182 Druidism in connection with Wiltshire. 
However pure may have been the patriarchal religion when first 
introduced into Britain by the Druids, who had probably after 
their expulsion from Egypt, been brought to this country by 
the Tyrian Hercules! so far back as the time of Abraham, it cannot 
be denied, that like other religions, Druidism degenerated in after 
ages, and became not merely corrupted in doctrines but cruel and 
infamous in worship. It is not unlikely that later colonists from 
Phenicia may have brought along with them the worship of Baal 
and Ashtaroth (or the sun and moon) the divinities of the Pheenicians 
at a later period. Baal (or the sun) was the most ancient deity of 
the Canaanites, and perhaps of the East, and was frequently wor- 
shipped by the Israelites, who like the Pheenicians offered human 
sacrifices and erected altars in groves, and on high places. Some, how- 
ever, have thought that Baal was the Phenician or Tyrian Hercules 
a god of great antiquity in Pheenicia, and perhaps this opinion may 
not be inconsistent with that of his being the representative of the 
sun, who is supposed to have been the first divinity worshipped in 
the East after mankind had ceased to invoke the name of Jehovah.” 
“The worship of Bel, Belus, Belenus, or Belinus (originally ap- 
plied to Jehovah) was general,” says Taylor, “throughout the 
1 The Tyrian Hercules or Assis is said to have been one of the kings of the Shep- 
herd Dynasty in Egypt, and to have written or been acquainted, says Cicero, with 
the Phrygian letters, He was afterwards surnamed Ogmius by the Celts whom 
he instructed, which is a word in their language having reference to his know- 
ledge and eloquence. This knowledge, Dr. Stukeley supposes, Hercules Ogmius 
or Assis, the Pastor King of Egypt may have acquired from Abraham in the 
East, and that he brought a knowledge of letters along with our Druids into the 
extremest west, in this very early age of the world; for that they ‘‘ had letters, 
we have Cwsar’s express testimony.” This Pastor King, as previously observed, 
is said to have been expelled from Egypt, which he quitted by an agreement 
with Tethmoris (the founder of a new, or restorer of the former dynasty) A.M. 
2120, and carried with him 240,000 followers, which enabled him, as the great 
navigator Hercules of Grecian antiquity, to transport colonies to various parts 
of the Mediterranean and the ocean, and to bring the Pheenician Druids into 
Britain. From him, in all probability, the Druids obtained a knowledge of phi- 
losophy and religion, for which both in Gaul and Britain, as well as elsewhere, 
they were afterwards distinguished. From erecting pillars and temples, Hercules 
obtained the surname of Saxanus; and for founding Serpentine or Dracontio 
temples, arose, probably, the fable of his destroying two serpents in his cradle. 
