DRUIDS, Druides, or Druidae, the priests or ministers of religion amongst the ancient Celtae or Gauls, the Britons, and the Germans.

Some authors derive the word from the Hebrew DWn, derussim, or drussim, which they translate contemplatores. Picard (Celtopoed. lib. ii. p. 58) believes the druids to have been thus called from Druis or Dryins, their leader, the fourth or fifth king of the Gauls, and father of Saron or Naumes. Pliny, Salmasius, Vigenère, and others, derive the name from δguς, quercus, oak, on account of their inhabiting, or at least frequenting and teaching, in forests; or perhaps because, as Pliny says, they never sacrificed except under the oak. But it is hard to imagine how the druids should have come to speak Greek, even although Caesar assures us that they had the Greek letters. Menage derived the word from the old British drus, a daemon or magician; and Borel, from the Saxon dry, a magician, or rather from the old British dru or derw, an oak; whence he supposes δgυς to be derived, which indeed is not an improbable supposition. Becanus (lib. i.) takes druis to be an old Celtic and German word, formed from trowis or trιιwis, a doctor of the truth and the faith; and in this etymology Vossius is disposed to acquiesce.

The druids were the first and most distinguished order among the Gauls and Britons. They were chosen out of the best families; and the honours of their birth, joined with those of their function, procured them the highest veneration among the people. They were conversant in astrology, geometry, natural philosophy, politics, and geography: they were the interpreters of religion, and the judges in secular affairs: whoever refused obedience to them was declared impious and accursed. We know but little as to their peculiar doctrines, only that they believed the immortality of the soul, and, as is generally supposed, in the metempsychosis; though it appears highly probable that they did not believe in this last doctrine, at least not in the sense of the Pythagoreans.

The chief settlement of the druids in Britain was in the isle of Anglesey, the ancient Alona, which they chose for this purpose, as it was well stored with spacious groves of their favourite oak·. They were divided into several classes or branches, namely, the vacerri, bardi, cubages, symnothii or semnothei, and saronidae. The vacerri are held to have been the priests; the bardi were the poets; the cubages were the augurs; and the saronidae. were the civil judges and instructors of youth. As to the sernnothei, who are said to have been immediately devoted to the service of religion, it is probable that they were the same with the vacerri. Strabo, however, and Picard after him in his Celtopaedia, do not comprehend all these different orders under the denomination of Druids, as species under their genus, or parts under the whole, but make them quite different conditions or orders. Strabo in effect only distinguishes[7:8:204] three kinds, bardi, vates, and druids. The bardi were the poets; the vates, ουamς, apparently the same with the vacerri, were the priests and naturalists; and the druids were those who, besides the study of nature, applied themselves to that of morality.

Diogenes Laertius assures us in his prologue, that the druids were the same among the ancient Britons with the sophoi or philosophers among the Greeks, the magi among the Persians, the gymnosophists among the Indians, and the Chaldeans among the Assyrians.

Their garments were remarkably long; and, when employed in religious ceremonies, they always wore a white surplice. They generally carried a wand in their hands; and wore a kind of ornament enchased in gold about their necks, called the druids egg. Their necks were likewise decorated with gold chains, and their hands and arms ornamented with bracelets. They wore their hair very short, and their beards remarkably long.

The druids had one chief or arch-druid in every nation, who acted as high priest, or pontifex maximus. He possessed absolute authority over the rest, and commanded, decreed, or punished, at pleasure. At his death he was succeeded by the most considerable amongst the survivors; and if there were several pretenders, the matter was ended by an election, or else put to the decision of arms.

The druids, we have observed, were in the highest esteem. They presided at sacrifices and other ceremonies, and had the direction of every thing relating to religion. The British and Gallic youth flocked to them in crowds to be instructed by them. With the children of the nobility, Mela tells us, they retired into caves, or the most desolate parts of forests, and kept them there sometimes for twenty years under their discipline. Besides the immortality and metempsychosis, their disciples were here instructed in the motion of the heavens and the course of the stars, the magnitude of the heavens and the earth, the nature of things, the power and wisdom of the gods, and a variety of other doctrines. They preserved the memory and actions of great men in their verses, which they never allowed to be written down, but made their pupils get by heart. In their common course of learning, they are said to have taught them twenty-four thousand such verses. By this means their doctrines appeared more mysterious by being unknown to all but themselves; and having no books to recur to, they were the more careful to fix these doctrines in their memory.

They worshipped the Supreme Being under the name of Esus or Hesus, and the symbol of the oak; and had no other temple than a wood or a grove, where all their religious rites were performed. Nor was any person admitted to enter that sacred recess, unless he carried with him a chain, in token of his absolute dependence on the Deity. Indeed their whole religion originally consisted in acknowledging that the Supreme Being, who madebis abode in these sacred groves, governed the universe, and that every creature ought to obey his laws and pay him divine homage.

