EUROPE, in the most early ages, was inhabited by one race of men, whose antiquity is enveloped in inscrutable darkness. From the first memorial of their existence, they are distinguished by the name of CELTE, but the origin of this remarkable people was utterly unknown to themselves. They had no idea of having ever occupied any other country than that in which they found themselves; and the Druids, the depositaries of their traditional knowledge, maintained that they were aborigines. This belief was not singular, nor more extraordinary than that of many other nations, equally ignorant and credulous, but more polished and refined. The Celta, on the authority of their priests, de clared themselves descended from the god Dis, a being identified with the Pluto of Greek and Roman mythology, but more probably meant for the Earth.

This derivation cannot be admitted: the inhabitants of the west must have proceeded from Asia, the parent country of all mankind, at a period which neither historical research nor popular tradition has been able to approach. All history, both sacred and profane, proves this quarter of the globe to have been the original seat of mankind.

* Ammianus Marcellinus, on the authority of Timogenes.

Cæsar, de Bello Gallico, lib. vi. c. 17. The Germans derived their origin from Tuisto, apparently the same being as the Celtic Dis or Tis. Tacitus, de Mor. Germanorum.

In migrating from the east, the human race successively occupied Greece and Italy, and extended themselves from the Euxine to the Atlantic. As their numbers increased, they gradually took possession of the whole country from the Mediterranean to the Baltic, and a scanty population sought the means of subsistence, among the less inviting wastes, from thence to the Frozen Sea. Europe and Celtica were indeed synonymous:* the sole inhabitants, from the Pillars of Hercules to Archangel, and from the banks of the Euxine to the German Ocean, being Celts, however distinguished by particular names, applied at various times to different tribes and independent communities. The appellation Celta, which this primitive people acknowledged as their only proper name,† and which at first they received from others, in subsequent times underwent several changes. The ancient Greeks used this term in speaking of them, but it afterwards became transformed into Calatæ and Galatæ,‡ and the Roman Galli was itself latterly adopted by some Greek writers.§

Numerous etymologies have been offered for the solution of this word. In all its variations it may, with probability, be traced through the Greek KɛλTOι to some corresponding term in the Celtic language that no longer exists. It would be a waste of time to enumerate all the conjectures which have been given, and the result would be unsatisfactory. From various circumstances one people may become distinguished from another; but if inquirers were to reflect, that original names cannot arise from national manners, and that it is more natural for nations to become denominated from the country they inhabit, than that it should receive a name from its possessors, it would serve to check many romantic and fanciful conceits. An appellation so very ancient, and so extensively bestowed, must have arisen from something independent of country, and appropriate to a numerous race.

Waters,"

To derive the term Celtæ from "Hills," or Woods," or or from western or northern position, when the people so designated occupied all parts of an extensive continent, and filled its islands, is manifestly absurd. How much more likely it is to have arisen from peculiar personal appearance, the first and natural origin of names. It has been supposed that the Greeks applied the term to denote the milky whiteness of the skin; but in this point the difference between the two people seems insufficient to give rise to a designation, which the Celts retained as their own proper name. A striking and a permanent dissimilarity has always existed between the European and the Ethiopian, both in complexion and personal conformation. Amid conjectures so various, may we not suppose, that in the infancy of mankind, if I can so speak, per

*Ortellius, "Geographia vetus."

+ Cæsar, ut sup.

Pausanias, who wrote about 165, says they were but lately denominated Gauls, for they had always called themselves Celta. Descriptio Græciæ, lib. i. c. 3. The term Gauls seems to have been at first applied to those who had obtained a settlement in Asia, and were long known as Galatians.

§ Appian first uses it in the beginning of the second century.

haps before they had visited Europe, a name arose expressive of the fair complexion of the white man, compared with the sable negro.* From the primitive language of those who first peopled the country, the Greek Galactoi has been undoubtedly derived, and was afterwards given as the origin of the term, when the most ancient Celtic had become unknown.

The practice of distinguishing individuals by personal appearance and qualifications, is still retained by the Scots Highlanders, the Irish, and the Welsh; and, in support of the etymology I have above given, it is worthy of observation, that "Gaëlic" has been, by good antiquaries, translated the language of white men. Gealta signifies whitened, and comes from Geal, white.

The similarity of this word to the term Celta is striking; from it, in all probability, came the Roman Gallus.

As the Celtæ moved westward, either from choice or the pressure of an increasing population in the east, they carried with them a simple language and mode of life; and as they met with no inhabitants in the land they took possession of, their primitive manners could at first suffer no farther change than what the difference of country and climate would naturally produce. It may be inferred, with probability, that they continued for a considerable time less warlike than nations who obtain a settlement by force of arms, and must of necessity protect their acquisition by similar means. The disconnexion of their tribes, a striking characteristic of the race, had an apparent tendency to enfeeble the Celts, and seems to have prevented the formation of any great empire, as among other nations; but the peace in which they lived was favorable to population. Their mode of life, while it cherished a love of freedom, was highly conducive to bodily strength and hardihood; and the principle of division, which separated the people into so many distinct and independent tribes, did not prevent them from uniting in enterprises, by which their power was often felt in various parts of the world. They invaded Asia, they overspread Thrace, and enriched themselves with the plunder of the temples of Greece. In the reign of Tarquin the elder, nearly six centuries before the incarnation,‡ a numerous body of Celta, both horse and foot, accompanied by multitudes of women and children, left their native seats in search of new settlements. One part of this army followed Belovesus, and surmounting the Alps, which, till then, it was believed, had never been crossed, established themselves near the

*So the native Americans call themselves the red men, in contradistinction to the whites.

