ABURY,
A TEMPLE of the
British DRUIDS,
With some Others, Described.
CHAP. I.
Of the origin of Druid or patriarchal temples, with publick religion and celebration of the sabbath. They were made of rude stones set upright in the ground, round in form, and open. In hot countries, groves were planted about them. Abraham practised it, and from him our Druids. Of the quality of evidence, in matters of such antiquity. The patriarchs had a knowledge of the nature of the Deity to be ador’d, subsisting in distinct personalities: which is even deducible from human reason. The Druids had the same knowledge, as appears by their works. The first publick practice of religion was called, invoking in the name of Jehovah, the mediator.
THE writers on antiquities generally find more difficulty, in so handling the matter, as to render it agreeable to the reader, than in most other subjects. Tediousness in any thing is a fault, more so in this than other sciences. ’Tis an offence, if either we spend much time in a too minute description of things, or enter upon formal and argumentative proofs, more than the nature of such accounts will well bear. Nevertheless the dignity of the knowledge of antiquities, will always insure a sufficient regard for this very considerable branch of learning, as long as there is any taste or learning left in the world. And indeed we may in short ask, what is all learning, but the knowledge of antiquities? a recalling before us the acquirements in wisdom, and the deeds of former times. But the way of writing well upon them, as I conceive, is so to lay the things together, to put them in such attitude, such a light, as gains upon the affection and faith of the reader, in proceeding; without a childish pointing out every particular, without a syllogistical proving, or mathematical demonstration of them: which are not to be sought for in the case. The subject of antiquities must be drawn out with such strong lines of verisimilitude, and represented in so lively colours, that the reader in effect sees them, as in their first ages: And either brings them down to modern times, or raises himself, in the scale of time, as if he lived when they were made. Then we may truly say with the poet,
Scilicet antiquis proficiscitur inde venustas,
Quod, tanquam nova sint, qui legit illa, legat.
In endeavouring to keep up to such a rule, I must advertise the reader of the general purport of this volume. It may be said to consist of four parts. Three are descriptions of the three kinds of Druid temples, or we may call them patriarchal temples, which I have observed in Britain. The fourth will be reflexions upon them, as to their antiquity and origin; the founders of such in the more early ages of the world, and in the more oriental countries. And tho’ in writing the descriptive part of these heads, (which I did on the spot, and with great leisure) my papers swell’d to an enormous bulk; and it was necessary for my own right understanding the antiquities: yet I shall shorten them exceedingly, in delivering the work to the publick. In doing this, I shall be very much helped by the engraven designs which at one view give the reader a better notion of the things, than the most elaborate descriptions. Likewise in that part of the work wherein I reason upon these temples, and trace out the vestiges of such as are recorded to us by the learned authors of antiquity now preserved, I shall barely lay the appearances of things together; the relation between these monuments we now see with our eyes, and the accounts of such-like (as I take them) which I find in those authors to have been from oldest time. I shall leave the reader to form his judgment from such evidence, without endeavouring to force his assent with fancied proofs, which will scarce hold good, in matters of so remote an age.
After what I have said in my former volume on STONEHENGE, which carries our ideas concerning these antiquities, up to the very earliest times of the world; I may venture to discourse a little ex priori, concerning the origin of temples in general. And this will open my purpose concerning the three first heads of this book: the three different kinds of the Druid or patriarchal temples in the Britannic isles. If we desire to know any thing of a matter so very remote, as in all other affairs of antiquity, we must necessarily have recourse to the Bible. And I apprehend, it is mentioned in that passage Genesis IV. the last verse; “and to Seth, to him also there was born a son, and he call’d his name Enos: then began men to call upon the NAME of the LORD.”