he varied functions of the Druids, as has been seen, nor does it refer
to the state to which the repressive edict reduced them, but to that in
which it found them. Pliny's information was also limited.

The vague idea that the Druids were philosophers was repeated
parrot-like by writer after writer, who regarded barbaric races as
Rousseau and his school looked upon the "noble savage." Roman writers,
sceptical of a future life, were fascinated by the idea of a barbaric
priesthood teaching the doctrine of immortality in the wilds of Gaul.
For this teaching the poet Lucan sang their praises. The Druids probably
first impressed Greek and Latin observers by their magic, their
organisation, and the fact that, like many barbaric priesthoods, but
unlike those of Greece and Rome, they taught certain doctrines. Their
knowledge was divinely conveyed to them; "they speak the language of the
gods;"[1030] hence it was easy to read anything into this teaching. Thus
the Druidic legend rapidly grew. On the other hand, modern writers have
perhaps exaggerated the force of the classical evidence. When we read of
Druidic associations we need not regard these as higher than the
organised priesthoods of barbarians. Their doctrine of metempsychosis,
if it was really taught, involved no ethical content as in
Pythagoreanism. Their astronomy was probably astrological[1031]; their
knowledge of nature a series of cosmogonic myths and speculations. If a
true Druidic philosophy and science had existed, it is strange that it
is always mentioned vaguely and that it exerted no influence upon the
thought of the time.

Classical sentiment also found a connection between the Druidic and
Pythagorean systems, the Druids being regarded as conforming to the
doctrines and rules of the Greek philosopher.[1032] It is not improbable
that some Pythagorean doctrines may have reached Gaul, but when we
examine the point at which the two systems were supposed to meet,
namely, the doctrine of metempsychosis and immortality, upon which the
whole idea of this relationship was founded, there is no real
resemblance. There are Celtic myths regarding the rebirth of gods and
heroes, but the eschatological teaching was apparently this, that the
soul was clothed with a body in the other-world. There was no doctrine
of a series of rebirths on this earth as a punishment for sin. The
Druidic teaching of a bodily immortality was mistakenly assumed to be
the same as the Pythagorean