'Ir would indeed be à fuperfluous, as well as unneceffary, part of this undertaking, to enumerate all the great philofophers, whofe names are to be found in the ancient records of Ireland, among the defcendants of Japhet, in the lines of Gomer and Magog, &c. Their appellations were various, and fo were the sciences they respectively profeffed. In the line of the former, they were poets, chronologers and genealogists, or antiquaries, musicians, druids. In that of the latter, they were filids, fileas, poets, physicians, antiquaries, muficians, druids and compilers of laws: but yet it was manifest, from good authority among themselves, as well as modern authors, that they taught other sciences besides these, in both islands, at all times; for they had them from the house of Japhet, their great ancestor.

Milton, an author, who was as full of learning, as he was void of illiberal prejudices, who was an enemy to low fervility, or partial narrow fentiments, and not at all addicted to credulity, tells us, that learning and sciences were thought, by the best writers of antiquity, to have been flourishing among us, and that the Pythagorean philosophy, and the wisdom of Perfia, had their beginning from this ifland. So that the druids of the Gomerians, and the filids of the Magogians or Scythians, whether in these islands, or on the continent, were the original fages of Europe in all the fciences from Japhet." And if we pay an attention to what Cæfar afferts, we shall fee that," in his time, thefe druids inftructed their youth "in the nature and motion of the ftars, in the theory of the earth, its magnitude, and of the world, and in the CC power

power of the immortal gods," which would feem to imply, that the Romans were not much employed in fuch. fcientific ftudies in his time.

HOWEVER that was, the druids of all Europe grew into fuch power and afcendency over the minds of the people, that even the kings themselves paid an implicit slavish obedience to their dictates; infomuch, that their armies were brave in battle, or abject enough to decline, even the most advantageous prospects of fuccefs, according to the arbitrary prognofticks of this set of religious tyrants: and their decifions became at laft peremptory in civil, as well as in the affairs of religion.

BUT this flavish conceffion to the wills of the druids never prevailed in Britain or Ireland, notwithstanding the general esteem they were in with the vulgar, because they had schools of philosophy, and their princes were as well versed in the nature of things as their priests; and therefore science gave them liberty to think for themselves. They had always their diffenters from the polytheism of the druids, and their judges fuperintended in civil matters; so that these had no power in the framing, or adminiftration of the laws; they had a peculiar clafs of men for these purposes, as well as for every other branch of science.

AMONG them, there was one in Ireland, fome centuries before CHRIST, whose name was Conla, the judge of one of the provinces, Conaught, who wrote the hiftory of the whole system of the druids; but his works are loft, and as much to be lamented as any that ever efcaped the hands of futurity. But there was one of the kings of Ireland, whofe fame is very great in the annals of that

kingdom,

kingdom, the learned Carmac o' Quin, great in the law and philosophy, who was not afraid to inveigh openly against the corruption and superstitions of the druids, and maintained, in his difputations against them, that the original theology confifted in the worship of one Omnipotent Eternal BEING, that created all things; that this was the true religion of their ancestors; and that the numerous gods of the druids, were only objects of abfurdity and fuperftition. This oppofition, glorious and spirited as it was, proved fatal to the monarch; for as they faw an impending danger of their diffolution, they formed a deep confpiracy against him, and he was murdered. Unhappy fate of good men! Have we not feen, in our time, like fortunes attend brave men, and from the fame kind of influence?

THE druids of the continent never committed their mysteries to writing, but taught their pupils memoriter : whereas, those of Ireland, the Scotifh druids, wrote theirs, but in characters different from the common mode of writing: but these were well understood by the learned men, who were in great numbers, and had not only genius, but an ardent inclination to make researches into science; and therefore they were the more ready to receive the light of the Gofpel from Patrick, especially as great numbers continued diffentients, all along, from the fuperftitions of the druidical fyftem: and it was with a general consent, and the applause of the learned, that this apostle committed to the flames almoft two hundred tracts of the pagan myfteries. This was a noble example to the converts every where, who did not fail to follow it, till druidism was quite extinguished. CHAP.

Some account of the first peopling of Ireland; with obfervations upon Dr. Keating's authorities and quotations; of the triennial affembly anciently held there, to fettle records, genealogies and laws: the Irish poets and antiquaries; of their ancient hiftories and language, and the Genealogical Table of Milefius, mentioned before.

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OCTOR Keating acknowledges that, in several of the manuscripts he has looked over, he has found many fabulous ftories of things which he gave no credit to; a few of which he has inferted in his history, not, as he expreffes it, with a view to give the least consent to them, but rather to condemn them.

THERE are yet remaining great numbers of manuscripts of that country, all written in the Irish language, fome of which are in the libraries of Dublin, and feveral others; befides what records are deposited in those of fome of the cathedrals of that kingdom; and fome in the hands of private gentlemen. Of thefe manufcripts, this author has selected such as he thought of greateft credit and weight, and which he thinks have nothing fabulous blended with them. Thefe, he profeffes, he chiefly follows," it being, fays he, impoffible for me to have any other lights, "which, how obscure foever, are to be regarded for their antiquity, and to be used with candour, confidering the superstition of those dark ages.”

THE two firft quotations he produces, whose authors names he has not mentioned, upon the genealogy of Noah, agree exactly with bishop Uber's accounts, both as to the perfons in the line from Adam to that patriarch, and the number of years to the deluge, which amounts to fixteen hundred and fifty-fix, which is also the Scripture account; and yet Jofephus, who, in other respects, seems to keep close to Mofes's account, differs greatly from this, in giving to Cainan 100 years more than the Scripture does, when he begat his fon, Mahalaleel; and to him 97 more than the Scripture does, when he begat Jared; and to Enoch 165, instead of fixty-five years, when he begat Mathuselah, which makes two hundred and ninety-seven years more than the Scriptures have it, according to L'Eftrange's tranflation.

THE first of these quotations runs thus, as tranflated from the original by Dr. Keating:

"FROM the fixth day, when Adam first was formed, "Till God's avenging wrath drowned all the world, "Was fifty-fix, and fixteen hundred years."

AND the other quotation, which he says is one of an author of great antiquity, agrees very closely with this, and runs as follows:

"Six hundred and a thousand years,

“ And fifty-fix, it plain appears,

"Was all the time the world had stood,

"From the creation to the flood."

THESE fentences from those ancient manufcripts, and written from their traditions, are very conformable to the only standard we have to guide us, in things of very