THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 RIVERSIDE 
 
 Ex tibris 
 C. K. OGDEN


 
 Poems of AoexirilL, transcribed in. the XIII cerAury. 
 
 'from tke Library of < 6i Rev. Tkom.a.s Price. ) 
 
 tmC(matv eaecWu corctw 
 en 
 
 Poems cf Lywarck-Heii , written m the XIV century 
 
 [TTOTO. tke Hed Book, Jesus College, Oxfo-rd.) 
 
 Poems of Taliesm, writter,. m tke XlVr ceiitary. 
 
 (From, tlve same Red Book.)
 
 ESSAYS 
 
 ON 
 
 VARIOUS SUBJECTS, 
 
 PHILOLOGICAL, PHILOSOPHICAL, ETHNOLOGICAL, 
 AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL, 
 
 CONNECTED WITH 
 
 THE PREHISTORICAL RECORDS 
 
 THE CIVILIZED NATIONS OF ANCIENT EUROPE, ESPECIALLY OF 
 THAT EACE WHICH FIRST OCCUPIED GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN WILLIAMS, A.M., OXON., 
 
 / / / * 
 
 ARCHDEACON OF CARDIGAN; 
 
 Author of "ffomerus" " Gomer," and of the Lives of Julius Ccesar, and Alexander 
 
 the Great, tyc. Sfc. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 
 36, SO HO SQUARE. 
 
 M.DCCC.LVIII.
 
 Ac? 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 P. PICKTON, PRINTER, 
 Perry's Place, 29, Oxford Street.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 HAVING just published a volume of discourses "On the 
 Unity of God's Will as revealed in Scripture; and on the 
 Necessity laid upon all Christian Communities of acknow- 
 ledging such Will as the only Rule of Life, with special 
 Reference to God's Dealings with Christianized Britain," l 
 I publish the several papers contained in the present volume, 
 as embodying my views of the non-scriptural evidence of the 
 same truths, as deducible from documents and monuments, 
 both historical and prehistorical, which I have had an oppor- 
 tunity of examining. In the dedication to the Lord Bishop 
 of London of the above-mentioned volume, I have given the 
 following statement of my views upon the subject : 
 
 " I hold that the first man, as an intellectual, moral, and 
 spiritual being, had nothing to learn from experience; that, as 
 a labourer in the struggle against matter, he had almost 
 everything to learn ; and that the triumphs of man over the 
 material world, and which are daily in a greater or less 
 degree obtained, will never give him, individually, more intel- 
 lectual, moral, and spiritual knowledge, than was possessed 
 by the first Adam ; that a school opposite to mine expects 
 new teaching to be discovered on this same field from modern 
 experience; and that the spirit of the age is indeed a light 
 
 1 London: Eivingtons, Waterloo Place ; 1857.
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 from heaven, which may be assumed by us as a safe guide, 
 superseding the patriarchs, the prophets, and the apostles, 
 and be proclaimed the gospel of the nineteenth century. The 
 spirit of the age is nevertheless no gospel, but embodies a 
 great truth. Materially we are fulfilling our vocations, and 
 subduing and replenishing the earth; but intellectually, 
 morally, and spiritually speaking, we derive no benefits from 
 the modern triumphs of art and science. Excitement, encou- 
 ragement, and enlarged powers for diffusing the blessings of 
 the Revelation in Christ, we undoubtedly do derive ; and may 
 God grant us his grace to render our triumphs over matter 
 subservient to the spread of truth, as embodied in the tradi- 
 tions of the patriarchs, typified and declared by Moses and the 
 prophets, and finally developed in the everlasting gospel." 
 
 I also quoted from the works of Plutarch, a passage which 
 proves that the same great truths had been traditionally pre- 
 served among the historical heathens down to the time of 
 Christ's first advent: "For," writes the philosopher, "we must 
 not ascribe the work of creation to certain lifeless particles of 
 matter, as Epicurus has done, nor say, with the Stoics, that 
 one divine foreknowledge binds and fetters all things in one 
 inviolable law of consequences. For it is impossible that there 
 should be any evil, if the Being vested with the fettering fore- 
 knowledge should be good, or that there should be any good, 
 should this same principle be evil. Wherefore, that very 
 ancient doctrine which we cannot refer to any author, but of 
 which the belief is strong and ineffaceable, not only in words 
 and expressions, but is developed everywhere, both among 
 Greeks and Barbarians, in their mysterious initiations and 
 sacrifices ; that there is more than one principle acting in the 
 government of the universe in fact, that there are two anta- 
 gonistic principles, of which one guides man to the right
 
 PREFACE. Vll 
 
 along the straight road, the other leads him astray into various 
 byways and errors. 
 
 He, in a following passage, tells us that there was an 
 equally strong tradition, that " at a destined period the evil 
 principle would either be destroyed or made to disappear ; and 
 that this earth, freed from all inequalities and rugged barren- 
 ness, should become the happy residence of innocent beings, 
 all forming one political state, and speaking one language." 
 
 The great truths here recorded will receive further eluci- 
 dation from several of the papers published in this volume. I 
 refer especially to the papers, " On the Early Intercourse 
 between the Eastern and the Western World," " On the Con- 
 nection between Hellas and Britain," "A few Observations 
 on certain Ancient Traditions," and " On the Antiquity of 
 Celtic Coins," a subject which, in the hands of the great conti- 
 nental numismatical writers, has thrown new light upon the 
 secret tenets of the Druidical teachers of the Western world. 
 
 I have also held and taught, that " it must have been in 
 consequence of some extraordinary delusion, that so many 
 Christian scholars sought for the origin of Hellenic doctrines 
 in the several details of the Mosaic law, and the revelations 
 subsequent to its establishment. According to my belief, all 
 the doctrines and practices common to the Hellenic and 
 Hebrew nations, are to be traced to a common source the 
 patriarchal traditions ; while the Mosaic dispensation, with its 
 peculiar laws and customs, was a close system divinely pro- 
 vided to keep one people distinct from other nations, by 
 building a wall of separation between them and all with 
 whom they were likely to be brought in contact. And that 
 the great difficulty under this theocratic system was to pre- 
 vent the Israelites from adopting the corrupt traditions of 
 their heathen neighbours, who are never described as in-
 
 V1U PREFACE. 
 
 clined to derive any pure knowledge from the hateful and, as 
 they deemed them, ' godless ' followers of Moses." 
 
 This subject is amply illustrated in the paper " On Primi- 
 tive Tradition" in the present volume, which recapitulates most 
 of the doctrines propounded by me in my Humerus, Part I. 
 I may add, that the importance of the poems of the Homeric 
 age, as forming a body of documents whence not only amuse- 
 ment and intellectual enjoyment of the highest character can 
 be derived, but also as the source whence much valuable 
 instruction, for the purposes both of private and public life, 
 may be drawn, has been fully recognized in the popular and 
 admirable paper published in the Oxford Essays, by W. E. 
 Gladstone, Esq., M.P. A writer of the same school has, in 
 a similar article, which appeared in a late number of the 
 Quarterly Review, clearly proved that the tone of moral and 
 political principles displayed by the writers of the Homeric 
 age, is far more healthy and elevated than that of the Euri- 
 pidean age, when aesthetic art had won its most splendid 
 triumphs in dramatic poetry, in painting, sculpture, and 
 architecture. 
 
 My doctrine respecting the language in which Moses and 
 the prophets embodied their revelations, went still further, 
 and I held that it also was, comparatively speaking, a language 
 of separation, and that the long-continued effort to trace the 
 various dialects of the Western world to a Hebrew source, is 
 not among the least striking of the extent to which the errors 
 of good and wise men may be carried, should they com- 
 mence their inquiries with an inveterate prejudice. And of 
 this character was the glossolatry with which the language 
 of Moses was long and extensively honoured. Should any one 
 language be rationally deemed more worthy than another, it 
 was assuredly that language which the Holy Ghost selected
 
 PREFACE. IX 
 
 for the more perfect revelation in Christ, when the wall of 
 separation was thrown down. 
 
 All the Semitic alphabets were, to a certain extent, crypto- 
 graphic, and all their written documents needed, consequently, 
 a living instructor. When, therefore, the inspired writer and 
 instructor was to cease, then also ceased the divine use of the 
 Semitic language, as an instrument too imperfect to convey the 
 xrvjpu* eg asi, " the new will " of God, as revealed in Christ to all 
 the descendants of Adam, to be by them received as the only 
 sure standard of faith, as the only rule of life. That the 
 Greek language was admirably adapted for this purpose, is 
 proved to us from the existence of the Homeric poems, which 
 have brought down to our own days long messages conceived 
 and penned by men who lived and died some three thousand 
 years ago, and respecting whose history, times, manners, 
 customs, habits, laws, and religion, we have no other trust- 
 worthy information than what can be gathered from the con- 
 tents of the documents in which these long messages have 
 been embodied ; and yet the Homeric scholar reads in them at 
 this day, the whole stream of thought, intended to be ex- 
 pressed with a facility and distinctness which carries convic- 
 tion to the mind of every intelligent critic, that the translation 
 propounded by the scholar fully represents the thoughts and 
 words of the world-renowned but, as individuals, unknown 
 poets. 
 
 The history of this language and of its offshoots, at later 
 or earlier periods, is the special study of all sound philologists 
 of the present day. Some labour in wider, others in more 
 narrow, felds ; my own investigations have been almost ex- 
 clusively confined to its Celtic, Teutonic, Roman, and Hel- 
 lenic branches, as they are to be found in our Western world. 
 The reader will find some important information in the essay
 
 X PREFACE. 
 
 " On the Non-Hellenic Portion of the Latin Language." It 
 was written some five-and-twenty years ago, and was pub- 
 lished in the thirteenth volume of the Transactions of the 
 Edinburgh Royal Society. Many writers have, without ac- 
 knowledgment, poached largely upon this my peculiar pro- 
 perty. But I leave them unnamed 'to the tribunals of their own 
 consciences. It, however, brought down upon me the high dis- 
 pleasure of Teutornanes of great influence and even of power, 
 who, in claiming unbounded honours for the Germanic branch, 
 are sure to be backed by all the prejudices of our dominant 
 people, who choose to regard themselves as being all de- 
 scendants from the Anglo-Saxons, who, in the fifth and sixth 
 centuries after Christ, emigrated into this island. The papers 
 contain certain views which I have since discarded, but have 
 thought right to reprint them as first published. 
 
 My essays "On the Ancient Phoenicians and their Language" 
 are merely tentative, and were undertaken in mere despair, as 
 I was utterly unable to see any traces of Aramaean influences 
 in the vocabularies and grammars of the Homeric, Hellenic, 
 and Attic languages, which, if the Sidonians of Homer and of 
 history had been a Semitic people, I concluded must have 
 been the case. In the same manner, the people who brought 
 to this island the Cumraeg, seemed to have had no Semitic 
 elements in their constitution, but were closely allied with all 
 the inhabitants of the European continent. The paper which 
 is being prepared to prove, by the aid of philology, that the 
 Sidonians of the Homeric poems, and their immediate de- 
 scendants, whether in Boeotia or Attica, or at Sparta, or in the 
 various islands of the JEgean Sea, left no trace of a Semitic 
 parentage, is not completely finished, and must therefore, at 
 present, be left unpublished. 
 
 The various papers on the Megalithic and Cyclopean Struc-
 
 PREFACE. XI 
 
 tures are so intimately connected with the first inhabitants of 
 Great Britain, Ireland, and the opposite continent, that they 
 require the particular consideration of every seeker after truth 
 in these and similar disquisitions. The extreme aversion with 
 which the forefathers of the pure English in this island enter- 
 tained against all the Celtic race, both here and in Ireland, 
 should render the Englishman of the present day more willing 
 to listen with impartial ears to the evidence respecting the 
 existence, from the remotest times, of an ancient branch of the 
 Caucasian race in Great Britain, venerable for its history, its 
 primeval civilization, and for its preservation of an important 
 dialect of the common language which the Japetida3 brought 
 into Europe. It is too late in the day to overlook this over- 
 powering evidence, and to class the Britons, whom Julius 
 Caesar had to encounter here, with the Red Indian and with 
 the Australian savage. 
 
 For further information on this subject, as well as respect- 
 ing the high and true philosophy embodied in the Cumric 
 language and literature, the reader is referred to my Gomer, 
 where the whole subject is thoroughly investigated and 
 explained. 
 
 In the two papers, the one " On the Virgilian Cosmogony," 
 the other " On the Aristotelian Expression M* ra ret QuffiHu" 
 I have endeavoured to make patent to the common reader the 
 doctrine respecting the formation of our globe and its inha- 
 bitants, which is usually called the Epicurean system, not in- 
 vented by Epicurus, but borrowed by him from the works of 
 a much greater man, the famous traveller in the Eastern world, 
 Democritus of Abdera, and also the doctrines on very im- 
 portant subjects, ascribed by Aristotle to the philosophers whom 
 he styles the xuiMruketioi " the altogether ancient." Aristotle 
 himself may justly be termed the great exponent of truths
 
 Xli PREFACE. 
 
 f 
 
 connected with the material creation, and with the laws of 
 human thought, while reasoning on things comprehensible. 
 He either ignored or disbelieved all spiritual existence; a xoa/xoc 
 *7reptf<7/xsvo was his favourite doctrine ; nor does he seem to 
 have known that it was as incomprehensible by human 
 thought as a xo<r/xof cttspavTog . 
 
 The paper " On the Megalithic Structures of Auvergne," I 
 regard as conclusive with respect to the people who built them, 
 both in that province and in other parts of the world. I hold 
 it equally certain that the Britons were the Hyperboreans, 
 described by Hecataeus the Milesian. 
 
 I hope that the statements made by me on the Cumric re- 
 cords, and especially the abstracts drawn up by me of the 
 Report made by the Count Villemarque, and read before the 
 Institute, will serve to rouse my own countrymen in general 
 to the present unsatisfactory state of many of the existing 
 monuments of our past history as a nation. There is certainly 
 a danger that the present reigning dynasty in France, a pure 
 Celtic race, may be tempted to occupy the ground neglected 
 by its natural patrons, and to publish, at its own expense, the 
 rich remains of our British literature. 
 
 One of the Imperial Princes of France is already one of the 
 best Celtic scholars in Europe, and, in a late visit to Wales, 
 charmed all that had personal intercourse with him by the 
 purity and fluency with which he conversed with them in the 
 language of the Ancient Britons. 
 
 JOHN WILLIAMS, 
 
 Archdeacon of Cardigan. 
 LONDON, 
 January 4th, 1858.
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 On Cam Goch, in Caermarthenshire . . 1 
 
 On the Early Intercourse between the Eastern and Western World, and 
 
 on Celtic Coins . . .... 11 
 
 On One Source of the Non-Hellenic Portion of the Latin Language . 47 
 
 The Virgilian Cosmogony . Ill 
 
 On the Aristotelian Expression, "META TA *Y2IKA" . . .135 
 
 A Selection from certain ArchaBological Papers, written by the Arch- 
 deacon of Cardigan 149 
 
 Extracts from Archa3ological Letters of the Archdeacon of Cardigan . 187 
 Extract from an Unpublished Archaeological Paper . . . .195 
 On the Megalithic Structures in Auvergne . . , . .201 
 Primitive Tradition. A Letter to the Editor of the Edinburgh Review 215 
 The Antiquity of Celtic Coins . . . ... . .285 
 
 A few Observations on certain very Ancient Traditions among certain 
 
 Primitive Nations 307 
 
 The Ancient Phoenicians and their Language . . . .315 
 
 The Written Records of the Cumri ... . 343 
 
 On the Difference between the Cumraeg and the Gaeleg . . .361 
 
 On the Great Ethnological Theory . . . .365 
 
 On the Antiquity of certain Welsh Manuscripts . .309
 
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 The Cambrian Annals ending A.D. 945, written in the X* century 
 (British Museum N 3859. ii 190.) 
 
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 cJte6; ^e-trtfe; nocnb; 
 vnfru tD cKrf\t of^ 
 
 An!
 
 Ancient Poems transcribed about the middle of die III . century. 
 
 (Black Boole of Carmarthen, fol.36.)
 
 LCient Poems transcribed at the commencement cf the 3QL. century (about the year, 11040 
 
 (From -die Black Book cf' Carmarthen. fcl 3) 
 
 1 
 
 Copy of Brut y Brerihinoedjlj written in. the XHT. century. 
 
 (British Museum, Cleqp.B.C.A.) 
 
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 vy 
 ^ferb 4 
 
 d^ffir 
 
 Ancient Ibems transcribed about the middle of the III century. 
 
 (Black Book oi" Carmacdien., fol. 37. )
 
 Ancient Poems transcribed about the middle of the XII ^century 
 (Black Boole of Carmarthen. foil.*!) 
 
 Copy of 
 
 Brut y Erenhinoedd, written m the XIV ^ century. 
 
 (From tke Red Book) 
 
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 Aihbx Dangcrfitli, 22BuiAr<i Sf
 
 ESSAYS, 
 
 ON CARN GOGH, IN CAERMARTHENSHIRE. 
 
 * No portion of Wales is more interesting to the general 
 inquirer, more suggestive to the native antiquary, than the 
 region which our ancient historians loved to designate as the 
 principality of Ystrad-Tywy, or Stratywy. Geographically 
 described, it may be regarded as the basin, or rather succes- 
 sion of basins, drained by the river Towy and its tributaries. 
 And although the, county of Caermarthen extends beyond 
 these natural limits, nevertheless, almost everything remark- 
 able within its confines is to be found in the vale of Towy, 
 and its adjacent slopes and mountains. 
 
 It would be an endless task to enumerate the various objects 
 commemorative of man and his labours which are scattered 
 in profusion among these picturesque valleys and gently swell- 
 ing hills. But it may be said that we have still remaining 
 every specimen of the work of man which antiquarians prize, 
 and the historian would willingly explain. The remains are 
 still visible of the monumental works of the first inhabitants 
 of these islands, of the primitive fortress, the stone circle, 
 with its accompaniments the " maen hir," the " cromlech," 
 &c. ; of the camps, roads, and settlements of the Romans ; of 
 the British Church, established in these districts previous to 
 
 1
 
 2 ON CARN GOCH, CAERMARTHENSHIRE. 
 
 the arrival of the Romish Augustine and his retinue. Many 
 localities are still connected with the name of Merlin and his 
 contemporaries, and of the British saints of the Arthurian 
 period in the sixth century. The ruins of numerous ecclesias- 
 tical foundations, abbeys, priories, and convents, together with 
 the still imposing grandeur of Norman castles, and castellated 
 mansions, testify the medieval predominance of religious rites 
 and practices, and of a foreign despotism hateful to the pri- 
 mitive inhabitants, and which alike have passed away. But 
 most of these records of former ages have not been sufficiently 
 illustrated by the pen or the pencil, and may be said to be still 
 enveloped in gloom and darkness, 
 
 Carent quia vate sacro. 
 
 During my residence at Llandovery I personally visited 
 most of these remains, and would willingly, had I enjoyed 
 due leisure, have attempted to make them more generally 
 known. But that leisure I did not enjoy ; and all that I 
 could do was to call public attention to a subject which, if 
 properly illustrated, would lend new charms to the lovely 
 scenery through which the Towy, whether bursting through 
 its rocky barriers, or quietly meandering through luxuriant 
 meadows, flows back to its parent sea. 
 
 It is therefore not with the hope of satisfying, but rather of 
 exciting, public curiosity, that I submit to the Association the 
 following slight notice of a memorable object of antiquarian 
 research, called " Cam Goch," with the hope that when the 
 Association meets, as it soon should meet, at Llandeilo-fawr, 
 in the immediate vicinity of this and other remarkable objects, 
 they may be fully investigated, and adequately delineated, by 
 the combined aid of art and science. 
 
 I hold Carn Goch to be a primitive fortress of great anti- 
 quity, probably constructed by those adventurers who first 
 occupied this island as a place of settlement. At whatever 
 period that event took place, the original settlers would pro- 
 bably have found this island, as history has described similar
 
 ON CARN GOCH, CAERMARTHENSHIRE. 3 
 
 regions, under similar circumstances : the lowlands consisting 
 principally of lagoons, lakes, and marshes, and the slopes and 
 moderate hills covered with a primeval forest. Necessity, 
 therefore, must have compelled the first dwellers in the land 
 to have fixed their primary habitation on high grounds, cleared 
 of their natural growth of wood ; and both tradition and his- 
 tory seem to agree that the first settlements of mankind were 
 upon the hills. I need not refer here to Plato's description 
 of the migration of the original Ilium from the summits of 
 Ida, first to a station intervening midway between it and the 
 seashore ; and, secondly, to the position in the plain where 
 the Ilium of Priam was built ; nor to still prevalent tradition, 
 which deduces all the subsequent cities of Asia from the ori- 
 ginal settlement of Noah on the Armenian mountains. We 
 have only to examine our own country to enable us to con- 
 clude that the hill was occupied long before the plain ; and 
 we have, still visible, traces of the plough on hilly spots, 
 which, ever since the memory of man, have remained untorn 
 by the ploughshare. But on this subject I prefer to quote 
 the following passage from Wilson's Prehistoric Annals of Scot- 
 land, p.123: 
 
 " In various districts of the same neighbourhood, the curious traveller may 
 descry, amid the desolate heath, indications on the hill-sides of a degree of 
 cultivation having existed at some period far beyond what is exhibited in that 
 locality at present. The soil on the sloping sides of the hills appears to have 
 been retained by dwarf walls, and these singular terraces occur frequently at 
 such altitudes as must convey a vivid idea of the extent and industry of an 
 ancient population, where now the grazing of a few black cattle alone tempts 
 to the claim of property in the soil. In other districts, the half-obliterated 
 furrows are still traceable on heights which have been abandoned for ages to 
 
 the wild fox or the eagle The very simple explanation of such 
 
 ancient plough-marks, which has satisfied the popular mind, is apparent in 
 the appellation of c Elf-furrows,' by which they are popularly known." 
 
 He then quotes the following passages from the statistical 
 account of a clergyman in Galloway, who thus wrote about a 
 century ago : 
 
 " It is to be observed that there are few hills in this part of Galloway, 
 where cultivation is at all practicable, that do not bear distinct marks of the
 
 4 ON CARN GOCH, CARMARTHENSHIRE. 
 
 plough. The depths of the furrows plainly declare that this tillage has not 
 been casual, or merely experimental, but frequent and successive." 
 
 The minister then adds that there was another popular 
 tradition that 
 
 " A Pope, in interdicting agriculture in Scotland, had forgotten to include 
 the hills in the terms of the curse, which were thus left open to cultivation 
 when all the plains were left barren." 
 
 " This rustic tradition," adds Mr. Wilson, " though amusing enough, is 
 not without its value to us, from the proof it aifords of the extent to which 
 such traces must have existed, when they made so great an impression upon 
 the popular mind." 
 
 Nor are these marks of ancient cultivation in higher grounds, 
 and of cities occupying lofty sites, peculiar to this island. 
 Grote, in his History of Greece, describes the existence of 
 something similar both in European and Asiatic Hellas, vol. ii. 
 page 145. Although, according to his theory, which he has 
 borrowed from Thucydides, and which, nevertheless, suits only 
 part of the facts, namely, the occupation of a stronghold at a 
 moderate distance from the seashore, the causes which pro- 
 duced this effect are different from my own views of the 
 subject : 
 
 " Fortifications are a feature of the age deserving considerable notice. 
 There was a time, we are told, in which the primitive Greek towns or villages 
 derived a precarious security, not from their walls, but merely from sites lofty 
 and difficult of access. They were not built immediately upon the shore, or 
 close upon any convenient landing-place, but at some distance inland, on a 
 rock, or elevation, which could not be approached without notice, or scaled 
 without difficulty. It was thought sufficient at that time to guard against 
 
 piratical or marauding surprise Thebes, Athens, Argos, 
 
 belonged to this class of cities ; but there were, in many parts of Greece, 
 deserted sites on hill-tops, still retaining, even in historical times, the traces 
 of former habitations, and some of them still bearing the names of the old 
 towns. Among the mountainous parts of Crete, in ^Egina and Rhodes, in 
 portions of Mount Ida and Mount Parnassus, similar remnants might be per- 
 ceived. Probably in such primitive hill villages a continuous circle of wall 
 would hardly be required as an additional means of defence, and would often 
 be rendered very difficult by the rugged nature of the ground." 
 
 It is in such regions as the latter, that remains similar to 
 those on Cam Goch should be sought, and thence should com- 
 parative illustrations of their age and authors be drawn. They
 
 ON CARN GOCH, CAERMARTHENSHIRE. 5 
 
 may truly be called wrecks of older structures, reared in those 
 dim and remote eras, into the secrets of which we long to pene- 
 trate; for 
 
 " Cold is all history, and lifeless all imagery, compared to that which the 
 living nation writes, and the uncorrupted marble bears. How many pages 
 of doubtful record might we not often spare for a few stones left one upon 
 another. The ambition of the old Babel builders was well directed for this 
 world. There are but two strong conquerors of the forgetfulness of men 
 poetry and architecture ; and the latter in some sort includes the fonner, and 
 is mightier in its reality. It is well to have not only what men have thought 
 and felt, but what their hands have handled, and their strength wrought, and 
 their eyes beheld all the days of their life." 
 
 Wilson, after quoting this eloquent passage from Ruskin's 
 Seven Lamps, adds, 
 
 " The Scottish Catherthun is no Athenian Acropolis, and our monolithic 
 temples, though not ineloquent memorials of their builders, must rank with 
 the primeval structures of Greece, and not with her Parthenon or Colouna. 
 But our aboriginal strongholds, although of a sufficiently rude and primitive 
 character, must not be overlooked in reviewing those conquerors of the forget- 
 fulness of men." 
 
 Cam Goch is a detached mountain on the left bank of the 
 Towy, which commands a striking and extensive view of the 
 course of that river. The spectator, looking down, sees the 
 bold promontory of Dynevor, the graceful coronet of Grongar, 
 and many a distant hill. The summit of this detached moun- 
 tain is crowned with the ruins of an immense fortress, which 
 nothing but a strong effort of concentrated power could have 
 constructed. It is formed of two distinct camps, surrounded 
 by masses of stones, which, at the present day, show no signs 
 that they were built up into regular walls, and nothing but an 
 investigation of their foundations will enable us to come to any 
 satisfactory conclusion respecting their original formation. 
 
 The larger enclosure has a wall, such as before described, 
 about half a mile, or perhaps more, in circumference. In the 
 centre of this enclosure, there is a plashy pool usually full of 
 water, and whence the occupiers of the fort could be plenti- 
 fully supplied. At the lower end of this pool appear ruined
 
 6 ON CARN GOCH, CAERMARTHENSHIRE. 
 
 heaps of stones, which have all the appearance of having once 
 served as the foundations of buildings. 
 
 The great mass of stones is within the greater enclosure, 
 and might have served as its citadel. The name of Cam 
 Goch is evidently derived from this elevation, which, when 
 seen from various points, assumes a pyramidical form. The 
 side of the fortress facing the Black Mountain is abrupt and 
 precipitous in most parts, and looks down upon a large space 
 of ground, which has all the appearance of having been once 
 covered with buildings, under the immediate protection of the 
 fortress, as the masses of stones, which encumber the whole 
 ground, present indications of ruined foundations. In the 
 centre of this ground appears a round stone earn, which does 
 not appear to have ever been violated, and, consequently, de- 
 serves examination. In the face of the greater fortress which 
 looks to the lesser, there is a spacious entrance or gateway, 
 flanked by enormous masses which might have once been 
 towers. The rock which forms the basement of this entrance, 
 bears marks of great traffic, and is in parts deeply rutted. At 
 the opposite extremity is a corresponding entrance, from which 
 may be traced a well-defined ancient trackway leading up the 
 river. 
 
 The lesser enclosure, which served as an outpost to the 
 greater, and is also commanded by it, is not to be compared 
 to its principal, although in itself a work of great labour and 
 strength. To be duly appreciated, the remains should be sur- 
 veyed and planned by a military engineer of competent skill; and 
 I see no reason why the barracks of Caermarthen or Brecon 
 might not furnish such a person, well qualified for such a work. 
 The distance from Brecon is about thirty, from Caermarthen 
 about seventeen, miles. 
 
 General Roy, the great military authority in the North, be- 
 stowed no small care and attention upon a similar work in 
 Strathmore, the construction and details of which will be best 
 understood by a reference to the plans and sections in the 
 General's Military Antiquities. It is also engraved and de-
 
 ON CARN GOCH, CAERMARTHENSHIRE. 7 
 
 scribed by King in his Munimenta Antiqua, and by Pennant, 
 in his Tour through Scotland; while Cam Goch has been 
 unnoticed alike by antiquarians and tourists. Mr. Wilson, in 
 reference to Catherthun, thus writes : 
 
 " But the most remarkable British fort to the north of the Tweed, if not, 
 indeed, of the whole island, is that which crowns the summit of Catherthun, 
 looking across the valley of Strathmore. It is an elaborate, skilfully con- 
 structed stronghold, which must have formed a place of great strength, when 
 held by a hardy and well-armed native garrison. It is an oval form, enclosing 
 an inner area of 436 feet in length, by 200 feet iii breadth. But this con- 
 stitutes only what may be regarded as the citadel. Beyond it, a succession 
 of ramparts and ditches surrounds the height at lower elevations, including a 
 much larger area, and affording scope for a more numerous body of defenders. 
 The hollow is still visible, though now nearly filled up, which was once the 
 well of the fort ; and probably this strength was maintained as a rendezvous 
 and place of temporary retreat for the entire population of the surrounding 
 districts. These military works have been constructed with immense labour. 
 The astonishing dimensions of the ramparts, composed of an accumulation of 
 loose stones, upwards of a hundred feet thick at the base, and fully twenty-five 
 thick at the top, excite surprise and wonder in the mind of every observer." 
 
 General Roy remarks, after a careful survey of it : 
 
 " The vast labour it must have cost to amass so incredible a quantity of 
 stones, and carry them to such a height, surpasses all description." 
 
 I boldly affirm that what General Roy has thus expressed 
 respecting the British stronghold in Scotland, is equally appli- 
 cable to the cognate fortress in Stratywy. 
 
 They both belong to a prehistoric period, and are, as I be- 
 lieve, contemporary with the megalithic structures which are 
 to be found in their vicinity. Triliths, on a small scale, are 
 still visible .on Cam Goch. But conquerors of time, as these 
 ancient structures are, have they no moral lessons committed 
 to their trust, no religious feelings to suggest? 
 
 If the construction of the stone hammer, the flint knife, of 
 the bow and arrow, and other weapons offensive and defensive, 
 is generally accepted as the earliest evidence afforded by man 
 of his superiority, in his most helpless state, to the beasts 
 over whom he thus exercises dominion, must we not neces- 
 sarily infer that works of this magnitude, evidently constructed
 
 8 ON CARN GOCH, CAERMARTHENSHIRE. 
 
 for defensive rather than offensive purposes, must have ori- 
 ginated among people who had as strong convictions as we 
 have, that social union depends for its support upon some 
 compact, expressed or understood, for the establishment of a 
 system of mutual defence, whether the disturbers be refractory 
 and disorderly members of the community, such as are to be 
 found in all new settlements, or foreign aggressors from with- 
 out ? .All such constructions speak of families and homes, of 
 social union, political ties, and of religious duties ; and it may 
 be safely affirmed that the communities which made Carn 
 Goch and Catherthun their strongholds, were as superior to 
 those tribes whom Julius Caesar found in the vicinity of the 
 Thames, and who made fallen timber and woody intricacies 
 their cities of refuge, as the respective materials used by both 
 parties differed in facility of original construction, and in dura- 
 bility when constructed. 
 
 Perhaps I may also suggest another line of thought, along 
 which my own mind willingly travels, and compels me to con- 
 trast the monuments of Assyrian and Egyptian antiquities, 
 full of foul shapes and monstrous figments, devoted to idola- 
 trous and God-degrading inventions, with our own megalithic 
 structures and gigantic cairns, from which no material proofs 
 have been extracted, that their builders had ever fallen into 
 the practical errors of the great historical nations of the 
 Eastern world, or ever changed the glory of the incorruptible 
 God into an image made like unto corruptible man, and to 
 birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. 
 
 And we, the nation who are supposed to have the strongest 
 claim to be regarded as the lineal descendants of those ancient 
 workmen who erected, in the northern parts of the island, such 
 structures as the stones of Stenuis and the Catherthuns, and 
 in the southern, Stonehenge and Carn Goch, not to mention 
 the Hirvaens, cromlech, and rocking-stones common to both 
 parts, have been specially favoured by Providence, inasmuch 
 as we have been privileged to conserve as a living tongue that 
 language with^ which those same ancestors used to describe not
 
 ON CARN GOCH, CAERMARTHENSHIRE. 9 
 
 only what they thought and felt, but also to name what their 
 hands wrought and their eyes perceived. 
 
 To solve this problem to apply this still living tongue to 
 the still existing memorials of the past, and to bring them 
 into mutual harmony, and from this harmony to elicit many 
 new phases of important truths is the especial province of the 
 Cymro. The materials are daily accumulating for enabling us 
 safely to reconstruct the edifice of historical truth respecting 
 the origin of man, and the descent of nations. 
 
 I myself have laboured diligently, if hitherto not success- 
 fully, in this field, as far as it is known to the public ; but lately 
 new links have been discovered ; and, as I trust, no long time 
 will now elapse before I shall be enabled to connect the present 
 with the past, and make patent to all who are not blinded by 
 invincible prejudices, the great truths which may be extracted 
 from the careful investigation of the remains, monumental, 
 traditionary, and literary, of the ancient race of the Cymry. 
 
 So much for the present respecting the structures which are 
 still visible on the detached and isolated mountain of the pre- 
 historical Cam Goch.
 
