at a people possessing the three orders of Druid,
Bard, and Ovate, who, (leaving their poetry out of the question for the
present,) were able to raise the immense piles of Abury and Stonehenge,
could be the barbarians they are thought to be; and those who could
raise such immense blocks of stone deserve at least credit for
ingenuity. Now, it does not appear to me to require a great stretch of
fancy to believe that the requisite knowledge was obtained of the
architects of the Pyramids, Temples, and cities of Egypt and the east:
and this is not improbable; as, according to the Triads, the Cymmry (or
Welsh) came from the Gwlad yr Haf,[6] (the summer country) the present
Taurida; and further, Herodotus says, that a nation called Cimmerians,
(very much like their own name,) dwelt in that part of Europe and the
neighbouring parts of Asia. Other historians are of similar opinion, and
considering the numerous emigrations from Egypt, caused by religious
persecutions and conquests, it is very likely that some of their priests
or learned men were among those exiles, and that they communicated their
knowledge to the same description of persons belonging to the nations
with whom they sojourned. The founders of Athens and Thebes were exiles;
and the Philistines, noted for their constant wars with the Jews, were
originally expelled from Egypt. I have been informed that there has been
found in the southern part of the United States, the remains of a
building similar in its appearance to Stonehenge. Did a remnant of those
Druids or Priests erect this and the Temples of Mexico, and leave behind
them those implements of war and industry that have been found in the
soil and in the mines of America? and to equal the manufacture of which,
all the resources of modern art have proved inadequate. It appears that
there existed at a most remote period, a sort of Freemasonry of priests,
bards, and architects, who, and their successors extended themselves
over the whole world; for, to whom else can be ascribed those stupendous
structures, the ruins of which at the present day excite our admiration
and wonder, and may be traced over Asia, Egypt, along the shores of the
Mediterranean, in Britain and America. That the ancients knew of America
is not improbable, when we recollect the extent of the voyages of the
Phoenicians and Carthaginians, and what has been said of the great
Island of Atlantis; it is not likely that Prince Madog would have
sailed in s