Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/497

Rh of the Rhine. Receiving his discharge on the score of ill health, he soon after obtained a much more congenial post in the newly-founded ccole centrale of his native city ; and in 1799 he made his first appearance as an author by an Essaisur I art oratoire, Paris, Fructidor, An VIL, in which he acknowledges his indebtedness more especially to Hugh Blair. This early reference to Scottish literature is interest ing in connection with the peculiarly Scottish tone of mind which is observable in his writings, and has attracted the notice of Sainte-Beuve. Removing to Paris in 1803, he became intimate not only with the like-minded Ducis, but also with the sceptical Cabanis ; and it was at the philosopher s advice that, in order to catch the public ear, he produced the romance of Lina, which Sainte-Beuve has characterized as a mingled echo of Florian and Werther. Like several other literary men of the time, he obtained a post in the revenue office known as the Droits reunies, then under the control of M. Frangois of Nantes ; but from 1814 he devoted himself exclusively to literature and became a contributor to various journals. Already favourably known by his JEssai sur I art d etre heureux, Paris, 1806, his Eloye de Montaigne, 1812, and his Essai sur le beau dans lesarts, 1815, he not only gained the Monthyon prize in 1823 by his work De la pktlosophie morale ou des dijfcrents systemes sur la science de la vie, but also in 1824 obtained admission to the Academie Francaise. The main doctrine inculcated in this treatise is that society will never be in a proper state till men have been educated to think of their duties and not of their rights. It was followed in 1825 by Application de la morale a hi philosophic et ct la politique, and in 1829 by Economic politique, ou principes de la science des richesses, a methodical and clearly written treatise, which has had the honour of being edited by Michel Chevalier in 1854. His next and greatest work was a Histoire du regne de Louis X VI. (3 vols. Paris, 1838- 1842), the result of very careful and prolonged study, and marked by greater vigour of style and deeper powers of thought than he had previously displayed. As he advanced in life Droz had become more and more decidedly religious, and the last work of his prolific pen was Pensees du Christianisme, 1842. Few have left so blameless a reputa tion : in the words of Sainte-Beuve, he was born and he remained all his life of the race of the good and the just.

1em  DRUIDISM, the name usually given to the religious system of the ancient Gauls and Britons. The word Druid, one form or other of which is used in early Celtic records to designate a class of priests corresponding to the Magi or wise men of the ancient Persians, is of uncertain etymology. The derivation from the Greek 8pvs, an oak, though as old as the days of the elder Pliny, is probably fanciful. We find in Caesar the first and at the same time the most circumstantial account of the Druids to be met with in the classical writers. In the digression on the manners and customs of Gaul and Germany which occupies a portion of the sixth book of his Gallic war, he tells us that all men of any rank and dignity in Gaul were included among either the Druids or the nobles. The former were the religious guides of the people as well as the chief expounders and guardians of the law. On those who refused to submit to their decisions they had the power of inflicting severe penalties, of which excommunication from society was the most dreaded. As they were not a hereditary caste, and enjoyed exemption from service in the field as well as from payment of taxes, admission to the order was eagerly sought after by the youth of Gaul. The course of training to which a novice had to submit was protracted, extending sometimes over twenty years. All instruction was com municated orally, but for certain purposes they had a written language in which they used the Greek characters. The president of the order, whose office was elective and who enjoyed the dignity for life, had supreme authority among them. They taught that the soul was. immortal. Astrology, geography, physical science, and natural theology were their favourite studies. Britain was the head-quarters of Druidism, but once every year a general assembly of the order was held within the territories of the Carnutes ill Gaul, probably in the neighbourhood of the modern Dreux. The Gauls in extreme cases offered human sacrifices, usually criminals. Their chief deity was identified by Csesar with the Mercury of the Romans. Writing a few years later, Cicero, in his treatise on divination, introduces his brother Quintus as remarking on the existence among the Gauls of augurs or soothsayers, known by the name of Druids. With one of these, Divitiacus, an ^Eduan, Quintus says ha was well acquainted. Cicero s contemporary, Diodorus Siculus, informs us that there were among the ancient Gauls bards, certain philosophers and theologians named Druids, and soothsayers. He also hints at some connection between their philosophy and that of Pythagoras. The geographers, Strabo and Pomponius Mela, add little to our knowledge of the Druids. Lucan, in his Pharsalia, men tions, among the Gallic and other tribes that relapsed into their former ways upon Caesar s crossing the Rubicon, &quot; the worshippers with bloody rites of Teutates, Hesus, and Taranis,&quot; and refers immediately afterwards to the bards and Druids. Something more noteworthy is told by the elder Pliny. According to him the Gallic Druids held the mistletoe in the highest veneration. Groves of oak were their chosen retreats. Whatever grew on that tree was thought to be a gift from heaven, more especially the mistletoe. When thus found the latter was cut with a golden knife by a priest clad in a white robe, two white bulls being sacrificed on the spot. The name given it by the Druids signified in their language Ail-Heal ; and its virtues were believed to be very great. Two other herbs, called selago and samolus, were likewise greatly valued by them for their medicinal efficacy. But the most remarkable of all the Druidical charms was the anguineum, or snake s egg. It was said to be produced from the saliva and frothy sweat of a number of serpents writhing in an entangled mass, and to be tossed up into the air as soon as formed. The fortunate Druid who managed, as it fell, to catch it in his sagum, or cloak, rode off at full speed on a horse that had been in waiting for him, pursued by the serpents till they were stopped by the intervention of a running stream. A genuine specimen of this egg when thrown into the water would float against the current, even if encased in gold. Pliny declares that he had seen one. &quot; It is,&quot; he says, &quot; about the size of a moderately large round apple, and has a cartilaginous rind studded with cavities like those on the arms of a polypus.&quot; Tacitus, in describing the attack made on the island of Mona (Anglesea) by the Romans under Suetonius Paulinus, represents the legionaries as being awe-struck on lauding by the appearance of a band of Druids who, with hands uplifted towards heaven, poured forth terrible impre cations on the heads of the invaders. The courage of the Romans, however, soon overcame such fears ; the Britons were put to flight; and the grovesof Mona, the scene of many a sacrifice and bloody rite, were cut down. The annalists Lampridius and Vopiscus, two of the Scriptores Histories Augustce, introduce us, if the &quot; Dryas &quot; of these writers be connected, as is probable, with the &quot; Druides &quot; of Caesar and others, to a new branch of the order Druidesses, who, however, are simply prophetic women. For example, Vopiscus tells us, on the authority of his grandfather, who 