 ON THE EARLY INTERCOURSE BETWEEN THE 
 
 EASTERN AND WESTERN WORLD, 
 
 AND ON CELTIC COINS. 
 
 IN addition to the prehistorical evidence derivable from philo- 
 logical and archaeological studies in support of the common 
 unity of the great Indo-European family, which, from some 
 spot in central Asia, sent forth colonies eastward and west- 
 ward, so as finally to people the vast territories whose inhabit- 
 ants still speak dialects of the Indo-European language, and 
 are classed together by ethnologists as branches of one great 
 division of mankind, the time has come for reopening the 
 question, whether there does not still exist much evidence of 
 a pure historical character to show, for example, that the an- 
 cient nations which occupied the shores of the Mediterranean 
 held in remote periods constant intercourse with the people 
 who dwelt on the shores of the Atlantic, north of the Pillars 
 of Hercules, and with the primitive population of the British 
 Isles ? If this be shown clearly, it may serve to remove some 
 of the difficulties which general readers feel, when called upon 
 to believe that the Ancient Britons had participated in all the 
 knowledge which was the traditionary inheritance of the 
 patriarchal ages in the least corrupted periods. 
 
 To omit entirely for the present, investigations respecting 
 the long voyages of the Phoenicians in ante-Homeric periods, 
 and all reference to the intercourse subsisting between Tyre 
 and Tarshish in the days of Solomon, I shall confine myself 
 to those notices derivable from ancient authors which refer to 
 a commerce between the Mediterranean and the countries in 
 and adjacent to the external ocean. 
 
 That Homer believed in the possibility of long voyages is 
 evident from the fact that he ascribed to Menelaus an absence
 
 12 EARLY INTERCOURSE BETWEEN THE 
 
 of eight years from his home, while he was employed in mer- 
 cantile wanderings in Eastern seas ; and the ancient geographer 
 Strabo had no doubt that the poet meant to insinuate that 
 Ulysses had passed the straits, and entered the broad Atlan- 
 tic, in his wanderings far west into the regions of gloom and 
 Cimmerian darkness. The seas are described by him as open to 
 merchants in every direction, who, nevertheless, were liable to 
 be assailed by pirates ; but the very existence of pirates proves 
 that there also existed a commercial navy, their proper prey. 
 The tin and amber, so copiously mentioned in the Homeric 
 poems as objects in common use, and which could be derived 
 solely from the British Isles and the North Atlantic Ocean, tes- 
 tify that intercourse with them must have existed. 
 
 The dark cloud which fell suddenly upon the Grecian world, 
 owing either to the conquest of the more civilized communi- 
 ties of the South by the barbarous warriors of the North, or 
 to some other cause to us unknown, renders all transactions 
 during its continuance obscure ; but it is quite evident that 
 the post-Homeric Hellenes were long before they resumed 
 commercial and naval enterprises on a grand scale. 
 
 According to Herodotus, the Phocseans of Ionia were the 
 first to awake from their slumbers. " These Phoca?ans," says 
 he, 1 " were the first people of the Hellenes who performed long 
 voyages, and these are they who discovered the Adriatic Sea, 
 Tursenia, Iberia, and Tartessus ; and they made their voyages, 
 not in merchant vessels, but in war galleys. Now, when they 
 arrived at Tartessus, they were hospitably received -by the 
 King of the Tartessians, whose name was Arganthonius. He 
 reigned over Tartessus for eighty years, and lived one hundred 
 and twenty. The Phocaeans became such favourites with this 
 man, that, in the first place, he desired them to leave Ionia, and 
 to settle in whatever part of his territory they might choose. In 
 the second place, when he failed to persuade them to do this, 
 on hearing how the power of the Mede was increasing in their 
 vicinity, he presented them with money to fortify their city, 
 
 1 Lib. i. cap. 16.
 
 EASTERN AND WESTERN WORLD. 13 
 
 and he gave it unsparingly ; for the circuit of their wall is 
 many stadii, and the whole is formed of large stones well fitted 
 together." 
 
 Unfortunately, Herodotus forgot to specify the time when 
 these Phocaeans first made known to the Hellenes the exist- 
 ence of Tartessus, with its monarch and great wealth. We 
 know from sufficient authority, that they founded their first 
 settlement at Massilia, on the coast of Gaul, in the year B.C. 
 600 ; and that a Samian vessel, of which Colaeus was master, 
 had been carried by a tempest to Tartessus, whence she re- 
 turned with a cargo sufficiently valuable to enrich both captain 
 and crew. This was before Christ at least 638, as will be shown 
 hereafter ; consequently we must allow the Phocsean supremacy 
 in the Western Mediterranean, and a free intercourse between 
 Ionia, to have continued for at least some considerable period, 
 until it was finally crushed by the united naval forces of 
 Etruria and Carthage, to whose commerce these intruders, 
 half merchants and half pirates, had proved very destructive. 
 But the interval was long enough to have made the enter- 
 prising Phoca3ans and friendly Tartessians perfectly acquainted 
 with each other, and conversant with all the knowledge mu- 
 tually to be derived from their intercommunications. 
 
 There can be no doubt that the subjects of Arganthonius 
 were the colonies of early Phoenicia, who were totally inde- 
 pendent of Carthage, and were a rich, prosperous, and enlight- 
 ened race of men. Their chief city, the river on whose banks 
 it was built, as well as the adjacent territory, were all called 
 Tartessus, being the emporium with which the fleet of Solomon 
 traded, and whence the Sidonians procured that tin, without 
 which they could not have manufactured that bronze which, 
 from the earliest period, was so largely made and so widely 
 diffused by Sidon, " abounding in bronze." 
 
 The earliest specific notice of any intercourse between the 
 historic Hellenes and these flourishing colonies of the ancient 
 Phoenicians, is to be found in the fourth book of Herodotus, 
 where he describes the colonization of Gyrene by the The-
 
 1.4 EARLY INTERCOURSE BETWEEN THE 
 
 racans. This event took place at least 638 years B.C. As a 
 preparatory step, they had sent a vessel to reconnoitre the coast, 
 and, having discovered the island Platea, took possession of it, 
 and left their pilot to occupy it until their return. They sup- 
 plied him with provisions adequate to his use for a certain time. 
 " But," writes Herodotus, " when they continued absent be- 
 yond the appointed time, the whole store of Corcebus (the 
 pilot) was consumed ; but then a Samian ship, whose owner 
 was Cola3us, on her voyage to Egypt, touched at this island 
 Platea, and the Sanrians, after hearing his story from Corcebus, 
 leave with him a year's provision, and, setting sail from the 
 island with a wish to reach Egypt, were carried from their 
 course by an east wind ; and as the gale continued to blow, 
 they passed through the Heraclean Pillars, and, under divine 
 guidance, arrived at Tartessus. But at this period that em- 
 porium was unplundered. So that, these men, having returned 
 safe, were the greatest gainers from their cargo of all the 
 Hellenes of whom we have any accurate knowledge." From 
 the tenth of their profits they dedicated a magnificent bronze 
 cauldron to their patron goddess, Hera, which, with its three 
 colossal supporters, also of bronze and seven cubits tall, re- 
 mained till the time of Herodotus, a lasting memorial of their 
 prosperous visit to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. 
 
 There cannot be much doubt that the cargo of the Samian 
 vessel which made this fortunate voyage, consisted principally 
 of the amber of the north-western shores of Europe, of the 
 tin of Great Britain, and of the silver produce of the Spanish 
 mines ; for Tartessus was the great emporium of all these 
 highly valued materials. It is not possible to admit that, at 
 this early period, when most of central Europe was as yet 
 unsubdued by man, the trade between Great Britain and the 
 Eastern world could have been carried across the Continent 
 by land carriage ; it must have been maintained by long sea 
 voyages, both in the Mediterranean Sea and the North-western 
 Ocean. A country must be partially reclaimed, its marshes 
 must be drained, its forests cleared, and its lands be occupied
 
 EASTERN AND WESTERN WORLD. 15 
 
 by a people comparatively civilized, before a prosperous com- 
 merce can be carried on by land conveyance. Even the traffic 
 by sea, such as existed from the earliest ages between the 
 Sidonians and Great Britain, was liable to interruption should 
 the western portion of the Mediterranean be occupied by any 
 naval power, whose leaders might be induced to covet the 
 monopoly of such a gainful commerce, and had at their com- 
 mand the means of enforcing an exclusive policy. 
 
 The fact that the Phocaeans of Ionia had to force their way 
 in their war galleys before they could reach Tartessus, and 
 procure in exchange for their own cargo, the precious freight 
 which could be obtained in its market alone, proves that some 
 naval power had previously excluded the rest of the world from 
 the navigation of the straits and of the Western Ocean. This 
 power must have been exercised by Carthage and her depend- 
 ent states, backed by the support of her mother city, Tyre, 
 which at that period was at the very summit of its prosperity. 
 
 That Phocsea long profited by her daring enterprise, and 
 increased in wealth and power, we are expressly informed. 
 But the invasion and conquest of Ionia by the armies of the 
 victorious Cyrus, gave a fatal blow to her prosperity; and 
 although a portion of her citizens abandoned their native land, 
 and sought a new home in the Western Mediterranean, yet in 
 their isolated state, beset by enemies from both the African 
 and European shores, they were, after a piratical and turbulent 
 existence, forced to succumb to the united assaults of the Tur- 
 senians and Carthaginians. 
 
 The few survivors, after various adventures, finally found 
 rest and a home in Massilia, where in the days of her supre- 
 macy the parent city had founded a colony B.C. 600. Had not 
 the intervention of Cyrus and his Eastern hordes devastated 
 Western Asia, and enfeebled the Ionian states, it appears 
 very probable that Phocsea and her sister states might have 
 succeeded not only in establishing a lasting intercourse between 
 themselves and Tartessus, but also in finally extending their 
 visits to those shores, where the tin and amber were alone to
 
 1C EARLY INTERCOURSE BETWEEN THE 
 
 be found. But it was not to be so. Their defeat restored 
 the keys of the Mediterranean to the monopolizing power, 
 and consigned the Atlantic Ocean, with its shores and islands, 
 to a darkness and obscurity which hung over them for another 
 five hundred years. 
 
 I have no means of ascertaining the exact date when Corsica 
 was abandoned by the Phocaeans, and the Western Mediterra- 
 nean was restored to the power of the Carthaginians and their 
 allies. According to Fynes Clinton, the great disaster of the 
 Phocseans in the naval battle between them and the Cartha- 
 ginians and Etrurians, and .their subsequent abandonment of 
 Corsica, took place in the year B.C. 532, which he regards as 
 being the last of the forty-four years during which the Pho- 
 caeans were reported to have held the supremacy of the seas. 
 Whatever the precise date of this fatal defeat may have been, 
 a whole generation could not certainly have passed away before 
 a treaty was concluded between the Carthaginians and the 
 Romans, which throws a flood of light on this obscure period 
 of Western history. 
 
 This treaty, a precious document, which Polybius rescued 
 from its obscurity in the Capitoline Temple, and introduced 
 into the third volume of his history, was concluded B.C 509, 
 between Carthage and Rome. It was written in a dialect 
 which differed so much from the Latin spoken in the days of 
 Polybius, that the very best scholars could with difficulty, after 
 patient attention, ascertain the meaning of some passages in it. 
 I wish Polybius had given us a literal transcript of the docu- 
 ment, which would, I believe, have shown a close connection 
 between that primitive state of the Roman language and the 
 oldest existing specimen of the Irish tongue. By this treaty 
 the Romans were forbidden to sail beyond the fair promontory, 
 and bound to abstain from all communication other than casual 
 with any part of Lybia or Sardinia. In Sicily, where the Car- 
 thaginians were already partially established, the merchants of 
 both nations were to have equal privileges. In the year B.C. 
 348, after a lapse of 161 years, another treaty was drawn up,
 
 EASTERN AND WESTERN WORLD. 17 
 
 which I here copy at length : " Let there be friendship 
 between the Romans and their confederates on one part, and 
 the communities of the Carthaginians, Tyrians, and Uticans, 
 and their confederates, on the other. Let not the Romans 
 take booty from any place beyond the fair promontory, Mastia, 
 and Tarseium, nor trade there, nor found a city. And should 
 the Carthaginians capture any city not being subject to the 
 Romans, let them keep the inhabitants and their goods, but 
 restore the city. But should any Carthaginians capture any 
 persons connected with the Romans by a written treaty, yet 
 not subject to them, let them not bring them into any Roman 
 ports ; but should such a captive be brought thither, let the 
 Roman governor seize and liberate him, and let the same 
 regulations be observed by the Romans . . . . . Let 
 no Roman trade in Sardinia or Lybia, nor found a city there, 
 nor touch there, except to procure provisions, or to repair their 
 vessel. Should a storm drive them thither, let them sail away 
 in five days. In that part of Sicily which the Carthaginians 
 rule, as well as at Carthage, let the Roman act and sell all 
 things with rights and privileges equal to a citizen. Let the 
 Carthaginian have the same privileges at Rome." 
 
 It will be observed, that in the first treaty B.C. 509, the 
 Carthaginians alone are mentioned, while in the second treaty 
 the states of Tyre and Utica are included. The reason seems 
 to be this : Tyre had been captured by Nebuchadnezzar and 
 his Chaldseans in the year B.C. 585, and was, according to the 
 prophecy of Isaiah, to continue in great depression for seventy 
 years. (See Isaiah xxviii.) These seventy years were to end 
 B.C. 515, only six years before the time when the first treaty 
 was concluded. Owing to the capture of the city, and during 
 the long-continued depression, the Tyrians must have ceased 
 to exercise not only authority but even influence over Carthage, 
 which, being left independent, easily acquired the supremacy 
 over all the Phrenician settlements in Lybia and the islands 
 of the Mediterranean. But Tyre had recovered her prosperity, 
 and at the conclusion of the second treaty, only eighteen years 
 
 3
 
 18 EARLY INTERCOURSE BETWEEN THE 
 
 before its capture by Alexander the Macedonian, was once 
 more in close alliance with her powerful colony, which pro- 
 bably, from the influence of her mother city, had been brought 
 to respect the independence of the Sidonian TJtica. The two 
 treaties preserved by Polybius throw more light upon the true 
 condition of the two states at the given periods than can be 
 derived from all the declamation of Livy. Even commercial 
 cities had no respect for foreigners or their property, except 
 they were connected with them by written treaties, which we 
 may safely infer were as common at that early period among the 
 Western nations as they now are. They traded on the same 
 principle as Egypt in ancient, and China and Japan in modern, 
 times. Foreigners could only hold intercourse at certain fixed 
 marts. Thus, Rome could not trade with any portion of Lybia 
 or Sardinia, of which Carthage alone was the emporium. There, 
 however, the Romans had ample privileges. The same was 
 the case with the Carthaginians, who had free trade with Rome 
 alone, but with no other portion of Italy. And, to anticipate 
 matters, I may say that the same principle prevailed in Great 
 Britain, both at the same and at earlier and later periods. The 
 island Mictis or Ictis, as described by Diodorus, was evidently 
 the one emporium whence the produce of the Damnonian 
 mines could be legally exported. I have no doubt that the 
 clause which forbad the Romans to sail beyond the fair pro- 
 montory was inserted to prevent them from frequenting in 
 their ships the most western portion of the Mediterranean, and 
 the vicinity of the straits. The cities mentioned in the second 
 treaty have left in ancient records no vestige of their existence; 
 we only know that they could not have been in any part of 
 Lybia, as every portion of it is described in both treaties as 
 ground forbidden to the Romans. 
 
 But here perhaps, as connected with information not imme- 
 diately derivable from Hellenic or other Oriental sources, is 
 the proper place to introduce the result of the inquiries of the 
 historian Sallust, as drawn from the books of native Lybian 
 writers which had once been the property of King Hiemsal,
 
 EASTERN AND WESTERN WORLD. 19 
 
 and which were interpreted for the use of the great historian, 
 who for the space of three years had been proconsul of Africa. 
 
 According to these Lybian authorities, Hercules had led 
 westwards, as far as Spain, a mighty army, formed of various 
 Eastern nations, and had perished there; that a portion of 
 his troops consisting of Medes, Persians, and Armenians, had 
 crossed over from Spain into Africa, where, by coalescing with 
 the Lybians, they formed new nations. The Medes were par- 
 tially the parents of the Mauri, and the Persians of the Numi- 
 dians. Sallust has not condescended to give us any explana- 
 tion of the cause and origin of this singular notion. If it was a 
 living tradition, it could have originated only in fact; if it was 
 a suggestion of a later date, it must have arisen from some 
 peculiarities common to the Moors and Numidians, and their 
 supposed progenitors the Medes, Armenians, and Persians. 
 All these ancient nations of the East spoke the Indo-European 
 language, whence it may reasonably be suspected that their de- 
 scendants spoke a language which did not radically differ from 
 those of their supposed progenitors. If we could credit the 
 native authors, the death of Hercules in Spain, and the disper- 
 sion of his army, preceded the first advent of the Phoenicians 
 in Lybia. For Sallust proceeds to say, " After this, Phoeni- 
 cians some for the sake of removing their surplus population, 
 others from the love of military sway excited the commonalty, 
 and other people desirous of change, went forth and founded 
 Hippo, Hadruinetum, Leptis, and other cities. These, in a short 
 time, prospered greatly, and were partly a protecting outpost, 
 partly an honour, to their mother towns." He then mentions 
 Carthage, but only to close the subject. 
 
 In another place Sallust writes that Leptis was founded by 
 the Sidonians, who, banished during civil disturbances, had 
 reached in their ships the site of the town situated between 
 the two Syrtes. He adds, "The language of the citizens 
 was changed owing to their intermarriage with the Numi- 
 dians. Their laws and habits are principally Sidonian ; and 
 these they more easily retained, because they dwelt far from
 
 20 EARLY INTERCOURSE BETWEEN THE 
 
 the King's capital." The Numidians, if we can infer a general 
 conclusion from the example of the reigning families, were a 
 very able and highly civilized people, with whom the Phoeni- 
 cians easily coalesced ; they seem to have resembled in many 
 points the Persian race, both in ancient and modern times, 
 and with which tradition had early connected them. Utica, 
 which the treaty mentions as an independent state, was a much 
 older Phoenician settlement than Carthage, and was colonized, 
 as well as Leptis, when Sidon, and not Tyre, exercised the 
 supreme power of Phoenicia. Its inhabitants never amalga- 
 mated freely with the later Tyrian colony ; and their sudden 
 desertion of Carthage in the hour of her greatest need, during 
 the war against the Mercenaries, the ferocious massacre of the 
 Carthaginian soldiers arid citizens, and their close union with 
 the deadly enemies of Carthage, seem to indicate a state of 
 feeling which can be best explained by the supposition, that 
 among other causes of mutual enmity, race antipathy exercised 
 no slight influence. 
 
 The expulsion of the Kings from Rome, followed close by 
 the subjugation of the Romans by the Tuscans, left Carthage 
 sole mistress of the Western Mediterranean, and opened a 
 wider field for her active operations. In the year B.C. 480, 
 she commenced the war against the Hellenic colonists in 
 Sicily, especially the Syracusans and their allies. In the 
 course of the same century, probably about the year B.C. 450, 
 she sent forth, under a commander of the name of Ilanno, a 
 powerful fleet, with orders to plant colonies on the oceanic 
 shores of the countries now called Fez and Morocco, and to 
 explore the coast of Western Africa, as far as it could be safely 
 done. The expedition, of which there is still extant a brief of- 
 ficial account in a Greek form, was successful in its main object, 
 and founded six cities on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, 
 among which were distributed no fewer than thirty thousand 
 Lybi-Phcenician colonists. At the same time, another expe- 
 dition was sent forth under Himilco, with orders to explore 
 the North-Western Ocean, with its shores and islands. This
 
 EASTERN AND WESTERN WORLD. 21 
 
 was evidently the first visit of the Carthaginians to the British 
 Islands and the adjacent seas. The official account of this 
 voyage is not now extant ; but fragments of it have been pre- 
 served in an obscure poem entitled Ora Maritima, written 
 with the expressed intention to describe all the maritime coasts 
 of the known world. The author, Festus Avienus, who lived 
 under Constantine the Great, was rude in his style, and, as 
 remarked by Professor Heeren, who was the first to draw public 
 attention to the important materials preserved in his clumsy 
 compilation, does not appear to have perfectly comprehended 
 the various descriptions which he copied from the original au- 
 thors. Among others whom he enumerates among his authori- 
 ties, appear the ancient Ionian writers, HecataBus of Miletus, 
 and Hellanicus of Lesbos, whose works are no longer extant, 
 and also the Punic Himilco, to whom he thus alludes 1 : 
 
 " All these particulars respecting the Ocean Hiinilco of old, reported that 
 he had himself seen and experienced. The same drawn by me from the inmost 
 annals of the Punic people, I have after a long time declared to you." 1 
 
 He tells us that he had himself seen the south of Spain, and 
 examined the ruins of its once flourishing capital where he had 
 seen nothing worthy of notice except the annual feast of Hercules. 
 In another poem, called Orbis Terra Descriptio, Festus gives 
 this important description of the capital : 
 
 Gadir prima fretum solida super eminet Arce 
 Atollitque caput geminis inserta columnis 
 Msec Cotinussa prius fuerat sub nomine prisco 
 Tartessumque dehiuc Tyrii dixere coloni 
 Barbara quinetian Gades hanc lingua frequentat 
 Posnus quippe locum Gadir vocat undique Septum 
 Aggere preeducto Tyrii per iuhospita late, 
 ^quora provecti tenuere ut Cespitis oram 
 Constituere domus danit hi quoque maxima templa 
 Amphitryonidffi numenque verentur alumnum. 
 
 1 Avieni ora maritimi 
 Hsec olim Himilco Poenus oceano super 
 Spectasse semet et probasse retulit 
 Hrec nos ab imis Punicorum annalibus 
 Prolata longo tempore eclidimus tibi
 
 22 EARLY INERCOURSE BETWEEN THE 
 
 Tlie first name will remind the scholar of the legend which 
 described the Grecian Hercules as having visited this region, 
 and having thence transplanted the Cotinus, or wild olive, to the 
 banks of the Peneius, that it might furninsh the green garland 
 of the future victors at the Olympic games. The second name, 
 Tartessus, is ascribed to the Phoenicians, the founders of the 
 city, and builders of the temple in honour of the god, their 
 foster child, that is, of course, theTyrian or Sidonian Hercules, 
 their national deity, whom, however, Avienus scruples not to 
 confound with the Theban-born son of Amphitryon, the Grecian 
 hero. But the Phoenician name Tartessus disappeared, and 
 the same city was called Gadir by the Poeni, or Carthaginians, 
 in whose language the word means a fortress. The change of 
 name is a certain proof that the Carthaginians had made war 
 upon the Phoenician colonies in the south of Spain, and in the 
 interval between the final defeat of the Phocasans and the ex- 
 pedition of Himilco had assailed, captured, and renamed the 
 island capital, which commanded the straits and opened the 
 Western Ocean with all it contained to their further enterprise. 
 Herodotus had evidently heard that Tartessus had been over- 
 taken by this great calamity when he briefly stated, in recounting 
 the story of the Samian vessel which had visited that emporium 
 some time B.C. 638, that " Tartessus was as yet axvjparov, that 
 is, unplundered." The new name imposed upon the island 
 fortress would alone suffice to indicate the conquerors and 
 plunderers of Tartessus, were we even without a knowledge of 
 the internecine ferocity with which the cities of the Phoenician 
 colonists of Baetica were assaulted, plundered, and destroyed, 
 when their continental possessions were invaded and conquered 
 for a time by the veteran legions of Carthage, successively led 
 to the charge by the skilful generals Haniilcar, Hasdrubal, and 
 Hannibal. 
 
 Tartessus must, therefore, have fallen into the hands of the 
 Carthaginians, and with it the command of the Straits, before 
 they could have ventured to send these two magnificent expe- 
 ditions to explore the regions now accessible to their naval
 
 EASTERN AND WESTERN WORLD. 23 
 
 enterprise. Now, let us carefully study the interesting parti- 
 culars of a voyage of discovery sent forth more than two-and- 
 twenty hundred years ago to examine the British Islands, and 
 other ocean wonders. The following is a literal translation 
 from the poem of Avienus 1 : 
 
 " That you may have a plain intimation of this my toil and labour, I will 
 commence my narrative a little higher. Do you lay up my expressions in 
 your utmost memory, for the facts are credible, being sought for and drawn 
 out from their authors. 
 
 " The lands of our broad globe lie scattered, while again the wave rolls 
 round our globe ; but where the deep sea insinuates itself from the ocean, that 
 
 1 Ut aperte vero tibimet intimatio 
 Sudoris hujus et laboris sit mei 
 Narrationem opusculi paulo altius 
 Exordiemur. Tu in intimum fecur 
 Prolata conde. Namque fulcit ha?c fides 
 Petita longe et eruta ex auctoribus. 
 Terrse patentis orbis effusa? jacent 
 Orbique rursus unda circumfunditur 
 Sed qua profundum semet insinuat salum 
 Oceano ab usque ut gurges hie nostri maris 
 Longi explicetur, est Atlanticus sinus. 
 
 Hie Gadir urbs est, dicta Tartessus prior 
 
 Hie sunt Columnse pertinacis Herculis 
 
 Abila atque Calpe .... 
 
 Et prominentis hie jugi surgit caput 
 
 (Estrymnin istud clixit a3vum antiquius 
 
 Molesque celsa Saxei fastigii 
 
 Tola in tepentem maxime vergit Notum. 
 
 Sub hujus autem Prominentis vertice 
 
 Sinus dehiscit incolis oestrymnicus 
 
 In quo insulse se exserunt cestrymnides 
 
 Laxe jacentes et Metallo divites 
 
 Stanni atque Plumbi Multa vis hie gentis est 
 
 Superbus animus, efficax Solertia, 
 
 Negociandi cura jugis omnibus 
 
 Notisque cumbis turbidum late fretum 
 
 Et Beluosi gurgitem oceani secant 
 
 Non hi carinas quippe pinu texere 
 
 norunt, non abiete ut usus est 
 Curvant faselos sed rei ad miracula
 
 24 EARLY INTERCOURSE BETWEEN THE 
 
 the waters of our sea may freely expend themselves, is placed the Atlantic 
 Gulf. In it lies Gaddir, called Tartessus in former days. Here are the 
 Pillars of the persevering Hercules, Abila, and Calpe . . . here also is raised 
 the summit of a promontory. Ancient times named it (Estrymnis ; and the 
 lofty mass of its stony ridge slopes principally to the south ; below this pro- 
 montory the (Estrymnic Gulf gapes widely for the inhabitants ; and in this 
 gulf the islands (Estrymnides lie scattered. These are rich in mines of tin 
 and lead ; here dwells a numerous and powerful nation (multa bis gentis), of 
 haughty spirit and energetical skill ; all are continually engaged in mer- 
 chandising, and in their well-known boats plough both their own turbulent 
 straits, and the monster-producing ocean. These know not how to fashion 
 keels from the pine, nor do they build barks from fir-trees according to com- 
 mon practice ; but in a wonderful manner they always fit out their vessels 
 with skins joined together, and often, in hide-vessels sail over the vast deep. 
 From these islands a ship will, in two days, reach the island called sacred by 
 the ancients. This shows among the waves a spacious land ; and it is widely 
 cultivated by the nation of the Hiberni. Again, the island of the Albiones 
 expands itself in the vicinity. The Tartessians were accustomed to carry their 
 merchandise to the borders of the GSstrymnides. Also the colonies of Carthage, 
 and the communities dwelling within the Pillars of Hercules, used to frequent 
 these seas. Now, the Punic Himilco, as he himself reports his personal ex- 
 perience during the voyage, asserts that these seas (the distance between 
 Carthage and the tin islands) were with difficulty traversed by him in four 
 months, seeing that no breezes blowing fresh propel the vessel; but the 
 motionless waters of the large sea lie stagnant. He adds, also, that much 
 seaweed floats on the surface, so as often, like a thicket, to stop the ship ; he, 
 however, says that the sea is not deep, and that the bottom is scarcely covered 
 by the scanty waters ; that wild beasts (ferai) traverse the sea in every direc- 
 tion, and monsters (Belucc) swim among the slow and lazily creeping vessels." 
 
 Navigia junctis semper aptant pellibus 
 Corioque vastum semper percurrunt salum 
 Ast hinc duobus in sacram, sic insulam 
 Dixere Prisci, solibus cursus rati est 
 Ha3e inter undas multum cespitem jacit 
 Eamque late gens Hibernorum colit 
 Propinqua rursus Albionum patet. 
 Tartesiis in terminos cestrymnidum 
 Negociandi mos erat Carthaginis 
 Etiam colonis, et vulgus inter Herculis 
 Agitans columnis ha3e adibant sequora 
 Quae Himilco Poenus mensibus vix quatuor 
 Enavigantetn posse transmitti adserit
 
 EASTERN AND WESTERN WORLD. 25 
 
 All scholars acquainted with their works, must allow that the 
 ancient geographers, both Greek and Roman, had notions sin- 
 gularly confused with respect to the relative positions occupied 
 by the British Islands, and the Spanish peninsula and Southern 
 Gaul. They do not seem to be aware of the existence of the 
 Bay of Biscay, and supposed that Ireland was placed some- 
 where between Great Britain and Spain ; and Strabo, as well 
 as Avienus, would annex the tin islands to Spain rather than 
 Great Britain. These, whether called Cassiterides by the Hel- 
 lenic writers, or CEstrymnides by the Phoenician, or Sylinas by 
 the Roman, were undoubtedly the same group which is now 
 denominated the Scilly Isles. The position assigned to them 
 by Himilco, with respect to both Hibernia and Albion, fixes their 
 identity without a possibility of mistake, as Professor Heeren 
 justly observes. But whether the present appearance, number, 
 and extent of these islands, correspond with the description of 
 them left to us by ancient authors, is a question which need 
 scarcely be answered in the affirmative ; for the ocean is espe- 
 cially aggressive on those south-western coasts of Great Britain, 
 and islands adjacent ; and both tradition and physical pheno- 
 mena tend to show that the oceanic encroachments, both on the 
 peninsula and the Islands, have been extensive, and are still 
 unceasing. Moreover, it cannot be doubted that the main 
 supply of tin ore was drawn, not from the Scilly Islands, but 
 from Cornwall and Devonshire ; but, as all the prepared metal 
 was to be exported from only one emporium, the locality of the 
 
 Si nulla late flabra propellunt ratem 
 Sic segnis humor sequoris stupet 
 Adjicit et illud plurimum inter gurgites 
 Extare fucum et ssepe virgulti vice 
 Retinere puppin. Dicit hie nihilo minus 
 Non in profundum terga dimitti maris 
 Parvoque aquarum vix supertexi solum 
 Obire semper hue et illuc feras 
 Navigia lenta et languide repentia 
 Inter natare beluas.
 
 26 EARLY INTERCOURSE BETWEEN THE 
 
 various mines whence the ore was extracted was a matter of 
 comparative indifference to foreign merchants. 
 
 A great part of the above quotation from Avienus is evidently 
 a description of the one voyage of Himilco, who had to explore 
 his way among unknown waters amid summer calms and 
 smooth seas ; and we may be sure that the " Balaena Brit- 
 tanica " excited the wonder, if not the terror, of the Mediter- 
 ranean sailors, and that at that early period the British waters 
 were widely occupied by seals, sea-lions, white bears, and other 
 monsters of the deep, which are now known only as rare 
 visitors. 
 
 But, though the sea and its wild inmates were as yet unsub- 
 dued, yet man was there, with all the marks of civilization, 
 known to the early Noachidae ; he was a miner, a skilful me- 
 tallurgist, well versed, as will be shown hereafter, in philosophy 
 and mathematical science, and acquainted with that original 
 alphabet which the early Sidonians had carried with them to 
 all their distant colonies. The direct intercourse between 
 Tartessus and Phocsea must have continued unbroken for, at 
 least, more than a century, during the course of which, the 
 commercial spirit which animated the Britons seen by Himilco, 
 would prompt them to frequent the emporium of Tartessus, 
 where they would meet their Hellenic customers, and learn 
 from them what Hellenic civilization had added to the arts and 
 sciences which had been imported by their progenitors from 
 the East But at the time when the Phocaeans first traded 
 with Tartessus, the lonians had not much to communicate of 
 what was afterwards called Hellenic arts, science, and literature. 
 The lonians of the day had no literature, except that con- 
 nected with the Homeric poems ; no poet, not even a prose- 
 writer ; no historian, no philosopher. The only art peculiar to 
 the Hellenic race, and which all the various people dwelling on 
 the shores of the Mediterranean either neglected altogether or 
 borrowed from them, was the art of coining money ; and this 
 elegant and useful innovation was, according to my firm belief, 
 adopted by the Britons of this island in consequence of their
 
 EASTERN AND WESTERN WORLD. 27 
 
 becoming familiar with Hellenic coins during their direct in- 
 tercourse with Phocaean merchants. 
 
 It was during the same period that Hellenic merchants had 
 passed into Great Britain, visited the great national temple now 
 called Stonehenge, and the city inhabited by members of the 
 great Bardic Institute, which could have been no other than 
 the ancient " Saron," connected by name with one of the orders 
 whom the Hellenes called Saronidae. They would also see the 
 broad lands with which the Institute had been endowed, and 
 their various stone erections. Here also the Hellenes would 
 be reminded of the original connection between the worship- 
 pers in this great temple, and those of the same religion who 
 worshipped the same sun-god in his Delian and Lycian shrines, 
 at a time when Greece had not rejected her primeval and 
 purer creed, nor surrendered herself to the gross vanities of 
 idolatry and polytheism. They might also have talked of the 
 common origin of their ancestors, more Eastern than Phoenicia : 
 a fact faithfully recorded among the traditions of the Britons, 
 and which was distinctly preserved in the poem of Avienus, 
 who, after examining the Punic annals, confirms the account 
 given by Herodotus respecting their Eastern homes. His 
 words, when describing the maritime coast running parrallel 
 with Mount Libanus, are 
 
 Salso quiquicl pulsatur ab /Estu 
 Phoenician regio est hi rubro a gurgite quondam 
 Mutavere domus Priiuique per aequora vecti 
 Lustravere salum, primi docuere cavinis 
 Ferre cavis orbis coinmercia Sidera primi 
 Servavere Poli. 
 
