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OF THE DRUIDS. 99of the superstitions of the Druids in his youth,and, in his okl age, having quitted the scepter, hefed a contemplative life, rejecting all the druidicalfables and idolatry, and acknowledging onlyoneSupreme Being, or first cause. This shortaccount of the primevous Irish learning, whereofyou'll see many proofs and particulars in the morethan once mentioned Dlssertatioiicoucerniiig theCeltic Language and Colonies (to be annext to ourCritical History)^ will, I am confident, exciteyour curiosity.XIV. The custom, therefore, or rather cumimgof the Druids, in not committing their rites ordoctrines to writing, has not deprived us (as somejnay be apt to imagine) of sufficient materials tocompile their history. For, in the first place,when the Romans became masters of Gaule, andevery where mixt with the natives ;they cou'd nota\ oid, in that time of light and learning, but arriveat the certain knowledge of wliatever factstliey have been pleas'd to hand down to us, tho' notalways rightly taking the usages of other nations:as itmust needs be from a full conviction of theDruidical fraudulent superstitions, and barbaroustyranny exercis'd over the credulous people, thatthesesame Romans, who tolerated ail religions,yet supprest this institution in Gaule and Britain,with the utmost severity. The Druids, however,v» ere not immediately extinguisli'd, but only theirl>arbarou.s, tyrannical, or illusory usages.M 2And in-