to the history of Anglo-Saxon literature. Every writer in that dialect should be enumerated, the biographical notices concerning him collected, the works, whether printed or manuscript, appreciated, and their lurking places indi

cated. To the religion, the legislation, the manners and sports even, distinct disquisitions should be appropriated. It becomes us to light up many a taper be fore the shrines of our forefathers.

THIS author begins by stating, that he considers it as a duty to combat the system of Mr. Pinkerton, because its principles reject the authority of the holy scriptures. This is announcing beforehand that we are not to expect truth; but the perversion of testimony to the support of preconceived opinions. What have Mr. Pinkerton's antiquarian notions to do with the authority of scripture; or his religious opinions with the probability of his antiquarian system? This author, who writes in the plural number, as if he spoke the sentiments of a bench of bishops, says:

"We shall confine ourselves to a few grand points, which form the fundamental parts of his system.

"1. His chronology; 2. The boundaries and extent of ancient Scythia, and the identity between the Scythians and Goths; 3. Whether the Celts were confined to the furthest west of Gaul 500 years A. C.; 4. The early progress of the Goths in Europe; particularly in Thrace, Greece, Italy, and Gaul; 5. Their settlements in Germany, or an examination of the proofs that the ancient Germans were Scythe, and that the Belgæ of Gaul were Germans; 6. The progress of the Goths, or Picts, in Scandinavia."

On the first topic the author thus

continues:

"He begins his chronology with the fables of Egyptian history, and lays it down as a certainty, that Menes, king of Egypt, reigned about 4000 years before Christ, or nearly coeval with our æra of the creation.

"He then establishes a vast Scythian empire in Asia, extending from Egypt to the Ganges, and from the Caspian to the Persian gulf and Indian sex, 3660 years before Christ, or only 344 years after the creation. Of this empire, not the smallest mention is made by Herodotus, or any of the early writers; but it is barely hinted at in two passages of Justin (one of which is obscure and vitiaber), in his abridgement of the History of Trogus Pompeius, who lived in the time of Augustus.

**In one of these passages, Justin, after speaking of Ninus, king of the Assyrians, says, that he first made war against the neighbouring people, who were incapable of

resistance, and subdued them as far as the confines of Libya. But in more ancient times lived Vexoris, king of Egypt, and Tanaus, king of Scythia; the first of whom made irruptions as far as Pontus, and the wars, and not near their own frontiers, were other into Egypt; but they waged distant content with victory, and abstained from empire. Ninus confirmed the magnitude of his power by permanent possession. Having conquered the neighbouring people, he passed to others with this accession of force; each conquest became the instrument of a subsequent conquest, and he thus subjugated the whole east. The last war was with Zoroaster, king of the Bactriani, who is first said to have invented magic arts, to have discovered the origin of the world, and the motions of the stars. Zoroaster being killed, Ninus also died, leaving his infant son Nirias, and his wife Semiramis, &c.

a

"In the second book, Justin, after describing the origin and conquests of the Scythæ, adds, After continuing fifteen years for the purpose of pacifying Asia, they returned at the solicitation of their wives, who declared, that unless they returned, they would obtain progeny from their neighbours, and would not suffer the Scythian name to be extinct. To these people, therefore, Asia was tributary 1500 years. Ninus, king of Assyria, put an end to the tribute.' Without ticity of this last passage, which is proved the least hesitation in regard to the authento be corrupted, Mr. P. computes the origin of the Scythian empire 1500 years before Ninus, believes the history of Ninus to be authentic, and fixes the era of his reign about 2160 years before Christ, whereas the history of Ninus is generally reported to be fabulous, or is placed at a much later period.

"Mr. Pinkerton attempts to support this slight testimony by the authority of Eusebius, Epiphanius, and the Chronicon Paschale, who all say nothing on the existence of this great and early Scythian empire. Two of these writers, according to Mr. Pinkerton himself, only divide religious errors into four periods, Barbarism before the flood; after the flood Scythism, Hellenism, and Judaism; Epiphanius attributes the building of the tower of Babel, among others, to the Scythians, and Eusebius puts the Scythians as the immediate descendants of Noah, down to Serug, his fourth de scendant, a period of 400 years.

