CELTS. 



r,r,3 



Gullui, (drum hointnuin, ani uliauo aunt nunifro at- 

 <jtir honore, genera Mint dico. In wnni Gtillia, that 

 is, as the passage u cotuinonly understood, in all the 



p.'.i ; ut Gaul. 



We may consider the distinction between the Celts 

 nnd the Goths as established, t first, By the difference 

 of their persons ; 2<//y, By the difference of their re- 

 ligious belief, and sacred observances ; 3r//y, By the 

 difference of their political institutions ; and, lastly, 

 By the difference of their language. In pointing 

 out these differences, almost every thing interesting 

 in the history of the Celts may be conveniently 

 brought into view. 



1. The Celts were distinguished from the Scy- 

 thians, Goths, or Germani, by their external ap- 

 pearance. They had not the light hair and blue 

 eyes, which were regarded in ancient times as an in- 

 dication of a German origin ; nor had they the lofty 

 stature and large limbs, which are still considered as 

 characteristic of the German tribes. It was to their 

 extraordinary appearance and ferocious aspect, as 

 well as to their barbarous valour, that the Gauls (of 

 Scythian or Gothic extraction) were indebted for 

 their victories over the Romans ; and, before the 

 strength and discipline of Rome could match the 

 prowess of these fierce invaders, it was necessary to 

 familiarize the legions with the tremendous looks 

 and savage howling of the Gaulish warriors. On 

 the other hand, the Celts were a people of an infe- 

 rior stature, swarthy in their complexion, with dark 

 eyes, and hair short, coarse, and black. In their ex- 

 ternal appearance they seem to have resembled the 

 Finns and Laplanders of modern times. History re- 

 cords but little of their victories and conquests ; and 

 Mr Pinkerton, in frantic declamation, pronounces 

 them to be radical savages, incapable of instruction 

 or progress in society. 



2. But if the Celts were distinguished from the 

 Goths by their external appearance, they were dis- 

 tinguished from them, in a still greater degree, by 

 their religious belief and their sacred observances. 

 Among the Celts there existed a hierarchy, regularly 

 constituted and established : a class of men exercising 

 the functions of the priesthood, and extending their 

 authority over every department of civil life ; clearly 

 marked out, and separated from the rest of the com- 

 munity, and enjoying many and exclusive privileges. 

 Our readers will perceive, that we allude to the 

 Druids. It is universally acknowledged, that Druid- 

 ism was peculiar to the Celts, and that nothing re- 

 sembling that extraordinary system was to be found 

 among the Gothic or Teutonic tribes. This diffe- 

 rence is striking and fundamental : And the fact, 

 that the Germans had no Druids, is mentioned by 

 Caesar as a circumstance completely discriminative of 

 the Celtic and Gothic nations. It has been affirmed, 

 that the Druids were not unacquainted with the 

 great and primary truth of the unity of the divine 

 nature. But if this was the case, and if the notion 

 alluded to formed a part of their secret creed, or 

 what the Greeks would have called their igoteric 

 doctrine, we have sufficient authority for maintaining, 

 that they countenanced, at the same time, the belief 

 and the worship of many gods, as Jupiter, Mars, 

 Apollo, Mercury, and Minerva, or beings of heaven- 

 ly origin and power, whose attributes and office cor- 

 responded with those of the . principal divinities of 



2 



Rome. They held likewise tbe doctrine of Mi-temp- 

 uychosis, or the transmigration of souls. Of a gene- 

 ral receptacle of spirits, enjoying various decrrcet of 

 happiness, or doomed to various measures of suffer- 

 ing, they appear to have had no idea. Their notion 

 seems to have been, that the soul of man is destined 

 to occupy various bodies in succession ; and that the 

 alternate transference and residence of the thinking 

 part were to be continued for an indefinite length of 

 time, beyond which the enquiry was not pushed. la 

 addition to all this, it must be stated, that the Druids 

 were philosophers. They had raised their under- 

 standings above the first wants and enjoyments of 

 our species. They had attempted to pierce into the 

 recesses of nature. Their investigations related to 

 the constitution of the physical world, the motioa 

 of the heavenly bodies, the size and figure of the 

 earth, and the power and purposes of the immortal 

 gods. Schools of philosophy were established a- 

 mong them. What they knew they taught the 

 youth committed to their care. These were gene- 

 rally the sons of nobles, and persons of distinction. 

 Some of the pupils spent no fewer than twenty years 

 under the tuition of the Druidical college. It was 

 a principal part of their education, to treasure up in 

 the memory a very great number of verses, in which 

 the mysteries of science and of religion were unfold- 

 ed ; for these ancient masters of Celtic wisdom, 

 though acquainted with alphabetical characters, made 

 no use of them in the schools over which they pre* 

 sided. Into the schools alluded to, the vulgar were 

 not permitted to enter. It seems to be an acknow- 

 ledged principle of the Druidical system, to keep 

 the people in perpetual ignorance ; and we shall im- 

 mediately see, that it was a part likewise of their 

 system, to keep them in a debasing and pitiable state 

 of political subjection. See DRUID. 



In almost every particular mentioned above, the 

 German nations appear to have differed from the 

 Celtic. They had no separate class of men exerci- 

 sing the functions of the priesthood, and enjoying 

 the privileges of exemption from taxes and from mi- 

 litary service. Their ecclesiastical officers (for they 

 deserve no better name) were nearly as ignorant as 

 themselves. The notion of a direct immortality, in 

 contradistinction to that of a Metempsychosis, was 

 prevalent among them. And the chief pleasure of 

 the Gothic paradise, a pleasure in which none but 

 the brave and victorious soldier was allowed to parti- 

 cipate, consisted in drinking ale out of the skulls of 

 his enemies whom he had slam in battle. They had 

 no institutions corresponding to the Druidical schools; 

 no philosophy; no doctrine, either secret or divulged; 

 nothing kept hid from the people, because there was 

 nothing to be concealed. 



3. In their political institutions likewise, a consider- 

 able difference appears to have existed between the 

 Gothic and Celtic tribes. Among these tribes, the 

 state of the people, regarded as distinct from that of 

 the privileged orders, seems to have varied in a most 

 extraordinary degree. In the one great class of hu- 

 man beings, the people were free, and valued them- 

 selves upon their liberty ; in the other, they were 

 doomed to obey, and satisfied with subjection. 

 Among the Goths and Germans, every man was a 

 soldier, consulted on occasions of the highest political 

 importance, and listened to with that attention to 



Ohi, 



