state. Heeren remarks, that when a secret
society pursues political ends, it naturally follows that an opposing party
increases in the same degree in which the preponderating influence of such
a society becomes more felt. In this case, the opposition existed already
in the popular party. It therefore only needed a daring leader, like Cylon,
to scatter the society by violence; the assembly was surprised, and most of
them cut down, while a few only, with their master, escaped. They are said,
so far as their political views were concerned, to have regarded anarchy as
the greatest evil, because man can not exist without social order. They
held that everything depended on the relation between the governing and the
governed; that the former should be not only prudent but mild; and that the
latter should not only obey, but love their magistrates; that it was
necessary to grow accustomed, even in boyhood, to regard order and harmony
as beautiful and useful, disorder and confusion as hateful and injurious.
They were not blindly attached to a single form of government, but insisted
that there should be no unlawful tyranny. Where a regal government existed,
kings should be subject to the laws, and act only as the chief magistrates.
They regarded a {68} mixed constitution as the best, and where the
administration rested principally in the hands of the upper class, they
reserved a share of it for the people. The writings of the Pythagoreans
commanded high prices, but gained political importance only so far as they
contributed to the education of distinguished men, of whom Epaminondas was
one.[75]

Another scion of these methods of secret instruction, wherein, however,
religion was the engine of political power, came from the ancient Assyrian
stock with Phoenician emigration to Great Britain. The DRUIDS controlled
the learning of that country in religion as in science; and by their
mysteries exerted an overwhelming influence upon the rulers and the masses.

Dr. Parsons[76] says, what were the filids, and bards, and the Druids, but
professors of the sciences among the Gomerians, and Magogians or Scythians,
and it is plain that, from Phenius downward, there were always, in every
established kingdom among the Scythians, philosophers and wise men, who, at
certain times, visited the Greek sages, after they had found their schools?
It is no easy matter to point out the first rise and ages of the Druids.
They taught the same opinions of the