ght be at leisure to attend the important duties of
their own charge. They were chosen out of the best families, and from
the young men of the most promising talents: a regulation which placed
and preserved them in a respectable light with the world. None were
admitted into this order but after a long and laborious novitiate, which
made the character venerable in their own eyes by the time and
difficulty of attaining it. They were much devoted to solitude, and
thereby acquired that abstracted and thoughtful air which is so imposing
upon the vulgar; and when they appeared in public, it was seldom, and
only on some great occasion,--in the sacrifices of the gods, or on the
seat of judgment. They prescribed medicine; they formed the youth; they
paid the last honors to the dead; they foretold events; they exercised
themselves in magic. They were at once the priests, lawgivers, and
physicians of their nation, and consequently concentred in themselves
all that respect that men have diffusively for those who heal their
diseases, protect their property, or reconcile them to the Divinity.
What contributed not a little to the stability and power of this order
was the extent of its foundation, and the regularity and proportion of
its structure. It took in both sexes; and the female Druids were in no
less esteem for their knowledge and sanctity than the males. It was
divided into several subordinate ranks and classes; and they all
depended upon a chief or Arch-Druid, who was elected to his place with
great authority and preeminence for life. They were further armed with a
power of interdicting from their sacrifices, or excommunicating, any
obnoxious persons. This interdiction, so similar to that used by the
ancient Athenians, and to that since practised among Christians, was
followed by an exclusion from all the benefits of civil community; and
it was accordingly the most dreaded of all punishments. This ample
authority was in general usefully exerted; by the interposition of the
Druids differences were composed, and wars ended; and the minds of the
fierce Northern people, being reconciled to each other under the
influence of religion, united with signal effect against their common
enemies.

There was a class of the Druids whom they called Bards, who delivered in
songs (their only history) the exploits of their heroes, and who
composed those verses which contained the secrets of Druidical
discipline, their principles of natural and