158 



DRUIDS. 



to the person, 



which he could wish or 



Philosophy 

 antl learn- 

 ing. 



in whose posAMsaon it was, every thing 



It-sire. 



1\. None of the ancient writers who ilc-crilx- Druid- 

 i .in. make ;iny mention of temples; on the contrary, from 

 the account which they give of the sacred gro\< 

 may reasonably infer, th.it tlieir religious rites wore 

 carried on in it alone, without the uc of temples. " I .:- 

 citus, in his account of the destruction of the seat of 

 D-uidical superstition in the Me of Anglesey, informs 

 t the graven sacred to tlieir cruel rites were cut 

 down, as it evidently appears to have heen the inten- 

 tion of Suetonius 1'aulimis to exterminate if possible 

 the religion of the Druids, or at least to prevent them 

 from eontjnoing to offer up human victims ; certainly, 

 if temples had formed any part of tlieir institutions, he 

 would have destroyed them, as well as cut down their 

 No mention, however, is made of them by 

 Tacitus ; and if they did not exist in Anglesey, which is 

 known to have been one of the most celebrated and 

 solemn i-o.it* of Druidism. it is by no means probable 

 that they were n-ed in any other part of Britain." (Ediii-' 

 burh Kniar, July I80J-, p. 397.) There is, however, 

 some authority for believing that they ni.-ule use of al- 

 tars in their worship; for Lucan, in his celebrated de- 

 scription of the grove in which the Massilian Druids 

 performed their rites, after stating that the trees were 

 so thick and interwoven that the rays of the sun could 

 not penetrate through their branches, adds, there was 

 nothing to be seen there but a multitude of altars, upon 

 which the Druids sacrificed human victims, whose blood 

 turned the very trees of a horrid crimson colour. 



X. Of the philosophy and learning of the Druids, 

 the most exaggerated and ridiculous accounts are given 

 by those authors, who have consulted their imagina- 

 tion and prejudices, rather than the sober testimony of 

 antiquity. According to them, the most wonderful and 

 scientific discoveries of modern philosophy were known 

 to the Druids ; and their learning embraced a much 

 wider compass than that of the sages of Greece or 

 Rome. In the description of the Massilian grove by 

 I.ucan. just referred to, the poet mentions a report, 

 that it was often shaken, and strangely moved ; that 

 dreadful sounds were heard from its caverns ; that the 

 yews, it' thrown, or cut down, grew up again sponta- 

 neously ; that the grove was sometimes in a blaze, with- 

 out being consumed ; and that monstrous dragons twi-. 

 ned about the oaks. It is easy to perceive in this de- 

 scription the fancy of the poet, adding to and embel- 

 lishing those reports concerning the sacred grove, which 

 it must liave been so much -the interest ot the Druids 

 to have propagated, and which the ignorance and su- 

 perstition ot the people would not be indisposed to be- 

 Yet from this description, Mr Smith, in his 



lieve. 



History of the Druids, prefixed to his Gaelic Antiqui- 

 ties, infers, that they were acquainted with the compo- 

 sition and use of gunpowder ; " and," he adds, " if we 

 consider the deep and long researches of these colleges 

 of philosophers, their being possessed of the experi- 

 ments of a series of ages before, and an extensive com- 

 munication with other countries, we can hardly sup- 

 pose the mystery of the nitrous grain could escape 

 them," (p. 74 1 .) Before we proceed to the more sober 

 and rational accounts with which the ancients supply 

 us, respecting the philosophy and learning of the Druids. 

 we shall give one more instance of the prejudiced cre- 

 dulity on this topic, of those who have so largely con- 

 tributed to mislead the world concerning this order of 

 men. Diodorus Siculus, on the authority of HccaUeus, 

 relates, that the Boreada-, inhabitants of a certain 1 1; - 



perborean island, little less than Sicily, lying opposite Dru!. 

 ( eltiberia, saw the moon much nearer, and more dis. '~"~Y"* - 

 tinetly, than other men. This passage is pressed into 

 the service of the IxOievers in the philosophy and 

 science of the Dmids; by the liuiv.iihe, it is contend- 

 ed, the bards were meant; the island evidently is Bri- 

 tain ; and the Britisli Druids were enabled to see the 

 moon thus near and distinctly, by ine.u opes. 



Assuredly, these two instances (and Many more might 

 en) bears us out in the assertion, with which we 

 commenced this article, that on the subject of Druid- 

 ism, there was great room and occasion for the most 

 rigorous and sceptical examination. 



The notices contained in the ancient writers, on the 

 Mibjtct cit' the philosophy and learning of the Druids, 

 are neither very numerous, nor very explicit ; and they 

 prove rather their indulgence in speculative, I!K 11 their 

 advances in practical philosophy. -Strabo says, that 

 they taught the alternate dissolution of the. world by 

 fire and water, and its successive renovation : and I'om- 

 ponius Mela informs us, that they pretended to great 

 knowledge of geography and astronomy ; especially 

 respecting the size and form of the earth, the motions 

 of the planets, and their influence, as well as tile influ- 

 ence of the stars ; but from what this author adds, that 

 by this knowledge they assumed the power of prying 

 into futurity, we may safely infer, that their philoso- 

 phy was of a very inferior and limited nature. Cicero 

 mentions a Gaulish Druid, with whom he was person- 

 ally acquainted, who professed to have a thorough know- 

 ledge of the laws of nature : and from the testimony of 

 Caesar, it appears that they hail many disquisitions con- 

 cerning the heavenly Ixxlics and their motions ; but 

 the nature or extent of their knowledge on these sub- 

 jects we are utterly unacquainted with. It has been 

 attempted to prove, that they were skilled in geometry, 

 on the authority of Caesar : this author says, " that if 

 any disputes arose among the Gauls, about their inhe- 

 ritances, or about the limits of their fields, they were 

 referred to the decision of the Druids ;" but reference 

 was made to them, most probably, merely on account 

 of the influence they possessed, not on account of then- 

 skill in geometry. We have seen, that whatever know- 

 ledge they possessed, or pretended to possess, in astro- 

 nomy, was employed by them to preserve and strength- 

 en their hold on the superstition of the people. Their 

 knowledge of botany and medicine appears to have 

 been turned to the same account. In short, if we cool- 

 ly and impartially examine this subject, we shall find 

 reason to conclude, that the Druids possessed no more 

 philosophy or learning, than the priests of other reli- 

 gions in the same state of society ; and that what they 

 did possess, only served to HUM the ignorance and 

 superstition of those whom it was their duty to have 

 enlightened. 



XI. Very soon after the liomnns became acquainted Cause* < 

 with the existence of Druidism, they directed their ef- '' 

 forts to its destruction. Augustus issued a decree against l " u '"' 

 them, wbHi was renewed, and more strongly enforced 

 by Tiberius and Claudius. In the reigns of these Km- 

 perors, if we may believe Pliny and Suetonius, it was 

 nearly eradicated in Gaul ; but it afterwards revived in 

 that country. Ausonius and Ammiamis Marcellinus 

 are the latest writers who make mention of its existence 

 there ; and from the term used by the latter, vi^nerc, it 

 may be inferred, that the Druids had nearly ceased to 

 exi'-t, or at least had lost their influence and authority. 

 The decree of Claudius against tbem. i- -opposed by 

 some writers to have driven them from the south-east 



