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—^06KOTES.Celts, obelises, or erect stones, were the only places of worship.The obelises sanctified by St. Patrick were undoubtedly Druidicalplaces of worship, and he could have no possible motive forconsecrating them, except that of converting them into christianchurches. On the other hand, it can hardly be imagined thatbe should have been so circumscribed as to be obliged to makeuse of the Druidical terapies, or that he could have done sowithout the consent of the Druids. The most natural inferenceis, that, seeing the Irish addicted to their idolatrous temples andpriests, St. Patrick sanctified the former, and converted the latter,making both subservient to the important purpose of propagatingChristianity. Indeed Mr. Toland asserts, that none camesooner into the christian religion^ or made a better figure in it^than the Druids,If this hypothesis is well founded, it clears up some points iaour ecclesiastical history, on which we have hitherto little morethan mere conjecture. There appears to have been a studied designin St. Patrick and his successors, to consign the very nameof Druid to oblivion. It is not mentioned (as far as I know)"by any ecclesiastical writer from the 4th to the 15th century,though it still existed in the Gaelic language, and in the numerousnames of temples, and other places denominated from theDruids. This policy of the early ecclesiastics in Ireland wasfounded on expediency, as well as necessity.The name Druidwas one of the very first respect among the Celts, It was nowheremention(^d in the sacred records, and there v,as consequentlyno express scriptural command to eradicate this particularspecies of idolatry. To remedy (his defect, the name appearsto have been altered to 3Iagi and Chaldci (Magicians ar.dChaldees), names strictly synonimous with that of Druid, andclearly condemned in scripture, Innes, in his Critical Essay(as has been noticed in a former note), vol, 2. p. 464. says" in the Latin lives of St. Patrick and Columba, the Druids arecalled Magi.-" In Adomnan's Life of St, Coi'umba, we have anaccount of an interview betwixt that saint and a few of theseMagi, at the palace or castle of Brudi^ king of the Picts, in th«^"