James Bonwick Frgs

Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

Who were the Druids ? This question has agitated the minds of the learned for a long time, and the replies have been various, as well as contradictory. Tradition preserves their memory as of a pious and superior race, prominently associated with the British Isles and France, and, in a lesser degree, with Belgium, Holland, Germany, and the lands of Scandinavia. Much romance has been long attached to them. We hear their chants in the Stone Circles. We listen to the heaven-inspired utterances of the Archdruid, as he stands on the capstone of a cromlech, in the eye of the sun, surrounded by the white-robed throng, with the bowed worshippers afar. We see the golden sickle reverently cutting off the sacred mistletoe. We follow, in imagination, the solemn procession, headed by the cross-bearer. We look under the old oak at the aged Druid, instructing disciples in mystic lore, in verses never to be committed to writing. We gaze upon the assembly of kings and chieftains, before whom the wise men debate upon some points of legislation. Were the Irish Druids like those of whom we read belonging to other lands? Did they spring up from among the Irish people, or were they strangers from another and distant shore? Could they have formed a distinct community, like the tribe of Levi, intermarrying among themselves only? Amidst much ignorance, and even barbarism, can the Druids have been distinguished by the learning and refinement attributed to them? The Druids, forming one subject of this publication, are still an enigma to us. They were, doubtless, neither so grandly wise, nor so low in reputation, as represented by tradition. Their ethical lessons must have assuredly prepared the way for Christian missions. ''Seven years your right, under a flagstone in a quagmire, Without food, without taste, but the thirst you ever torturing; The law of the judges your lesson, and prayer your language And if you like to return, You will be, for a time, a Druid, perhaps.''

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Sa Studio Press
• Seitenzahl: 350
• Erscheinungstermin: Oktober 2011
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 203mm x 127mm x 20mm
• Gewicht: 381g
• ISBN-13: 9781781070451
• ISBN-10: 1781070458
• Artikelnr.: 58007234

Autorenporträt

James Bonwick (8 July 1817 - 6 October 1906) was an English-born Australian historical and educational writer. Bonwick was born Lingfield, Surrey, England, the eldest son of James Bonwick, and Mary Ann née Preston. James Bonwick, the elder, was a man of some mechanical ability, but he suffered from ill health, and his children were brought up in poor circumstances. His eldest son was educated at the Borough Road school, Southwark, and at 17 years of age teaching at a school at Hemel Hempstead and similar positions followed at Bexley and Liverpool. In April 1840 he married Esther Ann Beddow, the daughter of a Baptist clergyman, and in the following year obtained a position at the Normal School, Hobart, Tasmania. Bonwick and his wife arrived at Hobart on 10 October 1841. He was a successful teacher in Hobart for eight years and published the first of his many school books, Geography for the Use of Australian Youth, in 1845. He went to Adelaide in 1850, and opened a private school. In 1852 made his way to the Victorian gold diggings after finding himself in debt, but he did not find much gold. He then went to Melbourne where he established The Australian Gold-Diggers' Monthly Magazine, which ceased publication with the eighth issue in May 1853. He then established a successful boarding school at Kew, a suburb of Melbourne. He had already published several schoolbooks and pamphlets, when in 1856 he published his Discovery and Settlement of Port Phillip, the first of his historical works. About this time he joined the Victorian government service as an inspector of denominational schools, and in 1857 made a tour of inspection through the western district of Victoria. He made Ballarat his centre and worked there for about four years. During his journeys he suffered from sunstroke and a coaching accident. He became so ill that he was given 18 months' leave of absence, but was unable to continue his work and had to retire from the service. He visited England in 1860 and then returned to Melbourne in July 1862 and opened a school in the suburb of St Kilda, which became very prosperous. He paid another visit to England with his wife, leaving the school in the hands of a son and a friend of his. They, however, mismanaged the school, and Bonwick was compelled to return and put things in order again. He was doing much writing, and in the ensuing years travelled in various parts of Australia, New Zealand and Europe.