 The fall of Tartessus must have much disturbed the maritime 
 commerce of Great Britain, and their kindred tribes in Gaul, 
 but did not paralyze it. Tin still continued to be produced in 
 sufficient quantities to compose the bronze vessels and weapons 
 for the use of the British Isles and the Northern continent of 
 Europe ; and tin, as well as amber, was after that event sup- 
 plied to the Spanish markets, as testified by Herodotus. The 
 people whom Hiuiilco found were a numerous and powerful
 
 28 EARLY INTERCOURSE BETWEEN THE 
 
 nation, haughty in spirit, and gifted with skilful energy, while 
 they were occupied continually in mercantile pursuits. His words 
 are exceedingly expressive : 
 
 Multa vis hie gentis est, 
 Superbus animus, efficax Solertia, 
 Negotiandi cura jugis omnibus. 
 
 The Carthaginians made no settlement in Great Britain, nor 
 on the coast of Gaul ; they merely occupied the place formerly 
 filled by the Tartessians. This is distinctly asserted by Avienus, 
 who says, 
 
 Tartesiis in terminos (Estrymnidum 
 Negociandi mos erat. Carthagiuis 
 Etiam Colonis. Et vulgus inter Herculis 
 Agitans Columnas hsec adibaut sequora. 
 
 Seeing that all these seas were known to the Carthaginians 
 as early as the tune of Himilco at least, the ignorance respect- 
 ing the same which prevailed among the Hellenes, the contem- 
 poraries of Herodotus, is marvellous and almost incredible. 
 It is necessary to present here his astounding confession 
 (book iii. cap. 115): 
 
 " But respecting the western extremities of Europe, I cannot speak with 
 accuracy, for I do not believe that any river which flows into the Northern Sea 
 is called by the barbarians Eridanus, from which report says that Electrum re- 
 gularly comes to us ; nor do I know that the Cassiterides, from which Cas- 
 siteros regularly comes to us, are islands. For, in the first place, the very 
 name Eridanus proves itself to be of Hellenic, not Barbaric origin, and to have 
 been the invention of a poet. In the second place, although making careful 
 inquiries, I cannot hear from an eyewitness that that further side of Europe 
 is at all a sea. But, however that may be, both Electrurn and Cassiteros do 
 come to us from that extremity of Europe." 
 
 So closely had been barred, after the defeat of the Phocaeans, 
 all access to the Western Ocean, and the nations occupying its 
 isles and shores. But assuredly one wise man, whose geogra- 
 phical work was before Festus Avienus, had received a true 
 account from some Ionian sailors, who, during the Phoca?an 
 supremacy in the Western Mediterranean, had frequented Tar- 
 tessus and its dependencies, and gained accurate information 
 respecting the same highly civilized nation whom Himilco had
 
 EASTERN AND WESTERN WORLD. 20 
 
 found and described. This was Hecataeus of Miletus, a wise 
 politician and grave author, who gave such a favourable de- 
 scription of a Northern island in the Western Ocean, that in 
 later times it was deemed a myth. Here follows the descrip- 
 tion of Hecatseus, as preserved in the second book of Diodorus 
 Siculus. It is in the second book of his mythological work : 
 
 " Now, after describing the parts of Asia lying northward, we think it not 
 inappropriate to narrate the mythological stories concerning the Hyperboreans. 
 Now, Hecataeus and some other authors of ancient mythology say, ' that in the 
 regions over against Celtica there is in the ocean an island not smaller than 
 Sicily ; that this island is situated below the constellation of the Bears, and that 
 it is inhabited by men called Hyperboreans, because they are placed beyond the 
 blast of Boreas ; they add, that the land being fertile, and producing everything 
 necessary, and enjoying a fine temperature, bears two crops in the year. Now, 
 they mythologically state that Latona was born there, and that on that account 
 Apollo is honoured by them above all other gods ; that among them there are 
 some men, priests as if it were of Apollo, and that, consequently, he is daily 
 and continuously hymned by them with lyric songs, and exceedingly honoured ; 
 that there is also in the island both a consecrated precinct of great magnificence, 
 and a temple of corresponding beauty, adorned with numerous dedicated gifts, 
 and in shape spherical ; that there is also a city sacred to the god, and greatly 
 magnify his deeds. They also state that the Hyperboreans have a peculiar 
 dialect, and are very kindly disposed to the Hellenes, and especially to the 
 Athenians and Delians, and that they have inherited this friendly feeling from 
 ancient times. They also say that some of the Hellenes have passed over to 
 the Hyperboreans, and have left thei-e precious dedicated gifts, bearing Hellenic 
 inscriptions ; that in the same manner Abaris, in a former age, had passed into 
 Hellas, and renewed with the Delians the bond of friendship and consanguinity. 
 They also say that the moon from this island appears to be not far distant from 
 the earth, and clearly shows certain earthy eminences. It is also said that 
 every nineteenth year the god descends into this island. Now, every nineteenth 
 year certain returns of the stars to fixed positions take place, and on this 
 account a period of nineteen years is called by the Hellenes the great year ; 
 that when the god makes his periodical appearance he both plays the harp 
 and dances during the night, from the vernal equinox to the rising of the 
 Pleiades, taking great delight in his own successful eiforts.' 
 
 " They also say that a family called Boreadae, descendants of Boreas, are 
 the kings of this city, and superintendents of the temple, and regularly succeed 
 each other by birthright." 
 
 A partial explanation of this most important fragment of 
 antiquity will be given in a subsequent essay.
 
 30 EARLY INTERCOURSE BETWEEN THE 
 
 But here it will be necessary to prove by direct evidence 
 that the Hyperboreans of Hecataeus were the ancient Britons 
 found by Himilco. Festns Avienus had before him the complete 
 works of Hecataeus and Hellanicus, and the official journal of 
 Himilco. Tin was supposed by the Hellenes in general to have 
 been derived in some considerable quantities from Spain, whither 
 probably it was only an importation from Britain. Avienus, 
 after describing the promontory of Spain sacred to Hercules 
 and Eratheia (the Sidonian name of the island on which Tar- 
 tessus was built) thus proceeds : 
 
 Genetrix haec ora metalli 
 Albentis stanni venas vomit acer Iberus 
 Haec freta veloci percurrit saepe Faselo, 
 Eminus hie aliae gelidi propre flabra Aquilonis 
 Exuperant undas et vasta cacuoiina tollunt 
 Hae numero geminae pingues sola cespitis amplae, 
 Conditur occidui qua Rhini gurgitis unda, 
 Dira Britannorum sustentant aginina terns. 
 
 Translated : 
 
 "This coast abounds in mines; it throws out veins of tin; the vigorous 
 Iberian often bounds over these surges in his swift boat. Here also, at some 
 distance, other islands near the blasts of the cold north wind, overtop the waves 
 and raise their lofty heads. These, two in number, rich in soil, having an 
 ample glebe, maintain on their land the formidable bands of the Britons." 
 
 Avienus thus describes the inhabitants of the British Islands 
 in terms probably quoted from Hecataeus, as rich in soil and 
 glebe, and yet dwelling near the cold blasts of Boreas: the very 
 terms which other Hellenic writers apply to the Hyperborean 
 people whom Himilco describes as powerful and energetic, en- 
 dowed with a proud spirit and practical wisdom, while all were 
 deeply engaged in commercial affairs. Himilco evidently came 
 in contact with the active maritime and mercantile part of the 
 community alone, whereas the Hellenic visitors from whom 
 Hecataeus drew his information had seen the court and all its 
 concomitants, the city, the great temple, the priesthood, with its 
 various classes of musicians, bards, and philosophers. It is not 
 probable that the Carthaginians settled any colonies, either in
 
 EASTERN AND WESTERN WORLD. 31 
 
 Great Britain or the adjacent coast of Gaul; they were probably 
 deterred by the distance and other obstacles, and were content 
 with securing to their new-named " Gaddir " the monopoly of 
 the oceanic trade. 
 
 The Carthaginians had probably long before taken and oc- 
 cupied the island Erutheia and its city Tartessus, but did not 
 attempt to make any colonial settlement in continental Spam 
 before the conclusion of the first Punic war, when, after having 
 terminated the struggle against the mutinous Mercenaries, 
 Hamilcar Barca invaded Spain with a powerful army, and laid 
 the foundation of the Carthaginian supremacy in the Peninsula, 
 which, however, was utterly overthrown at the termination of 
 the second Punic war ; so that there was no time to impress 
 any of the characteristics peculiar to the Carthaginians in op- 
 position to the more ancient Sidonians, upon the inhabitants of 
 Spain. Strabo, who expressly affirmed that the Phoenicians had, 
 even before the age of Homer, occupied the best parts both 
 of Lybia and Spain, confounds them with the Carthaginians, 
 who, under Hamilcar and his warlike successors, carried on an 
 internecine war against all the Spanish people. Of this war we 
 have only broken notices. Polybius tells us that Hamilcar 
 crossed over at the Pillars of Hercules, so that his first attacks 
 must have been directed from Gadir, against the continental 
 territories of the Tartessians. The historian gives us no parti- 
 culars respecting this unprovoked aggression ; he states, how- 
 ever, that after long-continued successes, he bravely fell in a 
 battle against " the most valiant and most powerful people " 
 in the Peninsula. Asdrubal followed the same career, and 
 with the same success. The spirit with which Hannibal car- 
 ried on the war may be collected from the narrative of Polybius, 
 who thus writes : " As soon as Hannibal received the command 
 of the army, he immediately prepared to subject Spain to the 
 Carthaginian power, and having marched to Althea, their most 
 important city, sat down before it. He then made effective 
 and terrific assaults, and quickly mastered the town. . When 
 this took place, the rest of the towns being panic-struck, surren-
 
 32 EARLY INTERCOURSE BETWEEN THE 
 
 dered to the Carthaginians. He then sold the cities and their 
 inhabitants, and having gained great sums of money, returned 
 to New Carthage. " " Thus also he served the great and 
 flourishing cities Arbocala, Salmantica, and Saguntum." 
 
 From these facts we may infer what treatment Tartessus and 
 its people received from previous conquerors. 
 
 Strabo, wishing to intimate the Iberian wealth, tells us that 
 the Carthaginians who served with Hamilcar Barca, found, as 
 historians narrate, that the people of Turditania had their 
 mangers and wine-casks made of solid silver. The very name 
 of Tartessus vanished, and more than one place was supposed 
 to occupy its site. Thus Strabo says : " The ancients seem to 
 have called the river Baetis, Tartessus, and Gadira, with its 
 adjacent island, Erutheia ; therefore, they suppose that Stesi- 
 chorus thus wrote about the herds of Geryon : " They were 
 produced in the land over against the famous Erutheia, among 
 sequestered rocks, by the boundless silver-rooted fountains of 
 the river Tartessus." They also say, that, as the river enters 
 the sea by two mouths, a city was formerly founded in the 
 intervening space, and that it, as well as the river, was called 
 Tartessus ; and that the country now possessed by the Turduli 
 was also called Tartessus; and Eratosthenes says, that the region 
 contiguous to Calpe was called Tartessus ; and that Erutheia 
 was a rich island. But some writers call the present Carteia, 
 Tartessus. So complete was the desolation caused by the victo- 
 rious Carthaginians among the most ancient Eastern colonists 
 in Spain. Yet, from the assumption that the ancient Sido- 
 nians and the Carthaginians were the same race, of similar 
 habits, and speaking a common language, Strabo did not hesi- 
 tate to write thus: " The Phoenicians, even before Homer's age, 
 occupied the best part both of Lybia and Spain, and continued 
 to be masters of those countries until the Romans put an end 
 to their supremacy." Again, in another passage where he sup- 
 poses that the Odyssey contained secret allusions to Spain and 
 her statistics, Strabo writes thus: "For the arrival of Heracles 
 and the Phoenicians in Spain suggested to him the wealth and
 
 EASTERN AND WESTERN WORLD. 33 
 
 luxury of the inhabitants. For those became so subject to the 
 Phoenicians that the majority of the cities in Turdetania and 
 the adjacent countries are still inhabited by them." 
 
 These Turdetani, originally Phoenicians, were not only a 
 wealthy and powerful race, but also comparatively enlightened 
 and civilized. For he says of them : " They call the country 
 Baetica from the river, and Turdetania from the inhabitants, 
 who are called Turdetani and Turduli." Some authors regard 
 them " as the same people, others that they are a different 
 race." Again, when he states that the Turdetani are now close 
 neighbours to the Turduli, he adds : 
 
 "But now there does not appear the slightest difference between them. 
 These are esteemed the wisest of the Iberians, and know the use of letters, and 
 they have ancient historical documents, and poerns, and metrical laws, con- 
 sisting of six thousand verses (iiriuv, not tntuv, the text as printed) ; and the 
 other Iberians know the use of letters, but these differ in form, for there is 
 among them more than one language." 
 
 The truth of this statement will be made manifest when we 
 come to the examination of the ancient Spanish coins. Here 
 it will be sufficient to observe, that if the Phoenicians who 
 colonized Spain in ante- Homeric times, and who, in Strabo's 
 time, formed the population of the great cities in Baetica, were 
 a Semitic race, their language must have belonged to the Ara- 
 maean type, and have deeply entered into the composition of 
 the modern Spanish dialects. But that is far from being the 
 case. The Latin language was, almost immediately after the 
 first conquest of Spain by the Romans, adopted by these ante- 
 Homeric Phoenician colonists, as is testified by Strabo, who 
 wrote from personal knowledge. He says : " The Turdetani, in 
 addition to the richness of their territory, had also a correspond- 
 ing civilization, and political institutions ; so had, also, the 
 Celtici, on account of their juxtaposition." Polybius says, on 
 account of their kinship, but the Celtici in a smaller degree, 
 for in general they live in villages. 
 
 " Moreover, the Turdetani, and especially those in the vale of the Baetis, 
 have completely adopted Roman modes of life ; they have forgotten even their 
 
 5
 
 34 EARLY INTERCOURSE BETWEEN THE 
 
 own peculiar dialect, and have become Latins for the most part, and had ad- 
 mitted Roman colonists, so that all have become almost Romans. The cities 
 which now are inhabited in common, such as Pax Augusta among the Celtici, 
 Augusta Emerita among the Celtici, and Caesar Augusta in the Celtiberian 
 country, and some other settlements, prove the change of their political con- 
 stitution before described; and all the Iberians who have adopted these forms 
 are called Togati. Among them are even the Celtiberians, who were formerly 
 accounted the most savage." 
 
 Such an instant amalgamation could not have taken place 
 except among kindred races whose language was radically the 
 same. The dialect spoken by these Phoenicians in Spain was 
 probably not very unlike the dialect in which the first treaty 
 between the Romans and Carthaginians was drawn up, as de- 
 scribed by Polybius ; the Phoenicians therefore adopted it, as a 
 more improved specimen of their own dialect, to such an extent 
 that, had it not been for the conquest of the same country by 
 the Semitic Arabs, the modern languages of the Peninsula would 
 have shown but few traces of the shortlived and violent domi- 
 nation of the Carthaginians. Still, the influence of such cities 
 as Gadeira, New Carthage, Barcino all, as well as Port Mahon, 
 Punic settlements must have been considerable ; and to it 
 we owe probably the Spanish coins with Aramaic inscriptions, 
 struck probably after the second Punic war, when Carthage 
 lost all authority in Spain, and could not prevent states from 
 coining money after the example of the Greeks and Romans, 
 although Carthage itself, as long as it remained independent, 
 seems to have abstained from similar imitation. 
 
 But to return to the ancient Phoenicians of Tartessus, which 
 formed the great emporium whence in the seventh century B.C. 
 tin and amber came to the Hellenes. 
 
 The scriptures inform us that in the tenth century B.C., tin 
 came to Tyre, and the Homeric poems are full of references 
 both to pure tin and the compound metal, bronze : this same 
 compound metal, being found distributed all over the British 
 Islands and the whole ocean-board of the Western Atlantic 
 from Cadiz to Denmark, proves the constant resort of merchants 
 to Cornwall and Devonshire, which may safely be classed with
 
 EASTERN AND WESTERN WORLD. 35 
 
 the Cassiterides as the seat of the chief mines, and thence to 
 the north-western shores of Europe, to exchange the com pound 
 metal for the amber which these shores alone produced in suf- 
 ficient quantities. 
 
 We have also direct evidence that the inhabitants of the tin 
 countries were themselves commercial traders of great activity 
 and intelligence as far back as the fifth century B.C., and safely 
 navigated the seas between them and Tartessus. Nor should 
 we stumble at the character of the hide-covered vessels in 
 which such voyages were performed. The formidable fleets 
 in which the Saxon pirates attacked the states to the south of 
 them, and finally conquered Southern Britain and portions of 
 Northern Gaul, were similar barks, constructed not so much 
 for want of skill, but as better able to encounter the shoals 
 and hidden dangers of their tidal estuaries. Sidonius Apolli- 
 naris, who wrote A.D. 455, about the time when the first Saxon 
 settlement in Great Britain was made, describes the vessels in 
 the following terms : 
 
 Quin et Aremoricus Piratam Saxona tractus 
 Sperabat cui pelle salum sulcare Britannum 
 Ludus et assuto glaucum mare fmdere Lembo. 
 
 The war galleys of the Vikings of Norway were also 
 fashioned after the same form. Strabo writes that the Lusi- 
 tanians in former times built similar vessels for similar pur- 
 poses. That the traders, who preferred these wicker-built and 
 hide-covered boats to more solidly constructed vessels, had 
 nothing to learn from Hellenic arid Roman skill, may be seen 
 from the description of the fleet and its equipment belonging 
 to the Armorican Veneti, which is so elaborately described by 
 Julius Ca3sar, who also adds that the principal trade of the 
 same Veneti was carried on with Great Britain. 
 
 But before closing these written notices concerning these 
 ancient traders of the Western world, it will not be unin- 
 teresting to quote from Strabo his peculiar account of the 
 Cassiterides ; unluckily he does not quote his authority, nor
 
 36 EARLY INTERCOURSE BETWEEN THE 
 
 do I know who that Publius Crassus was, who first visited 
 them : 
 
 " The Cassiterides are ten in number ; they, being Pelagian, lie near each 
 other, northwards from the harbour of the Artabri (or Arotrebse); one of them 
 is uninhabited ; in the others dwell a people wearing black gowns reaching to 
 the feet, clad also in tunics with girdles round their waists. They also go 
 about with wands in their hands, something like the furies in tragedies. They 
 live principally a nomad life, subsisting on their flocks and herds. And as they 
 have mines of tin and lead, they exchange these metals for earthenware, salt 
 and bronze imported by merchants. Now, in former days, the Phoenicians 
 alone were engaged in this trade, using Gadeira as their starting-place, and 
 concealing from all their navigation. But as some Romans were following a 
 certain shipowner, in order that they also might acquire a knowledge of the 
 emporeia, the captain, grudging them this advantage, wilfully ran his vessel 
 upon a shoal, and, having brought the same destruction on his pursuers, he 
 escaped himself, and received from the public treasure the value of his ship and 
 cargo. Nevertheless, the Romans, by repeated attempts, discovered the navi- 
 gation ; and afterwards Publius Crassus, having crossed over to them, disco- 
 vered that their mines were not deep, and that the inhabitants were peaceful 
 in consequence of their wealth, and thus showed that this sea was navigable 
 by all who should choose to use it. The passage to the islands is wider than 
 the strait which separates the continent from Britain." 
 
 The concealment of the navigation, undoubtedly commenced 
 by historical Tyre during her most flourishing period, had 
 been continued by Carthage as soon as she became mistress of 
 the Western Mediterranean ; but when, at the close of the 
 second Punic war, she was compelled to evacuate Spain, the 
 secret was no longer tenable. The Romans, in possession of 
 the European side of the strait, could observe the movements 
 of the Carthaginian merchant-ships in passing from the Medi- 
 terranean into the ocean, and dodge their courses over the sea. 
 This new opportunity commenced about the year 200, and 
 became useless by the destruction of Carthage in the year 
 146 B.C. The story must then have originated during this 
 short interval, when the Romans first ventured to make ocean 
 voyages, and Carthage had still a public treasury, whence 
 rewards could be assigned to patriotic deeds ; yet Strabo men- 
 tions Phoenicians alone, although on other occasions he makes
 
 EASTERN AND WESTERN WORLD. 37 
 
 a distinction between them and the Carthaginians. The first 
 part of the account quoted from Strabo seems taken from the 
 narrative of some voyager who applied to a whole nation what 
 was true only of one island. 
 
 The description of the inhabitants can only apply to an esta- 
 blishment of Druids, who had their great schools or colleges 
 in sequestered spots, often islands or peninsulas. Such was 
 peculiarly Mona, as described by Tacitus, who compares the 
 female votaries of the Druids in their dark garments to the 
 same furies mentioned by the anonymous author quoted by 
 Strabo. We know from most authentic testimony that many of 
 the most sacred repevy in Asia, and all over Europe, consisted of 
 wide pasture lands, often surrounded by and bounded by groves 
 like that of the Lacinian Juno, so graphically described by 
 Livy. The flocks and herds which depastured these sacred 
 spots were regarded as the property of the divinity to whom 
 they were dedicated, and furnished the established hierarchy 
 with subsistence and wealth. Plutarch also mentions the exist- 
 ence of similar colleges in islands westward from Britain ; his 
 words are : 
 
 " A little time before the Pythian festival, under the auspices of Callistratus; 
 there came to us from the opposite extremities of the inhabited world, two 
 holy men, who then met at Delphi : from Britain the grammarian Demetrius, 
 on his homeward road to Tarsus ; and Cleombrotus, the Lacedemonian." 
 
 " Now, Demetrius said, that round Britain there were many scattered and 
 desert islands, and that some of them bore the names of demons and heroes ; 
 that he himself, being sent thither by the king (or the emperor), had sailed to 
 the island which lay nearest her desert sisters, for the sake of viewing it and 
 investigating its history. Its inhabitants were not very numerous, but all of 
 them were esteemed by the Britons both holy and inviolable." 
 
 The oldest establishment of the kind known to me, as con- 
 necting the historical with the mythological age, is the TS^ZVOS 
 of Protesilaus in the Thracian Chersonese, accompanied by 
 his tomb and sanctuary, as described by Herodotus, book ix. 
 cap. 116. 
 
 At Elseus, in the Chersonese, is the tomb of Protesilaus, and 
 a renews encircling it, wherein was great wealth, gold and silver
 
 38 EARLY INTERCOURSE BETWEEN THE 
 
 vessels, bronze, vestments, and other offerings, all of which 
 the Persian sacrilegiously carried away . . He then culti- 
 vated the re jxfvoc, and sowed corn in it. He even converted the 
 sanctuary into a chamber for his wives. 
 
 I need not waste words in showing to what an extent this 
 system prevailed, even in the historical times of Greece, and 
 what accusations of sacrilege were brought against all who 
 dared to pollute with the plough such holy grazing land, and 
 what bitter wars often arose from their violation. Suffice it 
 to say, that the practice prevailed to a great extent in Great 
 Britain, and was not even set aside by the establishment of 
 Christianity; and even within the historical period, many broad 
 lands belonging to the Church in Wales continued to be an 
 asylum for the flocks and herds of the patron saint. Such also 
 was the practice of the Druidical establishment, which some tra- 
 veller before Strabo's age had visited and described. 
 
 Whether the Romans after the destruction of Carthage kept 
 up a direct communication with Western Britain from the 
 vicinity of Gadeidra, is not known to me. Polybius might 
 have told us, but his promised explanations have not reached 
 us. The revelations of Julius Caesar are only partial ; he com- 
 plains of being left in total ignorance owing to the obstinacy 
 of the merchants, who refused to give him any information ; 
 nevertheless, his descriptions of the insular form, and of the 
 dimensions of Great Britain, are more accurate and truthful 
 than any which succeeding writers, whether Greek or Latin, 
 have left on record ; and he might have condescended to notice 
 the resources, both commercial and internal, whence the Veneti 
 were enabled to maintain that formidable and well-equipped 
 fleet, which chance, rather than superior skill, enabled him to 
 destroy. Diodorus Siculus, with the pages of Caesar's Com- 
 mentaries before him, gives a very different account of South- 
 western Britain, which he must have derived from some other 
 source than Julius Caesar. He says (lib. v. cap. Iv.) 
 
 " Those who inhabit that part of Britain which is adjacent to the promon- 
 tory called Belerium, are exceedingily hospitable. They are moreover, owing 
 to their intercourse with foreign merchants, civilized in their habits."
 
 EASTERN AND WESTERN WORLD. 39 
 
 He then describes them as skilful miners, smelters, and re- 
 finers, and as conveying their tin, fashioned into cubical blocks, 
 to a certain island, whither foreign merchants resorted, who 
 carried it across into Gaul, and conveyed it by land-carriage to 
 the mouth of the Rhone. This trade across Gaul into the Me- 
 diterranean could hardly have been carried on successfully be- 
 fore the Roman conquest of Gaul; so that Dion Cassius ascribes 
 to Mark Antony the statement, " that Julius Ca3sar made every 
 thing so secure as even to render Celtica and Britain accessi- 
 ble from Gaul." So ended the long-continued intercourse 
 between Britain and the Eastern world, through the Pillars of 
 Hercules. But of the remote antiquity of this intercourse, in 
 addition to the evidence of bronze, I proceed to give two proofs 
 from ancient Celtic coins as yet said to be found only in Gaul, 
 yet commemorative of that religious institute which was first 
 brought from the Eastern world to Spain and Great Britain, 
 and transferred to Gaul on one side, and on the other to Ire- 
 land, called a sacred isle even in the age of the Carthaginian 
 Himilco. 
 
 Previous to my own observations on the subject, I introduce 
 the following quotation from Eckhel's celebrated Preface (p. 63) 
 to his great work, De Doctrina Numorum, where he is discuss- 
 ing the question of Gallic coins, and the figures impressed upon 
 them. " Of these minute sigilla" he writes : 
 
 " The most common form is the pentagon, the same as is found on the coins of Velia, 
 Nuceria, of the Ptolemies, and especially of Pitane, in Mysia. At first I did not value 
 this ' sigillum ' so highly as to induce me to hope, what I more lately found to be the 
 case, that it could in some degree contribute to the illustration of the theology and 
 philosophy of the Gauls. Hear then how this was effected. All agree that the doc- 
 trine of the Druids, whom the Gauls had constituted the arbiters of sacred and profane 
 law, was the Pythagorean. Caesar especially gives his testimony to this fact : ' That 
 they wish to persuade men that souls do not perish, but pass after death from the 
 bodies last occupied into other bodies, and they think that by this doctrine their valour 
 is greatly roused, seeing death brings with it no terror.' Now, we can easily under- 
 stand that this is a Pythagorean dogma, although Csesar has not mentioned the name 
 of Pythagoras. Diodorus Siculus also expressly affirms that the Gauls were imbued 
 with the principles of Pythagoras' As among them the doctrines of Pythagoras pre- 
 vailed, that the souls of men are immortal, and live again after entering another body.' 
 Moreover, Ammianus thus writes : ' Among these are the Druids, men of superior 
 genius, who, as the school of Pythagoras holds, openly announce the immortality of 
 the soul.' This do<nna was so inveterate among the Gauls that some expressed a belief
 
 40 EARLY INTERCOURSE BETWEEN THE 
 
 that Pythagoras borrowed his system from the Gauls. Clemens Aleiandrinus writes 
 that this was commonly believed. After settling these points, let us return to our 
 pentagon the cause of this discussion. According to the testimony of Lucian it 
 was regarded by the Pythagoreans as a sacred symbol ' Being the triple triangle 
 mutually implicated, consisting of five lines, and which is called by them Hygeia (that 
 is, health or preservation) ; and I will show that the Pentagon on the coins of Pitane 
 occupies the place which in other cases is occupied by the figure of Hygeia herself,' 
 and this he afterwards performed." 
 
 The first inference to be drawn from the beautiful combina- 
 tion of this mathematical figure, and which Lucian expressly 
 ascribes to the Pythagorean school of divinity and philosophy, 
 is, that its constructors were thoroughly conversant with geo- 
 metrical figures of the most complicated character. Now, if 
 a Greek philosopher, on being shipwrecked on an unknown 
 coast, could, on discovering a right-angled triangle roughly 
 delineated on the sand of the seashore, exclaim, " I recognize 
 the traces of a human being," much more reason have we to 
 express a belief that those who first adopted this elegant, al- 
 though complicated, figure as the holy symbol of " Salus " (or 
 the conservative power) must not only have been deep profi- 
 cients in mathematical knowledge, but also great admirers of 
 the truth expressed by the geometrical symbol. Such, we know, 
 were the principles and practice of the Italian school of philo- 
 sophy, who, in a later age, were called Pythagoreans, after a 
 supposed founder of the sect named Pythagoras. But Aris- 
 totle, who in his works had often to encounter the doctrines 
 of their school, never once mentions the name of Pythagoras. 
 It is now absurd to ascribe a system, so widely diffused over 
 the more ancient civilized world, to a Pythagoras of Samos, 
 supposed to have been born and bred in an age when Hellenic 
 free thought had already commenced its course, and was shat- 
 tering to the very basis those symbolic and labyrinthine edi- 
 fices under which the truth, as revealed from the beginning, 
 was smothered and almost extinguished. 
 
 One might imagine, that of all symbols the mathematical 
 diagram should have been the most innocent and least liable 
 to abuse ; but the fact is, that no class of symbols have been 
 more perverted to the purposes of superstition and deception 
 than those based upon lines and numbers.
 
 EASTERN AND WESTERN WORLD. 41 
 
 The single equilateral triangle is to this day regarded in 
 Hindostan as the symbol of Siva, and is represented on the 
 water-jars of his worshippers. On this subject it will be suf- 
 ficient to refer the reader to a remarkable paper on the Sri 
 Tantra, or double equilateral triangle. It is written by E. C. 
 Ravenshaw, and is to be found in vol. xiii. part i. page 71, 
 of the Journpl of the Royal Asiatic Society. It is full of im- 
 portant information respecting the use of these mathematical 
 figures among religious Hindoos, and the doctrines which are 
 connected with them, as interpreted by modern Brahmins. It 
 is curious that these are to this day essentially identical with 
 the tradition recorded by Lucian. Mr. Ravenshaw says : " It 
 is a singular fact, that the double equilateral triangle which 
 is engraved on the Sri Tantra, and whose origin and mean- 
 
 A 
 
 \/ David's Shield, 
 
 Sri Tantra, or Khat Kon Chakra. and Seal of Solomon. 
 
 ing have been above explained, is stated in Kitto's Biblical 
 Encyclopedia to have formed one of the most usual amulets 
 worn by the Jews, and known by them as the shield of David, 
 and the seal of Solomon." Mr. Ravenshaw adds : " It is dif- 
 ficult, to determine to what nation this mystical symbol owes 
 its origin, but it seems to have been common to all the primeval 
 religions of Asia," and now, it may be added, and also to the 
 primeval religion of Great Britain and Western Gaul, on the 
 indisputable evidence of their ancient coins. 
 
 Among the Gallic coins is one which is thus described by 
 M. de Saussaye, one of the best Gallic numismatists of the day. 
 I quote from the Eevue frumismatique, A.D. 1842, page 165. 
 
 6
 
 42 EARLY INTERCOURSE BETWEEN THE 
 
 I ought to premise, that there are two schools of numismatists 
 in France : one which can only see in the coins of ancient Gaul 
 a servile imitation of Greek models, and to this school M. de 
 Saussaye once belonged ; the other, which would claim for the 
 ancient mint of Gallia independent action and original inser- 
 tion of types peculiar to themselves. I now proceed to give the 
 author's own account of the coin : 
 
 " Ob. A head naked, and looking to the left. R. A figure borne on an 
 arrow, with wings springing from his shoulders instead of arms gold. 
 
 " M. de Lelewel had good reason to reproach me with laying, in respect to 
 Celtic coins, too great a stress upon the argument that they were imitations 
 of the monetary types of Greece, and that they exhibited proofs of a gradual 
 deterioration from their models. Since the commencement of my researches 
 respecting these coins, I have been induced to modify my assertion on more 
 than one point ; and I particularly recognize religious ideas peculiar to the 
 Celts expressed on their monetary types. The more I advance in the study of 
 these types, the more clearly I see what important mythological truths may 
 be gathered from them. 
 
 " If antiquity has bequeathed to us but incomplete descriptions respecting 
 the religious belief of the Celtic nations, this precious golden coin which I now 
 propose to illustrate, cannot fail to strengthen my present new position, for it 
 refers incontestably to the Celtic creed. The myth of Abaris, of which it repre- 
 sents the principal feature, is one of those vague and rare reminiscences of the 
 communications extremely ancient, between the religions of the mother coun- 
 tries of the ancient world and those of Greece." (See Coin No. J2. p. 285.) 
 