† Gaelic Dictionaries. The Pictish Chronicle says, the Albani, who had their name from their white hair, were the people from whom both Scots and Picts were derived. Those who deduced Celtæ from flaxen or reddish colored hair, gave a plausible ety. mon: C was often used for G, and seems to have been the most ancient letter. Hence we find the Galatians were also called Calatians; Gallicia was anciently Calla. cia, &c.

+ About 570 Bossuet, Histoire Universelle, vol. i. p. 33. Ed. 1706.

river Po; while the other division, conducted by his brother, Sigovesus, passed into Germany, where these emigrants settled, in the vicinity of the Hyrcinian, now the Black Forest.* The numerous armies which the Celta at times sent abroad, filled with alarm the most warlike and civilized nations of Europe. Their irresistible inroads, and the terror of their name, procured peaceful settlements, and even the payment of heavy annual tribute from powerful states. An army of Gauls, under the command of Brennus, went into Italy against the Hetrusci, 390 years before the advent of Christ. The Romans thought proper to interfere in the quarrel, and killed one of the Gallic princes; upon which their army, marching to Rome, defeated the troops who opposed them, laid the city in ashes, and finally received one thousand pounds weight of gold to purchase their retreat, and save the capital from inevitable destruction. Camillus was fortunately able to repulse them, as they lingered in the country, unapprehensive of attack; but they were not deterred by defeat from renewing their overwhelming and destructive invasions.†

About 270, A. C., in three great divisions, they made inroads on Pannonia, Thrace, Macedonia, and Illyria. Those who entered Macedonia routed the army by which they were opposed, and slew Ptolemy the king. Passing into Asia, they filled the inhabitants with terror and dismay, and received from the suffering Bythinians a free settlement in the country, where they were afterwards known as the Galatians, or Gallo-Greeks. The other divisions were less fortunate; but they retreated only to invade Greece with redoubled fury, and a more numerous armament.‡

The Celta, notwithstanding the frequent demonstrations of their warlike powers, were, for a long period, but little known to the more polished nations of Europe, who were able to transmit authentic information concerning so singular a people. Their history and their religion were preserved among themselves; but their rigid adherence to traditional poetry, as the sole vehicle of record, has left posterity in much ignorance concerning the state of the Celtic nations in early ages. Their ferocious invasions too, however they might excite curiosity, were not calculated to induce a personal visit to their territories, or a quiet investigation of their manners and antiquities. When there was, therefore, scarcely any communication with the north and west parts of the continent, it was impossible to acquire accurate information respecting these parts of Europe, or the inhabitants; hence the obscure and contradictory intimations we find concerning both.

A people who are spread over a vast continent, cannot long remain an entire nation. Boundaries, marked out by nature, will divide the in

* Livius, Historia Romana. lib. v. c. 34, 35. Appian, of the Gallic War, c. 1. + Plutarch, in vita Camilli. Strabo, iv. p. 195, v. p. 213.

† Pausanias, x. 19.

habitants into separate communities, and local situation will procure an appropriate name, and create a difference in manners. In the lapse of time the dissimilarity is increased, and when, from an obvious and inherent principle, every community aspires to an independent existence, the most powerful will acquire and retain an ascendency over the others, who, ultimately, become confederates, and are classed as branches or subdivisions of a numerous association. Thus arises a variety of nations or tribes that long continue to be regulated by similar laws and customs, and retain their original language, but eventually alter their dialect, and lose the remembrance of a common origin.

The Celts, who were the sole inhabitants of Europe in the infancy of time, were at last formed into a number of divisions, distinguished by peculiar names, but retaining, with their national affinity, the general appellation of Celta.

The apparent diversity of the ancient people of Europe, arising, as it should seem, from the confused and indefinite ideas that existed respecting the regions of the north and west, has been a prolific source for polemical discussion, and has afforded ample matter for the disquisitions of those who have applied themselves to investigate the origin of nations. An ignorance, so favourable to the indulgence of fancy, has given opportunity for the introduction of ficticious narration. The Greeks were extremely credulous, and it is often very difficult to understand what people were meant in their dark and traditional relations.

The HYPERBOREI, or those who lived beyond the north wind, appear the most singular of the people of antiquity. So dark are the intimations that are handed down concerning them, that we are inclined to consider the whole as the fables or allegories of an obscure theology. According to some historians, si credimus, as Pliny very considerately adds, they dwelt beyond the Riphæan mountains, which were always covered with snow, and from whence the north wind arose: a latitude by no means suitable to the descriptions given by others, of the genial climate, the fruitful soil, and the happy lives of the inhabitants. The situation of the Sauromatæ, with whom the Hyperborei have been identified, does not better justify the appellation. Strabo speaks of the Hyperborei as those people, whose geographical position could scarcely give propriety to the name. Diodorus Siculus, on the authority of Hecatæus, a very ancient historian, who wrote, as Herodotus informs us, a volume on the Hyperborei, describes them as inhabiting an island opposite to Gaul, and as large as Sicily; but he does not appear to give much credit to the relation. † These islanders had of long and ancient time a particular esteem for the Greeks, arising from certain religious connexions, to be hereafter noticed. This description appears applicable to Britain, if there were not, as Bryant conjectures, a mysterious

*Herodotus, lib. iv. Pliny, Hist. Nat. iv. 12. Pomp. Mela, i. 1, &c. Strabo, i. p. 61. t Diod. Sic. ii. 3.