Within the Scythia of the antients may be traced each of the radical dialects of northern Europe. (1) Gaelic; for a tribe of Galatai, the Galatians of Saint Paul, came thence and settled in Asia minor (2) Welsh, for the Kimmerioi, or Cimbri, once gave their name to a peninsula of the Euxine: (3) Gothic; for the Massagetai, Masogoths, Visigoths, or West Goths, dwelt on the Araxes in the time of Cyrus, and made war against him: (4) Slavonic; for the language of the Medes was Slavonic, as Forster proves to Michaelis, and the * Sauremadi, North Medes, or Sarmatic tribes, are placed by antient authors in Scythia. Scythian is plainly a vague name, which often includes Getæ, or Goths, oftener perhaps than any other of the four principal nations, or stemtribes of the north.

The third section attempts to prove that the Celts were not driven to the farthest limits of Gaul 500 years before Christ. What does this author mean by Celts? According to Pelloutier, and the old antiquaries, all the northern nations of Europe were Celts: as well those who spoke the Gaelic, as those who spoke the Welsh, and those who spoke the Gothic tongues. Percy, in his Northern Antiquities, separated Pelloutier's Celts into Celts and Goths; including the Gaelic and Welsh tribes under the former denomination. Schloetzer, with more precision, separated Percy's Celts into Gales and Kymri, and strictly follows up the advice of Leibnitz, to class savage nations by their languages, which alter more slowly than their dwelling-places. Of France and England we know nothing satisfactory before Julius Cæsar; but it is evident that, in his time, the Gaelic tribes (who are the only proper Celts) were compressed into the westmost corners of Europe; and as the Belga (who are probably a Kymric, or Welsh, tribe) already dwelt contiguously to them, and were hitching westward, to make room for the Goths; it is not unlikely that this distribution had endured three or four hundred years, which is all that Mr. Pinkerton's hypothesis requires. As Mr. Pinkerton maintains that the Belge were Goths, he naturally somewhat antedates the westward progress of the Goths; for the Belge who dwelt westward of the Germans must have

preceded them in the progress from mount Ararat to capes Finistere and the Land's End.

This author says (p. 40) " there were only four races of people in Europe known to the antients; these were (1) the Celts; (2) the Iberi; (3) the Sarmata; and (4) the Scythians or Goths.”

Here is a mis-arrangement: the Sarmatæ, or Northern Medes, being a Slavonian race, dwelt eastward of the Goths, and consequently forsook Asia at a later period; they should occur last.

Here is also a defect of enumeration. The Celts should be subdivided into Gaelic and Cimbric. The Iberi are stated to have settled in the north of Spain. If, therefore, they are not comprehended in either the Gaelic or Cimbric tribes, they must be the progenitors of the people of Aquitain, who use the Biscayan or Basque language. This language is wholly distinct from the Erse or Gaelic, and from the Welsh or Cimbric. The Iberi might then form a fifth distinct race, well known to the antients, and specifically described by Cæsar. It is probable that they entered Spain from Africa, are no other than the Bastuli, and are the remnants of a Carthaginian, a Tyrian, a Hebrew tribe: they are denominated accordingly.

The fourth section discusses the iden. tity of the Thracians, Illyrians, Greeks, and Italians, with the Scytho-Goths. No part of Mr. Pinkerton's hypothesis is more wild and untenable than the descent of the Greeks from a Gothick stock. Except the word pur fire, which Plato notices as barbaric, there is scarcely Gothic word in the whole Greek language. The main body of Greek and Latin progenitors evidently migrated eastward from the original centre of population; for, in the Shanskreet language, the numerals and many other words agree with those of the Greeks and Latins. The Latin is Greek combined with a Gaelic basis; so that the primeval savages of Italy, who occupied the interior prior to the intrusion of the Greek colonists, must have been Galàtai. That Goths, while in their pastoral state, wandered through Thrace, cannot be doubted; that Ovid learnt there a Gothic dialect, and wrote the first Dutch verses, is probable: but no wandering tribes should be denominated

Q

from their transient place of residence. The waves of population have been successively flowing_westward through the middle zone of Europe; and the same nations which are first heard of in the Euxine are finally met with along the Channel. Throughout this section of the inquiry, our author has evidently the advantage of Mr. Pinkerton.

