Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions

JO Irish Druids.
current of gross fetishism to occupy and nourish the
superstition of the multitude."
Again he writes— "But in the east and south of Gaul,
where Druidism had not been imposed at
the point of the
sword, although it had become the prevailing form of
worship, the ancient religion
preserved more independence,
even under the ministry of the Druids, who made themselves
its priests. It continued to be cultivated, if I may
use the word, following the march of civilization and
public intelligence, rose gradually from fetishism to religious
conceptions more and more purified." Was it in
this way that Druids found their way to Britain and
Ireland }
C?esar, who saw nothing of the religion among these
islands, was told that
His observations on religion
the art of war.
here v/as the high seat of Druidism.
were not so keen as those on
Thierry regarded Druidism as an imported
faith into Gaul, and partly by means of force. Strabo
heard that Druids spoke Greek. Tacitus may say our rude
ancestors worshipped Castor and Pollux ; but Agricola, who
destroyed Druids in Mona, found no images in the woods.
Baecker remarked that " the Celtic history labours under
such insuperable obscurity and incertitude, that we cannot
premise anything above a small
degree of verisimilitude."
And Irelaiid's Mirror ventured to write— " On no subject
has fancy roamed with more licentious indulgence than
on that of the Druids and their Institutions. Though
sunk in the grossest ignorance and barbarism, their admirers
have found them, in the dark recesses of forests,
secluded
from mankind, and almost from day, cultivating
the abstrusest sciences, and penetrating the sublimest
mysteries of nature—and all
or of experiments."
this without the aid of letters
This is not the opinion of some modern devotees of