 This myth about Abaris a Hyperborean to whom Apollo 
 had presented an arrow, which he carried in his extensive tra- 
 vels, without eating any food disturbed the rational spirit of 
 Herodotus, and caused him to dismiss the subject in a very 
 curt and contemptuous way. Among later writers, especially 
 those of the Pythagorean school, Abaris became a favourite 
 myth, and long accounts were invented respecting his high 
 character as a sage, priest, and servant of the Hyperborean 
 Apollo, who travelled from his native shores to Hellas, for the 
 honour of his god, and for the purpose of gathering contribu- 
 tions for the decoration of his temple. It is said that, while 
 travelling homewards with his contributions, he passed through 
 Magna Gra3cia, where he came in contact with the Samian Py- 
 thagoras, in whose person he immediately recognized his own 
 Hyperborean Apollo. This interview, if we could credit either 
 tradition, or learned commentaries upon such tradition, had im-
 
 EASTERN AND WESTERN WORLD. 43 
 
 portant results'; for either Abaris became a follower of Pytha- 
 goras, and established among the Hyperboreans the system of 
 Pythagoras, or the latter was initiated by the former in all the 
 mysterious lore of the Druids, especially the doctrine of the 
 metempsychosis, which from that period became a main tenet 
 in the Pythagorean school. 
 
 It can, however, be easily shown that this peculiar tenet was 
 held, both in Egypt and in Hindostan, many ages before the 
 time of either the Samian Pythagoras or the Hyperborean 
 Abaris. 
 
 The coin merely proves, first, that the symbol impressed upon 
 its reverse was recognized by the mint, whence it was issued as 
 a national emblem, and that the same fell under the observa- 
 tion of some of the Hellenes at a very early period. What 
 doctrine was veiled under the symbol can now be only a matter 
 of conjecture. Creuzer, the German mythologist, supposed 
 that it was a hieroglyphic indicating the art of epistolary cor- 
 respondence ; nor does he fail to adduce specious arguments in 
 support of his theory. Modern chronologers fix the epoch of 
 Abaris about the end of the sixth century before Christ, during 
 the time when the communications between Phocaea and Tar- 
 tessus, and between Tartessus and Great Britain and Western 
 Gaul, were free and open. The discovery of this coin completely 
 settles the position of the Hyperboreans, and proves that while 
 the religion of the ancient Gauls and Britons was the same, 
 the name of Hyperboreans was not confined to that Hyperbo- 
 rean island described by Hecataeus. 
 
 M. de Saussaye comes to what seems to him a necessary 
 conclusion, that if Abaris was a Northern Druid, he must have 
 belonged to that portion of the Celtic race who are called 
 Cimbres (Kymry). 
 
 But before entering into a more particular investigation of 
 the Celtic coins, and the information to be derived from a study 
 of their emblems, it will not be amiss to state a few facts re- 
 specting the coins of the ancient Western world. The parti- 
 culars are drawn from Eckhel. In the most ancient coinage of
 
 44 EAELY INTERCOURSE BETWEEN THE 
 
 the Greeks, silver was the main material, although gold more 
 rarely was stamped from the earliest times. 
 
 The coins of the first epoch, from the commencement of the 
 practice to the death of Alexander the First of Macedonia, 
 B.C. 461, were, comparatively speaking, of globose shape, very 
 thick, and in some cases ugly and rotund. The Macedonian 
 coins partly preserved the same character during the second 
 epoch, between the death of Alexander and the accession of 
 Philip the Second, B.C. 348. Even in the third epoch, when 
 almost all other Greek coins were thin in substance and elegant 
 in form, the staters of Philip bore still strong marks of the 
 older type, and were of such a character that all British and 
 Gallic coins are supposed to have been merely imitations of these 
 staters. But still it is another question, whether this money 
 be not struck after the model of some older Hellenic coins, 
 struck before the year B.C. 461 ; and it would be particularly 
 desirable to ascertain what the forms and emblems of the coins 
 of the Phocaeans and their neighbours were before the founda- 
 tion of Massilia, B.C. 600. We are told distinctly by Herodotus, 
 that the Lydians were the first people who stamped current 
 coin (vo/x/c-ju,*). The conquest of Lydia, B.C. 549, by the Persians 
 would necessarily close the Lydian mint. But the predomi- 
 nance of Croesus and his ancestors over the Hellenic lonians 
 must have given ample currency to the Lydian coins. It would 
 consequently be very advantageous to our inquiry to ascertain 
 the form and fabric of the Lydian mintage. 
 
 My own firm conviction is, that it is a gross absurdity to 
 suppose that the coins of Philip the Second of Macedonia could 
 have been the models of the British pieces to which the name 
 of Cunobelinus, either in full or in some abridged form, is 
 attached ; for the Italians, Gauls, Romans, and Carthaginians, 
 presented an insuperable barrier between the Hellenic world 
 and Great Britain, from the days of Philip of Macedon until 
 the invasion of Great Britain by Julius Ca3sar. I also believe 
 that many of the British coins are many centuries older than 
 the Cunobelinus, the contemporary of Augustus.
 
 EASTERN AND WESTERN WORLD. 45 
 
 Now, with respect to the Roman coins, they were from the 
 commencement made of brass alone ; nor did they coin any 
 silver pieces until about B.C. 250, after the wars with Pyrrhus. 
 Specimens of Roman gold coins are very rare before the last 
 of the twelve Caesars had terminated his reign. This argu- 
 ment is well managed by Eckhel in the same preface before 
 quoted : 
 
 " We infer from Strabo that the Gauls, previous to their conquest by the 
 Romans, had current coins peculiar to themselves. He writes that Luernius, 
 king of the Arverni, the father of that Bituitus, who waged war against Fabius 
 Maximus, scattered among the people gold and silver coins. I find it necessary 
 to establish this point, that those gold coins were either the produce of some 
 mint foreign to Rome, and imported into Gaul from Rome, or that they were 
 the native produce of Gaul. I cannot possibly admit that they were Roman. 
 Bituitus waged war with Fabius u.c. 633 (B.C. 120) ; his father therefore must 
 have flourished about the commencement of the same century (B.C. 153) ; but 
 at that period there was no gold coinage at Rome, or, if there was, the pieces 
 must have been most rare." 
 
 But the whole subject of Gallic and British coins will be 
 resumed in another essay.
 
 ON ONE SOURCE OF 
 
 THE NON-HELLENIC PORTION OF THE LATIN 
 LANGUAGE. 
 
 PAYNE KNIGHT, no mean name among philologers, after a 
 masterly and convincing proof, that neither Zenodotus nor 
 Aristarchus, the great critics of the Alexandrian school, could 
 be acquitted of the charge of " scarcely credible ignorance " of 
 the primitive form of the Homeric language, thus proceeds: 
 
 " The grammarians and critics of Alexandria were all guilty of the same 
 fault. They never investigated the original sources of the language, but classed 
 among anomalous dialects and poetic licenses every thing that was not in unison 
 with their own usual style of speaking. In their age there existed many clews to 
 the inquiry, which have now disappeared, but which, at that time, might easily 
 have been found in written records, and in the rude and semi-barbarous lan- 
 guages of Italy and other countries adjacent to Greece. Had any one, however, 
 suggested to Aristarchus that the true form and character of the Homeric dialect 
 was to be extracted from Latin, Tuscan, or Oscan languages, he would in my 
 opinion have been as much astonished as if he had heard of the claims of the 
 Irish antiquary, who affirmed that the Homeric poems had been translated fur- 
 tively from the ' Gaelic into Greek.' " l 
 
 Whatever might have been the astonishment of Aristarchus 
 on being referred to the rude and semi-barbarous dialects of 
 isolated and mountainous districts for a resolution of his philo- 
 logical difficulties, every man acquainted with the subject knows 
 that the great superiority of the modern over the ancient phi- 
 lologers is not attributable solely to the successful prosecution 
 of the study of comparative etymology a science unknown to 
 the ancients but also to the careful examination of a mass of 
 words and expressions preserved in ancient glossaries. Many 
 of these, although not now to be found in classic authors, serve 
 as clews to the discovery of meanings which, without their aid, 
 
 1 Prolegomena, p. 35.
 
 48 ON THE NON-HELLENIC PORTION 
 
 must have remained unknown. In the works of Hesychius, 
 Suidas, and in other semi-barbarous lexicons or glossaries, we 
 have not only the corrupted, or rather, in many instances, the 
 incorrupted, form of Greek words, but innumerable fragments 
 of languages which have ceased to be spoken among men. 
 
 The scholars of our days are wiser than the one-eyed critics 
 of the Alexandrian school ; and we do not disdain the aid of 
 every cognate language in explaining works composed nearly 
 three thousand years ago. Even our own language and litera- 
 ture have experienced the beneficial influence of this example. 
 Our English dictionaries are assuming a more scientific form ; 
 and the language daily receives new light and vigour from the 
 publication of provincial glossaries, which cease not to issue 
 from the press. But the English glossaries alone will not suf- 
 fice. Eor (with due respect to Dr. Jamieson be it said) it will 
 eventually be found true, as has been lately suggested by a 
 writer admirably qualified to give an opinion upon the subject, 
 that no satisfactory thesaurus of our magnificent and copious 
 language can ever be completed without the aid of Celtic 
 scholars. 
 
 I speak from knowledge, when I say that the Anglo-Saxon 
 is deeply tinged with the language of the Britons of Wales, 
 Cornwall, and Armorica, and that the meaning of countless 
 words, commonly regarded as pure Saxon, will in vain be sought 
 in the forests of Germany or the wilds of Scandinavia. Even 
 household terms, the language of every-day life, without the aid 
 of scholars acquainted with the primitive language or languages 
 of these islands, must be handed down to posterity as mystic 
 signs devoid of meaning. But of this at another time. 
 
 My present object is to show that a portion of even the La- 
 tin vocabulary is to be referred to the same primitive language 
 still spoken within this island, and which was once the medium 
 of intellectual intercourse between no small section of the in- 
 habitants of south-western Europe. 
 
 I need not mention that the question, whether the original 
 population of Italy was to be regarded as Celtic, Hellenic, or
 
 OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. 49 
 
 Teutonic, has been argued ponderously and learnedly. But the 
 result has not been either conclusive or satisfactory. I omit the 
 claims advanced in favour of the Semitic or of the Slavonian 
 origin of this population, as being barely entitled to a serious 
 consideration. Even in examining the mode in which the pre- 
 tensions of the first-named races have been either affirmed or 
 denied, we must be compelled to express our wonder that pru- 
 dent men could have ever hoped to bring their labours to a 
 successful termination. Not one of those who piled volume on 
 volume on the subject, seems to have possessed the necessary 
 knowledge. The very elements of the science, by which the 
 problem was to be solved, were unknown to them. Some were 
 Greek, Latin, and French or Italian scholars. Others, to the 
 knowledge of these, added an intimate acquaintance with the 
 Teutonic dialects. But this was not enough. A thorough 
 knowledge of the Latin itself, of the Greek, and of one type at 
 least of the Celtic and Teutonic dialects, must precede a suc- 
 cessful examinatien of the claims of the three cognate families. 
 But hitherto no one thus qualified has entered the field. 
 
 Early in life, I became satisfied that nothing could be done 
 in clearing away the cloud that sinks deep and dense on the 
 early history of Europe, without an extensive and accurate know- 
 ledge, not only of the language, but also of the literature, laws, 
 habits, and religion of the three races. I had seen enough of 
 the errors committed by one-eyed scholars, to satisfy me that the 
 greatest caution is necessary in assigning their several sources 
 to disputed words, and that the comparative etymology which 
 is grounded on index-hunting alone, and consists in the juxta- 
 position of words similar in form, and casually, perhaps, in 
 sense, is more likely to lead to error than to the truth. What 
 would be thought of a person who, without a knowledge of the 
 grammar and construction of a Greek verb, should, from a 
 Greek index, attempt to find the various forms in which the 
 word reivu is found in Grecian literature ? What guide could 
 he have in placing rtru^ai as its perfect passive, or era^v as 
 its historical sense, in the same voice ? But it may be said that 
 
 7
 
 50 ON THE NON-HELLENIC PORTION 
 
 such knowledge as is required must be beyond the reach of any 
 individual, and can scarcely be attained in the course of a long 
 life. This is, 1 fear*, too true, although it is only of late that 
 I have been compelled to adopt the conclusion. 
 
 The Greek and Latin language and literature, I must, from 
 my situation, be supposed to understand. The Cumrian 1 or 
 Welsh was known to me from my childhood, both colloquially 
 and as the language of popular poetry, and of the public service 
 of the Church. But there exists a long series of literary works, 
 extending from certainly the seventh to the fifteenth century, 
 to which an acquaintance with the colloquial popular and eccle- 
 siastical dialects furnished no sufficient key. To master these 
 the study of more than one form of the language was necessary, 
 and, to a certain extent, the task was achieved. The prose style 
 of our most ancient chronicles, triads, and laws, is familiar to me, 
 and I can read with satisfaction most of the works of the bards, 
 as far back as the twelfth century. But there remains a body of 
 poetry, ascribed to Aneurin, Taliesin, and other well-known 
 names, which, if Cumrian, is Cumrian in a very suspicious form. 
 This language I do not altogether understand, nor, according to 
 my belief, is it completely understood by any man living. The 
 words are Celtic, and individually recognizable, but their mean- 
 ing, when strung into sentences, requires an CEdipus. In con- 
 firmation of this, I appeal to the various attempts which profess 
 to be translations of the Gododin of Aneurin. With the Anglo- 
 Saxon literature, both for its antiquity and extent, the best 
 representative of the ancient Teutonic, I do not profess an ac- 
 curate acquaintance. I have read much of it, and have studied 
 its vocabulary and grammar with care, but cannot call myself 
 an Anglo-Saxon scholar. To a general knowledge of the mo- 
 dern languages of the south-west of Europe, I can add a slight 
 acquaintance with the Gaelic and Basque tongues. 
 
 1 Much error, both in history and geography, would have been avoided, 
 had the names by which nations denominated themselves been alone used to 
 designate them. Welsh was the general name by which the German tribes 
 designated all the Roman provincials whose territories they invaded, but espe- 
 cially the Italians.
 
 OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. 51 
 
 In a course of study thus followed up, with occasional excur- 
 sions into other paths of knowledge, for more than twenty 
 years, it has been my fortune to make, a I conceive, some im- 
 portant discoveries. Had I the command of the requisite time, 
 they might be embodied in one great work ; but as that is not 
 the case, I willingly avail myself of the medium of this Society, 
 in order to communicate some detached fragments to those 
 who take an interest in such studies. I confine myself, on the 
 present occasion, to the subject of the original population of 
 central Italy, and to the question which I intend to affirm, that 
 it was of the Cumrian or Cimbrian race, cognate with the Cumri 
 of our island, and that their language formed some portion of 
 the non-Hellenic elements of the Latin tongue. To pave the 
 way for this, I propose to show that the Umbri, an ancient 
 people of Italy, were of the same race and lineage with those 
 who within our islands call themselves Cumri, and that they, 
 through their colonies, formed no small part of the original 
 population of Rome. 1 We are told by Florus, " that the Urnbri 
 were the most ancient people of Italy ;" 2 by Pliny, 3 that " they 
 were deemed to be the most ancient nation of Italy ;" by Dio- 
 nysius of Halicarnassus, 4 that the " Ombrici were a nation of 
 peculiar greatness and antiquity." 
 
 Herodotus 5 states, that the Lydian Tyrsenians (according 
 
 1 It is my intention to write the words as they sound to the ear, not as they 
 appear disguised in the modern spelling of the Welsh, a spelling which has 
 done more to throw the language into obscurity, and render its very appearance 
 disgusting to the eye of a civilized man, than all other causes put together. It 
 not only has done this, but has absolutely served to render it more abtruse to the 
 Cumri themselves. The vowel w, equal in power to the double o in wood, I 
 shall retain, and ii with two points over it, to represent the sound ee. The 
 soft sound of the d I shall leave unmarked, as it was in the older writers. 
 
 2 Antiquittsimw Itallae Populus, lib. i. cap. 17. 
 8 Gens Antiquiasima Italia, lib. iii. cap. 14. 
 
 6 o/ijSjtuKot. tQvog tv TOIQ travv fteya eat ap\aiov. Lib. 1. 
 o/t/3pa yfvoc; yaXarwv icai ffaXiriuiv. Tzetzes, Lye. cap. 199. 
 
 To these may be added the testimony of the Historical Fragments ascribed 
 to Varro : " Ex his venisse Jauum ceu Ogri et Gallis progenitoribus Umbro- 
 rum." Ed. Lugd. 1560. 5 Book i. cap. 94.
 
 52 ON THE NON-HELLENIC PORTION 
 
 to him, the germ of the Tuscan race) settled among the people 
 called by the Greeks O/xfy/xo/, and supposed by some of their 
 writers to have derived their name from their having survived 
 the general deluge [o^og]. We also learn from him that their 
 country was of great and indefinite extent. In the words of 
 Niebuhr, " It stretched to the foot of the Alps, for the rivers 
 Karpis and Alpis, one of which is certainly represented by the 
 Inn, 1 flowed from the country above the Uiubrici." Accord- 
 ing to Scylax, 2 Umbria included Picenum, as he places Ancona 
 within its limits. 
 
 From Pliny 3 we further learn that the Tuscans took no less 
 than three hundred towns from the Ilmbri, in other words, 
 " that the whole Tuscan territory had once been Umbrian." 
 From these authorities it is evident that the Umbri, at a remote 
 period, occupied the greatest portion of Northern Italy. The 
 Ligurians, 4 a nation confessedly Celtic, seem to have shared the 
 country with them. In historical times these are described as 
 possessing the upper vale of the Po, the Maritime Alps, and 
 the Northern Apennines, while the Umbri were confined to the 
 central group, the most important natural fortresses of Italy. 
 The whole of the original population of Eastern Italy, with the 
 exception of those who took refuge in the central Apennines, 
 was reduced under the power and influence of the Hellenic 
 colonists, who encircled the southern peninsula with a line of 
 Grecian cities of surpassing wealth and magnificence. But time 
 has grudged to us the knowledge of the history of Sybaris, 
 Crotona, Elea, and Psestum. We read that Sybaris was once 
 
 1 Herod, lib. iv. cap. 49. 
 
 EK Si rjjc KaTviripOt \upae ofifipiKwv KapTTtf iroraftOQ KOI oXXof AXirtf 
 woro/xof, Trpof fioprjv piovrte avtftov, KOI OVTOI IKI$OV<TI t larpov. 
 
 2 Page 6. 
 
 8 Lib. iii. cap. 14. " Tercentum eorum oppida Tusci debellas?e referuntur." 
 4 The Ligurians were themselves Ambrones, or Ombro-nes, as is evident from 
 the story told by Plutarch in the life of Marius : " The Ambrones came on 
 crying out Ambrones, Ambrones ; this they did either to encourage each other, 
 or to terrify the enemy with their name. The Ligurians were the first of the 
 Italians that moved against them, and when they heard the enemy cry Ambroues
 
 OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. 53 
 
 the chief of five-and-twenty cities, and of four nations, and 
 that it could bring three hundred thousand warriors into the 
 field. Crotona was not inferior in arms, arts, or philosophy ; 
 but internal dissensions, the destruction of the enlightened 
 classes by a riotous democracy, and the fatal aid of their half- 
 conquered subjects, the native tribes, hurried them to a pre- 
 mature decay. Sybaris fell A.C. 508, barely within the verge 
 of accredited history, and Crotona soon followed : destined, 
 however, to a more lingering death by the hands of the bar- 
 barian Bruttii. The Lucanians, a mountain tribe, which had 
 taken the lead in the attacks upon the Grecian States, had un- 
 doubtedly imbibed some portion of Grecian civilization. In 
 Niebuhr's 1 words, " Hereditary enemies as they were, they ne- 
 vertheless acquired the language to such a degree, that their 
 ambassador filled the popular assembly at Syracuse with sur- 
 prise and enthusiasm by his pure Doric. Nor would the authors 
 of Pythagorean Treatises have used the titles of imaginary 
 Lucanians, had it not been notorious that this philosophy had 
 found reception there, or had it been unusual for Lucanians to 
 write Greek." 
 
 If the fate of these colonies, whose foundation is supposed 
 to fall within the bounds of history, be so obscure and unknown, 
 what can be said of Arpi and Canusium, connected with Greece 
 by mythology alone ? Strabo 2 infers from their remains, "that 
 they were the greatest of the Italiot cities." Yet Arpi is first 
 mentioned in history as an Apulian city of no importance, of 
 which the Romans possessed themselves without difficulty. In 
 confirmation of Strabo's authority, we have the strongest mo- 
 dern testimony : 3 " Those writers, however, who have traced 
 the circuits of the Walls of Canusium from the remaining ves- 
 tiges, state, that they must have embraced a circumference of 
 
 they echoed back the word, which was their own ancient name." The Eng- 
 lish reader may not know that the Cumrian name for England is to this day 
 Loiger or Liguria. 
 
 1 Vol. i. p. 84. * Strabo, vi. 248. 
 
 * Cramer's Italy, vol. ii. p. 92.
 
 54 ON THE NON-HELLENIC PORTION 
 
 sixteen miles ; and antiquaries dwell with rapture on the ele- 
 gance and beauty of the Greek vases of Canosa, which (according 
 to Millingen) in point of size, numbers, and decoration, far sur- 
 pass those discovered in the tombs of any other ancient city, 
 not even excepting Nola." It is in vain for us to attempt to 
 raise the veil, and to form conjectures concerning the state of 
 Italy, both central and maritime, when a city of this magnitude 
 and magnificence could have been founded, and have flourished 
 in this apparently unfavourable position. 
 
 Is it not equally vain to ask, who were the destroyers of 
 a power which could build such cities, of a civilization so ad- 
 vanced as this ? History, indeed, is silent, but the occupation 
 of the country by the Lucanians and Apulians leaves us no 
 room to doubt as to the agents in the work of destruction. 
 The original Apulia, according to Strabo, was a small tract of 
 country immediately to the south of the Freutani, whence they 
 must have spread over the larger province which, in consequence 
 of the conquest, was called after their name. 
 
 The reaction of the native population against the foreign 
 colonists, which proved thus fatal in the south, was carried on 
 with equal energy in central Italy by the Samnites, who assailed 
 with equal fury and success both the Greek colonies and Tus- 
 can invaders of Campania. The Samnites, like the Lucanians, 
 were Sabellians by blood, of Sabine race, and cognate with the 
 Marsi, Marrucini, Peligni, Hernici, Vestini, Hirpini, and Fren- 
 tani. If, therefore, we can trace the origin of the Sabines them- 
 selves, we at once discover the origin of all the tribes that 
 sprang from them. In the words of Niebuhr, 2 " The Italian 
 national migrations came down like others from the North ; and 
 Cato's opinion that the origin of all the Sabellians was derived 
 from the neighbourhood of Amiternum, admits of no other ra- 
 tional meaning than that the most ancient traditions, whether 
 they may have been Sabine or Umbrian, assigned that district 
 as the habitation of the people who conquered Reate." The 
 same author 2 says, " Strabo calls the Sabines autochthons. This 
 
 1 In the chapter on the Sabelli and Sabini, vol. i. 2 Same chapter.
 
 OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. 65 
 
 name, applied to a people whose spreading so clearly falls 
 within the historical period, can only mean that they cannot be 
 taken for any colony from any nation out of Italy." The ques- 
 tion is thus very considerably narrowed, and we have only to 
 ascertain whether they are the offshoot of any other people in 
 Italy or not. To this a satisfactory answer can be given, be- 
 cause Zenodotus of Troezene, a writer quoted by Dionysius of 
 Halicarnassus, as the author of a history of the Umbri, and 
 who must be supposed to have examined into the subject, ex- 
 pressly asserts that the Sabini were originally Uiubrians. These 
 are his words : "The Sabines, who are indigenous, inhabited 
 first the Reatine District, but being driven thence by the Pe- 
 lasgi, entered that country which they still inhabit, and having 
 changed their name, together with their situation, were called 
 Sabini instead of Umbri." 1 
 
 To connect the Sabini with the original population of Rome 
 is an easy task. Whatever was the origin of Alba, the supposed 
 metropolis of Rome, its blood could not have entered largely 
 into the veins of the Roman people. According to the national 
 tradition, the first occupiers of the strongholds which became 
 the site of Rome were a half-pastoral, half-bandit race, composed 
 probably of the broken men of many a tribe ; but according to 
 the same tradition, the mothers of the second generation of 
 Rome were all Sabines. This would make all the children half 
 Sabine in blood, and far more so in language and feeling. When 
 to this we add that the same tradition assigns to the young 
 state a new settlement, which brings King Tatius and his coun- 
 trymen into the city in equal numbers, and with equal privileges, 
 the portion of Roman blood, not Sabine, is reduced to one-fourth 
 at least. Moreover, had not the habits, laws, and institutions 
 been essentially Sabine in the early ages of the Republic, the 
 creation of a Sabine legislator in the person of Numa, the citizen 
 
 1 Lib. ii. p. 49. ZrivoSoTog St T/aot^tji/tof, avyypaQsvg Ofifipinov tQvovg, avOi- 
 iffTopti TO ptv irpwTOV otKTjffai irtpi rr\v Ka\ovp,tvi^v Ptanvrjv, fKtiOtv viro 
 wv t,t\a9ivTa, ttf Tavrrfv a<j>iK<r9at TI\V ytjv tv9a vvv oiicoovffiv, K 
 apa rift rony Tovvofia ZafSivovG fK O/t/3ptrwv irpoffayopivOrfvai.
 
 56 ON THE NON-HELLENIC PORTION 
 
 of the Sabellian Cures, would never. have been invented, much 
 less tolerated. And had not the mass of the population been 
 decidedly Sabine in its inclinations, the State would not, after 
 the losses and disgrace of the war with Porsena, have recruited 
 its exhausted strength by the admission of Atta Clausus, with 
 five thousand Sabines, into the full rights and privileges of Ro- 
 man citizens. It may therefore be safely inferred, that the great 
 body of the original population of Rome was of Sabine, that is, 
 of Umbrian, race and blood. 
 
 The next step is to prove that this Umbrian race was cognate 
 in blood and language with our own Cumrians. In appealing 
 to ancient testimony, it will be at once felt that much cannot 
 be expected which will throw any light upon the subject ; yet, 
 contrary to such an expectation, there do exist certain testi- 
 monies of the clearest nature. The first is that of Cornelius 
 Bocchus, a learned friend and freedman of Sylla, who, accord- 
 ing to Solinus, " completely proved that the Umbri are an offset 
 of the ancient Gauls." 1 To give its full weight to this testimony, 
 we ought to remember that Sylla, the patron of Bocchus, had 
 every reason, both during the social war and in his wars against 
 the Marians and their allies, to institute the most serious in- 
 quiries into the origin of the Sabellian tribes, and the circum- 
 stances that had changed them from their long-continued 
 character of faithful allies, into the most powerful and inve- 
 terate enemies of Rome. The second testimony is that of 
 Antonius Gnipho, a high name among Roman grammarians, 
 himself a native of Cisalpine Gaul, and one of the most accom- 
 plished scholars of his day, to whose instruction even Julius 
 Caesar owed much. Servius, Virgil's learned commentator, 
 writes, " M. Antonius states that undoubtedly the Unibrians 
 were the offspring of the ancient Gauls." 2 Isidorus, 3 in his 
 
 1 Solin. Pol. Hist. cap. 8. 
 
 Absolvit Umbros Gallorum veterum propaginera esse. 
 
 2 Virg. Sen. p. 724, near the end of the twelfth book. 
 
 Sane Umbros veterum Gallorum propaginem esse refert. 
 8 Oriffines, lib. ix. cap. 2.
 
 OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. 57 
 
 Oriflines, combines this double testimony by his statement, 
 " The Unibrians are a nation of Italy, but the offspring of the 
 ancient Gauls." 
 
 The opinion of these learned men that the Umbri were the 
 descendants of the Galli Veteres cannot, of course, be wrested to 
 prove that some very ancient preoccupation of Italy by Gauls 
 took place at a period antecedent to history. The only legiti- 
 mate inference to be drawn from such a statement is, that they 
 were convinced by some evidence which has not reached us, 
 that the Umbri and " Galli Veteres " were one and the same 
 race. 
 
 It thus becomes an important question to inquire who these 
 " Galli Veteres " were. They certainly could not be the Cisal- 
 pine Gauls who, within the historical period, had crossed the 
 Alps and taken possession of the greatest part of the vale 
 of the Po. Originally, as we have already seen, the plains of 
 modern Lombardy were in the possession of the Umbri. The 
 Tuscans dispossessed them, and in their turn were exterminated 
 by the Transalpine invaders. But Ravenna and its vicinity, and 
 the whole of the ancient Venetia, escaped both the Tuscan and 
 Gallic yoke. The very same position which made them the 
 last resource of the Romans of the Western empire, defended 
 these fortresses amongst lagoons and marshes from the assaults 
 of more early invaders. According to Strabo, 1 Ravenna was 
 built by Thessalians, and surrendered to the Umbri ; hence it is 
 called by Pliny a Sabine, that is, an Umbrian town. That 
 Venetia was not conquered by the Tuscans is evident from the 
 fact, that the Venetians were a powerful tribe as late as the year 
 390 A.C. ; for in that year they made so vigorous an incursion 
 into the territories of the Gauls, the invaders and captors of 
 Rome, that, according to Polybius, 2 Brennus was induced by 
 this powerful diversion to grant terms to the Romans besieged 
 in the Capitol, and to return home. The Veneti, like the Ro- 
 
 1 Strabo, book v. p. 214. 
 
 2 Strabo. To Sf Apipivov OpflptKwv tffTi KaroiKia KaOa Trtp xai ft Paovivva. 
 
 Book xi. cap. 18.
 
 58 ON THE NON-HELLENIC PORTION 
 
 mans, claimed a Trojan descent, and referred to the Evero/ of 
 Asia Minor as the founders of their name and race. They, 1 
 like the Romans, called the spot where their Eastern ancestors 
 had landed by the sacred name of Troja. But the Greeks, 
 who seldom regarded the testimony of a people themselves as 
 sufficient proof of their origin, indulged in various specula- 
 tions on this head. Strabo, 2 in one place, informs us, that 
 some writers held that these Italian Veneti were colonies of 
 the Gallic Veneti. In another place 3 he states it as his 
 own opinion, that the Gallic were the founders of the Ita- 
 lian Veneti, and that it was the similarity of the name 
 alone that caused them to be referred to the Paphlagonian 
 
 EvfTO/. 
 
 Without attaching any peculiar value to this opinion of 
 Strabo, it might be adduced to prove that there were some 
 stronger reasons than a mere similarity of name which led him 
 to this conclusion. And there would probably be a similarity 
 in language and habits between the Veneti on the Adriatic 
 and their namesakes on the shores of the Western Ocean ; and 
 this clew, if carefully unravelled, may perhaps lead us to a dis- 
 covery of who the " Veteres Galli " of Bocchus and Antonius 
 were. Now, Polybius, a writer well acquainted from personal 
 intercourse with all the tribes of the vale of the Po, thus speaks 
 of the Veneti: 4 " The territory thence stretching to the 
 Adriatic is occupied by another nation extremely ancient ; they 
 are called Veneti ; in habits and institutions not much differ- 
 ing from the Kehrot, but using a various dialect." This has 
 been by some of the most judicious inquirers into ancient 
 history regarded as a conclusive testimony against the Celtic 
 
 1 Festus, under Troja. 
 
 ^ Book V. p. 212 ITtpt riav Evtrwv Strrog tori Xoyof, 61 fiiv yap, KO.I UVTOVQ 
 ipaffi KeXruiv fivai airoiicovg, r<av ofiiavvfidtv, TlapuiceaviTwv. 
 
 3 Book V. p. 195 TOVTOVC oi/uat TOVQ outviTovQ oiKiffras nvai TU>V Kara rov 
 Afipiav. 
 
 * Tot Se irpog rov ASpiav qdrf vpour]KOVTa ytvog aXXo Travv TO iraXaiov 
 SiaKa.Ttax f - npoaayopevovrat t ovivtroi. TOIQ tQtvi KHI 
 KXra>v, yXwrry S' aXXoip
 
 OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. 59 
 
 
 
 origin of the Veneti ; but if we admit such proof, we must 
 also confess that all the Celtic tribes of Gaul were not cognate, 
 for Strabo expressly affirms, " that these did not all speak the 
 same language, but that some spoke dialects varying a little 
 in form." 1 Even as late as the end of the fourth century after 
 Christ, we have the express testimony of Sulpicius Severus, 
 that there were two languages spoken in Gaul in his day, one 
 called Celtic, the other Gallic. 
 
 The inference, on the contrary, ought to be, that they were 
 originally of the same race, but changed in some respects by 
 time and circumstances. This will appear more probable, if 
 we take into consideration that it is impossible for any one 
 acquainted with the ancient history, laws, and institutions of 
 the Cumrian race, to recognize it in the accounts given by 
 historians of the invaders of Italy under Bellovesus. Their 
 blue eyes, red hair, and great stature, together with their pas- 
 toral rather than agricultural habits, are strong proofs that they 
 differed from the Celtas of midland Gaul. But a rational 
 account of the various races between the Alps and the ocean, 
 the Pyrenees and the Rhine, as recorded by ancient historians, 
 is as yet a desideratum. The materials are ample, and the 
 key for the solution of all difficulties will be found in an ade- 
 quate knowledge of the Basque, the Cumrian, the Teutonic, 
 and the Gaelic, which dialects alone, previous to the Greek 
 settlements and Roman invasion, could have been spoken 
 within those limits. It appears evident that various irrup- 
 tions of the Northern nations into the South, prior to that of 
 the Cirnbri and Teutones A.C. 110, and of Ariovistus at a 
 later period, had shattered the whole framework of society 
 in Gaul, and precipitated the several races upon each other. 
 Should we, therefore, wish to discover who were the " Veteres 
 Galli," we must look for them in the natural fortresses of 
 
 1 Strabo 6/ioyXu>rroi/ on iravrac, aXX'tviovg piicpov TrapaXXarrovrraf raij 
 
 The yX W rr; aXXoia of Folybius is not, as is well known to every scholar, 
 " another language," as it has been inaccurately translated, but a " variety in 
 dialect."
 
