the priests or ministers of religion of the ancient Britons and Gauls. The druids were chosen out of the best families; and were held, both by the honours of their birth, and their office, in the greatest veneration. They are said to have understood astrology, geometry, natural history, politics, and geography: they had the administration of all sacred things, were the interpreters of religion, and the judges of all affairs indifferently.

Whoever refused obedience to them, was declared impious and accursed: they held the immortality of the soul, and the transmigration of souls. They are divided by some into several classes, as the vaceni, bardii, bubagis, femothii. They had a chief, or archdruid, in every nation; he was a sort of high-priest, having an absolute authority over the rest, and was succeeded by the most considerable among his survivors. The youth used to be instructed by them, retiring with them to caves and desolate forests, where they were sometimes kept twenty years. They preserved the memory and actions of great men by their verses; but are said to have sacrificed men to Mercury. Caesar imagined that the druids came from Britain into Gaul, but several among the modern writers are of a different opinion.