They considered the oak as the emblem, or rather the peculiar residence, of the Almighty; and accordingly chaplets of it were worn both by the druids and the people in their religious ceremonies, whilst the altars were strewed with its leaves and encircled with its branches. The fruit of it, especially the misletoe, was thought to contain a divine virtue, and to be the peculiar gift of heaven. It was therefore sought for on the sixth day of the moon with the greatest earnestness and anxiety, and when found it was hailed with raptures of joy. As soon as the druids were informed of this fortunate discovery, they prepared every thing for the sacrifice under the oak, to which they fastened two white bulls by the horns; then the archdruid, attended by a prodigious number of people, ascended the tree, dressed in white, and, with a consecrated golden knife or pruning-hook, cropped the misletoe, which he received in his sagum or robe, amidst the rapturous exclamations of the people. Having secured this sacred plant, he descended the tree; the bulls were sacrificed; and the Deity invoked to bless his own gift, and render it efficacious in those distempers in which it should be administered.

The consecrated groves, in which they performed their religious rites, were fenced round with stones, to prevent any person’s entering between the trees, except through the passages left open for that purpose, and which were guarded by some inferior druids, to prevent any stranger from intruding into their mysteries. These groves were of different forms; some quite circular, others oblong, and more or less capacious as the votaries in the districts to which they belonged were more or less numerous. The area in the centre of the grove was encompassed with several rows of large oaks set very close together. Within this large circle were several smaller ones surrounded with large stones; and near the centre of these smaller circles were stones of a prodigious size and convenient height, on which the victims were slain and offered. Each of these being a kind of altar, was surrounded with another row of stones, the use of which cannot now be known, unless they were intended as cinctures to keep the people at a convenient distance from the officiating priest.

Suetonius, in his life of Claudius, assures us that the druids sacrificed men; and Mercury is said to have been the god to whom they offered these victims. Diodorus Siculus observes, that it was only upon extraordinary occasions they made such offerings; as, to consult*what measures to take, or to learn what should happen to them, by the fall of the victim, the tearing of his members, and the manner in which his blood gushed out. Augustus condemned the custom, and Tiberius and Claudius punished and abolished it.

We learn from Caesar that the druids were the judges and arbiters of all differences and disputes, both public and private; they took cognizance of murders, inheritances, boundaries, and limits, and decreed rewards and punishments. Such as disobeyed their decisions they excommunicated, which was their principal punishment; the criminal being thereby excluded from all public assemblies, and avoided by all the world, so that nobody durst speak to him, for fear of being polluted.^[1. The aļuoe et ignis interdictio of the Homan law was probably borrowed from and founded on the druidical excommunication, just as the “letters of interconimuning” in the reigns of Charles II. and James II. were a reproduction of the Roman penalty. ] Strabo observes they had sometimes interest and authority enough to stop armies upon the point of engaging, and accommodate their differences.

It has been disputed whether the druids were themselves the inventors of their opinions and systems of religion and philosophy, or received them from others. Some have imagined that the colony of Phocians which left Greece and built Marseilles in Gaul about the 57th olympiad, imported the first principles of learning and philosophy, and communicated them to the Gauls and other nations in the west of Europe. It appears indeed that this famous colony contributed not a’ little to the improvement of that part of Gaul where it settled, and to the civilization of its inhabitants. “The Greek colony of Marseilles,” [7:8:205] says Justin, “civilized the Gauls, and taught them to live under laws; to build cities, and enclose them with walls; to raise corn; to cultivate the vine and olive; and, in a word, made so great a change both in the face of the country and the manners of its inhabitants, that Gaul seemed to be translated into Greece, rather than a few Greeks transplanted into Gaul.” But though we may allow that the druids of Gaul and Britain borrowed some hints and embellishments of their philosophy from this Greek colony, and perhaps from other quarters, there is some reason to believe that the substance of it was their own. Others have suggested that the druids derived their philosophy from Pythagoras, who published his doctrines at Crotona in Italy, where he lived above twenty years, in the highest reputation for his virtue, wisdom, and learning. This conjecture seems to be confirmed by the remarkable expression of Ammianus Marcellinus, “That the druids were formed into fraternities, as the authority of Pythagoras decreed.” It has also been observed, that the philosophy of the druids bore a much greater resemblance to that of Pythagoras than to that of any of the other sages of antiquity. But it seems probable that Ammianus meant no more by the above expression than to illustrate the nature of the druidical fraternities, by comparing them to those of the Pythagoreans, which were well known to the Romans; and the resemblance between the Pythagorean and druidical philosophy may perhaps be best accounted for, by supposing that Pythagoras learned and adopted some of the opinions of the druids, as well as imparted to them some of his discoveries, or that both were derived from a common source. It is well known that this philosopher, animated by the most ardent love of knowledge, travelled into many countries in pursuit of it, and got himself admitted into every society that was famous for its learning. It is therefore highly probable in itself, as well as directly asserted by several authors, that Pythagoras heard the druids of Gaul, and was initiated into their philosophy.