 60 ON THE NON-HELLENIC PORTION 
 
 France, where they could defend themselves both from the 
 foreign invaders, and the mixed bands of half-bandits, half- 
 warriors, who ceased not to infest the country after the main 
 body of invaders had passed away. 
 
 Such a race were the Veneti of Western Gaul, so similar in 
 their history, at an earlier period, to their kin-tribe in Italy. 
 When the Roman empire was sinking under the repeated 
 assaults of the Northern barbarians, the Italian Veneti sought 
 refuge in their marshes and among their lagoons, where ne- 
 cessity soon compelled them to become a naval and commer- 
 cial people. This had been the fate of the Gallic Veneti, at a 
 period antecedent to history. For Julius Caesar 1 found them 
 a highly civilized people, intimately connected with Britain, 
 hardy sailors, and masters of practical arts, unknown, or at 
 least unrecorded, among Greek and Roman practices. 2 These 
 Veneti, with their cognate tribes, the Osismii, Lexovii, Nan- 
 netes, Ambialites, and Diablintes, together with auxiliaries 
 from the opposite coast of Britain, prepared to resist Caesar. 
 Their fleet, consisting of two hundred and twenty vessels of 
 immense size and strength, built entirely of oak, and trusting 
 to their sails alone, was destroyed by the row-galleys of the 
 Romans, more owing to a chance calm than any other cause. 
 The position of their cities, defended by " mcenibus," stone 
 walls on tongues of land and promontories, to which there 
 was no access except by sea, proves that a superior force had 
 driven them for protection into such fortresses, which their 
 naval skill and power could make good against land troops 
 alone. 3 That these Veneti were of the Curnrian race in Britain, 
 
 1 Hujus civitatis est longe amplissima auctoritas omnis oree maritime, 
 quod et naves habent Veneti plurhuas, quibuscum in Britanniatn navigare 
 cousueverunt ; et scientia et usu nauticarum rerum cseteros antecedunt ; et in 
 magno impetu maris, atque aperto, paucis portubus interjectis, quas tenent 
 ipsi, omnes fere, qui eodem mari uti consueverunt, habent vectigales. Com. 
 Bell. Gall. lib. iii. cap. 8. 
 
 2 Especially their chain-anchors and sails of finely tanned leather. 
 
 3 Erant ejusmodi fere situs oppidorum, ut posita in extremis linguis pro- 
 montoriisque, neque pedibus aditum habercnt, quum ex alto se aestus iucita-
 
 Ol? THE LATIN LANGUAGE. 61 
 
 there can be no doubt ; even the name of the present Cumri 
 of North Wales is, if spelt after the Roman manner, the same, 
 G wined, 1 Venetia, Gvvinedig Veneticus, Gwinedigion Venetici. 
 The modern latinized form, Venedocia and Venedocians, are 
 pure barbarisms, for which there is not the slightest analogical 
 support. 
 
 The trade which alone could have enabled the Gallic Veneti 
 to have maintained so powerful a navy, was, according to 
 Csesar, carried on with Britain, but assuredly not with that 
 part of Britain which he afterwards invaded, as the Britons, 
 with whom he came in contact, do not appear to have been 
 acquainted with naval affairs, nor to have possessed a vessel 
 larger than a coracle. The traffic of the Veneti must have 
 been carried on with their kindred tribes in the west of the 
 island, and in the Spanish peninsula. No Belgic tribe could 
 possibly be classed among the Veteres Galli. 
 
 Of the race of the " Veteres Galli," were not only the Ve- 
 neti, but also the ./Edui and Arverni. Both these nations 
 claimed the sovereignty of all Gaul, and seem to have been 
 regarded as the natural chiefs 2 of the central tribes. The 
 ^Edui seem to have derived their name from AfS the Great, 3 
 the father of Prudain, one of the three pillars of the race of the 
 Cumri. Nor is it improbable that Caesar's notion, " that all 
 the Gauls held that they sprang from Father Dis, and that 
 this was taught by the Druids," originated in a mistake, which 
 led him to confound the Greek AJvi? with the Cumbrian AeS 
 
 visset, quod bis semper accidit horarum xii. spatio ; neque navibus, quod; 
 rursus minuenti sestu naves in vadis afflictarentur. In utraque re oppidorum 
 oppugnatio impediebatur. Ac si quando, magnitudine opens forte superati, 
 extruso mari aggere ac molibus, atque his ferme mcenibus ada3quatis, suis for- 
 tunis desperare creperant ; magno numero navium appulso, cujus rei summam 
 habebant facultatem, sua omnia deportabant, atque se in proxima oppida re- 
 cipiebant, ubi se rursus iisdem opportunitatibus loci defendebant. Com. 
 Bell. Gall, lib.iii. cap. 12. 
 
 1 See Pugh. Diet, under the words. 
 
 2 Quod summa auctoritas antiquitus erat in ^duis. Csesar, lib. i. 48, Ut 
 omni tempore totius Galliae principatum ^Edui tenuissent. 
 
 3 Triad 2 and 34, &c.
 
 62 ON THE NON-HELLENIC PORTION 
 
 the Great. 1 It is, moreover, difficult, without recurring to the 
 affirmed consanguinity of the Umbri and the " Veteres Galli," 
 to account for a circumstance so striking as the confession on 
 the part of the Romans, " that the ^Edui were their brothers 
 and kinsmen." 2 As this name was repeatedly conferred upon 
 them by solemn decrees of the Senate, a name which, to the 
 best of my recollection, was never conferred except upon na- 
 tions supposed to have been connected with them by blood, it 
 is a fair inference that a case in proof of a common origin was 
 satisfactorily made out, before an honour of so high a nature 
 could have been bestowed upon people of barbarian, and, 
 what was more hateful, of Gallic race. 8 The Arverni, the 
 neighbours of the ^Edui, and who, from the natural strength 
 of their country, might be expected to represent the " Veteres 
 Galli," were, at a later period, allowed to assume the same 
 honours, as we read in Lucan : 4 
 
 Arvernique ausi Latio se fingere fratres 
 Sanguine ab Iliaco populi. 
 
 It was undoubtedly in this common claim to a Trojan origin, 
 a claim eventually to be traced to a common religion and re- 
 ligious rites, that we are to recognize the principle, which in- 
 duced the Veneti, the Romans, the Arverni, and the Cumrians 
 of our island, who, from the remotest antiquity, traced them- 
 selves to Troy and Asia Minor, to regard themselves as 
 " fratres " and " consanguinei." 
 
 l Galli se omnes ab Dite patre prognatos praedicant, idque ab Druidibus 
 proditum dicunt. Caesar, lib. vi. cap. 17. 
 
 2 Imprimis quod 2Eduos fratres consanguineosque saepenumero ab Senatu 
 appellatos, videbat. Lib. i. cap. 43. 
 
 3 Docebat etiam quam veteres, quamque justee causae necessitudinis ipsis 
 cum jEduis intercederent : quae Senatus consulta, quoties, quamque houorifice, 
 in eos facta essent. Lib. i. cap. 43. 
 
 'Qv eanv iv Trpof P(t>(iaiovg i\ov ffvyytvtiav Kai <f>i\iav rr\v /**XP l ro>J/ Ka ^' ?/*<* 
 xpovwv diafitvovffav. Diodorus Siculus, lib. iv. p. 210. 
 
 Ol Se ESovot icai avyyivti$ TUV Pw//aiwv ovopaZovro. Strabo, 1. 192. 
 
 4 Book i. ver. 427 ; see also the testimony of Sidonitis Appolliuaris to the 
 same eifect.
 
 OP THE LATIN LANGUAGE. 63 
 
 This community of origin produced very marked political 
 sympathies, which were of no small aid to the Romans in ex- 
 tending their empire. In the very romantic account given by 
 Livy 1 of the passage of the Cimminian Ridge by a Fabius, and 
 the defeat of the Etrurians in the vicinity of Perusia, one thing 
 alone appears historical, that at a very remote period a league 
 was concluded between the Romans and Camertian Umbrians, 
 for the sake of mutual protection against the Tuscans. Of this 
 treaty Cicero says, 2 that even in his time it was regarded 
 " sanctissimum et asquissimum." From the same speech we 
 learn that there was a similar treaty with the Umbrians of 
 Iguvium. Wars with the Umbrians there were none, and the 
 one battle which preceded their final submission to Rome, 
 was, if we can believe Livy, 3 almost a bloodless one. In the 
 words of Cramer, 4 " The Umbri appeared to have offered but 
 little resistance to the Romans, nor is it improbable that this 
 politic people took advantage of their differences with the 
 Etruscans, to induce them at least to remain neuter, whilst 
 they were contending with the latter power." Here, also, 
 Cramer's opinion on the question, 5 partly examined by me, 
 may be advanced, and, as he had no hypothesis to maintain, 
 great weight ought to be given to his conclusion : " Zenodo- 
 tus was of opinion that the Sabines were descended from the 
 Umbri, and, although it is customary to regard them as be- 
 longing to the Oscan race, I see no reason why the latter 
 people, who are very indistinctly classed and defined, should 
 not be considered as descended from the same indigenous 
 stock ; nay, rather when we consider the analogy which is 
 allowed to exist between the several ancient dialects of Italy, 
 and the uniformity of topographical nomenclature which may 
 be traced throughout a great part of the Peninsula, there seems 
 to be a strong argument in favour of such a hypothesis. 
 Considering, therefore, the Umbri as confessedly the most 
 ancient people of Italy, I think we may safely ascribe to them 
 
 1 Lib. ix. cap .36. 2 Oratio pro Balbo. 3 Lib. ix. cap. 4. 
 
 * Vol.i. 254. 5 Do. 252.
 
 64 ON THE NON-HELLENIC PORTION 
 
 the population of the central and mountainous parts of that 
 country, as also the primitive form of its language, until the 
 several communities of the Etruscans, Sabines, and Latins suc- 
 cessively detached themselves from the parent nation, and, from 
 a combination of different elements, adopted also different mo- 
 difications of the same primeval tongue." 
 
 The history of the Veneti, 1 " in the words of the same author, 
 contains little that is worthy of notice, if we except the remark- 
 able feature, of their being the sole people of Italy who not 
 only offered no resistance to the ambitious projects of Rome, 
 but even at an early period rendered that power an essential 
 service, if it be true, as Polybius reports, that the Gauls, who 
 had taken Rome, were suddenly called away, by an incursion 
 of the Veneti into their territory (ii. 18). The same author 
 also expressly states, that an alliance was afterwards formed 
 between the Romans and Veneti (ii. 23), a fact which is con- 
 firmed by Strabo (v. 216)." 
 
 This state of security and peace would seem to have been 
 very favourable to the prosperity of the Venetian nation. Ac- 
 cording to an old geographer, they counted within their ter- 
 ritory fifty cities, and a population of a million and a half; 
 " when the Gauls had been subjugated, the Veneti do not ap- 
 pear to have manifested any unwillingness to constitute a part 
 of the new province, an event which we may suppose to have 
 happened not long after the second Punic War. Their territory 
 from that period was included under the general denomination 
 of Cisalpine Gaul, and they were admitted to all the privileges 
 which that province successively obtained." 
 
 It is difficult to account for such a general and complete 
 amalgamation, without suspecting that the two races, the Ro- 
 man and Venetian, were originally the same, especially when 
 we call to mind, that the invading Gauls of the vale of the Po 
 had absolutely to be exterminated by their conquerors. 
 
 The ^Edui 2 were the first of their countrymen to embrace 
 
 i Vol. i. p. 113. 
 
 * Stvabo n/^wrot ruv ravry irpoi]\6ov irpog TIJI> <j>t\iav KO.I
 
 OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. 65 
 
 the friendship and alliance of Rome, and continued to a late pe- 
 riod to partake of the advantages therefrom resulting. Pliny 
 calls them in his day " Foederati," and their neighbours the 
 Arverni, " Liberi." Even as late as the age of Sidonius Apolli- 
 naris, 1 the latter nation still prided themselves on their Roman 
 blood, and supposed descent from Italy. 
 
 Est mihi quse Latio se sanguine tollit alumnam, 
 Tellus clara viris. 
 
 It is well known that the Cumri of our island claim a Trojan 
 origin, and that this tradition was held by them long before 
 the time of Geoffrey of Mon mouth, and that even Nennius 
 gave a historical aspect to the belief. We read in the life of 
 Agricola, that the Britons embraced with avidity the prominent 
 arts of Roman civilization, a circumstance which an examina- 
 tion of history should induce us to regard as almost impossible, 
 except in cases where the cognation of the victors and the 
 vanquished is very close. 
 
 On the whole, it may therefore be regarded as proved, that 
 there were at the earliest period, when the history of Western 
 Europe commences, fragments of a great nation to be found in 
 the fastnesses and natural fortresses of Italy, Gaul, and Great 
 Britain, 2 who all agreed in claiming a common origin, and in 
 tracing it, directly or indirectly, to a name called by them 
 Troy. 
 
 Having thus shown, from important testimonies, the close 
 union between the original population of Rome and the Um- 
 brians, and between the Umbrians, Romans, " Veteres Galli," 
 and Veneti, and the Cumri of our island, it now remains that 
 we should examine into the language of the Umbri, and its 
 
 1 Sidon. Apollinar. Poem. 62. 
 
 8 Tacitus, 21. Jam vero principura filios liberalibus artibus erudire et in- 
 genia Britannorum studiis Gallorum anteferre, ut, qui rnodo linguara Roma- 
 nam abnuebant, eloquentiam concupiscerent, inde etiain habitus nostri honor 
 et frequens toga, paullatimque discessum ad de linimenta vitiorum porticus et 
 balnea et conviviorum elegantiam ; idque apud imperitos humanitas vocabatur, 
 cum pars servitutis esset. 
 
 9
 
 66 ON THE NON-HELLENIC PORTION 
 
 close connection with the language of the Cumri. If the Igu- 
 vinian or Eugubian tables were really Umbrian, this might be 
 supposed to furnish us with a certain test as to the identity of 
 the two languages. But this they assuredly do not. The 
 double set of characters, and the very imperfect representation 
 in the tables written in Latin characters, of the sense contained, 
 or supposed to be contained, in those inscribed with ancient 
 Greek letters, are in themselves a proof, that the language of 
 the latter was a sacred one, known to a few alone, and not 
 therefore to be accounted the language of the country. They 
 are evidently hymns, composed by priests, similar in character 
 to the Curetes, Idsei Dactyli, Telchines, Orphic Initiators, and 
 other such colleges,_whose mission it was to communicate the 
 blessings of corn and wine, under religious and mysterious 
 sanctions, to those nations, which had not previously been made 
 acquainted with those main supports of civilized life. 
 
 Among these names, the Pelasgi occupy a conspicuous sta- 
 tion, not, however, as teachers of the art of agriculture and vine- 
 dressing, but as hewers of stone and builders of fortresses and 
 cities. It would be most difficult to prove that they ever were 
 a distinct nation, but it is clear that they belonged to that race, 
 call them Trojans, Pelasgians, Thracians, Phrygians, or any 
 other equivalent name, who sunk under the superior energies 
 of the Achaean and Hellenic races. Pelasgus, the patron saint 
 or mythological representation of the Pelasgi, is described by 
 Pausanias, 1 as the person " who first invented huts to defend 
 mankind from the cold and rain." Even Fynes Clinton, with 
 all his judgment and sagacity, cannot press this Pelasgus into 
 the historical curriculum, without multiplying him into five 
 distinct personages, a clear proof that there is not the slightest 
 rational ground for clothing him at all with a real existence. 
 That the Pelasgi were everywhere to be found, is most true, in 
 Asia, in Crete, in the other islands, in Thrace, Thessaly, Epirus, 
 
 1 Lib. viii. cap.l. 
 
 TlfXcttryof Sf fiaffiXtvffa. rovro fitv irotijcraaQai Ka\vf3a iirtvotjffiv, w 
 KOI vtffBai TOVQ av9puirovf.
 
 OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. g7 
 
 Peloponnesus, and Italy ; but it is impossible to prove that they 
 were a race distinct in blood from the other older inhabitants 
 of those countries. This view of the subject is rendered more 
 probable by the only account of Pelasgi which can be regarded 
 as historical. According to Herodotus, in a well-known pas- 
 sage, certain Pelasgi had agreed, for a stipulated reward, to 
 surround the Athenian Acropolis with a wall. They performed 
 their bargain, but were afterwards expelled by the Athenians, 
 first to Lemnos, and at a later period from Lemnos to the 
 Hellespont. Now, it is from the language of these Hellespon- 
 tian Pelasgi that Herodotus drew his conclusions as to the ori- 
 ginal dialect of the older Pelasgi. But Pausanias 1 informs us 
 that he had ascertained that they were originally Siceli, and 
 had passed over into Acarnania. The leaders of these erratic 
 stonemasons are called by the same author AypoA^? and T7rf/3/o, 2 
 literally " stone-griper," and " very strong," names which be- 
 tray their fabulous origin, and which can no more be regarded 
 as historical than the Eucheir and Eugrammus, the two Corin- 
 thian artists who are supposed to have attended Demaratus 
 into Tuscany. As a proof that the more uncommon form of 
 the Eugubian inscription is a remnant of the older Greek, I 
 give the following specimen from the beginning of one of the 
 tables, with the omission of the first line : 
 
 2. Famerias Pumplerias xu Atiiriate etre Atierate. 
 
 3. Clavernie etre Clavernie. Kuriate etre Kuriate. 
 
 4. Satane etre Satane. Pieriate etre Pierate. Talenas 
 
 5. Etre Talenate. Museiate etre Museiate. Iviscane 
 
 6. Etre Iviscane. Caselate etre Caselate. Tertie Caselate. 
 
 In this list of communities, or rather of colleges, we see dis- 
 tinctly the first and second of the Curiate or Curetes, the first 
 
 1 Pans. lib. i cap. 28. 
 
 Ty St arpoTToXu ir\r)i> otrov Kt/iwi' yKoSo^aev ctvrjjc 6 MiXnaflou, irtptfiaXtiv TO 
 
 \oiirov row Tti%ovf JltXaayove, oiKJjffairaf von VTTO rr\v aicpOTroXn/ $aai yap 
 AypoXav irai vTripfiiov. irvv9avofitvoc St oirivtg rjffav ovSiv a\\o tSvvanijv paQtiv 
 StiaXowc ro iZapxtjc; ovra AKapvaviav fiiroiKTiaai. 
 
 2 Aypa-captura, e. g. irvp-aypo, a smith's forceps, and Xa.af, a stone, 
 exceedingly, and /3to, force.
 
 68 ON THE NON-HELLENIC PORTION 
 
 and second of the Museiate or Muses, the first and second of 
 the Pieriate or Pierides, the constant companions of the Orphic 
 priests. The rest of the inscription is nothing more than a 
 long repetition of the names and titles of Juvis Pater, upon 
 the same plan as the Orphic indigitamenta. 
 
 Throwing aside, therefore, for the present the consideration 
 of the Eugubian Tables, as not furnishing us with a trust- 
 worthy specimen of the anterior language, I proceed to call 
 other witnesses, to whom we can safely appeal when a question 
 is raised about the identity of language spoken in various 
 countries, the names of those eternal monuments (eternal at 
 least as far as human testimony can reach), the mountains, 
 vales, and rivers, and even cities, which, in all cases where ex- 
 termination has not preceded occupation, preserve the mark 
 impressed upon them by the primitive occupiers of the soil. 
 
 RIVERS. And first of the rivers in Umbria, Venetia, 01 
 countries once occupied by the Umbri and their descendant 
 tribes. And in making these selections, it will be my object 
 to give specimens, riot to accumulate all that can be gathered 
 together. 
 
 The most general Cumrian name for a stream is gwy or wy 
 (Wye), wys (Ouse Isis), and wysk (Esk). The word gwy l 
 itself has perished in this island, and is only found in the 
 names of rivers, such as Ed-wy, Myn-wy, Onwy, &c. In Italy 
 we find the 
 
 jEsis. 2 
 Bed-Esis. 8 
 Ath-Esis. 4 
 
 1 For the sake of the general reader, if such should read so far, it should be 
 mentioned that the Cumrian w is pronounced like the English oo in (jood, and 
 that the y following it merely iotacizes the oo, 
 
 2 A river in Picenum, now called Fiumesino (Flumen ^Esinum). 
 8 Not far from Bononia, now called Ronco. 
 
 4 The Aclige. Observe the tendency of the v or w to become g, aev-um, 
 Age, &c.
 
 OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. 69 
 
 Nat-Iso. 2 
 
 Apr-Usa. 3 
 
 Pad-Usa. 4 
 
 Osa. 5 
 
 Is. 6 
 
 Aus-ar. 7 
 Gal-^Esus. 8 
 Ver-Esis, now L'osa, in Latium. 
 
 The Cumrian name for a river, next in importance, is Avon, 
 the same word as the Latin Amn-is. It must be remembered 
 by etymologists, that the Latin m was not our strong labial 
 
 1 Now Isaro, near Crotona. Ms, water, ar, mountain. 
 8 Now Natisone, not far from Aquileia. 
 
 8 Now Ausa, not far from Ariminum. Wys apparently compounded with 
 aper. 
 
 4 A branch of the Po. Pad-wys, water of the Pad, called by Polybius 
 Padoa. Now called the Po de Primano. 
 
 5 Osa retains its name, a small river not far from Cosa. 
 
 6 Is, now Issa, between Petilia and Velia. 
 
 7 Ausar, now Serchio, near Pisa. 
 
 8 The Tarentine stream, so celebrated by poets, now called Galeso. This, 
 among many others, may be quoted as a proof of the indestructibility of names, 
 except by the absolute extermination of the inhabitants. The Dorians of Ta- 
 rentum gave it the name of Eurotas, after their own Laconian stream ; and 
 in the days of Polybius it was, as we are informed by him, more generally 
 termed the Eurotas. But as Greek influence declined, the original name pre- 
 vailed, and the Galaesus has been immortalized in many a poet's verses. As- 
 suredly, it is not owing to chance that the two words meant the same thing, 
 the one in the Cumrian, the other in the Greek language. Ev-pur-as, the 
 fair stream ; Gal-wys, fair water. In Owen's Dictionary we find the follow- 
 ing explanation : Gfil, " clear," " fair." 
 
 Avon reawg ai hynt hir mewn gwaundir gal. 
 
 A river running with its course long in meadow-land fair. 
 Here, perhaps, I ought to add, that the Bradanus, the largest stream which 
 falls into the Tarentine Gulf, still called the Bradano, has its representative in 
 the Guildford river in Surrey, which bore both the generic name "Wey," and 
 the specific one Brad-an. The specific name has, however, I understand, 
 perished among the people, although retained in history.
 
 70 ON THE NON-HELLENIC PORTION 
 
 consonant, but a vocal sound corresponding to our English w 
 at the end of words. Without this explanation, it is impos- 
 sible to account for its perishable nature in verse at the end of 
 words followed by vowels. In those terms which the Cum- 
 rians had in common with the Romans, and have since re- 
 tained, the m, especially in the middle of words, becomes a v, 
 thus 
 
 Animal, Anivail. 
 
 Numerus, Niver. 
 
 Romani, Rhuveiniaid. 
 
 Thus also Amn-is, Avn, Aven, and Avon, in Cumric ; Aim and 
 An in Gaelic. In its simple form we find in Italy only two, 
 
 Aven-tia, 1 
 
 Savo ; 3 to which should be added the Ufens 3 
 and the Avens, a tributary of the Himella. 
 But in the names of places we find 
 
 AntemnaB and Antennae, 
 
 Interamna repeatedly, and also a river Scultenna; 
 whence it is credible that the word, in its contracted form of 
 An, or Ann, or En, with the termination us, is often to be 
 found as 
 
 Vom-an-us, 4 
 
 Amas-en-us, 5 
 
 Fibr-en-us, 6 &c. &c. 
 
 1 Now L'Avenza, near Luna. 
 
 8 Now Savone, in Campania, after the manner of the Gallic Savona, now 
 Saone ; originally it was Avon Ara, the Slow River (vide Caesar's description 
 of it,* lib. i. cap. 1 2). In time the specific name perished, the generic remained. 
 
 * Now Aufente, in Latium. 
 
 4 Now the Vomano, in Picenum. 
 
 6 In the Pontine Marshes. 
 
 6 A tributary of the Liris ; evidently the Beaver (Fiber) Stream. 
 
 * Flumen est Arar, quod per fines zEduorum et Sequanorum in Rhodanuin 
 influit incredibili lenitate, ita ut oculis in utram partem fluat judicari uon 
 possit. Ara means "slow."
 
 OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. 71 
 
 The full meaning of this latter termination may be proved 
 from the river Gari-en-us in Norfolk, now called the Yare, ac- 
 cording to the common English custom of changing the older 
 g into y. 
 
 To these should undoubtedly be added the celebrated 
 
 Clit-umn-us, 1 
 
 formed on the same principle as the Gallic Garumna (Garw 
 Avon, Rough River). To these generic names of the rivers 
 may be added a long list of Italian streams bearing the same 
 names as rivers in our island. Such as the 
 
 Duria Major, 2 
 
 Duria Minor, 
 
 Turia, 
 
 Sturia, 
 
 Tinia, 3 . 
 
 Tinna, 4 
 
 The Umbro, 5 
 
 1 Still called Clitunno,. That the Clit is a separable prefix is apparent 
 from its being joined with ernum, a very common topographical affix, as Clit- 
 ernum. The word is apparently synonymous with the Scottish and Welsh 
 Clyde, which means in Cumrian " warm" cliid, a term equally applicable to 
 the Italian and British rivers. 
 
 2 Dwr is the common name among the Cumrian tribes for water, river, sea. 
 The two D arise, tributaries of the Upper Po, are still called Doria Baltea, and 
 Doria Riparia. The Turia, a small tributary of the Tiber, about six miles 
 from Rome, is not recognized by modern geographers. The Stura, still retain- 
 ing its ancient name, is also a tributary of the Upper Po. In the Sussex Adur, 
 and the Kentish Stour, we still retain the original appellations. There was 
 also a river in Latium, called both Astura and Stura, now Store. 
 
 3 Now Timia, in Umbria. 
 
 4 Still called Tinna, in Piceuum. Both synonymous with our Tyne, and 
 with another Italian Tinea, a tributai'y of the Var. 
 
 5 Cramer, vol. i. page 181, has the following observation: "A short dis- 
 tance from the lake Prilis brings us to the mouth of the Ombrone, anciently 
 Umbro, one of the most considerable rivers of Etruria. It is represented as 
 navigable by Pliny, and its name, as the same writer observes, is indicative of 
 the Umbri having once been in possession of Etruria." The strength of the 
 argument is doubled by the occurrence of a second Umbro in Etruria, not far 
 from Arretium, called by Cramer, Ambra, but written Umbro in the Peutin-
 
 72 ON THE NON-HELLENIC PORTION 
 
 The Ambra, 
 The Truentum, 1 
 The Traens, 
 The Liris, 3 
 The Farfarus. 8 
 
 To these leading streams many others might be added : such as 
 The Suinus, the Cornish Heyne, 
 Himella, pronounced Hivella, the Bedfordshire Ivel, 
 Misus, and 
 
 Misio, the Cumberland Mite, &c. 
 
 But these are enough to prove that the same people gave the 
 names to the Italian and British rivers. Even the name of 
 the Roman river itself was, in old times, pure Cumrian, Alb, 
 a hill (e.g. Albyn, Scotland), and ul, water (see Owen's Diet.}, 
 whence the Latin uligo, &c., so that the Alb-ul-a meant the 
 mountain stream, or the highland river. The more common 
 
 gerian Tables. The British Humber, or Humyr, is evidently the same name, 
 and equally conclusive of the presence of the Umbri in Britain. 
 
 1 Truentum, now called Tronto, is in Picenum. The Traens, not far from 
 Sybaris, bears the modern name of Trionto. They are both evidently the 
 same word : the first being the Latinized, and the other the Hellenized form. 
 The Greeks seem, as I shall have further occasion to remark, to have formed 
 imaginary nominatives, in order to reduce the Italian names to the analogy of 
 their own declensions. The Saxon name of the great river Trent was Tre- 
 onta, as well as Trenta ; a form which identifies the British with the two 
 Italian streams, Tronto and Trionto. If these be compared with the Alpine 
 Druentia, and the British Derventio, the modern Derwent, it will be inferred, 
 that they were all originally the same word. 
 
 2 Probably the same as the Gallic Liger (now Loire), especially if it be com- 
 pared with the Saxon Leire (now Soar), the river of Leicester, originally Leger- 
 ceaster, or Ligora-ceaster. 
 
 3 Near Gabii, now Farfa, evidently the British Wharfe. 
 
 Varro, De Lingua Latina, lib. v. cap. 6. " Sed de Tiberis nomine anceps 
 historia, nam suum Etruria et Latium suum esse credit, quod fuerunt qui ab 
 Thebri vicino regulo Veientum dixerunt appellatum Thebrim. Sunt qui Tiberim 
 priscum nomen Latinum Albulam vocitatum literis tradiderunt." Compare 
 the same author, De Re Rustica, lib. iii. cap. i. " Lingua prisca et Graeca 
 ./Eoles Boeotii sine afflatu vocant collis Tebas ; et in Sabinis, quo e Graecia 
 venerunt Pelasgi, etiam nunc ita dicunt."
 
 OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. 73 
 
 name Thybris (never Tiber) was, as we are informed by Varro, 
 in ancient times, written Thebris or Tebris ; but the same 
 learned author tells us in another place, that the Sabines called 
 mountains Tebse, or (with the hard breathing) Thebae. This, 
 with the Greek pea, to flow, will again give us a literal trans- 
 lation of the indigenous appellation. 
 
 THE MOUNTAINS. Should a list of Italian mountains be 
 placed before a classical scholar, he will find no difficulty in 
 recognising many as referable to the Greek, and many more 
 to the Latin language. To the Greek he would instantly refer 
 
 Epopeus, 1 Prospect-hill 7n-4/. 
 
 Gaurus, 2 lofty, Taupo?, elatus. 
 
 Pausilypus, 3 sorrow-ceasing, 
 
 Physcus, &c. 4 swelling bladder-like, 
 To the Latin he would with no less confidence refer 
 
 Algidus, 5 Cold Hill. 
 
 Argentarius, 6 Silver do. 
 
 Carbonarius, 7 Charcoal do. 
 
 Gravis, 8 Heavy do. 
 
 Suismontium, 9 Boar do. 
 
 Tetricus, 10 Craggy do. 
 
 Severus, 10 &c. Hard do. 
 and innumerable others. 
 
 1 A high hill in Ischia so called, for the same reason as the Acro-Corinthus 
 was called tirwirri. See Stephan. De Urbibus, under the word. 
 
 2 The height above the Arvernian lake. 
 
 3 " It seems allowed that the Greek term Pausilypus was applied to the ridge 
 of hills which separates the Bay of Naples from that of Pozzuoli, probably on 
 account of its delightful situation and aspect." Cramer's Italy, p. 173. 
 
 4 A hill near the Neaethus. 5 In Latium. 6 In Etruria. 
 7 Near Marrubium. 8 On the Via Sublacensis. 9 In Liguria. 
 
 10 Among the Sabini, not far from the source of the Nar, Tetricus and 
 Severus are supposed at present to be represented by the high peaks of the 
 Sibilla, among the loftiest in the Apennine ridge. The poets are very fond of 
 alluding to the meaning of the name when they knew it. Hence 
 
 "Nam quas nivali pascitur algido." Hor. Od. lib. i. 21. And 
 " Qui Tctrici horrentes rapes niontemque Severum." Virg. Mn. vii. b. 714. 
 
 10
 
 74 ON THE NON-HELLENIC PORTION 
 
 But many names still remain, to the meaning of which the 
 mere classical scholar possesses no key. We, like the learned 
 Varro, must say, " of such words the etymology is most diffi- 
 cult, for, in general, they have nothing in common with the 
 Greek, and are vernacular terms, to the origin of which our 
 records do not reach." Had he always remembered this truth,. 
 he would not have been guilty of such absurd mistakes as too 
 often are visible in his great work. In explaining the mean- 
 ing of some of the names of mountains in ancient Italy, it is 
 not my intention to meddle with Alb, Tor, or any other such 
 well-known roots. The names selected are the following : 
 
 f Peninus. 
 1 ] Ap-Peninus. 
 v. Le-Pinus. 
 Canterius. 2 
 
 1 " Et locus difncillimus est erv/xa, quod ncqxic his fere societas cum Grseca 
 lingua, neque vernacula ea, quorum in partum memoria adfuerit nostra." 
 Lib. vi. de Lin. Sat. cap. 5. 
 
 The name Apenninus may safely be merged in the Cumrian form Penninus, 
 an appellation by which both the god who was worshipped at the pass of the 
 Great Saint Bernard (Alpes Penninae), and the god whom the Umbrian shep- 
 herds adored in the vicinity of Iguvium, were called. The spot is marked in 
 the Peutingerian Tables as the temple of Jupiter Penninus. The Cumrian 
 Pen is the English head chief summit, and is still used as a common word. 
 " Penin " is the capital of a pillar, and was doubtless applied to designate the 
 highest peaks among the hills. I am inclined to reckon Le-Pinus as another 
 form, especially as the town Pinna, in the high Apennines, is now called Penne. 
 
