it from theoretical vagaries, and holding it aloof, even in our days,
from the aberrations which all men now deplore in other European
nations, and whose effects we behold in the anarchy of thought.
This last consideration adds to this portion of our subject a
peculiar and absorbing interest.

The knowledge which Julius Caesar possessed of the Druids and of
their literary system was very incomplete; yet he presents to his
readers a truly grand spectacle, when he speaks of their numerous
schools, frequented by an immense number of the youths of the
country, so different from those of Rome, in which his own mind
had been trained--"Ad has magnus adolescentium numerus disciplinae
causa concurrit:" when he mentions the political and civil subjects
submitted to the judgment of literary men--"de omnibus controversiis
publicis privatisque constituunt. ... Si de hereditate, si de
finibus controversia est, iidem decernunt:" when he states the
length of their studies--"annos nonnulli vicenos in disciplina
permanent:" when he finally draws a short sketch of their course
of instruction-- "multa de sideribus atque eorum motu, de mundi
ac terrarum magnitudine, .... disputant juventutique tradunt."

But, unfortunately, the great author of the "Commentaries" had
not sufficiently studied the social state of the Celts in Gaul
and Britain; he never mentions the clan institution, even when
he speaks of the feuds--factiones--which invariably split their
septs--civitates--into hostile parties. In his eleventh chapter,
when describing the contentions which were constantly rife in
the cities, villages, even single houses, when remarking the
continual shifting of the supreme authority from the Edui to the
Sequani, and reciprocally, he seems to be giving in a few phrases