of Mona, or Anglesey. Its inhabitants undauntedly maintained their independence, and in a noble, though unavailing patriotism, braved the arms of the conquering foe. Suetonius Paulinus, the general in command, a man of considerable ability and high reputation, was bent on crowning the success that had attended him with the submission, or, in default of submission, the extermination of the intrepid islanders. Anglesey, in which the learned Mr. Rowlands discovers the Isle of the Blessed, the Elysian fields of the poets, had always been a favourite resort, and remained now the sole possession of the Bards-that is, of so many of them as had not fled to distant lands. Tacitus may tell the rest, the date is 61 A.d. "The shore of the island was lined with the hostile army, in which were women dressed in dark and dismal garments, with their hair streaming to the wind, bearing torches in their hands, and running like furies up and down the ranks. Around stood the Druids, with hands spread to heaven, and uttering dreadful prayers and imprecations. The novelty of the sight struck our soldiers with dismay, so that they stood as if petrified, a mark for the enemy's darts. At length, animated by the exhortations of their general, and encouraging one another not to fear an army of women and fanatics, they advanced upon the enemy, bore down all before them, and involved them in their own fires. The troops of the enemy were completely defeated, a garrison placed in the island; and the groves, which had been the consecrated scenes of the most barbarous superstitions, were levelled with the ground. It had been their practice to sacrifice on the altars prisoners taken in war, and to divine the pleasure of their gods by inspecting human entrails."* As to the stigma attempted to be thrown on Bardism in the last sentence, in addition to what has been said already, I can only say, that had the nations governed by Bardic principles made a rule to set their prisoners free, they would have risen above, as it is they stand on the same level with, Christian nations, in whose wars, continually, prisoners have been put to death. The intervention of the Druids has been much belied; their authority was interposed to save life, not to destroy it. " In nations wholly barbarous," as has been well observed, "the

*Tacit. Annal. xiv. 29-39.

slaughter of prisoners of war is indiscriminate; the victim of the sacrifice is the preserver of the mass.'

The picture which the celebrated historian presents is designed to inspire horror and disgust, and in the minds of most of us, reading with Roman eyes, it has done so. Yet is there no honour due to those who struggle hopelessly in freedom's cause? Can no sympathy be claimed for men who pour out their life's blood to repel the proud invader from their happy shores? And in the day of overwhelming calamity, where should they, the instructors, the guides, the counsellors, the faithful friends and benefactors, whose noble lessons inculcated every generous sentiment, trained to every manly virtue,—where should they be found at the last stand for life and liberty, but in the midst of their people, to inspire courage by their presence, and seal the truth with their examples? The Druids, dying for their altars and their homes, died the death of the righteous; the martyr's crown is theirs the memory of the just is blessed.

* Knight's Old England, vol. i. p. 7.

CHAPTER III.

BARDISM.

Nationality-Roman Attempts to extinguish Bardism-Latin Altars to the British God-Christianity favourable to Bardism-No change of the Priesthood-Christianized Circles - Christian Ideas expressed in Druidic Language- Pelagius-His Opinions consonant with Bardism -Regulations of Beli-Chief of Song-Domestic Bard-Family BardPeople's Bard-Degeneracy of Bards-Bardic Revival-Taliesin, his Birth-History-Poems-Aneurin-His History-Poems-Llywarch Hen-His History-Poems-Geraint Bardd Glâs-His "Choice Things"-Owain Cyveilioc-His Reign-The Hirlas.

THE policy of all conquerors is to extinguish nationality in their newly-acquired possessions. The best passport for the vanquished to the favour of their masters, if they did but know it, is to forget that they ever had a country and a name, any natural rights or hallowed traditions; to sponge out the whole past, and begin the world again, content to shine, with a reflected light, from the glory of the empire, into which, with a gentle or ungentle violence, as the case may be, they have been adopted. But, unhappily for the interests of civilization, which are or ought to be paramount, an invincible ignorance has prevailed, and does prevail, on the subject. Poland is a modern, Cambria was an ancient example of this benighted obstinacy. It is said, and I do not doubt the fact, that the Druids, as foreigners designated Bardism, were at the bottom of the not unfrequent conspiracies, insurrections, and revolts, which, flagrant ingratitude! from time to time interrupted the mild and beneficent course of the imperial rule. Hence to exterminate the Druids, and extinguish Bardism, became a sacred duty, to which the Romans addressed themselves with the pious energy that distinguished that religious and disinterested people. Uncompromising edicts interdicted the Druidic rites, forbad under the severest

