That at midsummer was the grandest.
It was preceded by a three days' fast; then every one who had time and
money visited the city. Great fires were kindled from the sun's rays or
by friction, from which sacred fires people kindled their hearth;" all
household fires having previously been extinguished. Poor countries and
districts, where the arts were in a backward condition, instead of
having temples like the Peruvians, dedicated mountains and stone circles
to the great luminary. It is the all but universal opinion that in this
country, centuries before the Christian era, the religion of the people
was Druidism; but this is merely the name of a system, and is equivalent
to our saying that the present religion of our country is
Presbyterianism, a statement which conveys no idea of the nature of our
religious worship. The Druids were a priestly order who governed the
country, and directed the worship of the people, the principal objects
of worship being, as we have already said, the sun and fire. "The
Druids," says the late Rev. James Rust, "formed an ecclesiastico-political
association, and professed to explain the deep mysteries respecting God
and man, and were the sacerdotal rulers, and called in consequence
Druids or mystery-keepers.
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