I.

He did not pursue his subject farther. But this CHAP. clear separation of the Gothic from the Keltic tribes, whom most reasoners on the origin of the continental nations have confounded, and some still confound, laid the foundation for the true history of ancient Europe.

MR. PINKERTON, in his dissertation on the Scythians and Goths, endeavoured to verify the idea of the Bishop of Dromore, by quotations from ancient authorities; but disfigured his work by an abuse of the Keltic nations; by attempting to add unauthorised chronologies; by some wrong citations; and by several untenable opinions and digressions, with which he embarrassed Dr. Percy's simple and judicious discrimination.

To the two genera of languages pointed out by Dr. Percy, a third must be added, which prevails in the eastern regions of Europe; the Slavonian or Sarmatian. These three present us with the three great stocks, from which, the nations of the western regions of Europe, have chiefly derived their various population.

THE most authentic facts that can be now gleaned from ancient history, concur with the most pro

Preface to Mallet's Northern Antiquities, vol. i. p. xxiv.

I.

BOOK bable traditions, to prove, that Europe has been peopled by three great streams of population from the East, which have followed each other, at intervals so distinct, as to possess languages clearly separable from each other. The earliest of these, we shall find to have comprised the Kimmerian and Keltic race. The second consisted of the Scythian, Gothic, and German tribes; from whom most of the modern nations of continental Europe have descended. The third, and most recent, comprehends the Slavonian and Sarmatian nations, who were bordering on the second race, as they spread over Germany; and who have now established themselves in Poland, Bohemia, Russia, and their vicinities. It is from the two first genera of the European population, that the ancient inhabitants of England descended.

Two fanciful, but unscientific opinions have, at different times, been started, on the origin of mankind. One, that men have sprung fortuitously from the earth: the other, that there have been several aboriginal races. The first was a vulgar error of antiquity, arising from its ignorance of natural history, which philosophy has long since exploded, both from the animal and vegetable kingdoms. The other misconception is also yielding to our increasing knowledge of physiology and geography. The doubts on this subject have arisen from imperfect information.

THAT population has been, every where, the result of emigration from some primeval residence, is the belief of the most intelligent and impartial inquirers. We can trace, from historical documents, the colonization of many parts of the world; and the traditions of other nations sufficiently as

I.

sure us, that they have been effusions from more CHAP. ancient sources. Where history and tradition fail, we discern the same kind of origin, from the impressive attestations of analogous manners and languages. The unnecessary fables of various original races, as well as spontaneous animal vegetation, are therefore now equally discredited. Nations have branched off from preceding nations, sometimes by intentional emigration, and sometimes by accidental separation. War, commerce, want, caprice, turbulence, and pride, have, in various regions, contributed to disperse the human race into new settlements; and among those tribes which have frequented the sea, the casualties of the weather have often compelled undesigned colonizations.

THAT there has been some catastrophe, like an universal deluge, to which all authentic history must be posterior, is now becoming the belief of the most scientific geologists. The petrifactions of animal and vegetable substances, which are to be found in every part of the globe, and on its hills and mountains, far distant from the ocean, and of which many species are extinct, concur with the earliest traditions of almost all countries; and especially of those, which had any ancient literature preserving their history, to prove this mo

mentous event.

BUT the only ancient record, which connects a rational chronology with this revolution of physical nature- the Genesis of Moses- has authorised our best chronologers to place it about 2348 years before the Christian æra. This period is, therefore, the limit of all credible antiquity; and precedes, by a long interval, every document that has sur

BOOK vived to us. But if the human race were at this

1.

time renewed, it is to a much later date, that we must look for the beginnings of the British population.

THE safe rule of Sir Isaac Newton, to admit no more causes of natural things, than are sufficient to account for their phenomena, may be efficaciously applied to the question, whether the human race has originated from one, or many primeval stocks?

THE most judicious physiologists now agree that there are no more varieties of form or manners among the numerous tribes of mankind, than such as the descendants of one pair may have exhibited, under the varying influences of different climates and countries; and of dissimilar food, customs, diseases, and occupations. We may therefore be

lieve the account of the most ancient and venerated history, which we possess, that all nations have sprung from one original race; and to its primitive parents in the first source, and in the second, to one or more of their three descendants, who survived the awful catastrophe, in which the first diffusion of human population disappeared, we must refer the various colonies of Britain whom we are about to enumerate.

THE peopling of a globe that is nearly twentyfour thousand miles in circumference, could not have been immediately effected; and the naturally slow progress of population over so large a surface, must have been made more gradual, by the mountains, desarts, lakes, woods, and rivers, which divide its various regions.

THE impenetrable forests, ever increasing from the vegetative agencies of nature, till checked by

I.

human labour; and the continual and deleterious CHA P. marshes, which rain and rivers are, every year, producing and enlarging in all uninhabited countries, must have long kept mankind from spreading rapidly, or numerously, beyond their first settlements. These appear not to have been in Europe.

ALL ancient history agrees with the Mosaic, and with the researches of modern science and antiquarian curiosity, to place the commencement of population, art, and knowledge, in the eastern portions of the world. Here men first appeared and multiplied; and from hence first spread into those wilder and ruder districts, where nature was living in all her unmolested, but dreary, and barbarous majesty.

In the plains of warm and prolific climates, which the human race first cultivated, ease, abundance, leisure, and enjoyment, produced an early civilization, with all its advantages and evils. As the experience of the latter has, in subsequent times, and in our own, driven many from their native soil and patriotic comforts, to pursue the shadows of their hopes in new and uncultivated regions; so it appears to have actuated several to similar emigra tions, in the earliest periods of society. In all ages, mankind have grown up in two great classes, which have diverged into a marked distinction from each other. It has been usual to call one of these, in its connected ramifications, the civilized states of antiquity; and to consider the other, with much complacent contumely, as savage and barbarous tribes.

BUT as both these descriptions of society have had a common origin, we may more philosophically contemplate them as the same people; of