-things
that it seemed undangerous to the monks, because they did not
understand their significance, to let pass,--we hear nothing in
Irish literature about the philosophy of the Druids. Ireland
retains her belief in magic to this day; and his would be a hard
skull that could know Ireland intimately and escape that belief.
So it seemed nothing irreligious to the monks to let the Druids
remain magicians. But philosophy was another matter entirely;
and must be ruled out as conflicting with the Christian scheme of
things. From this silence our Druid-Medicine-men Theorists draw
great comfort and unction for their pet belief. Reincarnation
appears in some stories as a sort of thing that might happen in
special cases; because "God is good to the Irish," and might be
willing to give them sometimes another chance. But nothing is
allowed to come down to imply it was known for a law in Nature;
no moral or philosophic bearing is attached to it. This is just
what you would expect. The Christian censors of the literature
had rejected it as unchristian doctrine. They would hate to have
it thought that Irishmen could ever have believed in such things;
they would cover such belief up in every possible way. You would
find peasant-bards in Wales to this day, men learned in the
national tradition, who are deacons in their chapels and druids
of the Gorsedd, and firm believers in Druidism. They have
founded a Gorsedd here in America lately, with an active
propaganda of Druidism, and lecturers touring. They think of it
as a kind of Pre-christian Christianity; and would open their
eyes wide to hear that Reincarnation was the cornerstone teaching
in it. This may throw a little light on the attitude of those
early Irish Christians.--But on the other hand there were tales
that could not be preserved at all, that you could not tell at
all, without bringing a touch of reincarnation into them. The
universal doctrine survived in that way in Ireland, as it
survived as a rumor in the folk-lore in Wales.

There is the story, for instance, of Mongan son of Fiachta, a
historical chieftain killed in 625. According to Tigernach, the
oldest of the Irish annalists, Finn MacCool died in A.D. 274.
Finn, you will remember, is the central figure of the Fenian
Cycle of sagas; he was the father of Oisin and the leader of the
Fenians; next to Cuculain, he is the chiefest hero of Irish
legend. I quote this story from M. de Jubainville.*

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