In the fifth section, on the contrary, which examines whether the Germans are Scytho-Goths, Mr. Pinkerton has the advantage over our author. This subject is continued in the sixth section, which includes an inquiry whether the Belge were Goths: this topic is not exhausted; but Mr. Pinkerton's opinion is sensibly enfeebled. The same investigation is pursued in the seventh section. Whether the Picts, Piks, or Peucini, who first peopled Scotland, were a Gothic nation, is one of the most curious questions started by Mr. Pinkerton. We apprehend that he has established their Gothic origin, in contradiction to the received notion. The passage from Beda proves, that the Gaelic population of the Highlands came from Ireland after the christian æra. The Caledonians of Agricola were therefore Goths. And as the present provincial dialect of these Piks and Caledonians, in fact, extends southward at least to the Humber; it is highly probable that this is the first Gothic population which entered Britain. Our present language cannot be a corruption of the Anglo-Saxon, or Danish the whole system of construction and inflection is different. Of the

extant continental dialects, the Low. dutch most resembles our own. This, if the Belga were Goths, they no doubt imported; but it is on the whole more probable that the Belge, as Schloetzer maintains, were Kymri; because they were subject to the druidical or bardish discipline; because their language was with difficulty learnt by the Goth or German Ariovistus, or Ehrenvest; and because their name Belgish has been modified into the word Welsh. The Caledonians therefore seem to be the proper ancestors of the British nation, to have founded the main body of interior population, and to have furnished the basis of the language esta :blished by our worship and, our litera

ture.

The subsequent sections relate to topics less connected: it will be the easier to detach an independent passage: our

"This principle, that the Celts were divided into two distinct races, was first aðvanced in the dissertation, to account for the striking traces of the Celtic people, which Mr. P. could not avoid discovering in various parts of Europe, even long after he had pent up the old Celts in the furthest west of Gaul, in the same manner as he afterward made a distinction between the Celtic and German Gauls, to extricate himself from another dilemma.

"He conjectures that these people were separated into two divisions, the southern, or western Celts, or Celts proper, whom he places in Gaul; and the Cimbri, Cymri, or Northern Celts, the Celts proper, who, spreading into anthe apparent offspring of other region, had assumed a new appellation..(Diss. p. 49.).

"He supports this conjecture by supposing, first, that the latter Celtic migra tions were made from the west into Germany, and the north; and secondly, that the Gwyddelian language, or that of the first race of Celts, of which traces are still preserved in local names in England and Wales, was almost wholly different from the modern Cymraeg, or Welsh, and can alone be explained in the Irish, or Gwyddelian.

The only proof of the first supposition he grounds on the authorities of Posidonius, Strabo, and Plutarch, who, he says, state that the Cimbri, or Cimmerii, came from the German ocean to the Euxine; and then north-west, from the constant burthen he concludes that they originated from the his song, that the Celts were confined the furthest north-west. (Diss. p. 48.)

"The two first of these authorities amount to a mere conjecture of Posidonius, whi Strabo does not confirm, but only calls not an inept supposition; and as to Plu tarch, he acknowledges the extreme under tainty concerning the origin of the Cumb they were supposed to have come from and among several conjectures, states the Northern ocean. But his authority, if proves any thing, proves the great numb and power of the Celta at that period.

The argument, in regard to the gr dissimilarity of the Celtic dialects, name the Southern Celtic, or Gwyddelian, the Cymraeg, or Welsh, is founded on respectable, but in this instance, fallacio authority of Llwyd, the Welsh antiquar who supports it by no historical documen

"According to his opinion, the Irish, Gwyddelians, were the original inhabitan