Blair Collection > Celtic researches, on the origin, traditions & language, of the ancient Britons

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giants λνΐιο, suinetinic aftcrsvaids,, were struck λύύι astoiiish-
uieut at the sudden infliction of Divine vengeance, zvcre driven
forth from among men, and scattered into all lands, to the
East, and North, and South, as well as to the AVest, must
have iled in disorder and confusion. Their flocks and their
herds could not have accompanied the tumultuous retreat of
the zcanderiiig exiles. Their consequent indigence must have
introduced all the wretched irregularities of savage life, and
fitted them only for the occupation of hunters and robhers,
Λ just abhorrence of the proverbial impiety of the great
rebel, and an awful recollection of the signal punishment of his
associates, would naturall}' dispose the fathers of the more
regular societies, to preserve the sacred institutions of their
ancestors, with the utmost care, and to fix the grand arcaiKt
of primitive wisdom upon a firm base.
And to tliese ends, Avhat could have been more conducive,
than to constitute such regular Hierarchies, as ancient history
describes in various parts of the earth — To make the wisest
and most approved men, in every society, the instructors of
the people, and the depositories of priinitive tradition?
To such societies, the nations were indebted for those
vestiges of early opinions and science which remained amongst
them: while the societies themselves, after the various cor-
ruptions of a long series of ages, were found to resemble each
other, in the simplicity of their manners, their general doc-
trines, their discipline, their customs and their learning; and
in all these respects to have presented a striking piéìure of the
age of >soah and his immediate descendants.
They preserved an amiable nuxlium between savagf rude-
Ticss and frivolous lelincnient. Thev rcirarded their institu-