By the Rev. J. L. Ross. 183 
British Islands ; and certain of its rites and observances are still 
maintained among us, notwithstanding the spread and establishment 
of Christianity during so many ages.” Of this he gives several proofs 
in different districts of England and Scotland; and a kind of liba- 
tion was offered, and eggs and milk, &c., were partaken (till lately) 
by parties of young people yearly on Palm Sunday on the summit 
of Silbury Hill, which, as we have observed, is connected with the 
temples at Abury in Wiltshire. 
The original system of the Druids was gradually corrupted and 
debased by the contaminating influence of the Carthaginians and 
Phenicians, with whom they were connected by extraction and 
commercial intercourse. Hence probably were derived those cruel 
and abominable rites, such as human sacrifices and the burning of 
infants, which have latterly been ascribed to them, and possibly 
with justice, though the Romans, in their hostility to the Britons, 
have probably coloured or aggravated many of their religious rites. 
Even at this later period, we have the testimony of Cesar, that, 
while the religion of the Gauls and most of the Germans was 
Druidical, the children of their chief men were usually sent over 
to Britain to be instructed by the Druids in general and religious 
knowledge, who had at that time a celebrated round temple and 
other buildings (probably at Stonehenge in Wiltshire), where laws 
were enacted and administered, youth were instructed in philosophy 
and the mysteries of religion, and divine worship performed by an 
arch-Druid and a college of Druidical priests. As far as we can 
ascertain with any degree of certainty, the following were the lead- 
ing principles of the Druidical system :— 
1. The Supreme Being was to be honoured and worshipped as 
the Creator and Ruler of the universe ; but in the discharge of this 
latter office he was assisted by subordinate deities, who were supposed 
to act rather as angels or messengers than as possessed of any in- 
herent authority of their own. 
2. The people were instructed in the immortality of the soul, 
and also in its frequent transmigrations; for they were unable to 
comprehend how virtue and vice were to be recompensed merely 
hereafter, and not also rewarded or punished in the present life. 