From the concurring testimonies of several authors, it appears that physiology or natural philosophy was the favourite study of the druids of Gaul and Britain. Cicero tells us that he was personally acquainted with one of the Gaulish druids, Divitiacus the Aeduan, a man of quality in his own country, who professed to have a thorough knowledge of the laws of nature, or of that science which the Greeks called physics or physiology. According to Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Caesar, Mela, Ammianus Marcellinus, and others, they entered into many disquisitions and disputations in their schools, concerning the form and magnitude of the universe in general, and of this earth in particular, and even concerning the most sublime and hidden secrets of nature. On these and similar subjects they formed a variety of systems and hypotheses, which they delivered to their disciples in verse, that the latter might the more easily retain them in their memories, since they were not allowed to commit them to writing. Strabo has preserved one of the physiological opinions of the druids concerning the universe, viz. that it was never to be entirely destroyed or annihilated, but was to undergo a succession of great changes and revolutions, which were to be produced sometimes by the power and predominacy of water, and sometimes by that of fire. This opinion, he intimates, was not peculiar to them, but was entertained also by the philosophers of other nations; and Cicero speaks of it as a truth universally acknowledged and undeniable. “It is impossible for us,” says he, “to attain a glory that is eternal, or even of very long duration, on account of those deluges and conflagrations of the earth, which must necessarily happen at certain periods.” This opinion, which was entertained by the most ancient philosophers of many different and very distant nations, was probably neither the result of rational inquiry in all these nations, nor communicated from one of them to others, but descended to them all from their common ancestors of the family of Noah by tradition, though corrupted and misunderstood through length of time. The agreement of the druids with the philosophers of so many other nations in this opinion about the alternate dissolution and renovation of the world, gives us reason to believe that they agreed with them also in their opinion of its origin from two distinct principles: the one intelligent and omnipotent, which was God; the other inanimate and inactive, which was matter. We are told by Caesar that they had many disquisitions about the power of God; and, no doubt, amongst other particulars, about his creative power. But whether they believed with some that matter was eternal, or with others that it was created, and in what manner they endeavoured to account for the disposition of it into the present form of the universe, we are entirely ignorant, though they certainly had their speculations on these subjects. We are only informed that they did not express their sentiments on these and similar heads in a plain and natural, but in a dark, figurative, and enigmatical manner. This might incline us to suspect that Pythagoras had borrowed from them his doctrines about numbers, to the mystical energy of which he ascribes the formation of all things; for nothing can be more dark and enigmatical than that doctrine. The druids disputed likewise about the magnitude and form of the world in general, and of the earth in particular, of which things they pretended to have a perfect knowledge. We know not what their opinions were about the dimensions of the universe or of the earth, but there is reason to think that they believed both to be of a spherical form. This is visibly the shape and form of the sun, moon, and stars, the most conspicuous parts of the universe; and hence it was natural and easy to infer that such was also the form of the world and of the earth. Accordingly this seems to have been the opinion of the philosophers of all nations; and the circle was the favourite figure of the druids, as appears from the form both of their houses and places of worship. Besides these general speculations about the origin, dissolution, magnitude, and form of the world and of the earth, the druids engaged in particular inquiries into the natures and properties of the different kinds of substances. But all their discoveries in this most useful and extensive branch of natural philosophy, whatever they were, have been entirely lost.

Astronomy also appears to have been one of the chief studies of the druids of Gaul and Britain. “The druids,” says Caesar, “have many disquisitions concerning the heavenly bodies and their motions, in which they instruct their disciples.” Mela, speaking of the same philosophers, observes, “that they profess to have great knowledge of the motions of the heavens and of the stars.” Some knowledge of this science indeed was not only necessary for measuring time in general, marking the duration of the different seasons, regulating the operations of the husbandman, directing the course of the mariner, and for many other purposes in civil life; but it was especially necessary for fixing the times and regular returns of their religious solemnities, of which the druids had the sole direction. Some of these solemnities were monthly, and others annual. It was therefore necessary for them to know, with some tolerable degree of exactness, the number of days in which the sun and moon performed their revolutions, that thι≈se solemnities might be observed at their proper seasons." This was the more essential, as some of these solemnities were attended by persons from different and very distant countries, who were all to meet at one place [7:8:206]on one day, and who must have had some rule to discover the annual return of that day.

