115 



■■' In support of their astronomical acquirements, the singular ac- 

 count of the Hyperborean island, as cited from Diodorus Siculus,* 

 cannot but be more especially recalled to the reader's attention, as well 

 for its striking mention of the apparent approximation of the moon, 

 and the appearance of mountains thence discernible on its disk, as the 

 evident allusion to the cycle of nineteen years, by which Meton, some 

 centuries previously, endeavoured to adjust the course of the sun to 

 that of the moon, and to make the solar and lunar years begin at the 

 same point of time. Add to this, that Caesar expressly mentions-f- th^ 

 astronomical pursuits of the Druids with whom he was acquainted, 

 ^and who we have stated were an emanation from the Magi of Ireland,) 

 their knowledge of the stars and their motions, of the size of the world 

 and its nations, &c. which Mela supports;.! and Pliny, speaking of the 

 mistletoe, and the ceremony with which it was gathered by the Druids, 

 says, it is difficult to discover, and when found, is taken with much 

 religious ceremony, "etante omnia sext&, LunS. quae principia men- 

 sium annorumque his facit, et saeculi post tricesimum annum. "§ And 

 though CjEsar, in his ignorance of Ireland, thinks it likely that Britain 

 was the source of this information to the Druids, || yet without at- 

 taching any importance to his acknowledged doubt on the subject, 

 his " existimatur," it may at least be insisted, that it was wholly 

 impossible a science, which immortalized the Phcenicians, could be 



* Ante, p. 80. 



f "Multa praeterea de sideribus atque eorum motu, de inundi ac terrarum magnitudine, 

 de rerum natura, de deorum immortalium vi ac potestate disputant, et juventuti transdunt." — 

 De Bell. Gall. 1. 6. c. 14. 



X " Hi terrae mundique magnitudinem et formam, motus coeli ac siderum, ac quid dii 

 velint scire profitentur.'' — De Situ Orbis, lib. 3. c. 2. 



§ Nat. Hist. lib. 16. c. 44. 



II De Bell. Gall. lib. 6, and ante, p. 86. 



q2 



