It was so also at Rome, when Romulus dislodged the Pelasgi, who, we are told by Festus, had themselves some time previously, under the name of “Sacrani,” that is, the religious caste, corresponding to “Irish,” which signifies the same thing, drove the Ligures and Siculi from Septimontio, i.e. Rome.
The only use now made of those Sabian edifices, after stifling the religion for which they were designed, was, we may suppose, to promote the study of astronomical science, for which they were admirably adapted, and with which their original destination was inseparably interwoven.[617] But as the stimulus of religion was wanting for the prosecution of those researches, we cannot be surprised that this part of their purpose, too, sharing the fate of its collateral helpmate, insensibly repined under the altered aspect of the scene; for, to apply to it what has been said of the great scheme of the creation itself, viz. that—
“if each system in gradation roll
Alike essential to the amazing whole,
The least confusion—but in one—not all,
That system only, but the whole must fall.”
The knowledge of this delightful study, however, did not yet completely die away; it formed still an essential in the education of every Irish youth; and the remnant of our language, at this very moment, shows how piously attentive were its framers to that divine precept which told them, that the “lights of the firmament of heaven were for signs and for seasons, and for days and for years.”
The profligate degeneracy of the Druids, however, tended to bring this also into disesteem.
This order of priests got so overbearing here, grasping at not only high ecclesiastical power, but also intermeddling in secular transactions, that they made themselves obnoxious to the great body of the people, and a disregard both to the literature and the religion which they inculcated was the inevitable result. To this I ascribe the plebeian war of Ireland, A.D. 47, that deplorable state of a country, when faction and rage usurp the place of counsel and discretion! when commerce stagnates! confidence decays! when lust stalks abroad to desecrate everything holy! and all is doubt, suspicion, melancholy, and death!
How beautifully and how aptly, but yet, for himself, how unwisely, did the philosophic Callisthenes apply the sentiment of Euripedes to Philip of Macedon, at Alexander’s Feast?—viz.:—
“When civil broils declining states surprise,
There the worst men to highest honours rise.”
Many virtuous persons, we are told, opposed themselves to the encroachments of this degenerate hierarchy. When Conlah, in his retreat from the glitter of life, betook himself to an humble cottage, and devoted the faculties of his comprehensive mind to philosophical pursuits and the improvement of his species, the greatest praise which the analyst, in recording such worth, could bestow, was, “She do rinni an choin bhliocht-ris inna Druwdh”; that is, It is he that disputed against the Druids!
The Books, however, of their predecessors, the Boreades, still remained, and the knowledge of astronomy was kept alive by their perusal. But of these we were despoiled, very shortly after, by that mistaken piety elsewhere deplored. Some few treatises even then must have escaped, and their effect was best illustrated, as shown before, by the unprecedented success with which the gospel dispensation was hailed in this island.