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

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

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timents;OF THE DRUIDS. 2011conceard from o<strong>the</strong>rs under <strong>the</strong> vail <strong>of</strong>numbers, or <strong>of</strong> some o<strong>the</strong>r enigmatieal sym])olsThe Hyperborean m return presented <strong>the</strong> Saniian,as if he had equallVl ApoHo himself in wisdom,with <strong>the</strong> sacred arrow ; riding astride which he^sfabulously reported by <strong>the</strong> Greec writers, to haveflown in <strong>the</strong> air over rivers and lakes, forests andmountains: as our vulgar still believe, and notwhere more than in <strong>the</strong> Hebrides, that wizardsand witches waft whi<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong>y please upon broomsticks.But what was hid under this romanticexp<strong>edition</strong>, with <strong>the</strong> true meaning <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> arrowitself, <strong>the</strong> nature <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> predictions that Abarisspread in Greece, and <strong>the</strong> doctrines that he learntat Crotona; with <strong>the</strong> conceit <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se Hyperboreansthat Latona<strong>the</strong> mo<strong>the</strong>r <strong>of</strong> Apollo, was bornamong <strong>the</strong>m, nay that he was so too, and <strong>the</strong>irmost exact astronomical cycle <strong>of</strong> nineteen years:<strong>the</strong>se particulars, I say, you'll read at large in my<strong>History</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Druids, stript <strong>of</strong> all fable and disguise;as well as a full discussion <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> question(about which antient Avriters are divided) " whe<strong>the</strong>r<strong>the</strong> Druids learnt <strong>the</strong>ir* symbolical and enigmaticalmethod <strong>of</strong> teaching, toge<strong>the</strong>r with <strong>the</strong>doctrine <strong>of</strong> transmigration from Pythagoras, orthat this philosopher had borrowed <strong>the</strong>se particularsfrom <strong>the</strong> Druids?" The connnunicationbetween <strong>the</strong>m w as easy enough, not only by means^yia-ai. Diogen. Lant, in prooem. Sect, 6,

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