The most perceptible division of time by means of the two great luminaries is into day and night; the former occasioned by the presence of the sun above the horizon, the latter by his absence, which is in some measure supplied by the moon and stars. The druids computed their time by nights, and not by days; a custom which they had received by tradition from their most remote ancestors, and in which they were confirmed by measuring their time very much by the motions of the moon, the mistress and the queen of night. As the changes in the aspect of that luminary are most conspicuous, they engaged theattention of the most ancient astronomers of all countries, and particularly of the druids, who regulated all their great solemnities, both sacred and civil, by the age and aspect of the moon. “When no unexpected accident prevents it, they assemble upon stated days, either at the time of the new or full moon; for they believe these to be the most auspicious times for transacting all affairs of importance." Their most august ceremony, that of cutting the misletoe from the oak by the archdruid, was always performed on the sixth day of the moon. Nay, they even regulated their military operations by this luminary, and avoided, as much as possible, to engage in battle whilst the moon was on the wane. As the attention of the druids was so much fixed on this planet, it could not be very long before they discovered that she passed through all her various aspects in about thirty days; and by more accurate observations, they would gradually find, that the real time of her performing an entire revolution was very nearly twenty-nine and a half days. This would furnish them with the division of their time into months, or revolutions of the moon; of which we know with certainty they were possessed. But this period, though of great use, was evidently too short for many purposes, and particularly for measuring the seasons; which, they could not fail to perceive, depended on the influences of the sun. By continued observation they discovered that about twelve revolutions of the moon included all the variety of seasons, which began again and revolved every twelve months. This suggested to them that larger division of time called a year, consisting of twelve lunations or three hundred and fifty-four days, which was the most ancient measure of the year in almost all nations. That this was for some time at least the length of the druidical year, is both probable in itself, and apparent from the expression of Pliny, that “they began both their months and years, not from the change, but from the sixth day of the moon ;” which is a demonstration that their years consisted of a certain number of lunar revolutions, as they always commenced on the same day of the moon. But as this year of twelve lunar months falls eleven days and nearly one fourth of a day short of a real revolution of the sun, this error would soon be perceived, and call for reformation; though we arc not informed of the particular manner in which it was rectified. Various arguments might be collected to render it very probable that the Britons were acquainted with a year exact enough for every purpose of life when they were first invaded by the Romans; but it will be sufficient to mention one, which is taken from the time and circumstances of that invasion. The learned Dr Halley has demonstrated that Caesar arrived in Britain, in his first year’s expedition, on the 26th day of August; and Caesar himself informs us, that at his arrival the harvest was finished, except in one field, which by some means or other was more backward than the rest of the country. This is a proof that the British husbandmen knew and used the most proper seasons for ploughing, sowing, and reaping. The druids, as we are told by Pliny, had also a cycle or period of thirty years, which they called an age, and which likewise commenced on the sixth day of the moon; but that author has not acquainted us on what principle this cycle was formed, nor to what purpose it was applied. We can hardly suppose that this was the cycle of the sun, which consists of twenty-eight years, and regulates the dominical letters. It is more probable, that whilst the druids made use of the year of twelve lunar months, and had not invented a method of adjusting it to the real revolution of the sun, they observed that the beginning of this year had passed through all the seasons, and returned to the point whence it set out, in a course of about thirty-three years; which they might therefore denominate an age. Others may perhaps be of opinion that this thirty years cycle of the druids is the same with the great year of the Pythagoreans, or a revolution of Saturn. Some have imagined that the druids were also acquainted with the cycle of nineteen years, which is commonly called the cycle of the moon. But the evidence of this depends entirely on the truth of that supposition, that the Hyperborean island, which is described by Diodorus Siculus, was Britain, or some of the British isles. Amongst many surprising things, that author states, concerning the Hyperborean island, that “its inhabitants believed that Apollo descended into their island at the end of every nineteen years; in which period of time the sun and moon, having performed their various revolutions, return to the same point, and begin to repeat the same revolutions. This is called by the Greeks the great year, or the cycle of Meton.”

We are told both by Caesar and Mela, that the druids studied the stars as well as the sun and moon; and that they professed to know, and taught their disciples, many things concerning the motions of these heavenly bodies. From these testimonies we may conclude that the druids were acquainted with the planets, distinguished them from the fixed stars, and carefully observed their motions and revolutions. If this discovery was the result of their own observations, it would be gradual, and it would be a long time before they found out all the planets. They might perhaps have received assistance and information from Pythagoras, or from some other quarter. But whether this discovery of the planets was their own, or communicated to them by others, it is highly probable that they were acquainted with the precise number of these wandering stars. Dio Cassius says, that the custom of giving the name of one of the planets to each of the seven days of the week was an invention of the Egyptians, and from them was gradually communicated to all the other nations of the world; and that in his time this custom was so firmly established, not only among the Romans, but among all the rest of mankind, that in eveŗy country it appeared to be a native institution. The knowledge of the planets, and perhaps the custom of giving their names to the days of the week, was brought out of Egypt into Italy by Pythagoras, more than five hundred years before the beginning of the Christian era; and from thence it could not be very long before it reached Gaul and Britain. But though we have little or no reason to doubt that the druids knew the number and observed the motion of the planets, yet it may be questioned whether they had discovered the times in which these bodies performed their several revolutions. Some of the planets, as Jupiter and Saturn, take so great a number of years in revolving, that it required a very extraordinary degree of patience and attention to discover the precise periods of their revolutions. If we could be certain that the island in which the ancients imagined Saturn lay asleep was one of the British isles, as Plutarch intimates it was, we might be inclined to think that the British druids were not ignorant of the length of the period [7:8:207]in which the planet Saturn performs a revolution; for that same author, in another treatise, tells us, that “the inhabitants of that island kept every thirtieth year a solemn festival in honour of Saturn, when his star entered into the sign of Taurus.” If we could depend , upon this testimony, we should have one positive proof that the druids of the British isles were acquainted with the constellations, and even with the signs of the zodiac; and that they measured the revolutions of the sun and planets, by observing the length of time between their departure from and return to one of these signs. But history supplies no direct evidence that this was really the case. The druids of Gaul and Britain, indeed, as well as the ancient philosophers of other countries, had a general plan or system of the universe, and of the disposition and arrangement of its various parts, in which they instructed their disciples. This is both probable in itself, and is plainly intimated by several authors of the greatest authority. But we cannot be certain whether this druidical system of the world was of their own invention, or was borrowed from others. If it was borrowed, it was most probably from the Pythagoreans, to whom they were the nearest neighbours, and with whom they had the greatest intercourse; or at all events from some oriental sect, order, or caste, of which many are of opinion that they originally sprung.

