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

50 THE HISTORYto the work, m liercof I am giving your lordship anaccount. Neither sliall I in this specimen chv(4lon some things, whereof I shall principally andlargely treat in the designed history; I mean thej)hilosophy of the Druids concerning the gods,human souls, nature in general, and in particularthe heavenly bodies, their magnitudes, motions,distances, and duration; whereof Caesar, DiodotusSiculus, Strabo, Pomponius Mela, and AmmianusMarcellinus write more specially thanothers.These subjects, I say, will be copiouslyhandled and commented in my history. In themean time I do assure you, my Lord, from all authors,that no heathen priesthood ever came up tothe perfection of the Druidical, which was farmore exquisite than any other such system; asIiaving been much better calculated to beget ignolance,and an implicit disposition inno less than tothe people,procure power and profit to thepriests, which is one grand difference between thetrue worship and the false. The western priesthooddid infinitely exceed that of Zoroaster, andall the eastern sacred policy :so that the Histov)/of the Druids, in short, is the coinpleie History ofPriestcraft, with all its reasons and resorts; whichto distinguish accurately from right religion, is notonly the interest of all wise princes and states, butlikewise does especially concern tlietranquillity'