the priests among the ancient Britons and Gauls.—The word is formed from the Celtic, druid, an oak; because they held that tree in the highest veneration.

Their antiquity is esteemed equal to that of the Brahmans of India, the Magi of Persia, and the Chaldees of Babylon. And whoever considers the surprising conformity of their doctrine, will find sufficient reason to think that they all derived it from the same hand, we mean from Noah and his immediate descendants, who carried it with them at their dispersion; for it cannot be supposed that the British druids derived their doctrine from any foreign sect, to whom they were absolutely unknown.

But the druids were not contented with the power annexed to the priesthood: they introduced religion into every transaction both public and private, so that nothing could be done without their approbation; and by this means their authority was rendered almost absolute. They elected the annual magistrates of every district, Druids, who should have enjoyed during that term the supreme authority, and sometimes the title of kings; but they could not even call a council without their approbation and advice; so that, notwithstanding their pretended authority, they were in reality the creatures and slaves of the druids.

They exercised the same arbitrary power in their courts of justice; and whoever refused to submit to their decisions, were excluded from the public sacrifices, which was considered as the greatest punishment that could be inflicted. It must, however, be acknowledged, that their administration of justice has always been celebrated for its impartiality. The sole management and instruction of youth was also committed to them, except the training them up in the art of war; for both they and their disciples were not only exempted from going to war, but likewise from all kind of tribute.

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 enchained in gold about their necks, called the druid's egg. Their necks were likewise decorated with gold chains, and their hands and arms with bracelets; they wore their hair very short, and their beards remarkably long.

They were all subordinate to a chief or sovereign pontiff, styled the arch-druid, chosen from among their fraternity by a plurality of voices; but, in case of a competition too powerful to be decided by a majority, the contest was determined by the sword. He enjoyed his supremacy for life, had power to inspect the conduct of kings, and either to elect or depose whenever he pleased.

It was one of the maxims of their religion, not to commit any thing to writing; but deliver all their mysteries and learning in verses composed for that purpose; and these were in time multiplied to such a number, that it generally took up 20 years to learn them all by heart. 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 them in their memory.

But what had still a more direct tendency to impose on the public, was their pretended familiar intercourse with the gods. And in order at once to conceal their own ignorance, and render the imposition less susceptible of detection, they boasted of their great skill in magic, and cultivated several branches of the mathematics, particularly astronomy. The latter they carried to some degree of perfection; for they were able to foretel the times, quantities, and durations, of eclipses: a circumstance which could not fail of attracting reverence from an ignorant multitude, who were persuaded that nothing less than a supernatural power was sufficient to make such astonishing predictions. They also studied natural philosophy, and practiced physic.

They worshipped the Supreme Being under the name of Rhas, 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 made his 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 people in their religious ceremonies, the altars were firewood with its leaves and encircled with its branches. The fruit of it, especially the mistletoe, 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 was hailed with such raptures of joy, as almost exceeds imagination to conceive. As soon as the druids were informed of this fortunate discovery, they prepared every thing ready for the sacrifice under the oak, to which they fastened two white bulls by the horns; then the arch-druid, attended by a prodigious number of people, ascended the tree, dressed in white; and with a consecrated golden knife, or pruning hook, cropped the mistletoe, 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 spacious as the numbers of 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 cineraries to keep the people at a convenient distance from the officiating priest. Nor is it unreasonable to suppose, that they had other groves appointed for secular purposes, and perhaps planted with oaks as the others were, that the sacred trees might strike the members of such courts and councils with awe, and prevent all quarrels and indecent expressions.

While the religion of the druids continued pure and unmixed with any foreign customs, they offered only oblations of fine flour sprinkled with salt, and adored the Supreme Being in prayers and thanksgivings. But after they had for some time carried on a commerce with the Phoenicians, they lost their original simplicity, adored a variety of gods, adopted the barbarous custom of offering human victims, and even improved on the cruelty of other nations; using these unfortunate mortals for the purposes of divination, with such barbarous cruelty as is shocking to human nature to relate. Practices like these soon rendered them so deaf to the voice voice of humanity, that on extraordinary occasions they erected a monstrous hollow pile of stone, which they filled with these unhappy wretches, and burnt them to their gods. Criminals were indeed chosen for this barbarous sacrifice; but, in want of these, the innocent became victims of a cruel superstition.

We have already mentioned, that in their sacred groves were several large stones, supposed to be the altars on which they offered their victims. Some of these stones are still remaining in England, Wales, Ireland, and the island of Anglesey; and are of such an amazing magnitude, that the bringing and rearing them was thought by the superstitious to have been the work of those demons supposed to attend on that manner of worship.

Temples they had none before the coming of the Romans, nor in all probability for a long time after: for with regard to those vast piles of stones still remaining, they seem rather to have been funeral monuments than places of worship; especially as all the ancient writers agree that their religious ceremonies were always performed in their consecrated groves. Accordingly Tacitus, speaking of the descent of the Romans, tells us, that their first care was to destroy those groves and woods which had been polluted with the blood of so many human victims.

One of the chief tenets taught by the druids was the immortality of the soul, and its transmigration from one body to another; a doctrine which they considered as proper to inspire them with courage, and a contempt of death. They also instructed their disciples in several traditions concerning the stars and their motions, the extent of the world, the nature of things, and the power of the immortal gods. But as they never committed any of their tenets to writing, in order at once to conceal their mysterious learning from the vulgar, and exercise the minds of their disciples, the greatest part of them are now irrecoverably buried in oblivion.