It has been imagined that the druids had instruments of some kind or other, which answered the same purposes as our telescopes, in making observations on the heavenly bodies. The only foundation of this very improbable conjecture is an expression of Diodorus Siculus, in his description of the famous Hyperborean island. “They say further, that the moon is seen from that island, as if she were but at a little distance from the earth, and having hills or mountains like ours on the surface.” But no such inference can be reasonably drawn from this expression, which in reality merits little more regard than that which, according to Strabo, was said of some of the inhabitants of Spain, that “they heard the hissing noise of the sun every evening when he fell into the western ocean.”

The application of the druids to the study of philosophy and astronomy amounts almost to a demonstration that they applied also to the study of arithmetic and geometry; for some knowledge of both these sciences is indispensably necessary to the natural philosopher and astronomer, as well as of great and daily use in the common affairs of life. If we were certain that Abaris, the famous Hyperborean philosopher, the friend and scholar of Pythagoras, was really a British druid, as some have imagined, we should be able to produce direct historical evidence of their arithmetical knowledge. For Iamblicus, in the life of Pythagoras, says, that “he taught Abaris to find out all truth by the science of arithmetic.” It maybe thought improbable that the druids had made any considerable progress in arithmetic, as this may seem to have been impossible by the mere strength of memory, without the assistance of figures and of written rules. But it is very difficult to ascertain what may be done by memory alone, when it has been long exercised in this way. We have had examples of persons who could perform some of the most tedious and difficult operations in arithmetic by the mere strength of memory. The want of written rules could be no great disadvantage to the druids, as the precepts of this, as well as of the other sciences, were couched in verse, which would be easily got by heart and long remembered. Though the druids were unacquainted with the Arabic numeral characters, which are now in use, we have no reason to suppose that they were destitute of marks or characters of another kind, which, in some measure, answered the same purposes, both in making and recording their calculations. In particular, it is believed that they made use of the letters of the Greek alphabet for both these purposes. This seems to be pretty distinctly intimated by Caesar, who, in speaking of the druids of Gaul, observes, that “in almost all other public transactions and private accounts or computations, they make use of the Greek letters.” And this is further confirmed by what he says of the Helvetii, a people of the same origin, language, and manners, with the Gauls and Britons. “Tables were found in the camp of the Helvetii written in Greek letters, containing an account of all the men capable of bearing arms who had left their native country, and also separate accounts of the boys, old men, and women.” There is historical evidence of the druids being also well acquainted with geometry. “When any disputes arise,” says Caesar, “about their inheritances, or any controversies about the limits of their fields, they are entirely referred to the decision of their druids.” But besides the knowledge of mensuration which this implies, both Caesar and Mela plainly intimate that the druids were conversant in the most sublime speculations of geometry; “in measuring the magnitude of the earth, and even of the world.”

There are still many monuments remaining in Britain and the adjacent isles, which cannot so reasonably be ascribed to any race as to that of the ancient Britons, and which lead us to think that they had made great progress in this department of knowledge, and could apply the mechanical powers so as to produce very astonishing effects. As these monuments appear to have been designed for religious purposes, we may be certain that they were erected under the direction of the druids. Many obelisks or pillars, of one rough unpolished stone each, are still to be seen in Britain and its isles. Some of these pillars are both very thick and lofty, erected on the summits of barrows and of mountains; and some of them, as at Stonehenge, have ponderous blocks of stone raised aloft, and resting on the tops of the upright pillars. We can hardly suppose that it was possible to cut these prodigious masses of stone, some of them above forty tons in weight, without wedges, or to raise them out of the quarry without levers. But it certainly required still greater knowledge of the mechanical powers, and of the method of applying them, to transport those huge stones from the quarry to the places of their destination; to erect the perpendicular pillars, and to elevate the imposts to the tops of these pillars. If the prodigious stone in the parish of Constantine, Cornwall, was really removed by art from its original place, and fixed where it now stands, it is a demonstration that the druids could perform the most astonishing feats by their skill in mechanics. That the British druids were acquainted with the principles and use of the balance, we have reason to believe, not only from the great antiquity of that discovery in other parts of the world, but also from some druidical monuments which are still remaining in this island. These monuments are called logon stones, or rocking stones, and each of them consists of one prodigious block of stone, resting upon an upright stone or rock, and so equally balanced, that a very small force, sometimes even that of a child, can move it up and down, though hardly any force is sufficient to remove it from its station. Some of these stones may have fallen into this position by accident, but others of them evidently appear to have been placed in it by art. That the ancient Britons understood the construction and use of wheels, the great number of their war-chariots and other wheel carriages is a sufficient proof; and that they)knew how to combine them together and with the other mechanical powers, so as to form machines capable of raising and transporting very heavy weights, we have good rea-sori[7:8:208] to believe. In a word, if the British druids were wholly ignorant of the principles and the use of any of the mechanical powers, it was most probably of the screw, though even of this we cannot be certain.

