Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/431

 « 396 THE HISTORY o :*>pkT;> in their temples, the huge enormous Cromlech., tfye maflj tre- mulous Logan, the great conical Camedde, and the magnificent amphitheater of woods, all. muft have very ftrongly laid hold. upon that religious thoughtfulnefs. of. foul which lias been ever* fo natural to man amid all the wrecks of humanity y the monu- merit of 1iis former perfection. In this ftate of the Siftuntian religion the Romans entered the country. . Their religion was fully as wild a combination of human vice and human folly, more fplendid and iefs cruel, yet lefs retaining the illuftrious doftrines of God* s fuperinrendance, the eternity of the foul, and the tranfitorinefs of matter, and lefs adapted to touch the religious tiring of the heart. But the Britons* on their adoption of the Roman manners, mud have na- turally adopted the Roman Theology, and muft as readily have claifed the Roman with the Britifh deities a$ the Romans incor- porated the Britifh with their own *. This ftrange conduit of exchanging divinities, fo common to them and to all the other heathens, was plainly the natural refult of a confeious want of fatisfa&ion in a right worfhip, and a mif-dire&ed defire of fupply- ing the want of the one by multiplying the obje£U of the. other. This ftrange condudt however muft have been made fubfervient to the more ready introduction of both within the pale of the Chriftian religion. Both muft in confequence of it have become lefs addi&ed to either. The Britons half-roman- ized and the Romans half-britpnized in their idolatry muft ne- ceffarily haye loft all that attachment to their national religion, which is merely the fervant of prejudice, and which is generally the ftropgeft barrier againft a converfion. Under the government of the Druids, the learning of the* ifland confifted in the knowledge of aftronomy geometry geo- graphy metaphyfiQS botany and mechanics And with, thefe the Britons feem to h^ve acquired a cQmpetent degree of ac- quaintance. In mechanics they were particularly learned, as the. great temples of Abury ancl Stonehenge arid the various Crom- lechs and Logans in the kingdom fufficiently teftify. With the- mere tackle of leathern thongs they raifod fuch enormous loads as