D R U 



151 



D R U 







' 



rrys 



nding 

 chine. 



XL. 



advantage of this plan is, that it raises no dust, and 

 therefore loses no part of the substance, because the 

 vessel is shut up close. When it is to be cleared, a 

 cover at a is removed, and the contents escape : tin's 

 cover is fastened by screws into its place. The ma- 

 chine must be always used for the same material, be- 

 cause it is not easily cleaned out. The founders have 

 adopted this machine, and also the one shewn in Fig. 8. 

 for grinding charco-.l. 



p;^ ^ j s a m jn invented by Mr G. Terry, for 

 grinding any hard substances ; and it may be used with 

 advantage for reducing some kinds of drugs, for which 

 steel mills, similar to coffee mills, are at present used ; 

 but this is a much better machine. It acts by a cy- 

 linder A, which is mounted on a spindle, and turned 

 by the handle B. It is enclosed in an iron lx>x DD, 

 which has the spout E at the bottom of it, and at the 

 top is the hopper, or funnel F, into which the materials 

 are to be put. The grinding is performed by teeth 



cut upon the circumference of the cylinder, and opera- 

 ting against other teeth, formed upon a plate of steel a, 

 which moves upon a centre at the lower end; and the 

 upper is acted upon by a screw b, by means of which 

 it can at pleasure be advanced towards the cylinder, to 

 grind as fine as is required. The hopper has a spiral 

 spring /'in it, which is fixed at the top, and proceeds 

 down to a detent c resting upon the teeth of the cy- 

 linder: and as they pass by it in succession, they com- 

 municate a shaking motion to the spring, which agi- 

 tates the contents of the hopper, and prevents its clog- 

 ging up at the mouth, as common steel mills frequently 

 do. 



Mill-stones, exactly the same as are used for grind- 

 ing flour, are employed for many drugs which will ad- 

 mit of grinding dry ; and smaller stones, revolving 

 with a slow motion, are also used for preparing semi- 

 fluid substances, (j. F.) 



Drug- 



DRUIDS. 



Dnii.ls. 



DRUIDS were the priests of the ancient Briton*, and 

 other Celtic tribes. Respecting them, and their religion, 

 antiquarians have indulged in many opinions, and ad- 

 vanced many circumstances as facts, which are totally 

 unsupported" by any authority or evidence. In this 

 article, therefore, our principal motive and object will 

 be to explode what is fictitious and unfounded, to cor- 

 rect what is erroneous, and to reduce our real and well 

 authenticated knowledge respecting the Druids and 

 Druidism, to those narrow limits which truth imperi- 

 ously assigns them. In the execution of this plan, we 

 nre well aware of the difficulties which lie in our way, 

 from the intermixture and confusion of conjecture and 

 imagination with authority and evidence, and of the 

 violent and long established prejudices which we must 

 encounter and overcome. 



According to most of the numerous writers who have 

 treated on this subject, Druidism was established over 

 many of the countries of Europe ; and the Druids had 

 anticipated the discoveries of Pythagoras, Epicurus, 

 Archimedes, and Newt<m : their supposed discoveries 

 they had made, in barbarous countries, during the 

 darkest ages of superstition and ignorance, and while 

 they themselves were cut off, both by their situation 

 and by their peculiar mode of life, from every thing 

 that was civilized and enlightened. Our object is to 

 prove, that the Druids were confined to very narrow 

 limits ; and that, so far from deserving the high and en- 

 thusiastic praises bestowed upon them for their learn- 

 ing, they were ignorant and extremely barbarous in 

 their manners, and gloomy and cruel in their supersti- 

 tions. In doing this, we shall consider the etymological 

 derivation and meaning of the term Druid ; the origin 

 of their order and worship ; the countries in which 

 they were actually found ; the ranks and orders into 

 which they were divided ; the powers, immunities, and 

 privileges which they enjoyed ; the tenets and religious 

 opinions which they held ; the deities whom they wor- 

 shipped ; the superstitions to which they were addicted ; 

 their modes and places of worship ; the knowledge and 

 learning which they actually possessed ; and the period 

 and causes of their extinction. 



The authors of the Ancient Universal History have 

 very justly remarked, that respecting the Druids we 



Druid* 



have only a few imperfect and incidental notices in 

 Caesar, Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Mela, Lucan, Tacitus, . 

 Pliny, and Ammianus Marcellinus. " These have 

 written in so loose a manner(continue the same authors,) 

 that all their fragments put together would hardly 

 amount to three or four pages, and these reduced to 

 their just value, would lose one half of their bulk ; whe- 

 ther it be that these authors but just copied one another, 

 or only designed to say the same thing." From this 

 statement, virtually acknowledged to be correct by one 

 of the warmest admirers of Druidism, Colonel Vallan- 

 cey, who confesses that the tenets of the Celtic religion 

 are not as yet fully known, we may easily perceive 

 how very limited and imperfect our real knowledge of 

 the Druids must be, and how greatly those writers who 

 have expatiated on the subject with so much fulness 

 and minuteness, must have been indebted to their ima- 

 gination. From the ancient authors just named, how- 

 ever, we must draw most, if not all, of the facts on 

 which we can depend respecting Druidism ; for the 

 testimony of Celtic writers, whether Welsh or Irish, 

 can never be admitted, till they are proved to have 

 lived near the time when Druidism flourished ; and 

 even granting that they did live near this period, their 

 accounts are too loose and exaggerated to deserve much 

 attention or faith, especially when they are at variance 

 with the more sober and impartial accounts of the Greek 

 and Roman historians : on these, therefore, we shall 

 mainly and most confidently rely, for what we shall ad- 

 vance on the subject of the Druids, and Druidism. 



I. With respect to the etymological derivation and j^ 

 meaning of the word Druid, it will not detain us long, O f Umid. 

 as it is rather a matter of curiosity than of real impor- 

 tance. The most common and popular opinion is, that 

 Druid is derived from the Greek word 3jt/ an oak ; 

 but as the name evidently was borrowed by the Greek 

 and Roman historians from the Celtic, and was, in fact, 

 that which they found given to the Celtic priests by the 

 people of that nation, and not what the Greeks or Ro- 

 mans conferred upon them, we must look to the Celtic 

 language for its origin and meaning. It is rather singu- 

 lar, that, in this language, drys has the same meaning as 

 Jjuj in Greek, both signifying an oak. As we know 

 that the Druids paid very particular veneration to the 