In Germany and in the northern nations of Europe the healing art was chiefly committed to the old women of every state; but in Gaul and Britain it was entrusted to the druids, who were the physicians as well as the priests of these countries. Pliny says expressly, that “Tiberius Caesar destroyed the druids of the Gauls, who were the poets and physicians of that nation and he might have added, of the Britons. The people of Gaul and Britain were probably induced to devolve the care of their health on the druids, and to apply to these priests for the cure of their diseases, not only by the high esteem they had of their wisdom and learning, but also by the opinion which they entertained, that a very intimate connection subsisted between the arts of healing and the rites of religion, and that the former were most effectual when they were accompanied by the latter. It appears indeed to have been the prevailing opinion of the nations of antiquity, that all internal diseases proceeded immediately from the anger of the gods; and that the only way of obtaining relief from these diseases was by applying to the priests to appease their anger by religious rites and sacrifices. This was evidently the opinion and practice of the Gauls and Britons, who in some dangerous cases sacrificed one man as the most effectual means of curing another. “They are much addicted,” says Caesar, “to superstition, and hence those who are afflicted with a dangerous disease sacrifice a man, or promise that they will sacrifice one, for their recovery. For this purpose they make use of the ministry of the druids, because the latter have declared that the anger of the immortal gods cannot be appeased, so as to spare the life of one man, but by the life of another.” This way of thinking also gave rise to that great number of magical rites and incantations with which the medical practices of the druids, and indeed of all the physicians of antiquity, were attended. “Nobody doubts,” says Pliny, “that magic derived its origin from medicine, and that, by its flattering but delusive promises, it came to be esteemed the most sublime and sacred part of the art of healing.”

That the druids made great use of herbs for medicinal purposes, there is sufficient evidence. They not only had a most superstitious veneration for the misletoe of the oak, on a religious account, but they also entertained a very high opinion of its medicinal virtues, and esteemed it as a kind of panacea, or remedy for all diseases. “They call it,” says Pliny, “by a name which in their language signifies All-heal, because they have an opinion that it cures all diseases.” They believed it to be in particular a specific against barrenness, and a sovereign antidote against the fatal effects of poisons of all kinds. It was also esteemed an excellent emollient and discutient for softening and discussing hard tumours, and good for drying up scrofulous sores, and curing ulcers and wounds; and, provided it was not suffered tô touch the earth after it was cut, it was thought to be a very efficacious medicine in epilepsy. It has been thought useful in this last calamitous disease by some modem physicians. The pompous ceremonies with which the misletoe was gathered by the druids have been already described. The selago, a kind of hedge hyssop resembling savin, was another plant much admired by the druids of Gaul and Britain for its supposed medicinal virtues, particularly in all diseases of the eyes. But its efficacy, according to them, depended very much upon its being gathered exactly in the following manner: The person who gathered it was to be clothed in a white robe; to have his feet bare, and washed in pure water; to offer a sacrifice of bread and wine before he proceeded to cut it, which he was to do with his right hand covered with the skirt of his garment, and with a hook of some more precious metal than iron. When it was cut, it was to be received and kept in a new and very clean cloth. Gathered exactly according to this whimsical ritual, it was affirmed to be not only an excellent medicine, but also a powerful charm and preservative against misfortunes and unhappy accidents of all kinds. The druids also entertained a high opinion of the herb samolus or mashwort, from its sanative qualities, and gave directions for gathering it, not less fanciful than those which have already been mentioned. The person who was to perform that office was to do it fasting, and with his left hand; he was on no account to look behind him, nor to turn his face from the herbs he was gathering. It would be tedious to relate the extravagant notions they entertained of the many virtues of the vervain, and to recount the ridiculous mummeries which they practised in gathering and preparing it, both for the purposes of divination and physic. It is easy to see that Pliny’s information was very imperfect; and that, like many of the other Greek and Roman writers, he designedly represented the philosophers of Gaul and Britain in an unfavourable light. The herb called Eritannica by the ancients, which some think was the great water-dock, and others the cochlearia or scurvy-grass, was probably much used in this island for medicinal purposes, as it derived its name from Britain, and was thence exported to Rome and other parts. Though these few imperfect hints are all that we can now collect of the botany of the British druids, yet there is some reason to think that they were not contemptible botanists. Their circumstances were peculiarly favourable for the acquisition of this kind of knowledge. For as they spent most of their time in the recesses of mountains, groves, and woods, the spontaneous vegetable productions of the earth constantly presented themselves to their view, and courted their attention.

