Speaking of the Celtæ, a great and mighty people, who had extended their dominion over all the west of Europe, from the mouth of the river Oby in Russia, to Cape Finisterre, the western point of Gallicia in Spain." Of these he sayeth, "Whereever the Celtæ or Gauls are mentioned by ancient writers, we seldom fail to hear of their Druids, and their Bards; the institution of which two orders, was the capital distinction of their manners and policy. The Druids were their philosophers and priests: the bards, their poets, and recorders of heroic actions; and both these orders of men seem to have subsisted among them as chief members of the state, from time immemorial. Ammianus Marcellinus gives them this express testimony, i. e. that there flourished among them the study of the most laudable arts; introduced by the Bards, whose office it was to sing in heroic verse the gallant actions of illustrious men; and by the Druids, who lived together in colleges or societies, after the Pythagorean manner, and philosophising upon the highest subjects, asserted the immortality of the soul.

The form of their government was a mixture of aristocracy and monarchy, as it was in all the countries where the Druids bore the chief sway. This order of men seems to have been formed on the same system with the Dactyli, Idei, and Curetes of the ancients: their pretended intercouse with heaven, their. magic and divinations were the same.

The knowledge of the Druids in natural causes, and the properties of certain things, the fruit of the experiments of ages, gained them a mighty reputation among the people. The esteem of the populace soon increased into a veneration for the order: they engrossed the management of civil, as well as religious matters it is generally allowed that they did not abuse this extraordinary power: they possessed from very remote ages

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formed system of discipline and manners, which appears to have had a deep and lasting influence on their posterity.

And we have handed down to us a living monument in the works of Ossian, of the inspired character of these immortal bards, and are enabled to judge for ourselves of the credit which is due to their probations and pretensions.

INTERCOURSE WITH HEAVEN.

WHEN Doctor Blair, in speaking of the Druids, is pleased to

say, "This order of men seems to have been formed on the same

system with the Dactyli, Idei, and the Curetes of the ancients; "their pretended intercourse with, heaven, &c. were the same;" we cannot be brought to believe that his meaning went to deny the positive existence of a communication with heaven; or what would become of the universality of God? Or to what end are we calling to heaven in our prayers?

J

He may mean to say, that although there may exist this positive communication with heaven, a practicable intercourse at the will and pleasure of any human being, or order of beings, is not so worthy of implicit adoption and consent.

Nor can we believe that the Druids ever pretended more, than to assert the positive existence of a communication with heaven, with a possible intercourse, at times, at the intercession of virtue, speaking after ascertainments of the fact.

For it must be remembered again, that the people pretending to this possible intercourse, were the Druids, of whom he has said "the knowledge in physical causes was a fruit of the experiments of ages: whose administration of the publick affairs, also for ages, had gained to them a mighty reputation among the people; and of whom no instance has been transmitted in the exercise of their power of prevarication or abuse."

And would the Doctors of the present age pretend to deny it?

THE

CHAPTER X.

INTERCOURSE WITH HEAVEN.

HE Rev. William Law, who has given us a work on the spirit of prayer, has spoken more positively to this subject than any one we have quoted yet; for he, in the fervor of his spirit, has said—viz. "for poor and miserable as this life is, we have all of "us free access to all that is great, and good, and happy; and carry within ourselves a key to all the treasures that heaven "has to bestow upon us." (Not in a future view of things, for he continueth to say.) "We starve in the midst of plenty, groan under infirmities with the remedy in our own hand, live "and die without knowing and feeling any thing of the one "only good, whilst we have it in our power to know and enjoy "it in as great a reality, as we know and feel the power of the "world over us; for heaven is near to our souls, as this world "is to our bodies; and we are created, we are redeemed to have "our conversation in it. God, the only good of all intelligent

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"natures, is not an absent, or a distant God; but is more pre"sent in and to our souls, than our own bodies; and we are

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strangers to heaven, because we are void of that spirit of prayer "which alone can, and never fails to unite us with the one only "good, and to open heaven, and the kingdom of God within us.

"A root set in the finest soil, in the best climate, and blessed "with all that sun, and air, and rain can do for it, is not in so "sure a way of its growth to perfection, as every man may be, "whose spirit aspires after all that which God is ready and infinitely desirous to give him. For the sun meets not the springing bud that stretches towards him, with half that cer"tainty, as God, the source of all good, communicates himself "to the soul that longs to partake of him."

But man will not believe:- we are strangers to heaven, because we are void of that spirit of research which leadeth to an acknowledgement of the truth. - Poor humanity!

CHAPTER XI.

TO CONCLUDE THIS SUBJECT.

THE power of man.

Respecting power-natural, supernatural, physical or metaphysical-What is meant by these distinctions? Let us endeavour to understand ourselves.

We know of no power that is not spiritual; that is not from God. The form and constitution of man, it is true, are adapted to motion; but are only capable of motion: they must be moved by the spirit. All motions of the body are compliances with the

will of the spirit; acting, or acted upon. This may be said to be the simple, or personal, and almost seemingly involuntary power of man.

And there is another power, which may be said to be a creature of the mind of man; an artificial power; or what may be called the mechanical power of man: by means whereof he can add to his simple or personal power exceedingly, so as to be able to compass greater things, with less exertion of bodily strength. And this is given to the observation and ingenuity of man; and is his property, and to his profit, and at his disposal; as much as is the original simple and personal power of man.

But there is a third and combinable power attainable by man, proceeding from his knowledge of physical properties, and their power and effect, as applicable and when applied to the mechanical contrivances of man; outdoing every thing doable by the means we have heretofore described. And this is also a fruit of the observation and ingenuity of man, in a degree commensurate with the subtlety and device of his mind, and is given to him as a reward of his perspicacity, and is his possession, and his glory; and man may enjoy it arbitrarily and at will! — but

"Arte, Natura potentior omni.’

the subtlety of nature is beyond all art.

Man is a limited being: he is given to know, by his knowledge so far advanced, that he is circumscribed in all things; that he is a creature only acting under the obligation of laws; that is to say, moved, and moving in a given order of things.

So far, however, we appear to have mounted by regular gradation to the achmè of human power; that is to say, to the highest pitch accorded to the device and arbitrary disposal of And certainly when it is considered how nearly he has approached to heaven; that is to say, how far beyond the ordi

man.