HISTORY OF THE DRUIDS. 57 



would obtain the more plentiful harvest, and the 

 greater abundance of all things. We learn also 

 from Caesar, that many persons allured by the hon- 

 ours and privileges which the druids enjoyed, vol- 

 untarily embraced their discipline, and that many 

 of them were dedicated to it by their parents. The 

 druids bore a great proportion to the rest of the 

 people : they were the priests, the poets, the augurs, 

 the civil judges, and instructors of youth: they were 

 similar to the philosophers amongst the Greeks* 

 They concealed their privileges and doctrines from 

 all but the members of their society ; these doctrines 

 were forbidden to be committed to writing, which 

 is the reason we know so little of them, Their 

 temples were of a circular description, a circle was 

 their favourite figure, perhaps from the idea of its 

 bearing a resemblance to the figure of the earth. 

 They had annual assemblies and monthly ones ; 

 they were all to meet at one place, from different 

 countries at the same day on their annual festivals. 

 Their places of worship were situated on eminences, 

 and as they worshipped in the open air, they could 

 at the same time from those eminences have a full 

 view of the celestial bodies : they sacrificed human 

 rictims, which they burned in large wicker idols 

 made so capacious as to contain a multitude of per- 

 sons at once, who were thus consumed together, 

 and they affirmed that the anger of the immortal 

 gods, to which they imputed various diseases, could 

 not be appeased so as to spare the life of one man, 

 but by the life of another. They had two sets of re- 

 ligious opinions, one of which they communicated 



H 



