The Druids were an order of priesthood who, alone of all the nation, were informed of the doctrines of their faith. These doctrines were never committed to writing, through fear that others beside the priests might acquire a knowledge of them; and the places where they were taught to those who were to be initiated, were dark caves, or groves apart from the common haunts of men, the better to secure the entire secrecy of their schools.

In direct contrast with this, the faith of the Teuton was common to the whole nation, and all participated in the rites of worship. They had their priests and priestesses to perform their sacred rites; but their whole faith and worship were free to all, as the air they breathed.

True to their ancient peculiarities, the modern descendants of the Teutones and of the Kelts show precisely the same wide contrast in all things pertaining to religious faith. When the light of the Reformation dawned upon Europe, the Teuton sprang once more into wakeful life, and rejoiced to resume his freedom. The Kelt, true also to his old modes of thought, shut fast his eyes, and abjured the freedom that would call upon him to think for himself. At the present time, we find the Irish, who are the purest Kelts now living, devoted heart and soul to a faith of which they know no more than their ancestors knew of the doctrines of the Druids. The French nation, who are next to the Irish as a Keltic race, were leavened by the Franks with enough Teutonic feeling to produce a struggle among them between Catholicism and Protestantism; but the Kelt finally prevailed, and the terrible curse of excommunication compelled those who longed for freedom of thought to fly, or feign submission. In every purely Teutonic nation, Protestantism found a home, and soon became with them the predominant national idea, and so has ever continued.

In the providence of God, progress is an eternal principle, and we always find that, when a great nation is swept away, its conquerors bring about improvements in civilization, or prepare the way for subsequent advances, from age to age. A very important difference between the Keltic and Teutonic races is to be found in the ideas they entertained in regard to a future life. The Kelt believed, that as soon as his present body became dead, his soul passed into another human body,

and so on forever. It is supposed by some writers, that the Druid priests held a more spiritual view of the future life; but the doctrine as stated above was undoubtedly that of the common people. On the other hand, the Teuton believed in a spiritual futurity, where the soul should find reward or punishment according as its life had been good or evil during its material existence, and should never more resume this earthly body. In regard to marriage, at least among the Britons, the horrible custom prevailed of men and women living together in communities; while the Teuton abhorred all connection between the sexes saving in the holy wedlock. of one man and one woman.

We can hardly imagine two subjects that would produce a greater difference on the habits of thought and action than those of marriage and a future life. The one involves all the domestic virtues, and on the other depend all our hopes and fears for an eternity to come. Had the Teutones made no other advance upon the Kelts than the holding truer doctrines on these two points, it were enough to show that they belonged to a superior race. When the Saxons descended upon Britain, it is true, they were pagans, while those they conquered were nominal Christians; but if we may believe the appalling account given by Gildas, one of their own writers living at the time, no nation, Christian or pagan, was ever sunk in a more detestable and revolting slough of every sort of vice, while the Saxons were comparatively a virtuous people. Of course, they scorned the religious faith of the vicious race they conquered, and driving Christianity from the land, to the relief rather than the disturbance of those who had nominally professed it, but who were very willing to go back to their ancient rites, they established the religion of Woden in its stead.

Every one knows the pretty story of the beauty of some Anglican slaves, exposed for sale in the Roman market, exciting the interest of Gregory, and inspiring the wish that their nation might be taught the Christian faith; and how, as soon as he became Pope, he despatched Augustine with a band of forty monks to attempt its conversion. Arrived as far as Aix in Provence, these monks heard such startling tales of the ferocity of the Anglo-Saxons, that they paused in terror, and sent back a messenger to Gregory praying that

they might be allowed to abandon the enterprise. The good Pope was not to be moved from his purpose, and abjured the faint-hearted monks by every Christian motive to persevere in the undertaking. Providing themselves with interpreters in France, they went on their fearful way, and were rewarded by a most unexpected success. The first king whom they approached was Ethelbert, King of Kent and Bretwalda of the Octarchy. His queen was a French Catholic princess, and by a stipulation made at the time of her marriage, she had been allowed to retain her faith and to have several priests among her attendants. Her influence was, of course, given in favor of the new comers, and they were permitted, without molestation, to preach among the people of Kent. They received very slight opposition from the Saxon priests, and ere long the king himself consented to be baptized. Soon after, ten thousand of his people imitated the royal example; and from this time the progress of Christianity was steady and rapid. In less than ninety years from the arrival of Augustine, it was adopted by every king and people of the Octarchy, and paganism finally driven out of the island.

