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OF THE DRUIDS. 63.spirit and in truth, in simplicity and social virtue,in a filial love and reverence, not in a servile dreadand terror of tlie divinity. As the fundamentallaw of a historian is,daring to say whatever istrue, and not daring to write any falsehood: neitherbeing swayed by love orby favour or interest;hatred, nor gain'dso he ought, of course, tobe as a man of no time or country, of no sect orj>arty, which I hope the several nations concern'din this enquiry will find to be particularly true ofme. But if, in clearing up antient rites and cusloms,with the origin and institution of certain religiousor civil societies (long since extinct), anycommunities or orders of men, now in being, shouldthinkthemselves touched, tliey ought not to imputeit to design in the author, but to the conformityof things, if, indeed, there be any real resemblance:and, in case there be none at all, tlicyshould not make people apt to suspect there is,by crying out tlio' they are not hurt. I remember,when complaint w^as made agamst an honourableperson *,that, in treating of the heathenpriests, he had whipt so)ue christian priests ontheir backs, all the answer he made, w as only asking,W/iat made tItem get up there? The benefit ofwhich answ er I claim before-hand to myself^ withoutmaking or needing any other apology.Yet,if the correspondence oi' any priests w ith heaveii=*^Sir Robert Ifowarf^