The Veil of Isis; or, Mysteries of the Druids
By W. Winwood Reade

(1861)
"By the bright circle of the golden sun,
By the bright courses of the errant moon,
By the dread potency of every star,
In the mysterious Zodiac's burning girth,
By each and all of these supernal signs,
We do adjure thee, with this trusty blade
To guard yon central oak, whose holy stem,
Involves the spirit of high Taranis:
Be this thy charge."-MASON

DEDICATION. TO EMILY

As those presents are always the most fashionable, and sometimes the most valued, which cannot be used, I give you this book, which you will not be able to read, but which, perhaps, you will kindly preserve in memory of its writer. An author can pay no higher compliment to a friend than to dedicate to her a work upon which he has spent much labor and anxiety. This effort of a young man to redeem a mistake, perhaps a fault, in his literary life, deserves to be sealed with your name, for it is you who have repeatedly urged him to the task, and presided over it like a guardian angel, with kind and consoling words.

CONTENTS

• BOOK THE FIRST
  DARKNESS.

• BOOK THE SECOND
  ABORIGINES.
  I.-Albion
  II.-Britain
  III.-Analysis
  IV.-Description

• BOOK THE THIRD
  THE DRUIDS.
  I.-Origin
  II.-Power
  III.-The Derwydd, or Philosophers
  IV.-The Bardd, or Musicians
  V.-The Ovades, or Noviciates
  VI.-Rites and Ceremonies
  VII. -Priestesses

• BOOK THE FOURTH
  THE DESTRUCTION OF THE DRUIDS.

• BOOK THE FIFTH
  VESTIGES OF DRUIDISM.
  I.-In the Ceremonies of the Church of Rome
  II.-In the Emblems of Freemasonry
  III.-In Rustic Folk-Lore

The Druids

Galic Antiquities
Consisting of a History of the Druids, particularly of those of Caledonia; a Dissertation on the Authenticity of the poem of Ossian; and a collection of Ancient Poems, translated from the Galic of Ullin, Ossian, Orran, &c., By John Smith, Minister of Kilbrandon, Argyleshire (1780) (pdf)

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