The Roman Catholic religion became dominant throughout Europe. Kelt and Teuton bowed reverently to receive the blessing of the Pope, or fled trembling from his anathema. When, however, Luther's voice rang through the continent, it soon became apparent that the two races looked upon their faith with very different feelings. The source whence these feelings rose is to be found in the original traits of the two races as they exhibit themselves in their pagan doctrines.

If at this day we look at the map of Europe, we find very generally, if not universally, that where the race is Keltish, there the religion is Catholic; where it is Teutonic, there it is Protestant. If we look at its history, we find that where the Teutonic blood was most pure, there the progress of Protestantism was easiest and most rapid; where it was most mingled with the Keltic, there this progress was most difficult; and where in this mixture the Keltic element prevailed, as in France, there popery ultimately conquered; but by the modifications to which it submitted, it rendered its tribute of acknowledgment to the liberalizing influence of the Teutonic character.

To this we venture to add, that the same results of the same influences may be expected in this country. There are those who have great fear of the growth of popery among us; there are others who think it can obtain no foothold, but will pass wholly away and disappear. We agree with neither; but we expect that the spread and the strength of popery in these United States will be measured, in general, by the existence and influence among us of the Keltic blood. We believe that it may live long, but can never prevail over the Teutonic elements of character, which, so far as we can anticipate, must in our country always remain predominant.

Whewell, in his Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, remarks that "natural groups are best described, not by any definition that marks their boundaries, but by a type which marks their centre. The type of any natural group is an example which possesses, in a marked degree, all the leading characters of the class." We believe that, in describing the Teutonic group of nations, we have done no injustice to them in considering the Saxons as the type of the class; and in order to give a true idea of the Saxons after their conquest of Britain and adoption of Christianity, we think it better to examine in detail the lives and characters of a few eminent typical individuals, than to dwell upon the mere external history of their times. For this purpose, we select three persons, who, we think, were more than any others honored while living, and venerated when dead; and whose characteristics may therefore fairly be esteemed as truly representing the tastes and affections of the great mass of the nation.

The first of these is St. Cuthbert, the Bishop and anchorite, the exclusively religious man, who represents the nation in the first enthusiasm of its conversion to Christianity, and before it had become aware of the value of intellectual culture. The second is the Venerable Bede, - the monk and the scholar, the most devout and the most learned man of his age; and who represents the nation at a more advanced period of its progress. The third is King Alfred, at once theologian, scholar, warrior, and statesman; a man so admirably endowed by the Almighty, and so faithful in the use of his rich endowments, that he can hardly be said to belong to one nation or age; but should rather be esteemed a typical man of the human race through all time. Sir Henry Spelman

calls him "the wonder and astonishment of all ages," and adds, "If we reflect on his piety and religion, it would seem that he had always lived in a cloister; if on his warlike exploits, that he had never been out of camps; if on his learning or writings, that he had spent his whole life in a college; if on his wholesome laws and wise administration, that these had been his whole study and employment."

St. Cuthbert flourished in the latter half of the seventh century, and began life as a shepherd-boy in the mountains of Northumberland. While he was still a youth, Oswald, the King of Northumberland, embraced Christianity, and in order to convert his people, sent to Iona for the holy monk Aidan to instruct them in the new faith, giving him the choice of his whole realm for a place to erect a monastery. Aidan selected the wild and desolate island of Lindisfarne, attracted perhaps by its resemblance to the place he had left; and by his superior cultivation and refinement, no less than by his piety, acquired great influence and wrought great changes among the half-savage nobles of the surrounding region. His fame reached the ears of the boy-shepherd, who, as he tended his flock on the banks of the Leder, saw in a vision the holy man ascending to heaven. His mind was so wrought upon by the sight, that he forthwith resolved to devote himself to a life of similar holiness, and became a brother in the monastery of Melrose on the banks of the Tweed, where he led a life of great sanctity for fourteen years, under the pious Abbot Eata. In the mean time, an effort had been made by the Pope to establish his power over the newly christianized country, which excited such indignation among the monks of Lindisfarne that they left it in disgust, and returned to Iona, and Eata was sent from Melrose to be made Abbot of Lindisfarne. Thither he was followed by Cuthbert, who was his devoted friend; and in the solitude of this storm-beaten island, he found a home after his own heart, and strengthened his spirit by prayer and meditation.

The duties of piety, however, did not occupy him to the exclusion of those of charity. From time to time, he issued from his island home, as he had formerly done from Melrose, and made pilgrimages through the mountains of his native kingdom to bear the glad tidings of peace to the rude peasantry.