Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/499

Rh deified after his death. The more ancient inhabitants, also a Gallic race, were the polytheists, whose religious belief, however, the Cymri did not altogether destroy but rather amalgamated with their own. Thierry further thinks that Druidism was on the decline in Gaul before the days of C&jsar. After a time the Gallic nobles on the one hand, and the people on the other, became alike jealous of a priestly authority that controlled both and had suc ceeded in greatly reducing their political influence. For a while the Druids retained their power as a religious and learned order, and preserved many of their privileges ; but even at the date of Caesar s invasion these had so diminished that Britain, and not Gaul, was recognized as their chief seat. Bat the most distinguished among the expounders of Druidism is undoubtedly Jean Reynaud, one of the chiefs of a small school of thinkers whose metaphysical speculations have exercised in France a real, if an indirect and quiet, influence. Reynaud, who was of a mystical cast of mind, began in 1836, along with Pierre Leroux, the publication of L Encyclopedic JVouvelle, which, how ever, was never finished. For this the former wrote the article &quot; Druidisme,&quot; which he afterwards enlarged and gave to the world separately under the title of UEsf)rit de la Gaule, dedicated to his friend, the historian Henri Martin. It is an elaborate and in some respects able essay. Rey naud maintains that the ancient Druids were the first to teach clearly the doctrine of the soul s immortality, and that they had originally as high conceptions of the true nature of God as the Jews themselves. If they afterwards encouraged the worship of subordinate deities, it was for the purpose of reconciling to Druidism that class of uneducated minds for which the cultus of demi-gods and angels has more attraction than the worship of the Unseen One. Hesus, radically the same word as the Aura of the Greeks, was the- type of an absolute supreme Being whose symbol on earth was the oak, and was quite distinct from Hu, the leader of the Cymric Gauls. The mistletoe, when found growing on the latter, represented man, a creature entirely dependent on God for support, and yet with an individual existence of his own. Human sacrifices were a natural consequence of the idea, dominant now as in the clays of the Druids, that the higher the victim the more complete the atonement offered to the Deity for the sins of man. Druidism declined and at last disappeared, because, according to Reynaud, one element was wanting in its system both of morals and of religion, necessary to the true development of man or society charity or love. The Druids aimed indeed at the improvement of both, but failed to prescribe the true means of promoting it. Christianity supplied what was needed, and Druidism disappeared not, however, till it had accomplished what was its special mission, the preservation in Western Europe of the idea of the unity of God. How far all this is mere theory founded on in sufficient data, or an attempt, more or less successful, to prove the existence among the Gallic tribes of certain ideas regarding the true nature of God and his relation to man, which afterwards degenerated into the grossest superstition, it would be out of place to discuss here. Reynaud s views have been to a great extent accepted by Henri Martin, one of the foremost of French historical writers ; and both countenance the neo-Druidical fancies of Davies and Herbert. In Germany the latest authority on Druidism seems to be Barth Ueber die Druiden dcr Kdten who follows closely the views long popular in this country. To judge from the article &quot;Druiden&quot; in the last edition (1875) of Meyer s Conversations-Lexikon, nothing fresher has yet found currency there.

1em  DRUM, a musical instrument of percussion, which is supposed to have been introduced into Europe from the East by the Moors or after the Crusades. In certain forms, however, it was known in Europe in classical times. The Greek and Roman tympanum seems from descriptions and pictorial representations to have included not only tambourines but kettledrums of a small size, or at least in struments convex on one side like the kettledrum. The instrument designated in Scripture a timbrel (Heb. toph) was undoubtedly a kind of tambourine, such as might be conveniently played by females. In India and Egypt the use of drums in a considerable variety of forms may be traced back to the earliest historic times. The tam-tam or tom-tom of India, a cylindrical drum of some size beaten with the fingers, had its counterpart in Egypt at least as early as 1600 B.C. Among savage races, whose music has not risen above the primitive or percussive stage, the drum is naturally the chief, and in many cases the sole instrument employed. Three principal forms of drum are in general use in the modern orchestra, the common or side drum, the base or Turkish drum, and the kettledrum. The first is composed of a cylinder of wood, or, more generally, of metal, covered at each end with vellum or parchment, tho tension of which is regulated by strings. As its name in dicates, it is worn at the side of the performer, who beats upon the upper end with two sticks. Its distinctive though not its exclusive use is to accompany the military fife band. The base drum is a larger instrument of the same kind &amp;gt; the cylinder being composed of oak. It is beaten at both ends with drum-sticks furnished with leather pads. It is an important constituent of a full military band, but it is also employed in the orchestra, especially by more recent composers. The kettledrum is the most important form of the instrument in orchestral as distinct from military music. It is composed of a basin of brass or copper, almost hemispherical in shape, covered with vellum attached to an iron ring, and it is usually placed upon an iron tripod. By means of screws it is capable of being tuned within certain necessarily narrow limits. Kettledrums are always used in pairs, one being tuned to the key-note and the other to the fourth below. The music is usually written in the key of C ; and the key in which it is to be played, if different, is indicated in words at the beginning of the passage. The three forms of drum just described are essential in every complete orchestra. In addition other percussive instruments, such as the gong and the tam-tam, are sometimes introduced for the sake of particular effects.  DRUMMOND, (1786-1860), an English banker, politician, and miscellaneous writer, remarkable for the versatility of his gifts and the eccentricity of his character, was born on the 5th December 1786. He was the eldest son of Henry Drummond, a prominent London banker, by a daughter of the first Lord Melville. He was educated at Harrow and at Christ Church, Oxford. His name is per-