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A new edition of Toland's History of the druids: - Free History Ebooks

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;100 THE HISTORYdeed <strong>the</strong>ir human sacrifices, with <strong>the</strong>ir pretendedmagic, and an autliority incompatible with' <strong>the</strong>power <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> magistrate, were things not to be m-dur'd by so wise a state as that <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Romans.In <strong>the</strong> second place, <strong>the</strong> Greec colony <strong>of</strong> Marseilles,a principal mart <strong>of</strong> learning, couVl not wantpersons curious enough, toacquaint <strong>the</strong>mselveswith <strong>the</strong> religion, philosophy, and customs <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>country, wherein <strong>the</strong>y liv d. Strabo, and o<strong>the</strong>rs,give us an account <strong>of</strong> such. From <strong>the</strong>se tlie elderGreecs had <strong>the</strong>ir information (not to speak now<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Gauls seated inGreece itself and in lesserAsia) as <strong>the</strong> later Greecs had <strong>the</strong>irs from <strong>the</strong> Romans;and, by good fortune, we have a vast number<strong>of</strong> passages from both. But, in <strong>the</strong> thirdplace, among <strong>the</strong> Gauls <strong>the</strong>mselves and <strong>the</strong> Britons,among <strong>the</strong> Irish and Albanian Scots, <strong>the</strong>ir historiansand bards did always register abundance <strong>of</strong>particularsabout <strong>the</strong> Druids, whose affairs werein most things inseparable from those <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> rest<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> inhabitants; as <strong>the</strong>y v.ere not only <strong>the</strong>judges in all matters civil or religious, but in amanner <strong>the</strong> executioners too in criminal causesand that <strong>the</strong>ir sacrifices were very public, ^vhichconsequently made <strong>the</strong>ir ritesno less observable.One thing which much contributed to make t\u-inknown, is,that <strong>the</strong> king was ever to have a Druidabout his person; to pray and sacrifice, as well asto be a judge for determining emergent controversies,tho' he had a civil judge beside^'.So he had

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