Fire Worship in Britain by T. F. G. Dexter Ph.D

Fire Worship in Britain by T. F. G. Dexter Ph.D, New Knowledge Series No.4 

Scholars are now in general agreement that the Britons who opposed the Roman Invaders possessed an archaic civilization of no mean order. which Scholars are not yet agreed is: Whence was this Civilization derived?

The problem upon Dr. Dexter, following the lead of Professor G. Elliot Smith, Professor Sir Arthur Keith, Mr. W. J. Perry, the late Dr. Rivers and other scientists, is of opinion that this culture was introduced into parts of these islands by "Easterners" (some probably Egyptians), who were here searching for pearls and gold (to them sacred things) as early as 2000 B.C. Later, other "Easterners" came for tin to harden their copper and convert it into bronze.   

Dr. Dexter is of opinion that the History of these Islands should commence, not with the Roman Invasion, but with the coming of the builders of Avebury, circa 2000 B.C.: further, that in the history of our civilization too much importance has been attached to the influence of the Saxon and of the Celt, to the neglect of the "Easterner" and of the " Primitive."

He commences by taking a subject which has received but scant attention from the archeaologist and the folklorist - The Origin of Fairs. He proves that most fairs are pagan, not Christian, in origin, and establishes a strong presumption that some of them date from the Bronze Age or, perchance, even earlier. Now fairs imply organisation-cooperation-civilisation, and are witnesses of an early civilization, perhaps of more than one early civilization, in these Islands.

The Easterners who introduced an archaic civilization here appear to have been devotees of the cult of stones and of the sun. The evidence of stone-worship is more apparent than that of sun-worship; so "The Sacred Stone" is taken first, and interesting instances are detailed of former and present beliefs in living, healing and magic stones.

Reviewing the evidence so far obtained, instead of a Britain wholly given to barbarism before the Roman occupation, we envisage parts of Britain as peaceful, contented, have been prosperous, civilized, with much trading at home and abroad. So we have been "a nation of shopkeepers" from time immemorial! We also call up an intensely religious Britain, full of many and divers cults, of such great antiquity and of such high esteem, that the Christian Church had, willy-nilly, to incorporate some of them. Religion and culture were once practically synonymous, and as the Late Professor Robertson Smith said: "If we wish to know any religion thoroughly, we must learn all we can about the religions which preceded it."

So, if we desire to appreciate to the full the origin and development of culture in Britain, we must learn about the gods once worshipped here and the ritual connected with their cult. Paradoxical as it may seem, the dark and dead past may be made to illumine the living present.

Details

• Booklet bound with staples, front and back covers may have stains   
  
• New Knowledge Series, No 4, 1931
• Condition: Good, has a small hole on the paper page 15
  
• Publisher: Printed and Published in Great Britain by C. A. Watts & Co. Limited