 2 Varro, in talking of Pecudes, writes (De Re Rust. lib. ii. cap. 1), " Annon 
 in man terraque ab his regionum notae ? in mari, quod nominarunt a capris 
 jEgseum pelagus, ad Syriam montem Taurum, in Sabinis Canterium montem." 
 " Have not the characteristics of regions, both by sea and land, been derived 
 from them ? Was not the JSgean Sea derived from Aiyte ? the mountain near 
 Syria from Tavpoc ? and that in the Sabini, from Cantherium, ' a beast of 
 burden ? ' ' Now, if it can be shown that the learned antiquary is wrong in 
 the first, it may be inferred that he may be also mistaken with respect to the 
 last. Now, from AKTO-W, " I rush violently, I spring," came Ai, " a goat, 
 a springing animal," and <?, " impetuosity." From this second Ai came 
 Aiyie, "an impetuous squall of wind," as may be seen in the compound 
 
 Karaiyif, thus defined by Aristotle, "Twv yenw fliaiuv Trvfvuarvv Karaiytg ft.iv
 
 OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. 75 
 
 Ciminus. 1 
 
 Si-Cimina. 
 
 Cumeriuin Promoiitorium. 2 
 
 Cunarus. 3 
 
 In entering upon the question of the names of places, it 
 
 tan irvtvfia avwOtv TVTTTOV tZat$vt]Q." Of the violent winds, the Karaiyig is " a 
 
 blast that suddenly strikes from above." The ^Egean is therefore not the 
 Goat Sea, but the Squally Sea, a name which, all who know it say, it well 
 deserves. Hence also in Homer, Atyioxoc, the epithet of Homer's Jupiter, 
 the " Storm-restrainer," not the " Goat-skin-holder," as later commentators 
 interpreted the word. Mount Taurus was not named after " the Bull," but 
 from Tor, one of the most universally diffused names for a bold and aspiring 
 peak. Canterius Mons, also, has nothing to do with a " gelding," but was 
 named, on the same principle as many other hills, from " Can," or Cauus, 
 white, and Terra (originally Tera), land; or, in the Cumrian form, from the 
 same words, " Cantir," from " Can," white, and Tir, land. 
 
 1 Mons Ciminus was a long and lofty ridge in Etruria, the passage of which 
 (at least if we credit the annals of the Fabian family) formed an era in the 
 history of early Rome. I have already observed that the M of the Romans 
 was more of a vocal than consonantal letter. Hence this same name of a 
 hill, when applied to the range of hills in the south-east of France, and written 
 Kepivos by the Greeks, and Cebenna by the Latins, still keeps its original 
 sound in the French Cevennes. But in the language of the modern Cumri 
 (see Owen's Diet.}, Cevyn (pronounced Ceven, pi. Cevenau), is " a ridge, as 
 Cevyn o dir, a ridge of land, a long-extended mountain." From the same 
 root comes Ceba, now Ceva, a town and district of Piedmont ; the Cevin or 
 Chevin Hills, in Yorkshire ; and the Cheviot Hills, called formerly Chevy, the 
 well-known ridge between Scotland and England. To these may be added the 
 ancient Si-Cimino, a mountain of Liguria. 
 
 2 Cumerium Promontorium, now Monte Comero, a bold headland in Pice- 
 num, still commemorating the possession of that district by the Cumri, under 
 their true name, and a record as lasting as the Mont-Gomeri in France, and 
 the Comri Isles in the Frith of Clyde, probably in all cases the last retreat of 
 the bravest spirits of a vanquished district. 
 
 3 Cunarus. This name is supposed to have been attached to the highest 
 peak of the Apennines, the modern Monte Corao, or il Gran Sasso d'ltalia. 
 And the etymology strongly confirms the conclusions of comparative geo- 
 graphers, for Cun-Ar means the chief hill. (See Owen's Dictionary, under the 
 words.) Gun, " a leader or chief." Ar-an, " a high place," alp. It is the 
 name of several of the highest mountains in Britain." Ar itself is not used 
 as a noun, but as the preposition " above, upon," is in constant use.
 
 76 ON THE NON-HELLENIC PORTION 
 
 should be remembered that many of the ancient names of 
 towns, cities, and fortresses, are merely the names of the people 
 or tribes who originally possessed them ; and that, first, the dis- 
 trict, secondly, the city, is nothing more than the appellation 
 of the nation. In the following remarks I shall, however, as 
 much as possible, avoid words of this clnss, and confine the 
 examination to such as seem to have a local meaning, borrowed 
 from some accident, whether the work of man or of nature. 
 Again, I have to request a fair hearing, and to beseech the 
 classical scholar especially, for a short time to commit himself 
 on subjects unknown to him to my guidance, and to assure 
 him, that I will not knowingly abuse his confidence in the 
 slightest degree. But as he, in reading a list of the names of 
 Italian cities, would, without scruple, infer, without historical 
 evidence, that by the Greeks were given the following names 
 
 Neapolis, Heraclea, 
 
 Dicaeopolis, Poseidonium, 
 
 Metapontum, Rhegium, &c. &c.; 
 
 and by the Latins, after the formation of their language, the 
 following 
 
 Concordia, Vicentia, 
 
 Consentia, Foro-Juliensis, 
 
 Valentia, Faventia, &c. &c.: 
 
 so ought he to allow me to select those names which are as 
 plain to me as the Latin and Greek are to him, and refer them 
 to the people by whom they were originally given. But it 
 will be better, in the first place, to give a list of those accidents, 
 the work either of man or of nature, from which the Cumrian 
 local names are more commonly borrowed. These I copy 
 alphabetically, and attach to each word the corresponding 
 definition from Owen's Dictionary. 
 
 Bala, " an eruption, a discharge of a lake. Bala Lin, the 
 outlet of a lake. Hence it is the name of many places in 
 Wales, Ireland, and Scotland." //
 
 OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. 77 
 
 Ban, " prominence. It is the appellative of several moun- 
 tains, as Banucdeni, and Bannau (pronounced Bannae), the 
 beacons of Breconshire, and the highlands of Tal-y-van in 
 Glamorganshire." 
 
 Ca, " a keep, a hold." 
 
 Cae, " an enclosure, a hedge, and metaphorically, a field." 
 
 Caer, " a wall or mound of defence ; the walls of a city, a 
 castle or fortress. Caer-y-Vunwent, the churchyard wall." 
 
 Cor, " a round or circle, a close." Bangor, " the principal 
 round or circle." It was a name given to some of our most 
 noted monasteries, one in Flintshire, one in Carnarvonshire, one 
 in Ireland, and another in Belleisle, off the coast of Brittany. 
 
 Clas, " a space of ground enclosed, a region, a country, an 
 island, old name of Britain, Clas Merdin." 
 
 " Bii Cuvranc gliw Powis, a clas Gwined." 
 
 " There was contention between the chief of Powys and the 
 region of Gwined." 
 
 Din, " a fortified hill or mount, a camp or fort. It-form s 
 the names of a great number of places in those countries which 
 were inhabited by the Cumri. Hence the Dunum, Dinum, 
 Dinium, of the Romans." 
 
 Din-as, " a fortress or fortified town, a city." It forms the 
 names of several places in Wales, as Pen-dinas, &c. 
 
 Gwal, " a cultivated country. The Cymry appropriated 
 this name to the regions that were cultivated, and had a fixed 
 residency, opposed to the wilds, or unsettled residences." 
 
 Gwely, " a bed or couch, also a family or tribe, a family 
 district belonging to a chief and his clan." 
 
 Gwent, " a fair or open region, a champaign. It is a name 
 now confined to nearly all Monmouthshire, but which anciently 
 comprehended parts of the counties of Gloucester and Here- 
 ford, being the district of which Caer-went, or the ' Venta 
 Silurum,' was the capital." 
 
 Gwern, " a swamp, a bog, a meadow, also alder-trees." 
 He might have added that it was a generic name for trees, 
 e.g. Gwernen, a mast of a tree.
 
 78 ON THE NON-HELLENIC PORTION 
 
 Gweridre, "cultivated land, an inhabited region, a country;" 
 apparently from Gwerin, " people," tre, " habitation." 
 Gwys, Gvves, " a people, a peopled region, a country." 
 Ty, " a house." 
 
 Trev, " a dwelling-place, a hamlet, a township, a town. It 
 forms the names of many places, as Trev-Ithel, " Ithelham," 
 Treva, "Hamburg." Treva y tulwith Teg, a fairy circle ; Treva 
 o id, a thrave of corn." 
 
 First, Under Ca or Cae, we find, among others, the following: 
 Ca-latia campana, 1 
 Ca-latia samnis. 1 
 Ca-letra, in Etruria. 
 Ca-Mars 2 or Clusium, in Etruria, 
 Ca-Mere, 8 near the Crathis, a field. 
 Ca-Meria, 4 in Latium. 
 Ca-Merinum, 5 in Umbria. 
 Ca-merte, in Umbria. 
 Ca-Silum. 6 
 Ca-Silinum. 6 
 
 Under Caer, or Car, pi. Ceirae, written Caerau, we find 
 . Ca3re. 7 
 
 Car-eia, on the Via Clodia, in Etruria. 
 
 Car-rea, near Turin, on the Po ; still called Chieri. 
 
 1 A comparison of these two names with Col-Latium, Pa- Latium, &c. will 
 show that Ca is a separable prefix. Compare also the rare coin, published by 
 Sestini, and bearing the inscription PALACIVM, ascribed to the Sabine Palan- 
 tium, from which, according to Varro (Ling. Lat. iv.) the Palatine Hill de- 
 rived its name. 
 
 2 For the same reason compare Mars Martis, the God, and the river Marta 
 in Etruria ; also Ma-mertium. 
 
 3 Purus offer, Ca-meren incola tuba vocat. Ov. Fast. 581. 
 
 4 Compare A-meria, in Umbria. 
 
 6 Compare Merinum, near Mons Garganus, in Apulia. 
 
 6 Compare with the English Sil-Chester, Caer-silin, Sil-innae Isles; Carsula, 
 an island of the western coast of Britain, mentioned by the geographer of 
 Eavenna. 
 
 ? Called by the Greeks Agylla. Caere is to this day a common name in 
 Wales.
 
 OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. 79 
 
 Ca-sula, in Umbria, 1 Both towns are now called 
 
 Car-seoli, in the Sabini, J Carsoli. 
 
 Car-istum, in Liguria ; now Carosio. 
 
 Car-meiamis Ager, in Apulia; naturally supposed to 
 
 imply a Carmeia. 
 
 Car-Minianum, in Apulia ; still called Car-miano. 
 Car-bina, in Apulia ; now Carovigno. 
 Car-aceni, a division of the Samnites. 
 Cere-atae, in Latium. 
 Cer-fennia, in the Sabini. 
 A-cerrae, 1 in Campania ; still so called. 
 Lu-ceria, in Apulia ; still called Lucera. 
 Nu-ceria 2 Alfaterna, in Campania ; still Nocera. 
 Nu-ceria Carnellana, also Nocera, in Umbria. 
 Nu-ceria Cisalpina, on the right bank of the lower Po. 
 Nu-Cria, also Nocera, a supposed town of the Brutii. 
 Many more might be added, without adding, however, to 
 the strength of the induction, although I may have to add 
 others under some other heading. It is to be remarked that 
 the Greek legends on certain coins give us Noi/xp/vwv ; and an 
 Oscan inscription, quoted by Lanzi, 3 has the word Nue-krinum. 
 Apparently Nu is the same word as the Latin Nov-us, Cumrian 
 New-id, or English new. 
 
 Under Cor we have the following names : 
 Cora, in Latium, still Cora. 
 Corbio, also in Latium. 
 Corfinium, capital of the Peligni. 
 Cor-ioli, in Latium. 
 Cormones, 4 still Cormons, in Venetia. 
 
 1 Another Acerrse, in Cisalpine Gaul, is now called Gherra. 
 
 2 Nu-ceria means New-town ; an old town in Welsh would be Hengaer, 
 from hen, sen-ex. Nola, in an inscription given by Lanzi, was Nu-flan, where 
 the/ supplies the place of the aspirated I, New-Lan, or in modern Welsh, 
 Llan-Newyd. Thus, also, "Latius ager " is in an inscription, "ager Tlatie," on 
 the same principle. 
 
 3 Vol.i. p. 209. 
 
 4 Gle-Mona, in the same vicinity, proves that Cor-Mones is made up of Cor 
 and Mona.
 
 80 ON THE NON-HELLENIC PORTION 
 
 Cor-sula, 1 in the Sabini. 
 Cures, now Correse, also in the Sabini. 
 Curia, in Cisalpine Gaul, now Coire. 
 If we compare these with the Coria Ottadinorum in North 
 Britain, with Corinium in South Britain, with the Bangor of 
 the Cumri, it will be difficult to escape the conviction that they 
 all represent the same original word. 
 Under Clas we have one : 
 
 Clas-tidium, on the Po, 
 
 which, compared with At-tidium, proves that both Clas and 
 At were separable prefixes. 
 Under Din we have 
 
 Vin Dinum, in Umbria 
 Ve-Dinum, in Venetia ; now Udine. 
 And with the D hardened, as in the British Tin-tagel 
 An-tinum, among the Marsi. 
 A-tina of the Lucanians ; now Atena. 
 A-tina of the Volscians ; now Atino. 
 Al-timnn, in Venetia j still Altino. 
 Re-tina in Campania. 
 
 Ma-tinum, which gave its name to the mountain. 
 Ses-tinum, in Umbria ; now Ses-tino. 
 Gwal and Gwely. 
 
 But here I must remark, that the Cumri prefix the letter G 
 to all the radical words which in Latin commence with V, on 
 the same principle which induces the French to write Walter, 
 Gualtier. That this was the original pronunciation in Italy 
 also, of Latin words commencing with V, is clear from the 
 resuscitation of the pronunciation in such words as the fol- 
 lowing : 
 
 Guado, A ford, Vadum. 
 
 Guagina, or 
 
 > A sheath, Vagina, Cum. Gwain. 
 
 Guaina, 
 
 Guastare, To waste, Vastare. 
 
 1 Compare this word with Car-sula, and Carseoli, and Ca-siliim, and with 
 Sul-M6n-e.
 
 OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. 181 
 
 This was the true digamma, which has so much puzzled 
 scholars, merely classical. The more refined age of Greece 
 abolished almost all the hard guttural and labial breathings, 
 and wrote : 
 
 o/vo;, Vinum, Gwin, Wine. 
 fxupo?, Socer, . Chwegir. 
 
 In the simple expression, " Woe 's me," we have in the dif- 
 ferent languages a complete scale of the original form and sub- 
 sequent disappearance of this digamma. 
 
 Cumrian, Gwai vi. 
 
 Latin, Vae-mihi. 
 
 Greek, 01-^01. 
 
 Hellenistic form, oua<-/*o/. 
 
 Nor is it less instructive to see it reappear in its original 
 shape in the modern Italian, the language of the common 
 people : 
 
 Italian, Guai a me. 
 
 With this observation, and the remark that gwal means low 
 also, I refer to it and gwely the following words : 
 Val-lia, in Etruria, a river. 
 Vel-eia, near Placentia. 
 Vel-itrae, in Latium ; now Velletri. 
 Fel-sina, afterwards Bononia; now Bologna. 
 Vola-Terra, now Volterra, in Etruria. 
 Vul-sinii, or Volsinii, in Etruria ; now Bolsena. 
 Fala-crinse, in the Sabini. 
 Fal-erii, in Picenuni; now Faleroni. 
 Fal-isci, the people of Falerii. 
 Fal-ernus ager, in Compania. 
 Fel-tria, in Venetia ; now Faltri. 
 Fal-erii, in Etruria; now Felari. 
 
 It may excite some surprise to see Vola-terra and Volsinii 
 in this list ; but, on comparing Vol-sinii and Fel-sina with Vel- 
 athri, the coin-name of Vola-terra, it will be immediately seen 
 that Vel, or, in a harsher form, Fel, is the root of all the pre- 
 fixes. Should it be asked what sina is, it may be suggested 
 
 II
 
 82 ON THE NON-HELLENIC PORTION 
 
 that it is probably a portion of Ra-sena, the name of the Tus- 
 cans 1 retained pure in Sena in Etruria, and in Sena on the 
 Adriatic; not called after the Senones. The same word is 
 visible in Por-sena, which, in the Cumrian language, means, 
 For, the Lord, of Sena or the Sena. 
 
 " Gwent " appears to be a favourite name among the Cum- 
 rian tribes, and its appearance either in its simple or compound 
 form, may be regarded as a certain proof of the presence of 
 the race. In ancient Britain, we had Venta Belgarum, Win- 
 chester, Venta Silurum, Caerwent, Venta Icenorum, Caister, 
 near Norwich. In Italy we have 
 Arx Car-ventana, 2 in Latium ; 
 
 Tre-vent-um, 3 now Trivento, in Samnium ; 
 
 Bene-vent-um ; 4 
 
 Cas-ventum, in Umbria ; 5 
 
 Vi-ventum, in Umbria ; 
 
 1 One paper has been already read by me on the Tuscan language, but will 
 not be pxiblished till the second is finished. It certainly is not Greek, and the 
 Cumrian words in it are not numerous, not more, indeed, than a dominant tribe 
 might be supposed to have borrowed from their vanquished subjects. 
 
 2 'Supposed to have been situated on one of the summits of Algidus. The 
 adjective Carventana, necessarily implies the existence, at some period, of a 
 Caer-went, or Car-venta, in the vicinity. 
 
 8 On coins, this name, in Oscan characters, is Trebint-im ; similar names, 
 both in Wales and Cornwall, will occur to persons acquainted with the locality. 
 
 4 I place Bene-vent-um under this head without scruple, without paying 
 deference to the story mentioned by Livy, Pliny, and Festus, that before it 
 became a Roman colony it was called Male-vent-um ; because we have coins 
 of this city bearing the Oscan inscription " BENEVENTOD," a proof that such 
 was its name before it received a colony from Rome, and because there was 
 another Bene-ventum between Brixa and Verona, in Cisalpine Gaul, and a Ben- 
 naventa* in Britain. I may also add, that I look upon such words as Taren- 
 tum, &c. as pure Italian, and that it was the Greeks who formed imaginary 
 nominatives, like Taras, &c. to suit their own fables. Pausanias informs us 
 that Tarentum was " a very considerable and opulent town before the arrival 
 of Phalanthus and his Spartans." 
 
 5 Cas-gwent was the ancient name of Chepstow Castle, as Cas-Nedd was 
 that of Neath. 
 
 * Now Daventry.
 
 OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. 83 
 
 Ver-entum, in Etruria, now Varcntano; 
 Vis-entium. do. do. Bisentino. 
 
 This list might be increased indefinitely, but it will not be 
 amiss to add 
 
 No-mentum, an ancient city of Latium, 
 and to compare it with Nu-mantia, 1 the Novantse, and Tri- 
 nobantes, of Britain. As a prefix, it appears without the T 
 in the names of places commencing with the separable word 
 Ven Venusia and Venusini, for example. It is to be observed, 
 that the men of Gwent are called Cumraice Gwenhwyson, 
 which a Roman would write Venusones, or perhaps Venusini. 
 
 Caradawg o Went ai Wenhwyson ; 2 
 " Caradog of Gwent and his Venusini." 
 Gwern, a swamp or wood, is one of the commonest sources 
 of Cumrian names Penwern, Tynwern, Werndii, &c. I't seems 
 to have been no less in use in ancient Italy ; witness 
 Amit-ern-um, an ancient Sabine town ; 
 At-ern-um, in Picenum, on the Aternus ; 
 Av-ern-us, the lake. Aw, water ; Gwern, wood ; 
 Clat-ern-a, near Bononia ; 
 Clit-ernum, 3 in the Sabine territory ; 
 Clit-ernia, in Apulia ; 
 Lit-ernum, in Campania ; 
 Leut-erni, in Apulia ; 
 
 and many others. To the same source should be referred 
 Pri-vernum, 4 in Latium, now Piperno ; 
 
 1 The Celtiberi were undoubtedly Cuinri ; Diodorus Siculus even calls them 
 by the name, rwv 3t Kipfipuv 01 Aovoiravoi, &c. ; but I have nothing to do with 
 Spain at present. 
 
 2 See Owen's Diet, under Gwenhwyson. 
 
 3 It is curious that the hundreds so well known under the name of Chiltern, 
 were in the Saxon period written " Clitern." The word is " Clud-wern," 
 warm-wood. 
 
 4 From these examples we see that the Cumrian Gw, of the radical word 
 Gwern, became V, as in Privernum, F, as in Prifernum, or totally disappeared, 
 as in Aternum. Priv-wern means primitive or chief wood, Ti-fernum Ty-wern, 
 wood-house.
 
 84 ON THE NON-HELLENIC PORTION 
 
 Cla-vernia, in Umbria, now Chiaserna ; 
 
 Pri-fernum, in the Sabine territory ; 
 
 Ti-fernum, in Umbria, on the Metaurus ; 
 
 Ti-fernum, in Umbria, on the Tiber ; 
 
 Ti-fernum, in Samnium ; 
 
 Ti-fernus, the adjacent river, now Biferno ; 
 
 Ti-fernus, the adjacent mountain. 
 
 Gwery-dre. The root appears to be Gwyr, Viri, warriors, 
 written Gwer also, as in Gwersyll, a camp ; Gwer, warriors ; 
 Syll, a seat or sella. Under this head we have the places often 
 called after the people ; such are 
 
 Ver-ona, 1 on the Athesis ; 
 
 Ver-entum, 2 before mentioned under Gwent ; 
 
 Ver-cellae, 3 now Vercelli, in Gallia Transpadana ; 
 
 Ver-tina3, 4 among the Brutii, now Verzine ; 
 
 Ver-ulse, 5 in Latin, now Veroli. 
 And with F instead of V, 
 
 Fer-entinum, in Etruria ; 
 
 Fer-entinum, in Latium. 
 Gwys or Gwes. Apparently a fertile source of names, hence, 
 
 Ves-bula, in the Sabine country ; 
 
 Ves-cia, in Latium ; 
 
 Ves-cellium, in Samnium ; 
 
 Ves-eris, in Campania, a town or river ; 
 
 Ves-idia, a small river in Etruria ; 
 
 Ves-ionica, in Umbria ; 
 
 Ves-tini, 6 the well-known people ; 
 
 Ves-ul-us, 7 the Alpine hill Monte Viso. 
 And with F instead of V, 
 
 1 Avon or Awn, a river. 3 Gwent, Gwyr Gwcnt, 
 
 3 Gelli, groves, Welsh name of the " Hay," the town. 
 
 4 Ul, water. Compare this Ver with Vero-lamium, Vero-mettc, &c. in 
 Britain. 
 
 5 Din, the town. 
 
 6 Compare the Welsh vale, Festini-og, in north Wales. 
 
 7 The district of water.
 
 OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. 85 
 
 Fes-cennium j 1 
 Fses-ulae, in Etruria. 
 
 Ty, or Ti, or Te. Under this head we find, 
 Te-anum, in Apulia; 
 Te-anum, 2 in Campania, now Teano ; 
 Te-ate, 3 in the Sabine district, now Chieti ; 
 Ti-cinum ; 4 
 
 Ti-fernum, three as before described ; 
 Ti-ora 5 Matiena, in the Sabine Hills, near the source of 
 
 the Velinus. 
 
 It would appear that this prefix was once Tegi or Tig (cog- 
 nate with Tfyoe and Tectum) from combining the following 
 with the above : 
 
 Tegi-anum, in Lucania, on the Tanager, which now, 
 along with its valley, is called Diano, an evident 
 corruption of Tegianum, and closely allied to 
 the Tiano of the coins. 
 
 Tig-ulia, in Liguria, now Tre-gosa, a word in which 
 Tre- has usurped the place of its synonym Tig 
 or Ty, and gwys that of ul. 
 
 Trev and Treva, pronounced Tre, plur. Trevi. Under this 
 Common prefix of the Cumri, we have 
 
 Treva, in the Sabini, now Trevi ; 
 Trevia, in Umbria, now Trevi ; 
 Treia, in Picenum ; 
 Tre-bula, 6 Balinea, in Campania ; 
 
 1 Cennium, Cevense, ridges, range of hills. 
 
 2 There still remain many coins of this town bearing the epigraph TIANO. 
 
 3 This word, compared with Re-ate, shows that the Te was a separable 
 prefix; and the several coins bearing the inscription TIATI, prove that its 
 primitive form was Ti. 
 
 4 Now Pavia, probably gave its name to the Ticinus river, the Tessino. 
 
 5 The meaning of Ti-ora " Ty-oera," is " coldest house," a fit name for 
 its situation. 
 
 6 These names compared with Ves-bula, will show that Tre is a separable 
 prefix, and if Lanzi (page 508, vol.ii.) is right in affirming, on the faith of 
 inscriptions, that the citizens of this town were called TREBALAces, as the
 
 86 ON THE NON-HELLENIC PORTION 
 
 Tre-bula, Mutusca, in the Sabini ; 
 Tre-bula, Suffenas, in the Sabini j 
 Tre-ventuni, before mentioned. 
 To these may be added, 
 
 Tar-visum, in Venetia, now Treviso ; 
 Ter-geste, 1 in Venetia, now Trieste ; 
 Ter-ioli, in Rhaetia, now Tyrol. 
 
 This induction might have been increased, by examining the 
 names in which the following words are component parts : 
 Man, a place ; 
 Ban, a hill ; 
 Gwy, water; 
 
 Glan, the brink, or side of a river, lake, &c.; 
 Bre, or Bryn, or Bren, a brae', or brow of a hill, and others. 
 But sufficient, I suppose, has been adduced to show that the 
 Cumrian language is the only key to a right understanding 
 of local names in Italy, and to induce the learned reader to 
 allow, that the same tongue which entered so deeply into the 
 composition of the names of places, rivers, and mountains, 
 might also have left strong proofs of its existence in the more 
 artificial language which sprang up when the civilization of 
 Magna Graecia and Etruria sank before the energy and hardi- 
 hood of the mountain tribes ; and the victors of Septimon- 
 tium, as they advanced in power and a knowledge of the arts 
 and sciences, had to extend their vernacular vocabulary. 
 
 But, before I enter upon an examination of this proof, it 
 will be right to declare, that the Gael as well as the Cumro 
 can claim in common some of the words which have been 
 placed before the reader, and more to which his claim appears 
 exclusive. But this, if granted, does not affect the value of 
 the principle. Let the Gael and the Cumro decide on their 
 
 Brutii are called by Ennius, Brutaces, it will necessarily follow that the name 
 of the city was originally Tre-bala (see Bala in the list of roots). The epithet 
 Balinea, is confirmative of this explanation. 
 
 1 Este is a common root iii the names of places. See At-Este, Prsen-Este, 
 Greek aarv.
 
 OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. 87 
 
 respective rights. It is something gained to have expelled the 
 encroaching Teutons. The field of conflict is thus narrowed, 
 and the dispute will be the sooner decided in proportion to the 
 closeness of the lists. If there be any stout-hearted Teuton, 
 who will persist in still claiming these nations as of his im- 
 mediate race, let him go over the ground over which I have 
 travelled, and select the Bergs, the Hams, the Forts, the Bachs, 
 the Dens, which must be still found there, if those hills were 
 peopled by his race. Tor, Wick, and even Briga, are common 
 to both races, and would, if brought forward, prove nothing. 
 One thing, also, he must not do : he must not bring names 
 from Bohemia, nor from the right bank of the Danube, as far 
 as Illyricum, nor from modern Hungary, nor from the vicinity 
 of the Cimbric Chersonese, as all these countries were once 
 held by people of the Cumrian race. 
 
 If, then, the Cumri and the Umbri were the same people, it 
 may be asked, what became of the letter C in the name of the 
 latter ? I cannot tell ; but I know that the initial x or y was 
 very loose not only in the Greek, where we have Ycua. and uict 
 for the earth, x/wv and *wv for going, x/%vw and iyiu.vw for venio 
 and invenio, fXft/fiw and xeAfvflof for go and gait ; but also 
 among the Latins, where we have codes and odes (see Varo 
 under the word) for a one-eyed man, and caulon and aulon, 
 significant of the same thing in the Magna Grsecia. Among 
 the Cumri the guttural is still looser, as they drop it to ex- 
 press a difference even of gender, as goleu, light, ei olcu, his 
 light. But the Latins probably dropped it, because tne Greeks 
 of the historical era wrote ojx,3p/xo< and o/x/3po/, whence the fashion 
 prevailed, and the word became disguised. In older times, the 
 Greeks themselves wrote it x//x(xfpjo<, as we find in the Odyssey. 
 The mythos, by which the author of that poem places them in 
 utter darkness, only tells us that they were placed in what 
 was to him the extreme west. For as the east, eupo?, was the 
 house of light, ?, so Zepupo?, the west, was the house of misty 
 darkness (Zopo? vjfpoe/j). Ephorus, 1 therefore, following the 
 1 Quoted by Strabo, lib. v. p. 244.
 
 88 ON THE NON-HELLENIC PORTION 
 
 older commentators, and the tradition of the inhabitants, places 
 the Cimmerians near the Lake Avernus ; others placed them 
 a day's sail to the west of Circeii, in the very country which the 
 Umbri of history are said to have occupied. 
 
 But in addition to the retention of the C in the ancient 
 Cumerium promontorium, the modern Monte Comaro, there 
 still remains a convincing proof that the C was attached to the 
 name even within the year 585 A.C. There is in the Capito- 
 line marbles the following notice: 1 "Quintus Aufidius, Banker, 
 at the sign of the Cimbric Shield, absconded as he was deep in 
 debt." Now, as this authentic record, more authentic, as many 
 believe, than manuscripts, mentions a Cimbric shield sixty- 
 seven years before the well-known invasion of the Cimbri and 
 Teutones, the shield must have been named after some Cimbri 
 other than those of Jutland, whose name the Romans never 
 heard before their passage of the Rhine, and their devastations 
 in Gaul and Spain. " The arms of the Cimbri were first heard 
 of in the 640th year of our city," writes Tacitus. 2 This Cim- 
 bricum scutum could not therefore have derived its name from 
 them. Probably it drew its origin from some Cumrian tribe, 
 among the Gallic invaders of Italy, if not from the Umbrians 
 themselves. I have omitted many coincidences of note between 
 the ancient names of places in Italy and in Britain, but I find 
 it impossible to omit the following 
 
 Mevania, 3 in Umbria, Mevania, Anglesea. 
 
 1 The whole of the inscription applicable to the case is the following : 
 " Quintus. Aufidius. Mensarius. Tabernse. Argentarise. Ad. scutum. Cimbri- 
 
 cum. Cum. Magna. Vi. ^Eris. Cessit. Foro. retractus. ex. itinere. causara. 
 dixit." I owe this quotation to Thierry's History of the Gauls, vol. i. 
 page 46. 
 
 2 Taciti Germ. 
 
 " Sexcentessimum et quadragessimuin annum urbs nostra agebat, quum 
 primum Cimbrorum arma audita sunt." 
 
 3 Mevania, a city in a plain (" Projecta ill campis," or, as Lucan describes 
 it, " ubi se Mevania campis explicat "), watered by the sacred river Clitumnus. 
 Now, Mai, Cumrice, is a plain, and Man (in composition Van), a place, hence 
 Meivan or Maivan, means " a city of the plaiu."
 
 OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. 89 
 
 Spina, 1 on the Adriatic, Spinae, in Berkshire. 
 
 Ceneta, 2 in Venetia. Cimetio, in Wiltshire. 
 
 The Morgetes, 3 Morgant, Morgan-wg Gla-Morgan. 
 
 Having thus, as I hope, proved the close connection between 
 the Italian tribes of Umbrian race and origin with our own 
 Cumri, it remains that I should conclude with showing from 
 the still existing language of the latter, that the Umbrian 
 entered into the composition of the former. 
 
 And, first, let me premise that (as it has been lately shown, 
 and is now acknowledged by all linguists) two languages may 
 have a common vocabulary but different grammars. The Latin 
 language, whether from Pelasgic or Achaean influence, adopted 
 at an early period the Hellenic grammar, and under the skilful 
 hands of the bilingual Ennius, became the polished interpreter 
 of thoughts, which yields in regularity and majesty to the Greek 
 alone. The Cumri either retained, which is more probable, 
 a still more ancient, or invented a grammar, now peculiar to 
 themselves. This, although it be simple and scientific in the 
 highest degree, is so completely at variance with all the other 
 grammars of the civilized world, that scholars who have to 
 acquire it late in life feel the strongest repugnance to its forms 
 and principles, and are tempted to regard a language more fixed 
 
 1 Spina, supposed to have been a Pelasgic city, was placed at the south- 
 eastern mouth of the Po. Spina, on the river Kennett, is still called Speen. 
 As the Pelasgi gave the name to the one city, it might be inferred that they 
 gave it also to the other ; but it is far more probable that the sam primitive 
 race which named Spina before the visit of the Pelasgi, gave the same name to 
 the British city. 
 
 2 These two words, together with the name of the river Cunetio, may serve 
 to fix the original position of the Cunetes of Herodotus (iv. cap. 49), "the 
 Danube flows through all Europe, beginning from the Celtae, who, after the 
 Cunetes, are the most western inhabitants of Europe." 
 
 3 These Morgetes, called also Morgentes, as may be inferred from their city, 
 Mopytvriov, at the mouth of the Symaithus, in Sicily, were one of the earliest 
 Italian tribes, so denominated apparently from their position on the seacoast. 
 Mor, sea ; Gant, brink or side ; compare Morgan-wg, in South Wales ; Vor- 
 ganium, or Morganium, in Annorica. The Samnite Murgantia was, according 
 to the coins, Murtantia. 
 
 12
 
 yU ON THE NON-HELLENIC PORTION 
 
 and unchangeable in its principles than any other existing, as 
 more slippery and grasp-escaping than the Proteus of the 
 Grecian raythologists. 
 
 To persons who have formed their conception of verbal roots 
 from the unvarying character of those important elements in 
 the Greek, Latin, and modern languages, it appears strange 
 that these radicals themselves should be continually shifting in 
 form. 1 Let such, however, be assured that the system is as 
 fixed and regular as that which from 
 
 TUTTTW derives TU\|/W TSTVQCI Tfrupt,(x/, s rfp6v)V rv^viyo^xt. 
 
