Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/432

 dh*p. 3h. O ¥ :*££& CHESTER. 393? as wbitk! ftfaFtf'AeifoiiYeft^ackle of the prefent times; Alia fill thji teaming was tofifti^* entirely to the Druids •. But,tipOtt the- arrival of the^R6i^i^ ( kriumg us; the -Roman learning was &refmjxfaifzic& r *m ffetfefafelly ftutlied by the 'Britons * This' Wft have greafyr «fRJ9fed r the -dignity of the Druids and Wave" ooriTiAeni&ly bounded die authority of Druidifm. This muft have particularly taken away al! that reverence for the former which ignorance Will ever render to knowledge. the eoriftrudtfofr of : 'Ro"man-BntHh cities in particular' <fife<ftly broke in 'upon/ an<J 'mM' Wave gradually deftroyed, the whole wild fuperftrufture of Dfruidifm itfelf. The religion of the con- quered Britons began early to yield to the religion of the vic- torious Romans. Eveif as; ektty as the firft century; the Britfons of the north dfeferted the fading principles of the ' Bf itifli reli- gion m the forni and thcfrte of their temples. The original tern-** pies, of the iftand were all * rafted in the depth of woods, were alf conftru&ed with £reat rude obelifks of ftone, and were all abfo- lutely open- to the Iky above. Such we fee on the plains of Sarunvon the edge of Rollright-heath, m Cornwall, and in Scotland. ' But eficntial as fuch a form and (ihiation muft ne- ceffar/ly have been fuppofed to religion in any country that had immemoriably retained them, the Britons of the north defert- ed them before tfce reign of Trajan. They conftru&ed their temples of hewn ftories. They ere&ed their temples in towns. And they cdvei'ed their temples with roofs ". Thxis early did Druidifm decline in the ifland, not rooted up, as has been uncverfally luppofed, by the violence of a profcription, but undermined by the progrefs of Roman learning and over- borne by tlie irruption of Roman manners. And in this ftate of the national religion Chriftianity was brought into Britain. This* ftate had happily prepared the Britons for a more favourable- attention to it. And it was a religion that drew aiide the thick curtain of heathen ignorance, and laid open to the view the ge- nuine nature of God, the genuine feature of man, and the du~ tkfs and rewards* wftfkkig from botfu It - placed a true and ab~ > * folutC
 * But the' mi?odu<f#ofr 6fthe i Roman manners in general and