doctrine of the soul reincarnated in body
after body. Other points of resemblance were then discovered. The
organisation of the Druids was assumed by Ammianus to be a kind of
corporate life--_sodaliciis adstricti consortiis_--while the Druidic
mind was always searching into lofty things,[1033] but those who wrote
most fully of the Druids knew nothing of this.

The Druids, like the priests of all religions, doubtless sought after
such knowledge as was open to them, but this does not imply that they
possessed a recondite philosophy or a secret theology. They were
governed by the ideas current among all barbaric communities, and they
were at once priests, magicians, doctors, and teachers. They would not
allow their sacred hymns to be written down, but taught them in
secret,[1034] as is usual wherever the success of hymn or prayer depends
upon the right use of the words and the secrecy observed in imparting
them to others. Their ritual, as far as is known to us, differs but
little from that of other barbarian folk, and it included human
sacrifice and divination with the victim's body. They excluded the
guilty from a share in the cult--the usual punishment meted out to the
tabu-breaker in all primitive societies.

The idea that the Druids taught a secret doctrine--monotheism,
pantheism, or the like--is unsupported by evidence. Doubtless they
communicated secrets to the initiated, as is done in barbaric mysteries
everywhere, but these secrets consist of magic and mythic formulae, the
exhibition of _Sacra_, and some teaching about the gods or about moral
duties. These are kept secret, not because they are abstract doctrines,
but because they would lose their value and because the gods would be
angry if they were made too common. If the Druids taught religious and
moral matters secretly, these were probably no more than an extension of
the threefold maxim inculcated by them according to Diogenes Laertius:
"To worship the gods, to do no evil, and to exercise courage."[1035] To
this would be added cosmogonic myths and speculations, and magic and
religious formulae. This will become more evident as we examine the
position and power of the Druids.

In Gaul, and to some extent in Ireland, the Druids formed a priestly
corporation--a fact which helped classical observers to suppose that
they lived together like the Pythagorean communities. While the words of
Ammianus--_sodaliciis adstricti consortiis_--may imply no more than some
k