Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions

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N'eO'Druidism.
6 o
as Professor Rhys says, " when one turns to Davies's authorities
for his unhesitating statements of the kind, no doubt
one is a httle dismayed at first, and not a httle incHned
to doubt him altogether, and, in disposing of his Ilelio-
Arkite absurdity, dispose of the Druids with them."
The Aloderii Druidisin, or Bardisifi, about which a few
years ago there was considerable excitement in Wales,
must not be confounded with the Druidism of Myfyr and
Morien, who sought the revival of what was declared by
others to be a mystical paganism. The Bardism of this
century, brought forward by Welsh clergymen, like Ab Ithcl,
&c., was founded upon the so-called Welsh Triads of the
Middle Ages, which were interpreted in
a quasi Christian
light, and presumed to have been the relics of the Scriptural
Patriarchal system.
The Rev. John Williams was, perhaps, the best exponent
of Bardism, though all its advocates recognized in it the
Church of England ideas of this century, and yet hardly
of the High Church order. The Patriarchal Religion of
Britain, by the Rev. Dr. James, made many converts to the
system. But the ceremonies associated with it have something
of the Masonic character. This is the Summary of
the Bardo-Druidic creed :
There was one God. There were five elements—earth,
water, fire, air, and heavens. The soul—refined, vital, and
imperishable— is a lapsed intelligence, regaining happiness
by transmigration. Creation improved as man improved,
and animals gradually became men. Man develops by
experience in different states of being. Celestial beings
aid man in development. Ultimately all will be happy,
and evil finally extinguished. All these views were
gathered from the said Triads, though regarded b\' many
pious Welshmen as teaching opposed to Christian it\-.
Morien's reading of the Triads is something very dif-