was seen in the East, or the Sun of Righteousness shed his brilliant light on the West. But in order to render this Treatise as complete as possible, it will be necessary before we proceed, to state the numerous sources from which information on the subject may be derived; and to point out the best authorities. This will serve for direction to those who may wish to investigate the subject for themselves, and shew the grounds on which we consider we have sufficient reason to differ from most B authors, as to the leading principles, and general character of British Druidism. Druidism having been for ages the religion of so considerable a part of Europe as the whole of Ancient Gaul, which embraced the countries now called France, Lombardy, the Alpine Regions, and the Netherlands, many celebrated writers of ancient Greece and Rome have undertaken to give a particular account of it: among whom we find Julius Cæsar, Cicero, Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Pomponius Mela, Suetonius, Pliny the Elder, Tacitus, Plutarch, Diogenes Laertius, and Ammianus Marcellinus. Julius Cæsar was governor of Gaul, and extended his conquests so far as Britain. These circumstances afforded him opportunities, which few of the other writers enjoyed, of making himself generally acquainted with the character and customs of Druidism. Hence, he, of all the Ancients, has been considered by far the best authority on the subject. But it must not be forgotten that he describes the Druidism of Gaul, not of Britain, where, according to his own confession, that system maintained its primeval character and purity. And the ancient British Druids have left on record a testimony, that the "Gauls corrupted what had been taught them of British Druidism, blending with it heterogeneous principles: by which means they lost it." Hence it is clear that the account given by Cæsar of the Druidism of Gaul, ought not in fairness to be forced upon the public as a true picture of the primitive Druidism of Britain. Cicero, the second in the list of ancient writers on this subject, was a celebrated Roman Lawyer and Orator, and a cotemporary of Julius Cæsar he was personally acquainted with one of the Gallic Druids-Divitiacus the Aeduan, a man who professed to have a thorough knowledge of the laws of nature, or the science of Physiology. Cicero, having derived his knowledge of Druidism from so good a source, may justly rank next to Cæsar in point of authority; but only in regard to the Druidism of the Continent. These two flourished about fifty years before Christ. Diodorus Siculus is supposed to have lived also before the Christian era, or at least very early in the first century. He was a Greek Historian. Strabo, the well known Greek Geographer,-Pomponius Mela, the Latin Geographer,-Suetonius and Tacitus, the Latin or Roman |