The History of England, Volume I The Britons and Romans The Britons
by David Hume
The curiosity, entertained by all civilized nations, of inquiring into
the exploits and adventures of their ancestors, commonly excites a
regret that the history of remote ages should always be so much
involved in obscurity, uncertainty, and contradiction. Ingenious men,
possessed of leisure, are apt to push their researches beyond the
period in which literary monuments are framed or preserved; without
reflecting that the history of past events is immediately lost or
disfigured when intrusted to memory or oral tradition; and that the
adventures of barbarous nations, even if they were recorded, could
afford little or no entertainment to men born in a more cultivated
age. The convulsions of a civilized state usually compose the most
instructive and most interesting part of its history; but the sudden,
violent, and unprepared revolutions incident to barbarians are so much
guided by caprice, and terminate so often in cruelty, that they
disgust us by the uniformity of their appearance; and it is rather
fortunate for letters that they are buried in silence and oblivion.
The only certain means by which nations can indulge their curiosity in
researches concerning their remote origin, is to consider the
language, manners, and customs of their ancestors, and to compare them
with those of the neighbouring nations. The fables which are commonly
employed to supply the place of true history ought entirely to be
disregarded; or if any exception be admitted to this general rule, it
can only be in favour of the ancient Grecian fictions, which are so
celebrated and so agreeable, that they will ever be the objects of the
attention of mankind. Neglecting, therefore, all traditions, or
rather tales, concerning the more early history of Britain, we shall
only consider the state of the inhabitants as it appeared to the
Romans on their invasion of this country: we shall briefly run over
the events which attended the conquest made by that empire, as
belonging more to Roman than British story: we shall hasten through
the obscure and uninteresting period of Saxon annals: and shall
reserve a more full narration for those times when the truth is both
so well ascertained and so complete as to promise entertainment and
instruction to the reader.
All ancient writers agree in representing the first inhabitants of
Britain as a tribe of the Gauls or Celtae, who peopled that island
from the neighbouring continent. Their language was the same; their
manners, their government, their superstition, varied only by those
small differences which time or communication with the bordering
nations must necessarily introduce. The inhabitants of Gaul,
especially in those parts which lie contiguous to Italy, had acquired,
from a commerce with their southern neighbours, some refinement in the
arts, which gradually diffused themselves northwards, and spread but a
very faint light over this island. The Greek and Roman navigators or
merchants (for there were scarcely any other travellers in those ages)
brought back the most shocking accounts of the ferocity of the people,
which they magnified, as usual, in order to excite the admiration of
their countrymen. The south-east parts, however, of Britain had
already, before the age of Caesar, made the first, and most requisite
step towards a civil settlement; and the Britons, by tillage and
agriculture, had there increased to a great multitude [a]. The other
inhabitants of the island still maintained themselves by pasture:
they were clothed with skins of beasts. They dwelt in huts, which they
reared in the forests and marshes, with which the country was covered:
they shifted easily their habitation, when actuated either by the
hopes of plunder, or the fear of an enemy: the convenience of feeding
their cattle was even a sufficient motive for removing their seats:
and as they were ignorant of all the refinements of life, their wants
and their possessions were equally scanty and limited.
[ [a] Caesar. lib. 4.]
The Britons were divided into many small nations or tribes; and being
a military people, whose sole property was their arms and their
cattle, it was impossible, after they had acquired a relish for
liberty, for their princes or chieftains to establish any despotic
authority over them. Their governments, though monarchical [b], were
free, as well as those of all the Celtic nations; and the common
people seem even to have enjoyed more liberty among them [c] than
among the nations of Gaul [d], from which they were descended. Each
state was divided into factions within itself [e]: it was agitated
with jealousy or animosity against the neighbouring states: and while
the arts of peace were yet unknown, wars were the chief occupation,
and formed the chief object of ambition among the people.
The religion of the Britons was one of the most considerable parts of
their government; and the Druids, who were their priests, possessed
great authority among them. Besides ministering at the altar, and
directing all religious duties, they presided over the education of
youth; they enjoyed an immunity from wars and taxes; they possessed
both the civil and criminal jurisdiction; they decided all
controversies among states as well as among private persons, and
whoever refused to submit to their decree was exposed to the most
severe penalties. The sentence of excommunication was pronounced
against him: he was forbidden access to the sacrifices or public
worship: he was debarred all intercourse with his fellow-citizens,
even in the common affairs of life: his company was universally
shunned, as profane and dangerous. He was refused the protection of
law [f]; and death itself became an acceptable relief from the misery
and infamy to which he was exposed. Thus, the bands of government,
which were naturally loose among that rude and turbulent people, were
happily corroborated by the terrors of their superstition.
[ [f] Caesar, lib. 6. Strabo, lib. 4.]
No species of superstition was ever more terrible than that of the
Druids. Besides the severe penalties, which it was in the power of
the ecclesiastics to inflict in this world, they inculcated the
eternal transmigration of souls; and thereby extended their authority
as far as the fears of their timorous votaries. They practised their
rites in dark groves or other secret recesses [g]; and in order to
throw a greater mystery over their religion, they communicated their
doctrines only to the initiated, and strictly forbad the committing of
them to writing, lest they should at any time be exposed to the
examination of the profane vulgar. Human sacrifices were practised
among them: the spoils of war were often devoted to their divinities;
and they punished with the severest tortures whoever dared to secrete
any part of the consecrated offering; these treasures they kept in
woods and forests, secured by no other guard than the terrors of their
religion [h]; and this steady conquest over human avidity may be
regarded as more signal than their prompting men to the most
extraordinary and most violent efforts. No idolatrous worship ever
attained such an ascendant over mankind as that of the ancient Gauls
and Britons; and the Romans, after their conquest, finding it
impossible to reconcile those nations to the law and institutions of
their masters, while it maintained its authority, were at last obliged
to abolish it by penal statutes; a violence which had never, in any
other instance, been practised by those tolerating conquerors [i].
[ [g] Plin. lib. 12. cap. 1. [h] Caesar, lib. 6. [i] Sueton. in
vita Claudii.]