 Now, although the grammars of the Latin and Cumrian lan- 
 guages thus entirely disagree, there is a wonderful similarity 
 in their vocabulary, a similarity by no means to be accounted 
 for by a supposed common descent from a Caucasian race, 
 but approaching far nearer than the old Teutonic, or, as it is 
 called, Moeso- Gothic tongue, does to the Homeric language. 
 
 1 Take, for example, the following examples : 
 
 Pen, a head. Plur. Pennae. Trod, a foot. Plur. Traed. 
 
 Ei-Ben, his head. Ei-Drod, his foot. 
 
 Ei-Phen, her head. Ei-Throd, her foot. 
 
 Fy-Mhen, my head. Fy-Nhrod, my foot. 
 
 Gavel, a hold. Plur. Gaveilae. Cam, a step. Cammae, steps. 
 
 Ei-Avel, his hold. Ei-Gam, his step. 
 
 Ei-Gavel, her hold. El-Cham, her step. 
 
 Fg-Nghavel, my hold. Fy-Ngham, my step. 
 
 Bwyd, food. Carii, to love. 
 
 Ei-Fwyd, his food Ei-Garii, to love him. 
 
 Ei-Bwyd, her food. Ei-Charii, to love her. 
 
 Fy-Mwyd, my food. Im-Carii, to love me. 
 
 These and such changes never for a moment cause a scholar to confound two 
 radicals, which change only on certain conditions and fixed principles. But 
 when a language formed on such a principle breaks up, and a new one is re- 
 constructed from its fragments, and perhaps those of others, we may expect to 
 see such grammatical forms figuring in the new language as independent radi- 
 cals ; thus, under one of the above-described forms, we have three English 
 words : 
 
 Bwyd, bait, either for a fish or horse. 
 
 Ei-Fwyd, his food. 
 
 Fy-Mwyd, my meat.
 
 OP THE LATIN LANGUAGE. 91 
 
 Giraldus Cambrensis, 1 both a Cumrian and classical scholar, 
 remarked this similarity nearly 600 years ago. " It is to be 
 remarked that almost all the words of the British tongue agree 
 either with the Greek or Latin." It is this strong similarity 
 of features between their own language and those of Greece 
 and Italy that has induced so many of my countrymen to claim 
 for it the honour of being the mother-tongue of all, and to 
 scorn all examination which did not commence with this 
 confession. Even the late learned Dr. Owen Pugh has, in his 
 Dictionary, by arbitrarily selecting certain syllables as the roots 
 of all Cumrian words, done much to foster this overweening 
 conceit. The system was carried to its extreme point of ab- 
 surdity by the Rev. Edward Davies, who, by the help of such 
 syllables, expected to unravel the mysteries of all languages. 
 This failure has, I hope, paved the way for the more sober con- 
 sideration of the question, which if worked out fairly will, in 
 my opinion, establish the claim of the Cumriau tongue, if not 
 to be the mother of all tongues, at least to be a valuable branch 
 of the Caucasian tree of languages. Now, had the two races, 
 the Roman and Cumrian, remained always separate, a compa- 
 rative etymology would have been an easy task ; for no more 
 would be necessary than to put the similar roots, having the 
 same meaning, side by side. But, unfortunately for the scholar 
 who undertakes to prove the question, the Romans were in 
 this island nearly 400 years, colonized it partly, and partly gave 
 it their own form of civilization. As before mentioned, the 
 inhabitants adopted with avidity the Roman dress, language, 
 and literature. That language must, therefore, be supposed 
 to have entered deeply into the composition of the present 
 Cumrian tongue. The sceptical examiner may, therefore, rea- 
 sonably object that any similarity between the two languages 
 might have originated in the adoption of that of Rome by the 
 British provincials. 2 In answer to this I refer, in the first place, 
 
 1 "Notandum etiam, quod verba linguae Brittanicae omnia fere vel Greece 
 coiiveniuat vel Latino." Cambria Descriptio. 
 
 2 Edward Lhwyd, to whom the original inhabitants of Great Britain, Ireland,
 
 92 ON THE NON-HELLENIC PORTION 
 
 to Lloyd's reasoning, quoted in the note. In the second place, 
 to the fact, that Wales and Cornwall do not appear to have been 
 occupied like the rest of England by the Romans. 1 The main 
 roads of the Antonine Itinerary do not pass to the westward of 
 a line drawn from Eggerton (Muridunum) Egger, in modern 
 Cumraeg, "y Gaer" to Abergavenny (Gobannium), thence 
 from a spot near Draiton to Chester (Deva). The main road 
 connecting Isca Silurum (Caerleon on Usk), the station of the 
 legion 2nda Augusta, with Deva (Chester), the station of the 
 twentieth legion, would to this day almost serve as a boundary 
 between the English and Welsh counties. Add to this, that 
 the inscriptions of Roman workmanship to the west of this 
 line arc too trifling to allow us to suppose that any long occu- 
 pation of the country could have taken place. Were it other- 
 wise, it would be difficult to account for the stationary position 
 of two out of the three legions by which Britain was garrisoned, 
 
 and Prance, owe so much, states the question as plainly as the prejudices of 
 the day would allow him : Additions to Merionethshire in Camden. " It 
 seems to me the word Torques was Celtic before it was Roman. For, although 
 1 acknowledge it to be derived from Torqueo, yet we also have the verb Torchi 
 in the same sense ; and seeing that both the British words Torch and Torchi 
 are in all appearance derived from the common word Troi, i. e. to turn ; and 
 also that grammarians know not well whence to derive Torqueo, I know not 
 but we may find the origin of it in the British Torch. Nor ought any one to 
 think it absurd that 1 thus endeavour to derive Latin words from the Welsh, 
 for there are hundreds of words in that language that agree in sound and 
 signification with the Latin, and which yet could not be borrowed from the 
 Romans, because the Irish retain the same, who must have been a colony of the 
 Britons long before the Roman conquest ; and also that the Welsh or British 
 is one dialect of the old Celtic, whence, as the best critics allow, the Roman 
 tongue boiTowed several words, and, I presume, by the help of the Irish, which 
 was never altered by a Roman conquest, it might be traced much farther. For 
 instance, we must acknowledge these British words, Tir, Awyr, Mor, Avon, 
 &c. to have one common origin with those of the same signification in the 
 Latin Terra, Aer, Mare, Amnis ; but, seeing the Irish also have them, it is 
 evident they were not left here by the Romans, and I think it no absurdity to 
 suppose them used in these islands before Rome was built." 
 
 1 With the exception of the road along the seashore from Chester to Car- 
 narvon, which appears to have been merely the road to Ireland.
 
 OY THE LATIN LANGUAGE. 93 
 
 the one at Caerleon, the other at Chester. The Roman legions 
 in the provinces, liable to hostile attacks, had their head- 
 quarters almost invariably on the frontiers. It is, therefore, 
 almost impossible to account for the selection of two such points 
 as these, without the supposition that the legions were placed 
 there to guard against the attacks of a race which, if vanquished, 
 evertheless unbroken in spirit. Even the very grammar 
 of the language, and the traditions of better times long anterior 
 to the Roman invasion, are proofs that, as far as the western 
 portions of Great Britain are concerned, the amalgamation with 
 Rome was never completed. Still, however, the long residence 
 of the Romans in the island, with the known influence always 
 produced by such a state of things, renders every statement 
 grounded on the similarity alone of the languages of the two 
 races, the conquered and the conquerors, liable to suspicion. 
 I have, therefore, been compelled to enter upon an exceedingly 
 difficult investigation, which, if successful, must prove the 
 radical identity of the Latin and Cumrian tongues. The proof 
 is this 
 
 If there are derivative words in the Latin of which we must 
 seek the primitives in the Cumrian, and if these primitives be 
 shown to furnish an explanation of many words before inex- 
 plicable on etymological principles for example, if the verb 
 " to tread," under various forms, be found with the meaning, 
 " to trample with the feet," in most of the western languages 
 of Europe, and have no noun to base itself upon in these lan- 
 guages, and yet the noun traed " the feet " be found'in one of 
 them the inference is irresistible that the verb in all its forms 
 was derived from this root. To deny this would be equivalent 
 to a denial that the Latin verb, calcare, came from calx, the 
 heel. In the following List such words alone, with a few 
 exceptions for the sake of etymological illustration, have been 
 introduced. It might have been indefinitely extended, but 
 the difficulty was to confine the examples within moderate 
 limits.
 
 l>4 ON THE NON-HELLENIC PORTION 
 
 AM, around; Am-Terminum, 1 quoted by Macrobius from Cato's Origines. 
 It is needless to quote the various opinions of the learned upon the sub- 
 ject. In Owen's Dictionary, under the word, we find : "Am, prep, round, 
 about. In composition it answers to circum, as " amgylchii," to circum- 
 scribe." " Am y tan, round the fire." Hence 
 
 AMO, I go round I embrace I love. Amplector, I clasp in my embrace, 
 has the same meaning. Cicero. Fam. Ep. lib. vi. Ep. vi. " Me amicissime 
 quotidie magis Caesar amplectitur ;" i. e. adds Forcellini, Amat. So, Sail. 
 Bell. Jug. cap. vii.: " Aliquem in amicis habere magis magisque indies 
 amplecti." Thus, " Amplexor (Cicer. ad Quint. Irat. lib. ii. Ep. 12). 
 Appius me totum amplexatur," h. e. Valde Amat. The Greek Ayairr] has 
 the same reading. 
 
 AM-TRUO, 2 to turn round ; compounded of Am, and Troi, to turn. " Amdroi 
 (vide Owen's Diet.), to revolve, to circulate." 
 
 AXILLA, contracted ; Ala, a wing ; irnpov, membrum illud quo aves volant ; 
 metaphorically, an armpit. Now, Asgel (by a common change, Ag-sel), 
 plur. Esgyl, is a wing (vide Owen's Diet.), of which the Cornish form was 
 Esel, plur. Esili. But Asg, the root, signifies separation, a splinter ; the 
 same idea which guided man in naming limbs, ptprj, Brachia, &c. 
 
 ASTULA As-del (vulgo Astel, plur. Estyl), a plank ; compounded of As, a 
 plain or flat, and Del, separation ; verb Delti, to split. The English 
 word Deal is cognate in origin and meaning. Without any collusion or 
 suspicion of any such occurrence, Barker's Forcellini has, under Astula, 
 " a board, a lath, shingle ;" and Owen's Diet, under Asdel, " a board, 
 plank, shingle." 
 
 AVIDUS and AVEO, root Aw. Thus described in Owen's Diet.-. "Aw, a fluid, 
 also a flowing. From this expressive root are derived all words that 
 imply fluidity, or the motion or action of fluids, and also immaterial 
 
 1 " Quidam putant, antiquitus fuisse separabilem afferuntque illud fragmen- 
 tum." Caton. in originibus apud Macrobium, lib. i. satur. cap. 14. Am- 
 Terminum, Circa-Terminum, super quo tamen miras eruditi lites excitarunt. 
 Forcel. in loco. Hence we have a preposition in common use among the Cumri, 
 which nevertheless had ceased to be so used in Rome long before the Romans 
 invaded Britain. 
 
 3 An aneient word, which, like most other expressions which they did not 
 understand, has been especially maltreated by commentators. I add Forcel- 
 lini's account of it : " Am truo vel Amptruo, to turn round in the dance. Anti- 
 quum verbum ab Am, circum, et trua, quse est instrumentum ad movendum 
 vel agitandum. Significat motus et saltus quos edebant Salii sacerdotes in suis 
 sacris. Horum enim qui primus, erat, amtruare dicebatur, et qui post eum 
 movebantur et saltitabant, invicem motus reddentes, redamtruare." Cels. apud 
 Festum, Redamptruare. Something analogical to the Strophe and Autistrophe 
 of the Greek Chorus.
 
 OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. 95 
 
 qualities, as the impulse or emotion of the will, mind, or soul." Hence 
 Awid, " an ardent desire, eageruess, greediness," the undoubted source 
 of the Latin " avidus." 
 
 AURUM, Cum. AUE (also Air and Oir), root Air, brightness : which also pro- 
 duced the Latin Aura, a gleam, confounded with the Greek word At/pa, 
 a breeze. Virgil, who undoubtedly was acquainted with one form of the 
 language called Celtic, thus plays upon the source of the meaning of both 
 words : 
 
 " Discolor unde auri per Ramos aura refulsit." 1 
 Hence also 
 
 AURORA, Cum. GWAWR, a compound of Aura, brightness, and Hora, the hour 
 or time of splendour " the golden dawn." 
 
 BARBA, a beard ; Cum. Barv, Arm. Baro, the same. Root, " Bar " (see 
 Owen's Did.) " an excrescence, a bunch or tuft." 
 
 BENNA, a carriage, a van. Festus, under the word, writes : " Lingua Gallica, 
 genus Vehiculi unde vocantur combennones in eadem benna sedentes." 
 Cum. Ben, " a wain or cart ;" and Menwr, a carter." Hence the pro- 
 lific term, Menare in Italian, and Mener in "French, to lead or manage 
 matters. From Benna came also the British or Belgic Covinus or 
 Covinnus. " Genus Cam, quo in bello utebantur Britanni et Belgae." 
 Now, Cym, Cyv, or Cy, is the Cumrian form of the Latin Cum, and 
 in composition Com. What would be written in Welsh Cywain, or 
 
 1 Servius. on the words " Auri, Aura," has this observation : " Splendor 
 auri," Horatius. " Tua ne retardet Aura maritos," i. e. Splendor. " Hinc et 
 aurum dicitur a splendore qui est in eo metallo." Thus Varro also seems 
 to have had access to some source of knowledge afterwards shut, when, 
 under Aurora (lib. vi. De Lin. Latina, cap. v.) he writes : " Aurora dicitur 
 ante solis ortum, ab eo, quod ab igne solis turn aureo, aurescit." Aureus is 
 used to express brightness, without any reference to gold, as in " aurea 
 Phoebe," " aurea Venus." And Manilius has even, " Aureus olor " (lib. v. 
 v. 383), "i. e" adds Forcellini, " Nitidissimi et candentis colons," brilliant 
 white. Perhaps also in his famous passage (Hor. lib. i. od. v.) :-^- 
 
 " Heu, quoties fidem, 
 Mutatosque Deos flebit ; et aspera 
 Nigris sequora ventis 
 
 Emirabitur insolens, 
 Qui nunc te fruitur credulus aurea ; 
 Qui semper vacuam, semper amabilem, 
 Sperat ; nescius aura? 
 
 Fallacis," 
 
 Aurea ought to be, translated, " in all your brightness," the same as Aurea 
 Venus, " all smiles ; " and Aura " a gleam of light," the deceitful sunshine, 
 ought to be contrasted with " aspera niyris asquora ventis."
 
 96 ON THE NON-HELLENIC PORTION 
 
 Co-van, a fo^poe, would in Cornish be Coven, and in Latin Covin-us. 
 The English word Country would be written in Welsh, Cyv-dre, a 
 ffwoiKia, from Cy v, and Tre, a residence ; but in Cornish it is Contre, 
 Hence Contrevak, Anglice, a countryman. It is to be remarked that 
 the first meaning of Country is the Latin Patria, and that its use to 
 represent Rus is secondary. 
 
 BESTIA, a wild beast. Ulpian (Dig. lib.iii. tit. 1, et lib. xi. tit. 1, leg. 1) tells 
 us : " Bestia sunt oinnia auimalia quse natura fera sunt et hominibus 
 noxia, ut Ursi, Leones, Apri, Tigres, item canes feri, serpentes, venenati 
 aranei, et hujuscemodi alia qu aliquo in modo in hominem Sffiviunt." 
 The root is the Cum. bwyst " wildness, ferocity " (see Owen's Diet.} as 
 an adjective, 1 wild, ferocious, or savage. In common language, it is joined 
 to Mil, an animal, as Bwystvil, a ferocious, noxious beast. 
 
 BRASSICA, a cabbage Cum. Bresych; from Bar-aisg, "head-spreading." 
 The adjective is Braisg, " gross, thick." 
 
 CERES, first, corn ; secondly, the goddess Cum. Ceirch. In Corn, cerh sig- 
 nifies oats. Among the Sabines, as we are told by Servius (1 Georg. v. 7), 
 Ceres meant bread, as in Scotland to this day, meal means oatmeal. 
 From Ceres comes 
 
 CERVISIA, " a drink (writes Forcellini) made from various kinds of corn mace- 
 rated and bruised, but principally from barley. It was formerly much 
 used by the Gauls, therefore its origin ought to be looked for in their 
 language. For what some say is not probable, that it is formed by syn- 
 cope from Cereris vis, because the strength of corn is concentrated in 
 it." The roots are Cerh, oats, and probably all other grain ; and Wys, 
 water. Those who claim distillation as a modern discovery, forbid us to 
 consider this Celtic drink to be whisky, the strong water of the Celts of 
 Scotland and Ireland. But in Celia, or Ceria, its Spanish name, we re- 
 cognise Cooroo, the still-existing name of ale in Wales. I have written 
 it as it is pronounced, as its true form, Cwrw, has often been quoted as an 
 instance of the impossibility of pronouncing Welsh names. Such persons 
 forget that the Greek w is a vowel, and that it was used long in England 
 to do the same service which it still performs in Wales. 
 
 CATENA, chain. This the etymologers would fain extort from the Greek nad' iv. 
 one by one, linked together. But both the quantity and meaning reject 
 this derivation, as catena signifies any 2 restrainer. Vitruvius 3 says, 
 " Hique asseres, catenis dispositis ad contignationes crebriter clavis fer- 
 
 1 Once again let the reader be told, that the favourite vocal sound of the 
 Cumri is that represented by wy, or oo-ee pronounced as a diphthong. The 
 word Bwyst, is in Corn. Buest, Ang. Beast. 
 
 2 Forcellini, under the word, " Sumptum etiam pro quovis nexu, quo aliquid 
 conjungitur aut ligatur." 
 
 3 Lib. vii. cap. 3.
 
 OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. 97 
 
 reis fixis religentur." Here they must be translated, "bands, pins, 
 wooden brackets, or cramps." Again, Palladius l has a passage of a similar 
 kind, " Asseres, catenis ligneis ex junipero aut cupresso factis ad contig- 
 nationes suspendemus." Here, also, catenae ligneae must be translated 
 " wooden cramps or knees." But no abuse of metaphor could have in- 
 duced plain writers like Vitruvius or Palladius to have called wooden 
 cramps a chain of linked rings. Some other etymon is therefore required, 
 and this we have in the Cumrian, cadwyn or cadwen, plur. cadwynae, 
 " a chain or bond " (see Owen's Dict.\ root, Cadw, " to keep, preserve, 
 or save." This verb must, therefore, have formed a part of the Latin 
 language, and perhaps of other languages also, as the Greek KaSoe, the 
 Latin cadus, and the English caddie, signify a vessel which will hold or 
 keep things. From the same root came catinum, a deep dish or pot, 
 and its diminutive catellus, our kettle. The change of the Cumrian d 
 into the Latin t, is almost invariable, as Lloyd has remarked, who adds 
 in another place, " The Spaniards, to mention once for all, agree with us 
 in changing the Latin t into d and the p into b, especially in the middle 
 . syllables. In the termination their d often answers our dd (pronounced 
 th soft as in the) which we also formerly writ with only one d" 
 
 CIPPUS, and diminutive, cippulus. " Valli genus ex trunco arboris, unde et 
 Vet. Gloss. Koppov, truncum exponit." Forcellini, under the word. It 
 also signified a terminus, and sometimes stocks, of which meaning the 
 Italian " ceppo " remains yet a living witness. Now, under the Cum- 
 rian " cyf," pronounced " keef," we have in Owen's Diet, the following 
 explanation : " A stock, a stem, trunk or body, a stump; cyf pren, a 
 stump of a tree, plur. cyfion (pronounced cuffiou) stocks (hence Anglice, 
 hand-cuffs)." The diminutive " cippil," means also " a stump of a tree 
 with the branches dried on," which suits the description given by Csesar 2 
 of his " cippi." 
 
 CnuMENAand CRUMINA, "a leathern bag or purse," from, croven, " an out- 
 side crust," whence croen and croenen, " a skin or hide;" on the same 
 principle as purse comes from fivpat], " a hide." Compare French Bourse, 
 Spanish Bolsa. 
 
 CICUTA, " hemlock, a pipe ;" also, a " fistula ad canendum apta." In Humph. 
 Lloyd's British Etymologicon, " cecut " is put down as an old Cum. form 
 of this word. The common name is cegid or coegyd, " the hollow one," 
 from coeg, "hollow." 3 Servius observes, " Cicuta autem est spatium 
 quod est inter cannarum nodos;" "the cicuta (or hollow) is that space 
 which is between the knots of the reeds." 
 
 CUNEUS, " a wedge," from Cum. cun or cyn, " a head, first part or wedge, 
 also a chisel." Quotation in Owen's Diet., gyrrii r cun a gerdo, " to 
 drive the wedge that will go." 
 
 1 Lib.i. tit. 13. 2 De Bello Gall.\ib.\n. cap.73 3 Virg. Ecloyuet.u. b.36. 
 
 13
 
 98 ON THE NON-HELLENIC PORTION 
 
 CARPENTUM, " a carriage, a longer form of Cum. car-ven (see Benna), a cart." 
 It might have been originally spelt carmen, and hence the " porta Car- 
 mentalts " of Rome, if this was not derived from leading to the Arx Car- 
 ventana before mentioned. To trace its name to an imaginary mother of 
 as imaginary an Evander, was only an old woman's tale. 
 
 CODEX, or CAUDEX, " the body, trunk, stump, or stock of a tree," from Cum. 
 Coed, " trees;" Coeden, " a standing tree." In Latin it signifies seconda- 
 rily " a book," but never bears that meaning in Welsh. 
 
 COLLIS, " a hill," from Cum. Col (vide Owen's Diet.}, " any projecting body, 
 a peak ;" whence 
 
 COLUMNA, Cum. Col-ov and Colov-yn (vide Owen's Diet.) " a stem or stalk, 
 a prop." These may not necessarily be Cumrian, as the Greek KoXuvq 
 seems derivable from a common root. But assuredly the Cumrian is the 
 only one which has kept the root to this day ; Colla also is " the awns of 
 barley." Collum, " a neck," should be referred to the same root. 
 
 FROENUM, " a bridle," Cum. Frwyn, from Froen ; plur. Froena?, " nostrils." 
 The first bridle was a ring through the cartilage of the nostrils, to which 
 the reins were attached. 
 
 FRUSTRO and FRUSTROR, "to disappoint, to baffle, to prevent;" from Cum. 
 Rhwystro (vide Owen's Diet.) "to go before, to obstruct, to hinder;" 
 root, Rhwystyr, " opposition, hindrance, impediment, an obstacle." 
 
 MACERIA, " any wall enclosing grounds." " Paries sub dio positus ad sepi- 
 endos hortos, villas, vineta, et hujuscemodi, sive ex calce fiat, sive sicco 
 lapide construatur." The last would have been the mode of construction 
 originally in use, whence the name. H. Lloyd, under Maceria, has 
 " Magwyr, a dry wall of stones without mortar." But Magwyr is 
 generally called " Y. Vagwyr," i. e. gwag-viir (vacu-us mur-us) " a wall 
 not closely connected, having intervals." This is exemplified by the 
 Latin cognate word, Vacerrae, " a paling of hurdle-work used as fences 
 in fields," and by the Welsh, Gwagar, " a sieve formed by slips of wood, 
 with intervals between, crossing each other at right angles." 
 
 MIROR, " to wonder at, to gaze on;" from Cum. Miraz "to see " (vide H. 
 Lloyd's British Etymologicori). The Spanish language also keeps the 
 primitive meaning, Mirar, " to see." Nay, even the modern Italian has, 
 as in many other instances, retained the older meaning, Mirare, " to view 
 or behold," while there are but faint traces of the secondary meaning, 
 which alone is found in classical writers. The root is the Cum. Mir, 
 " what is fair or bright." Mirror also comes from the primitive meaning. 
 
 MOLA, " a mill." For the origin of this word we are referred to the Greek 
 /*Xj, which gives us no new information. The Cum. " Mai " means 
 what is reduced into small particles, bruised or ground. Hence, Main, 
 " to reduce small, to grind." And a longer form, Maluri, " to bruise, 
 break, or pound." Hence, both the stones and the teeth, Molares, or 
 grinders.
 
 OF THE LATIN LAIS 7 GU AGE. 99 
 
 Mox, " quickly, soon after." A word left in the Latin language without a 
 single relation to express its source. The root is the Cum. Moch, 
 " ready quick." (Fide Owen's Diet.) " Moch dysg nawv Mab hwyad;" 
 in Latin, " Cito," or " Mox discet nare filius anatis." 
 
 MACTUS, "honoured, increased;" said to be derived from " magis augeo," 
 which assuredly would never give, especially in older times, the word 
 Mactus. The Latin philologists seem, at an early period, to have con- 
 founded this old participle from an obsolete verb, with the frequentative 
 macto mactare, " to slaughter." The cognates of this latter word are 
 flaxy fiaxaipa, and the Latin Macellum, " the shambles." The root of 
 Mactus is the Cum. Magii, " to breed, to make great ;" as grow is of 
 great, alo of altus, and in and ffigno, of ingens. From Magii came 
 Maethii, " to educate, to nurse, to cause to increase." Mactus is the same 
 word, although it requires some explanation before the truth appears to 
 an English eye. Now, the ct and pt at the end of Latin words is almost 
 iuvariably represented in Welsh by th ; e. g. Vir doctus becomes in Cmn- 
 rian Gwr-doth ; Aur-um coct-um, Aur coth; Mil-es capt-us, Mil-wr cath. 
 Plenus fructus Llawn frwyth, Fluv-ius Lact-is Lliv o laeth, &c. &c. On 
 this principle Mactus would be Maethiis, " full of increase." Sis macte, 
 " be full of increase," grow, tua virtute. To the same root should be 
 assigned the Gallic word, Ambacti, mentioned by Caesar, 1 for as Tad- 
 Maeth is a foster-father, and Mam-Vaeth a foster-mother, so Am-Vaethi 
 would be the circle of foster-brothers, which in Celtic countries formed 
 the strength and pride of a chief. 
 
 Occo OCCAKE, " to harrow ;" from Cum. Ogi, " to use the harrow, to har- 
 row " (see Owen's Diet.); root, off and oged, " the instrument." Occa, 
 once admitted into Latin dictionaries, is now rejected. The derivatives 
 of oc or Off are so numerous in the Cumrian, with the meaning of quick 
 motion and sharp points, as to make it clear that it is an original part of 
 the language. Persons who wish to draw subtle inferences say, that all 
 the terms of the Romans connected with agriculture may be referred to 
 a Greek source, while the terms expressive of war or hunting are non- 
 Hellenic. The induction fails completely in both parts, as might easily 
 be shown. When Cresar landed in Britain, the natives were agricultu- 
 rists, densely planted, and Halley proved that the harvest which Caesar's 
 soldiers reaped, had ripened at the average period of a Kentish harvest 
 in his days. Assuredly, then, the Britons had not the agricultural names 
 to learn from the Romans of an afterage. 
 
 NAVO, " to perform vigorously, to work diligently." Navare operam et opus, 
 " to perform a work ;" root, Nav, " a former, a creator ;" Nav-Neivion, 
 in the Cum. "opifex opificum," "God." Hence Navawl, "relating to 
 formation," and Naviad, " an operation." 
 
 1 De Bello Gallico, lib. vi. cap. 14. Equitum ut genere opibusque amplis- 
 simus, ita plurimos circa se ainbactos clientesque habet.
 
 100 ON THE NON-HELLENIC PORTION 
 
 NATRTX, 1 Gael, Nathair ; Cum., Neidiir ; Saxon, Nadder and Ncddre. The 
 English adder was formed by a mistake, an adder, instead of a nadder. 
 By an opposite one, an evet or eft became a newt. 
 
 NERV-US, " a muscle ;" Nervosus, " strong." Undoubtedly the same as the 
 Greek vivpog. The Cumrian root is Ner-th, " strength," and Ner, " the 
 powerful one, God." Now, according to Aulus Gellius, "Neris et Neri- 
 enes, et Neriene et Neria, Sabinum verbum quo significatur virtus et for- 
 titudo unde ex Claudiis, quos a Sabinis oriundos accephflus, qui erat 
 egregia ac praestanti fortitudine Nero appellatus est." 
 
 LACRYM.E, " tears." Undoubtedly the same as the Greek Aaicpva, and quoted 
 merely to show that it was not through the Latin that many words common 
 to the Greek, Latin, and Cumrian languages, crept into the latter, as the 
 Cum. word is still Dagrae, " tears." 
 
 llHEDA, 2 " a carriage with four wheels, a cart ;" a Gallic word, as we are told 
 by Quintilian, although both Caesar and Cicero scrupled not to use it. 
 The root is the Cum. Rhedeg, "to run," on the same principle as currus 
 comes from curro. Thus, also, on the same principle as rpoxos, " a wheel," 
 comes from rp^xw, the Cum. Khod, " awheel," comes from Rhedeg. But 
 Rhod is the Cum. form of Rota, a word confessedly Latin. Rhod is, 
 both in itself and its derivatives, used as extensively in the Cumrian, as 
 Rota and its derivatives in Latin. Petorritum, " a four-wheeled carriage," 
 is Cum. Pedair-Rhod, " four wheels." 
 
 RITUS, " rites, ceremonies, customs." Cum. Rhaith, plur. Rheithae, " legal 
 decisions, laws, rights, privileges." Pen Rhaith Yw Duw, " Caput Ritus 
 est Deus." 
 
 PALMA, Greek iraXa.^ " the hand or palm." Cum. Palv. (contracted Pawen, 
 a paw) Armor. Palf, whence we can illustrate the Latin Palpo, " to grope, 
 to feel one's way," and Palpator, Cum. Palvadur, " a groper," &c. Hence 
 also Palpebras, " eye-feelers," and probably Papillae also. 
 
 PELLO, " to drive from, to push away ;" from the Cum. Pell, " far distant ;" 
 Pelli and Pellaii, " to put far from one, to render remote or distant." 
 
 PENATES, " household gods, originally the chief gods of either the state or a 
 family." According to Macrobius, 3 the Penates of Rome were Jupiter, 
 Juno, Minerva, and Vesta. Cicero 4 derives their name from Penus or 
 Penitus, " quod penitus insident," others from different sources. The 
 root appears to be in any case the Cum. Pen, " a head." Hence Penaeth 
 (which in a Roman's mouth would become Penat), " a principal, he who 
 
 1 Etymologists would derive this from No, to swim, and refer to the Greek 
 {>Spos as an illustration ; but the masculine, swimmer, is Natator, and Natrix is 
 itself masculine : " Et natrix violator aquae." See Fore, in verbo. 
 
 8 The Cumrian, like the Greek, aspirates the letter R at the commencement 
 of a word. 
 
 3 Lib. iii. Saturn, c. 4. 4 DeNatura Deorum, lib.iii. cap. 29.
 
 OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. 101 
 
 is pre-eminent, a chief." The old nominative singular was Penas, on the 
 same principle as Primas, Optimas, &c. 
 
 PENITUS, "within, interior, inmost, and innermost," from which the preceding, 
 according to some, was derived, is also connected with the Cum. Pen, 
 which signifies not only a head, but also an end, as " Pen-Tlr Lloegur," 
 " Caput terras LiguriaB," " the Land's End of England." Pen-ucha r ti, 
 " Caput interius Tecti," " the innermost room in a cottage ;" Scotice, 
 Ben ; Latin, Penus ; but latterly confined to express the innermost cell 
 of the sanctuary of Vesta. Heliogabalus, " in Penum Vestae, quod sote 
 Virgines Solique Pontifices adeunt, irrupit." From the same root, pro- 
 lific of words in this and other languages, spring 
 
 PENES, Penes me, " in my house," consequently " in my power," answering 
 in the first place to apud me, in Latin, and cJtez moi, in French, and in 
 its secondary meaning to the riri pot of the Greeks, in my power. Of its 
 first meaning we have ample instances. Tcr. Adelph. 4 24 : Istaec jam 
 penes vos psaltria est ? " Is that dancing girl in your house ?" S. Ellam 
 intus. " She is within," &c. &c. The secondary meaning needs no 
 illustration. From Pen, with its signification of " end," came Penis and 
 Peniculus, " a tail," and many other words. 
 
 POPINA, "a cook-shop, an eating-house," derived by scholars from Popa, the 
 minister who struck the sacrifical victim with a mallet, aud who was 
 supposed, on authority which I cannot find, to vend the flesh of victims. 
 By an edict of Nero, 2 " nothing cooked except pulse and herbs was allowed 
 to be sold in Popinis," although previously every kind of obsonium was 
 exposed to sale in such places ; and Tiberius, during a dearth, forbade 
 even pastry-work to be sold in cook-shops. On the whole, the Popinae 
 of Rome appear to have united our eating house and pastry-shop. The 
 root appears to have been the Cum. Pobi, " to bake, to roast ;" Pobi 
 bara, " to bake bread ;" i bobi golwyn, " to roast a joint." (Vide Owen's 
 Dictionary.) Poban, " an oven ;" Pobur, Pobwr, and Pobid, " a 
 baker." 
 
 POPULUS, " the people, the community ;" " Plebs (Says Aulus Gellius, 8 on 
 the authority of a competent witness, Ateius Capito) differt a populus, 
 quia hoc nomine omnis pars civilatis omnesque ejus ordines contineutur, 
 Plebs vero ea dicitur in qua gentes civium patriciae non insunt." The 
 old form of writing the word was Popolus, Cum. Pobol, and contracted 
 Pobi, not unlike the Etruscan form, Puplu, as seen in old inscriptions. 
 The root is Pawb and Pob (vide Owen's Diet.), " every body, all persons." 
 Pob ac un, omnis et unus, " one and all." Pob-un, " every one." 
 