penalties any to pronounce, or any to obey, the still dreaded excommunication, and denounced in the language of indignant humanity the cruelty and the wickedness of human sacrifices. To the captive or exiled Cymro, who, as an evil destiny directed his steps, contended a gladiator, or fought with wild beasts in the arena, or perhaps the faithful servant to a disgraced senator, shared the not unlikely, equally undeserved ruin, torture, and death, it must have proved at least some consolation to know that in his own dear native land, which if he forgot might his right hand forget her cunning, human sacrifices were prohibited, and the life of man precious. These vindictive measures, enforced by the strong hand of power, produced their usual results; the leaders concealed themselves, or fled the country into Caledonia, Ireland, and the lesser British isles, where they endeavoured to preserve their beautiful and time-honoured faith. Their disciples, who remained bound to the soil, conformed outwardly, while inwardly they clung to their national religion with a deeper love; and preserving a language happily unintelligible to their political masters, the doctrines would be repeated, wherever confidence could be placed, and thus the memory of the sacred poems and traditional institutes survived. During this season of persecution, a Bardic College is supposed to have been established in the Marches of Scotland, to which devout persons from Wales and southern Britain repaired on the solemn festivals. At a later period, the languishing Bardism of the south was recruited from this healthy source. The Romans, to their credit be it stated, turned against the faith they hated a fairer and more formidable weapon. The schools and academies which they erected, we are told, greatly undermined the system. As tranquillity was restored, the conquerors became more lenient; Bardism, never openly tolerated, was by degrees secretly connived at. If altars were inscribed ostensibly to Latin divinities, the terms in which the dedication ran were not critically read, nor the attendant ceremonies very closely inquired into. As the empire declined, and the Eagle-unwonted mood-drooped under disaster and defeat, misgivings entered minds one might have thought fortified against them, and the civilian and the soldier, born and nurtured on the banks of the Tiber, did not disdain to bend the knee, and pay the vow Genio

loci, to the hitherto despised Deity of the race they had enslaved, from an impression that good fortune could only be gained by a Roman sacrifice to the British God.*

The introduction of Christianity was favourable to the revival of Bardism, which was no vain superstition but an ancient patriarchal religion, descended from the same fountain of light and truth whence the Gospel of Jesus Christ drew its inspiration. The seeming idolatrous rites of Bardism may have been-nay, probably were-symbols of things true, honest, lovely, and of good report, of which we have lost the key, and consequently cannot decipher. The Bards were led to embrace Christianity by their own admirable maxim, which taught them to believe nothing and to believe everything; to believe nothing that had not the support of reason and truth, and to believe everything that had. The Catholic Church recognised in Bardism an elder sister, whom she loved and with whom she sympathised; both had been tried in the furnace of affliction, and their hearts yearned towards each other. If there were, as afterwards came to light, principles in Bardism alien to those of Christianity,points of divergence,-these, when the two first came together, were overlooked or disregarded. The ministers of religion in the old, exercised their functions under the new dispensation; not only were Bardic orders acknowledged, but no native was eligible to the Christian priesthood who did not belong to one of the three privileged classes-was not either a Bard, a Druid, or an Ovate. This rule remained in force till the time of Germanus and Lupus, in the early part of the fifth century. Indeed, by no very outrageous stretch of etymology, our word "clergy" has been derived from the Welsh "cler," a name given to the teachers and learned men of the Druidical order, who, under the primitive Bardic system, were employed in going periodical circuits to instruct the people, and thus corresponding to a priesthood. Divine worship continued to be performed in the ancient Druidical circles. A few still found preserve the memory of their Christian use; as Carn y Groes (the Tumulus of the Cross), on the mountain of Gelli Onen, Glamorganshire, where stands an ancient cross. A stone in Cardiganshire is called

*Arch. Camb. vol. iii. p. 20. + Williams's Cymry, p. 169, note.