The opinions which, it is said, the druids of Gaul and Britain entertained of the anguinum or serpent’s egg, both as a charm and as a medicine, are romantic and extravagant in a very high degree. This extraordinary egg was formed, as they pretended, by a great number of serpents, interwoven and twined together; and when it x had been formed, it was raised up in the air by the hissing of these serpents, and was then to be caught in a clean white cloth before it fell to the ground. The person who caught it was obliged to mount a swift horse, and to ride away at full speed to escape from the serpents, who pursued him with great rage, until they were stopped by some river. The way of making trial of the genuineness of the egg was no less extraordinary. It was to be encased in gold, and thrown into a river, and if it was genuine it would swim against the stream. “I have seen,” says Pliny, “that egg; it is about the bigness of a moderate apple, its shell is a cartilaginous incrustation, full of little cavities, such as are on the legs of the polypus; it is the insignia or badge of distinction of the druids.” The virtues which they ascribed to this egg were many and wonderful. It was particularly efficacious in rendering those who carried it about with them superior to their adversaries in all disputes, and in procuring them the favour and friendship of great men. Some have thought that this whole affair of the serpent’s egg was a mere fraud, contrived by the druids to excite the admiration and pick the pockets of a credulous people, who purchased these wonder-working eggs from them at a high price. Others have imagined that this story of the anguinum, of which there is an ancient monument in the cathedral at Paris, was an emblematical representation of the doctrine of the druids concerning the creation of the [7:8:209]world. The serpents, say they, represent the divine wisdom forming the universe, and the egg is the emblem of the world formed by that wisdom. It may be added, that the virtue ascribed to the anguinum, of giving those who possessed it a superiority over others, and endearing them to great men, may perhaps be intended to represent the natural effects of learning and philosophy. But in so doubtful a matter every one is of course at liberty to form what judgment he thinks proper.

As the influence and authority of the druids in their country depended very much upon the reputation of their superior wisdom and learning, they wisely applied to the study of those sciences which most directly contributed to the support and advancement of that reputation. In this number, besides those already mentioned, we may justly reekon rhetoric, which was diligently studied and taught by the druids of Gaul and Britain, who to the charms of their eloquence were indebted for much of the admiration and authority which they enjoyed. They had indeed many calls and opportunities to display thfcir eloquence, and to discover its great power and efficacy; as, when they were teaching their pupils in their schools; when they discoursed in public to the people on religious and moral subjects; when they pleaded causes in the courts of justice; and when they harangued in great councils of the nation, and at the heads of armies ready to engage in battle, sometimes with a view to inflame their courage, and at other times with a design to allay their fury, and dispose them to make peace. Though this last was ecrtainly a difficult task amongst fierce and warlike nations, yet such was the authority and eloquence of the druids, that they frequently succeeded in it. “They pay a great regard,” says Diodorus Siculus, “to their exhortations, not only in the affairs of peace, but even of war; and these are respected both by their friends and enemies. They sometimes step in between two hostile armies, who are standing with their swords drawn and their spears extended, ready to engage; and by their eloquence, as by an irresistible enchantment, they prevent the effusion of blood, and prevail upon them to sheath their swords. So great are the charms of eloquence and the power of wisdom even amongst the most fierce barbarians.” The British kings and chieftains, who were educated by the druids, were famous for their eloquence. This is evident from the many noble speeches which are ascribed to them by the Greek and Roman writers. For though these speeches may not be genuine, yet they are a proof that it was a well-known faet that these princes were accustomed to make harangues on such occasions. This we are expressly told by Tacitus: “The British chieftains, before a battle, fly from rank to rank, and address their men with animating speeches, tending to inflame their courage, increase their hopes, and dispel their fears.” These harangues were called, in the ancient language of Britain, brosnichty hah, which is literally translated by Tacitus, incitamenta belli, incentives to war. The genuine posterity of the ancient Britons long retained their taste for eloquence, and their high esteem for those who excelled in that art. “Orators,” says Mr Martin, i . i were in high esteem, both in these islands (the Hebrides) and the continent, until within these forty years. They sat always among the nobles or chiefs of families in the streah or circle. Their houses and little villages were sanetuaries, as well as churches, and they took place before doctors of physic. The orators, after the druids were extinet, were brought in to preserve the genealogy of families, and to repeat the same at every succession of a chief; and upon the eceasion of marriages and births, they made epithalamiums and panegyrics, which the poet or bard pronounced. The orators, by the force of their eloquence, had a powerful ascendant over the greatest men in their time. For if any orator did but ask the habit, arms, horse, or any other thing belonging to the greatest man in these islands, it was readily granted him; sometimes out of respect, and sometimes for fear of being exclaimed against by a satire, which in those days was reckoned a great dishonour.”

