These, however, were popular divinities which the Druids
ostensibly worshipped, and popular notions which they ostensibly
adopted, in conformity with the prejudices of the vulgar. The Druids
well knew that the common people were no philosophers. There is reason
also, to think that a great part of the idolatries were not sanctioned
by the Druids, but afterwards introduced by the Phoenician colony. But
it would be impossible to say how far the primitive Druids accommodated
themselves to vulgar superstition, or to separate their exterior
doctrines and ceremonies from the fables and absurd rites of subsequent
times. It would be vain to attempt to enumerate their gods: in the eye
of the vulgar they defied everything around them. They worshipped the
spirits of the mountains, the vallies, and the rivers. Every rock and
every spring were either the instruments or the objects of admiration.
The moonlight vallies of Danmonium were filled with the fairy people,
and its numerous rivers were the resort of genii.
The fiction of fairies is supposed to have been brought, with other
extravagancies of a like nature from the Eastern nations, whilst the
Europeans and Christians were engaged in the holy war: such at least is
the notion of an ingenious writer, who thus expresses himself: "Nor were
the monstrous embellishments of enchantments the invention of romancers,
but formed upon Eastern tales, brought thence by travellers from their
crusades and pilgrimages, which indeed, have a cast peculiar to the wild
imagination of the Eastern people.
Pages:
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110