PREFACE.

...of patriarchal temples, such as we see here, and in the more eastern parts of the world. This includes the early settlers of Great Britain in particular and the connection that exists between the East and West in matters of religion. All of this shows that there was only one religion at first: pure and simple.

Pausanias, in his Description of Corinth, original: "Pausanias in Corinthiac." writes: "The Phliasians, one of the most ancient colonies in Greece, had a very holy temple in which there was no image, either visible to the public or kept in secret." He mentions the same regarding a grove or temple of Hebe The Greek goddess of youth belonging to that people, and adds, "They give a mystical reason for it." I suspect the mystery is that it followed the original patriarchal manner. The same author says in his book on Argolis original: "argol." "that at Prona is a temple of Vesta with no image, only an altar on which they sacrifice." The ancient Etruscans original: "Hetruscans" ordained by law that there should be no statues in their temples. Lucian, in On the Syrian Goddess, original: "Lucian de dea Syr." writes, "The ancient temples in Egypt had no statues." Plutarch, in his Life of Numa, and Clement of Alexandria, in the first book of his Miscellanies, original: "Clemens Alexan. strom. I." remark "that Numa, the second king of Rome, made express orders against the use of images in the worship of the deity." Plutarch adds "that for the first 170 years after the building of the city, the Romans used no images, but believed the deity to be invisible." Similarly, until the days of Silius Italicus and Philostratus, at the temple of Hercules—the settler of Britain—at Gades Modern-day Cádiz, Spain, the old patriarchal method of religion was observed, as Bishop Cumberland takes notice in his work on Sanchoniathon (page 266).

"But there were no images, nor any known likenesses of the gods." original Latin: "Sed nulla effigies, simulachrave nota deorum." — Silius Italicus, Book III.

And our British Druids had no images. Whatever we find in history that looks like idolatry among them should not be attributed to the original aboriginal Druids, but to the later colonies from mainland Europe original: "the continent".

Likewise, I have demonstrated a significant connection between the patriarchal family—specifically that of Abraham—and the first settlers of the coasts on the Atlantic Ocean of Spain, Gaul Modern-day France, Germany, and Britain. It is plain that the religion first established here—in what was then an almost inaccessible island—flourished exceedingly and kept to its original system even until the days of Julius Caesar; I mean among the original inhabitants. The newer settlers from the continent, located on the southern and eastern shores of the island, were at least influenced by original: "tinctured" idolatry in later times.