If the British druids, considering the times in which they lived, had made no contemptible proficieney in several parts of real and useful learning, it cannot be denied that they were also great pretenders to superior knowledge in certain vain and fallacious sciences, by which they excited the admiration, and took advantage of the ignorance and credulity, of mankind. These were the sciences, if they may be so called, of magie and divination, by means of which they pretended to work a kind of miraeles, and exhibit astonishing appearances in nature; to penetrate into the counsels of heaven; to foretel future events, and to discover the success or miscarriage of public or private undertakings. Their own countrymen not only believed that the druids of Gaul and Britain were possessed of these powers, but they were celebrated on this account by the philosophers of Greece and Rome. “In Britain,” says Pliny, “the magie arts are cultivated with such astonishing success, and so many ceremonies, at this day, that the Britons seem to be capable of instructing even the Persians themselves in these arts. They pretend to discover the designs and purposes of the gods. The Eubates or Vates in particular investigate and display the most sublime seerets of nature; and by auspices and sacrifices they foretel future events.” They were so famous for the supposed veracity of their predictions, that they were not only consulted on all important occasions by their own princes and great men, but even sometimes by the Roman emperors. Nor is it very difficult to account for all this. The druids finding that the reputation of their magical and prophetical powers contributed not a little to the advancement of their wealth and influence, naturally endeavoured to strengthen and establish it by all their art and cunning. Their knowledge of natural philosophy and mechanics enabled them to execute such works, and to exhibit such appearances, or to make the world believe that they did exhibit them, as were sufficient to gain them the character of great magicians. The truth is, that nothing is more easy than to acquire this character in a dark age, and among an unenlightened people. When the minds of men are haunted with dreams of charms and enchantments, they are apt to fancy that the most common occurrences in nature are the effects of magical arts. The following strange story, which we meet with in Plutarch’s Treatise of the Cessation of Oraeles, was probably occasioned by something of this kind. “There are many islands which lie scattered about the isle of Britain, after the manner of our Sporades. They are generally unpeopled, and some of them are called the Islands of the Heroes. One Demetrius was sent by the emperor Improbably Claudius] to discover these parts. He arrived at one of these islands ^supposed by some to'be Anglesey, but more probably one of the Hebrides] next adjoining to the isle of Britain before mentioned, which was inhabited by a few Britons, who were esteemed sacred and inviolable by their countrymen. Immediately after his arrival the air grew black and troubled, and strange apparitions were seen; the winds rose to a tempest, and fiery spouts and whirlwinds appeared daneing towards the earth.” This was probably no more than a storm of wind, accompanied with rain and lightning, a thing neither unnatural nor uncommon; but Demetrius and his companions having heard that the British druids, by whom this isle was chiefly inhabited, were great magicians, imagined that it was raised by them, and fancied that they saw many strange and unnatural sights.
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The druids did not think proper to undeceive them; for when they inquired about the cause of this storm, they were told that it was occasioned by the death of one of those invisible beings or genii who frequented their isle; a wonderful and artful tale, very well calculated to increase the superstitious terrors of Demetrius and his crew, and to determine them to abandon this enchanted isle, with a resolution never to return. Stonehenge, and several other works of the druids, were, for many ages after the destruction of their whole order, believed to have been executed by the arts of magic and enchantment; nor is it improbable that they persuaded the vulgar in their own .times to entertain the same opinion of these works, by concealing from them the real arts by which they had been erected. The natural and acquired sagacity of the druids, with their long experience and great concern in the conduct of affairs, enabled them to form very probable conjectures about the event of enterprises. These conjectures they pronounced as oracles when they were consulted; and they pretended to derive them from the inspection of the entrails of victims, the observation of the flight and feeding of certain birds, and many other mummeries. By these and similar arts they obtained and preserved the reputation of prophetic foresight among an ignorant and credulous people. But these pretensions of the druids to magic and divination, which contributed so much to the advancement of their fame and fortune in their own times, have brought very heavy reproaches upon their memory, and have made some learned moderns declare that they ought to be expunged out of the catalogue of philosophers, and esteemed no better than mere cheats and jugglers. This censure is evidently too severe, and might have been pronounced with equal justice upon all the ancient philosophers of Egypt, Assyria, Persia, Greece, and Rome, who were great pretenders to magic and divination, as well as the druids. “I know of no nation in the world, “says Cicero, “either so polite and learned, or so savage and barbarous, as not to believe that future events are presignified to us, and may by some men be discovered and foretold.” The only conclusion, therefore, that can be fairly drawn from the successful pretensions of the British druids to the arts of magic and of divination, is this: That they had more knowledge than their countrymen and contemporaries, but had not so much virtue as to resist the temptation of imposing upon their ignorance to their own advantage.