 PRETIUM or PRECIUM, "the money value of an article;" apparently the 
 general name, at an early period, for the precious metals. Even in later 
 
 1 Lampridius in Vita, c. 5. 3 Suetonius in Ner. cap. 16. 
 
 3 Lib. x. cap. 20.
 
 102 ON THE NON-HELLENIC PORTION 
 
 times, it seems to have retained this primary meaning. Thus Horace, 1 
 alluding to Jupiter's transmutation into gold, 
 
 " Converse in pretium deo." 
 And Ovid : 
 
 " In pretio pretium est, dat census honores." 
 And still stronger : 
 
 " Argentum felix, omnique beatius auro, 
 
 Quod pretium fuerit quum rude, numen erit." 2 
 
 Now, Pres is in Cum. copper, the only metal which the early Romans 
 coined into money. It is also to be remarked that, to this day, especially 
 in North Wales, the word Pres is limited to copper coin. Pris, Anglice 
 Price, is closely connected, both in spelling and pronunciation, with it. 
 PRO-CERUS, long compounded of the preposition, and Cerus, " unknown." It 
 is the Cum. 3 " hir " (vide Owen's Diet.}, " long." The Triads have re- 
 corded three lines, which they attribute to King Arthur, and which some 
 antiquaries may wish to see, as the only literary composition of that 
 famous monarch : 
 
 Sev-ynt fy nhri Cad-varchog, 
 
 Mael hir a L lirLluydo g, 
 
 A cholovn Cymrii Caradog. 
 
 Hi sunt mei tres Pugnse equites, 
 
 Mael pro-cerus ac Lear, copiis instructus, 
 
 Atque columna CambriaB Caradog. 
 
 PULVINAR and PULVINUS, " a pillow and bolster." Some of the older scholars 
 acknowledged Pulvinar to be a change of letters from Pluvinum ; root, 
 Plumse, " feathers "; but in Cum. Plumse are Pliiv, whence Pluvinar, 
 " without any change." In Cornish, with a different termination, but from 
 the same root, it was Pluvog. Again, by a change similar to that in the 
 Latin, the common name in Wales is Pilwg, Engl. Pillow. 
 PLANTA, a Latin word, single in form but double in meaning. In one sense 
 it comes from Planum, " flat," and means the sole of the foot. In 
 another sense, it means " a young sucker," which, if detached from the 
 parent tree, and again committed to the earth, will itself become a tree. 
 In the first sense it has only one derivative, " Plantaris," used by Statius 
 and Valerius Flaccus, to describe the feet-wings of Mercury. The other 
 has a numerous offspring, and has entered deeply into the composition of 
 the English language. Now, the Cum. Plant means " offspring, children " 
 
 1 Lib. iii. od. 16, ver. 8. 
 
 2 Fast. v. 2 17, lib. ii. Ex. Pont. Ep. 8. v. 5. 
 
 8 It is a constant practice to represent the Latin S, by the Cum. H, and 
 vice versa, e.g.: 
 
 Serus, hwyr. Sal, Halen. 
 
 Sag-urn, hyg and hygan. bol, Haul, &c.
 
 OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. 103 
 
 (see Owen's Diet.), root, plan, " a scion or shoot "; whence the verb 
 Planii, " to plant, to set shoots." One might imagine that the Cumrian 
 meaning was before Virgil's eyes when he wrote the following line : 
 
 " Hie plantas tenero abscindens de corpore matrum ;" 
 literally, " one separating the children from the tender bosom of their 
 mother." 
 
 QU.ERO, and QILESO, "I seek." Thus Festus, " Quseso ut significat idem 
 quod rogo, ita qusesere ponitur ab antiquis pro quserere, ut apud Ennium 
 libro secundo : 
 
 " nautisque mari quaesentibu' vitam," &c. 
 
 From this observation, and from the practice of the classical writers, we 
 find that Qusero, in the sense of seeking, had ceased to be used by the 
 Komans long before their settlement in Britain. But the Cum. Ceisio, 
 and Ceiso (vide Diet.), still means " to seek, to go after, and fetch," and 
 has its own noun, Cais, "both a petition and an attempt." Quaeso and 
 Ceisio are in utterance the same word. 
 
 Quis, " Who ?" Cum. Pwy ? This interchange of the p and qu, refers to a 
 period still more remote than that in which the r and * were mutually 
 interchanged. We know not when the qu or q was thrown out of the 
 Greek alphabet ; probably it was rejected with all the harsher sounds 
 represented by the letter 10, whether single or preceded by gutturals. We 
 know that in some cases it was replaced in Attic Greek by the Vt in Ionic 
 by the K, e.g. the Latin qua became in the former dialect Try, in the latter 
 cy. This change was imported to a certain extent into Italy, as we find 
 from Festus that the Oscans called quidquid, pitpit or pirpit, and quis- 
 piann and nuspiam became Latin words. But the Cumrian, which broke 
 off its connection with the Latin language before it formed or admitted 
 the pronoun relative qui, qua, quod (a form of speech unknown both to 
 the Cumrian and Homeric languages) writes the important interrogatives 
 Pwy, " who ?" and Pa, " what ?" invariably with a P, while the latter 
 form is again in Irish, Ka. With this previous explanation, I venture to 
 submit, that the Cum. Pa val, " of what kind ?" compounded of pa and 
 mal, " like," and Pa vaint, " of what size ?" made up of pa and maint, 
 " size," furnish us, if we change again the Cum. pa into the. Latin qua, 
 with the true origin and meaning of the Latin 
 Qualis, "of what kind?" 
 Quantus, " of what size ?" 
 
 For further illustration, I furnish a copy of some observations from Owen's 
 Diet, under Maint, mal, pa. Maint, 1 " magnitude, size, bigness, great- 
 
 1 Maint, in French (magnitude applied to numbers, in Cum. to size, two 
 relations which continually interchange, as travpoi, " a few ;" parvus, "small"), 
 is a derivative from Magnus, or some cognate form. Magnitas in French would 
 become Maint, as Magis becomes Mais ; Pagus, Pais, &c.
 
 104 ON THE NON-HELLENIC PORTION 
 
 ness, quantity." Pa vaint syd yna, " quantum sit in eo " (loco). Mai, 
 "like, similar to;" Mai hyn, pronounced Val hyn, "in this manner." 
 Pa, " what ;" Pa vod, " in what manner," Quo modo. 
 
 QUALUS, " a basket of twigs, wicker work." Cum. Cawell, " a hamper or 
 basket ;" root, Caw, " a holder which retains or keeps things together." 
 
 TALPA, " a mole ;" from Cum. Talp and Talpen, " a mass, a lump, a knoll, a 
 round heap not large, a knob ;" in the same manner as Mole came from 
 Mould-warp, " the caster up of earth." 
 
 TRANS, " on the further side of, beyond, over, across ;" root, Tra, as may be 
 seen in ultra, contra, intra, &c. But Cum. Tra is a noun (vide Owen's 
 Diet.), " an extreme, an excess;" also a preposition, as tra munid, "over 
 the mountain ;" Trans montem, tra mor, " trans mare." The Latin 
 noun Trabs, " a cross-beam," is the Cum. Traws, " a cross-beam, or a 
 cross man." 
 
 VAGINA, " a sheath." Italian, Guaina. Cum. Gwain ; signifying "a sheath 
 or the carriage of a sword," as our ancestors called it, and " a waggon," 
 the vulgar pronunciation of vagina, as wain is that of gwain. 
 
 VATES, "a name for Roman poets before the time of Ennius," as he thus attacks 
 Nsevius : 
 
 " scripsere alii rem 
 
 Versibus quos olira Fauni Vatesque canebant." 
 That it was a Gallic word we know well, as Strabo, when speaking of the 
 
 Gauls in general, writes, trap airaai Se of tirnrav rpia <j>v\a TW Tipwfitvuv 
 Sicupipovrwg tffri' Bap^ot, TI icai Ovartif, irat Apvifiai. BapSot fiiv vfivrjrai KO.I 
 woii/rai, Qvartig St upovoioi icat ^utnoXoyoi, ApviSai rt Trpos ry <j>vai\oyiq. nai 
 TTJV riBiKTjv <i>iXoffo<j>iav aaKovffiv. " But among all the Gauls there are three 
 classes of men who are held in especial honour, Bards, Vates, and Druids. 
 The Bards are singers and poets ; the Vates, sacred ministers and natural 
 philosophers ; the Druids, to physiology add the study of moral philo- 
 sophy." It was this sacred order that left its name to the poets and 
 prophets of ancient Italy. Now, the Cum. form of Vates is Ovid, written 
 Ovydd, of which we have the following explanation in Owen's Diet.: 
 " One who is initiated into first principles or elements, a scientific per- 
 sonage, a natural philosopher, a teacher of science, the name for a member 
 of the scientific class, in the Bardic system. An ovate." Probably the 
 name Ovidius is a derivative of the Cum. Ovid. 
 
 VERUS, " true, genuine, not false, not disguised." Cum. Gwir, " the pure 
 fluid, the ether, truth, right." In Latin also, Verus had this meaning of 
 of right, as Servius says on the passage, jEn. 12. v. 694. 
 
 " me Verius unum 
 
 Pro vobis fcedus lucre et deceruere ferro." 
 
 " Verius justius. Verum enim quod rectum et bonum appellabant." 
 Gwyrod, a derivative from Gwir, " the pure fluid," means strong un- 
 adulterated liquors of all kinds. (See Owen's Diet.) Hence the connec-
 
 OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. 105 
 
 lion of mcrus, noun merum, with Verus. The Greek a\ij0a, " no 
 concealment, transparency," agrees in meaning with the Cum. Cwir. If 
 the English truth, come from the verb, to trow, as Horne Took inferred, 
 it is a memorable proof of barbarism in our Saxon forefathers, and enough 
 of itself to destroy all ideas of truth and right. 
 
 VERGO, " to incline, to bend to." Cum. Gwyro, " to make crooked, to bend, 
 to swerve, to go awry." 
 
 VIRIDIS, " green, flourishing ;" Cum. Gwyrd. In the Cornish dialect, which, 
 less harsh and guttural, throws great light upon the cognate languages, 
 it is Gwer, French Ver-d. That Viridis had this form in Latin, appears 
 not only from Ver, " the green season," but from Verbena, " any green 
 sod or tree," and Vervactum, "ground ploughed down in the green sod," 
 in opposition to stubble land. See the word in Forcellini, and the mis- 
 take of Pliny there alluded to. 1 
 
 SEVERUS, "strict, severe, sharp;" root, Chwevyr, "violence;" Chwevri, "to 
 actor affect severely;" Chwevryd, "a severe one." I have only time to 
 allude to a large class of words beginning with Chw, and which are found 
 in Latin with an S or V. Suffice it to give two examples -. 
 
 SOCER, "a father-in-law ;" in Cum. Chwegyr. The German Schwager means 
 " a brother-in-law." When Homer wrote, either Chw or Schw, was 
 used, as can be proved from 0i\ tKvpe, so well known. 
 
 SOROR, " a sister;" Cum. Chwaer ; Corn. Hor, the Latin form without the 
 termination ; Germ. Schwester. Italian Suora, where the aspirate still 
 seems to have a place. But this head is inexhaustible. 
 
 SORS, SORTIS, SORTES, " lot, chances." That which falls out, " id quod 
 accidit ;" Cum. Syrth and Swrth, " a fall, a lot, a chance," from the 
 verb Syrthio, " to fall." In Corn. Swrth would be written " sort." 
 
 I cannot conclude the paper without entering more at large 
 into an explanation of two words, which, in my opinion, would 
 of themselves be sufficient to prove the radical connection of 
 the Latin and Cumrian languages, these are, 
 
 Mcenia, " walls," and Praeda, " a prey." 
 And, first. Mcenia, " walls ;" sing., Mcene, from the Cum. 
 Maen, " a stone ;" plural, Meini, Mein, " stones." If this be 
 the root, Moenia must signify stone walls, in opposition to the 
 wooden defences or earthern ramparts. These are expressed 
 by Vallum, from Vallus, " a stake," and Agger, from Ad-gero, 
 " to throw up." The probability therefore is, that Moenia, by 
 which the strongest defences are in general meant, were made 
 
 1 Page 194. 
 
 14
 
 106 ON THE NON-HELLENIC PORTION 
 
 of stone. An examination of Moenio, the verb of Mcene and 
 Mcenia, and more commonly written Munio, will furnish us 
 with a proof that such probability is almost certain. For we 
 find that Munire viam, is " earn sternere lapiclibus ;" e. g. 
 " Perinde l quasi Appius ille ccecus viam munierit, non qua 
 populus uteretur, sed ubi posteri ejus impune latrocinarentur." 
 Nay more, Tacitus, who is fond of recurring to the original 
 meaning of words, puts in the mouth of Galgacus the strong 
 expression, " Sylvas et Paludes emunire," " to make strong 
 causeways through woods and marshes." Closely connected 
 with Moenia is Munus, written by the ancients Moenus, which, 
 if Varro 2 is right, was " the metal or earth required from each 
 soldier when a position was to be fortified;" for after explain- 
 ing, according to his theory, the source of Munus, "a gift," he 
 adds, " Alterum Munus, quod muniendi causa imperatum," 
 " Another Munus is that which is ordered for the purpose of 
 fortifying ;" hence he derives " Municipes, qui una Munus 
 fungi debent," " who are bound to the common defence of 
 their town ;" hence Immunes, " those who are free from such 
 or any other public burden ;" hence Munera, " offices, ori- 
 ginally, as in England, parish burdens, but latterly, when wealth 
 increased, sought after, and highly valued." Cognate with 
 Munus, in the sense of metal, we have the Cum. Mwn, or 
 Mwyn, " ore, anything dug out of the earth," e. g. Mwyn 
 aur, " gold mine ;" Mwyn arian, " silver mine," &c.; whence, 
 Anglice, " Mine." It is difficult to account how Minium, 
 " red lead," took the generic name. We only know that the 
 Romans supposed it to have been derived from the Mini us 
 amnis (the Minho), which probably derived its name from it. 
 Because Vitruvius, 3 "Minium inquit et Indicum nominibus ipsis 
 indicant, quibus in locis procreantur." It is a curious coinci- 
 dence, that, to this day, Gwaith Mwyn, in Wales, always means 
 " a lead-mine." From Moenus, or Munus, " a metal," came 
 undoubtedly Moneta, " money." Cum. Mwnai, " money coin," 
 as in Ovid, Fast. v. 221, 
 
 1 Cicer. Pro Milon. cap. 7. 2 De Ling. Latin, lib. v. 42. 3 In fine cap. ix.l-.7
 
 OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. 107 
 
 Mra dabant olim : melius nunc omen in auro est, 
 Victaque concedit prisca moneta novae, 
 
 (the fable about Juno Moneta, root, Moneo, with a Greek 
 termination, is unworthy of serious notice), and Munus and 
 Munera, "gifts." 
 
 Secondly, Praeda, " a prey," from the Cum. Praid, plur. 
 Preidae. 
 
 In Owen's Dictionary we have the following explanation of 
 Praid, " a flock or herd; also a booty or spoil of cattle taken in 
 war." 
 
 " Praid gyv-reithiol, pedair bu ar iigaint a Tharw," Welsh 
 Laws. " A legal herd, twenty-four cows, and a bull." Lite- 
 rally in Latin order, " Praeda Corritualis, Quatuor boves super 
 viginti et Taurus." 
 
 In the Latin transmitted to us, we find Praeda with the 
 secondary meaning alone, acquired by the Romans at an early 
 age, when the robber wolf was their favourite emblem, and 
 their neighbours' flocks and herds were regarded as legitimate 
 objects of plunder. But there are, if I am not much mistaken, 
 some Latin words still extant, which were formed in a more 
 Saturnian age, when Praeda had not lost its proper signification 
 of " flocks and herds." Among these are, 
 
 Praedium, 
 
 Praes, 
 
 Praeditus. 
 
 Concerning the meaning of the word Praedium, there is no 
 doubt. All interpret it to be a " farm," or " landed pro- 
 perty." " Possessio," says Forcellini, " omnia bona complec- 
 titur, mobilia et immobilia ; Praedium immobilia tantum." 
 The Roman philologists, if we can honour them with the name, 
 wished to derive Praedium from Praes, " a personal security," 
 as if the first quality of landed property which would occur 
 to a simple and early race, was the power of mortgaging it. 
 In later times, such a confusion of ideas is perhaps possible, 
 from the close connection between landed property and mort- 
 gages. But assuredly its liability to be mortgaged could not,
 
 108 ON THE NON-HELLENIC PORTION 
 
 in an early age, have been the accident most likely to strike the 
 sense, and to induce men to name land after it. What among 
 the Sabine hills, and in a half-pastoral state, could have given 
 a better idea of a farm than to call it from Praeda, " flocks and 
 herds," Praedium, their "grazing ground," just as we to this day 
 call a mountain farm a sheep-walk ? 
 
 From Praedium (on the same principle as from Pretium, 
 
 interpres-pretis, " a broker, a price-settler between two foreign 
 
 merchants") came Praes, Praedis, " the possessor of a Praedium, 
 
 or of Praedia;" secondarily, " one who would give good security, 
 
 heritable security as it is called in Scotland." Asconius, in his 
 
 commentary on Cicero's speech against Verres, 1 has the two 
 
 following passages : " Bona Praedia, dicuntur bona, satisda- 
 
 tionibus obnoxia, sive sint in mancipiis sive in pecunia nume- 
 
 rata ; Pra3dia vero domus, agri." " Praedia sunt res ipsae, 
 
 Praedes homines, id est fidejussores, quorum res bona Praedia 
 
 dicuntur ;" of which this appears to be the translation : 
 
 " Bona praedia (two terms as usual in Roman law formularies, 
 
 put together without a conjunction, as patres conscripti, &c.) 
 
 are called the goods liable to be seized by creditors, whether 
 
 they consist of saleable property or of ready money, but Prsedia 
 
 are house, lands'' " Praedia are the things themselves ; Praedes, 
 
 the men who have given security, whose property is called by 
 
 one name, Bona-praedia," i.e. what we call property, personal 
 
 and real. Vendere Praedem was what is still called by lawyers 
 
 to " sell up a man," that is, to sell all his property. In ancient 
 
 times, under the cruel law of Rome, the man himself might 
 
 have been liable to sale. The Roman etymologers have written 
 
 much nonsense on this word, but not so much as emendators 
 
 have compelled them to write. Varro says, it comes from Praesto 
 
 est, which has been changed into an adverbial Praes, as if there 
 
 had been any such word in the language. In taking security, 
 
 no lawyer regards the mere person, or cares whether he be 
 
 absent or present, if he be not rich and able to answer when 
 
 pressed for the debt. Praes is therefore equivalent to " locu- 
 
 1 Oral. Adver. lib. iii. 54.
 
 OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. 109 
 
 pies," "full of land, rich in land." Hence "locuples reus," 
 " qui cum se obligarit, habet unde solvat, et idoneus est im- 
 plendo promisso." Besides all this, had the imaginary Praes, 
 or the real Praesto, been the root of Prses, Praedis, it would have 
 applied with equal force to one who gave security in criminal 
 cases, either to present himself, " se sistere," or to bring into 
 court him for whose appearance he had become bail. But, as 
 Forcellini properly observes, " differt praes a vade, vas enim est 
 qui pro alio spondet in re capitali, praes qui in re nummaria." 
 Prseditus, " endowed or vested." This we know cannot come 
 from Prse, and " do, to give." First, because there is no such 
 compound; secondly, because, if it had once existed in the lan- 
 guage, it would signify that its substantive " had been given 
 beforehand," since datus and donatus cannot be interchanged. 
 It appears to have been first applied to a person invested or 
 endowed with landed property, and that it was thence meta- 
 phorically transferred to all endowments, physical and intellec- 
 tual. We have now no hesitation in saying that " a man is 
 possessed of many good qualities," because Possideo, at the 
 period when Roman literature commenced, signified " to pos- 
 sess." But in older times Possessio, formed out of Pro-sedeo, 
 signified only preoccupation, " a sitting," or, as the Americans 
 have it, " a squatting," on ground not legally conveyed. We 
 know what radical mistakes in Roman history occurred from 
 a mistake in the meaning of the two words, " Possessores 
 agrorum." 
 
 Connected with the idea of property are three other words, 
 which are also derived from the Cumrian, these are 
 
 Idoneus, 
 
 Divitiae, 
 
 Bonus, and Bona. 
 
 Idoneus, " proper, suitable," &c. originally applied to men 
 
 of property, hence " rich, wealthy." Hear Cains l (for lawyers, 
 
 as I have before observed, are more retentive of the original 
 
 meaning of words), " Si ab idoneo debitore ad inopern trans- 
 
 1 Lib. ct tit. 4, Leg. 27.
 
 110 NON-HELLENIC PORTION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. 
 
 tulerit obligationem," i.e. " ab eo debitore, qui est solvendo." 1 
 Here Idoneus, " rich," and Inops, " poor," are put in opposi- 
 tion to each other. So, also, in Ulpian, " Tutores et Fidejus- 
 sores idonei," are twice opposed to those " qui lapsi sunt fa- 
 cultatibus" (ruined men). Thus, also, it changes places with 
 Locuples, as Testis idoneus, Testis locuples, Auctor locuples, 
 Auctor idoneus. The root of this is the Cum. Eid-ion, vulg. 
 Eidon, " an ox," the generic name of kine, for beef is always 
 called " cig eidon." In the Cum. Italy is always called " Y'r 
 eidal," close enough to identify it with Italia, derived from 
 Italus, " an ox." 
 
 Divitiae seem as clearly referable to the Cum. Dav-ad, plur. 
 Deveid, or, as the word is written in old documents, Deveit, 
 " a sheep, and sheep." Indeed I doubt not that Davad and 
 Devaid are compound words, made up of Dav or Dov, " tame," 
 and Eid, the root of Eidon, still to be found in the literary 
 language of Ireland as the generic name for " cattle " (see Ed. 
 and Eid. in Ed. Lloyd's Irish Diet.} ; and that the animals re- 
 claimed from their wild state, and domesticated by man, bore 
 this name, which was subsequently transferred to express the 
 wealth of man. He who, therefore, is inclined to deny that 
 Pecunia and Pecuniosus come from Pecus, may also refuse his 
 assent to the inference that Divitiae comes from Deveit. I 
 could as easily show that Duonus, the original form of Bonus, 
 is also of Cum. origin ; but I abstain, and reluctantly close the 
 present paper. 
 
 Desiderata for a further prosecution of the subject : 
 Vocabularies of the language spoken among the hills of 
 Unibria, Rhaetia, Liguria, the Maritime Alps, and Auvergue. 
 
 1 Lib. xxvii.tit. 8, Leg. 1.
 
 THE VIEGILIAN COSMOGONY. 
 
 Namque canebat, uti magnum per inane coacta 
 Semina terrarumque animseque marisque fuissent, 
 Et liquid! simul ignis, ut his exordia primis, 
 Omnia et ipse tener mundi concreverit orbis, 
 Turn durare solum et discludere Nerea Ponto 
 Cccperit. et rerum paullatim sumere formas. 
 Jamque novum ut terras stupeant lucescere solem 
 Altius atque cadant submotis nubibus imbres, 
 Incipiant sylvse cum primum surgere, cumque 
 Eara per ignotos errent animalia montes 
 Hinc lapides Pyrrhae jactos. 
 
 VIKGIL, Eclogue vi. ver. 31 . 
 
 OF all the divisions of things existent, the most simple and 
 complete, in my opinion, is that of Plato, who, partly borrow- 
 ing his system from the Pythagoreans, taught, that all things 
 might finally be resolved into five ideas or forms : ov<ria, which 
 at present I will not attempt to represent by any English term, 
 but which is in general rendered substance ; TO KVTO, the same, 
 or as often called TO ev, the one, and TO Jrcpov, the second, also 
 called TO aXAo, the other. The ovtria, therefore, or the TO ov, 
 was by Plato held to consist of either of these separately, or of 
 the results of their union, or of the action of the one upon the 
 other. 
 
 But, instead of expressing the Platonic doctrine on these 
 points in my own words, it will be more satisfactory to the 
 Society to hear it from the mouth of Plato's own teacher, 
 Timaeus the Locrian, whose precious treatise, Hep/ VVKW TQV
 
 112 THE VIRGILIAN COSMOGONY. 
 
 Ko<r/xot, has been transmitted to us along with Plato's own 
 writings ; of which little work, Bekker, in his edition of Plato, 
 thus speaks : " This is truly a golden book, and a splendid 
 monument of the more pure doctrine of the very ancient philo- 
 sophers, and a correct outline of the above discussion of Plato 
 (Bekker refers to the Tirnaeus), copiously followed out by the 
 Athenian concerning nature. And the Timaeus was written 
 only as a commentary for the fuller and more lucid explanation 
 of this treatise. Hence Plato's candour induced him even to 
 retain the name." 
 
 Now, this is the translation of the first chapter of the Locrian: 
 " Thus spoke Timaeus the Locrian : that there are two 
 causes of all things existent vovg (mind), of those things that are 
 being born (xar Aoyov) under the direction of Aoyo? ; and uvzyuix 
 (necessity) the cause of all that is being done violently (frg), 
 in accordance with the powers inherent in bodies (<T|X#TWV). 
 That of these two, the one is participant of the good nature, 
 and is called God, and the principle of all that is best ; but 
 that all that is secondary, and the result of conjoint action, 
 must be referred to necessity (av^yx^) ; and that all things 
 existent are the fact (or God), CAVJ (or matter), and the CUSTOM 
 (that which is perceptible by our five senses) ; and that the first 
 (God) is ayewxTov, not subject to birth ; ax/v^rov, not subject 
 to motion, and permanent, and of the nature of the one, and 
 the type-source of all things that are being born, whatever they 
 are, which are in a continual state of change, for that such the 
 *Jf is called and understood to be. But that the uAvj is the 
 well-wrought (wax, mould, clay, or dough), and the mother 
 and the nurse and the actual bearer of the third, ovirtct ; and 
 that having received the stamp of the models upon herself, and 
 having there given them material shape, she perfects these pro- 
 ductions. He said that this uAvj was ii'J/ov, not however 
 but without self-power or assuming form or shape 
 mi a<r%M!j,zTKrTov) but a recipient, of every form." 
 
 "Now, these two are contrary to each other, of which, the e?$o$ 
 has some analogy to a male and a father, but fay to a female
 
 THE VIRGILTAN COSMOGONY. 113 
 
 and a mother. But he said that their offsprings were the third 
 existents ; and these, being three, are recognized by three : the 
 tisa by the vovg (intellect), scientifically, that is, certainly ; the 
 v\v] by a process of reasoning not logical but analogical, because 
 it can by no means be directly comprehended by the vovg ; but 
 that their joint offsprings (aToycvva/xaTa), at a later period (ret 
 are cognizable by the senses and opinion (a.iff^si 
 
 From this system Plato borrowed his five categories to which 
 all things might finally be referred. First, ovnx, existence; 
 second, the T'WTO, or the TO Jv, the same, or the one ; third, 
 the TO fTf^ov, called also the TO <*Mo, the second, or the other ; 
 fourth, (Traffic, immobility and permanence, the characteristic 
 of the TO Jv ; and fifth, x<vvi<r/;, or motion, the characteristic of 
 
 the TO 6TfOV. 
 
 To express more intelligibly to common minds the relation 
 supposed to exist between the TO Jv and the TO JTCJOV, the first 
 was called varyy, or mover in an active and primary sense ; the 
 other, /xTV], or Mrvj$, a mover in a passive or, rather, secondary 
 sense. These, either in a separate or united state, were sup- 
 posed to constitute the TO ov, and from them all entities were 
 supposed to flow. The Doric form, pctrv\%, became mater and 
 materies in Latin, in English mother and matter ; while TraTvjg 
 became pater in Latin, in English father. 
 
 The existence of the TO Jv was held to be absolutely intelli- 
 gible, that is, that it was cognizable by the vow, without neces- 
 sarily including the notion of any other existent. But the 
 existence of the TO JT^OV was supposed to be only relatively 
 intelligible. In other words, the TO Jv was, in grammatical 
 language, the positive, the TO ere ov the comparative, for erepoe 
 is only a comparative form of J/?. In the same manner, J/c 
 is one absolutely, AAo? one relatively; eis is, in English, one ; 
 uKKot;, another or one more. In the same way units is, in Latin, 
 one absolutely; alius, the liquified form of Mo?, another; 
 while the comparative srepog, is represented by alter, a com- 
 parative form of aMo?, aXKore^og, alter. To the TO Jv, incapa- 
 
 15
 
 114 THE VIRGILIAN COSMOGONY. 
 
 bility of change, was assigned to the TO XXo, a capacity of 
 boundless change. These remarks are not the results of verbal 
 trifling, but the prolific parents of innumerable deductions. 
 The very words which signify change are, in the Greek lan- 
 guage, in a great measure derived from AAof . Hence 
 I spring, I change place ; u\\y.Qsu, I change, 
 change place ; ctKKoua, I alienate, &c. 
 
 Even the words that signify growth, which is nothing but a 
 new concretion of matter, also signify change or alteration. 
 Hence cr^ya, I turn ; T^TW, / turn ; r%f<pu, I nourish, are 
 slightly modified forms of the same root, and signify to make, 
 to change. The Latin alo is only the archaic form of the Greek 
 AAw, in its active form. 
 
 The inventors or receivers of the Greek language made man 
 an offshoot partly from the KUT^, and partly from the [MTY%. 
 They derived his mind or voug from God the Father who gave 
 it, and his body from the organized f/,Tvj. But what is the 
 English word mind? Nothing but a corrupted form of the 
 Latin mens, which again is only a corrupted form of the Greek 
 /xfvof. But this word signifies the same as the TO Iv and the 
 TO fxfvov, that which is one and permanent. This, according to 
 the system under consideration, being an efflux or emanation 
 of the infinite Jv, was held to be itself one and indivisible, des- 
 tined to remain in its mortal habitat, from the moment the 
 spark, aurai simplicis ignis, was first kindled in the infant 
 foetus, until the day of death, when it winged its way to other 
 worlds. 
 
 In the meantime, the body (literally, the abode, in which it 
 abode), after a limited existence in a continual state of flux, 
 finally decayed, and was resolved into its constituent materials. 
 
 Hence, long anterior to history, prevailed the idea, that all 
 virtue and goodness flowed from the one, and all sin and evil 
 from the other, and that soul and body were contrary princi- 
 ples, united, indeed, for a time, but struggling within narrow 
 lists for the pre-eminence. But the principle of analogy was 
 carried further ; for in the union between man and wife, the
 
 THE VIRGILIAN COSMOGONY. 115 
 
 male was supposed to hold the place of the TTV}, the female 
 of the puxrvjp. Hence, also, our globe was especially, as being 
 the principal concretion of uAu, called Avj MTvj, or Avj 
 (Demeter), Mother Earth, 
 
 She was also called in Greek mythology, Pea, Mfijrrjp 
 Tpoiu t \\ict, and other such names. In Latin, Venus, Venilia, 
 Ilia, Sylvia, Marica, Salacia, 8fc. This CA>J, when analyzed into 
 its constituent elements, was supposed to consist of individual 
 atoms, originally dispersed through boundless space, but col- 
 lected into various masses. Now, the older philosophy inva- 
 riably introduced a Creator as the arranger and architect of 
 the universe. 
 
 This mind-agent is the very soul of the Pythagorean system, 
 and of every system traditionally received with the seeds of 
 civilization from the Eastern World. It equally pervades the 
 Orphic, the Homeric, and Druidical systems ; and it was left to 
 Epicurus, an ignorant man, to whom the knowledge imported 
 by Democritus became known, to withdraw the architect from 
 the work, and describe our visible world as the result of cer- 
 tain laws inherent in the original atomic particles. And it is 
 this imperfect and garbled theory which we find represented 
 in the above lines of Virgil. 
 
 The whole system as laid down by Epicurus, is faithfully 
 handed down to us in the splendid poem of Lucretius. But all 
 that is truth-like and living in it was long anterior to the times 
 of Epicurus, while all that is fallacious and unreal was added 
 by the unscrupulous Gargettian. The semina rerum, accord- 
 ing to the old philosophers, were capable of assuming four 
 states : Solids, of which the earth was the representative ; 
 liquids, of which water was the type ; air, represented by the 
 breathable atmosphere ; and the imponderables, of which fire 
 was the type. 
 
 The very old philosophers, the Tra/x^A^o/ of Aristotle, added 
 a quinta essentia of which the cether, or that subtle fluid which 
 was supposed to flow through all space, and bind together all 
 the component parts into one body, was the representative.
 
 116 THE VIRGILIAN COSMOGONY. 
 
 We know that the later Platonists, who founded their system 
 upon the Platonic Timaeus, regarded this quinta essentia as an 
 Aristotelian heresy ; although Aristotle repeatedly affirms, that 
 it was not his discovery or assertion, but a traditionary doc- 
 trine handed down from the primitive ages ; concerning it 
 he affirms, that the very ancients called it a*6*]^, from the fact 
 that it was always in motion, and that its motion was naturally 
 circular motion. 
 
 There are very striking illustrations of this doctrine to be 
 derived from various sources, which will eventually, perhaps, 
 tend to identify this Ti^ioTarov ruv <?Toi%eiuv this TO T^WTOV 
 0TOi%ov, with our electric fluid. We are told one remarkable 
 fact by Aristotle, that Anaxagoras, who was the first Greek of 
 history who attempted to elaborate physical theories for him- 
 self, in opposition to the dogmatic assertions of the priests, who 
 might have inherited the truth, but had certainly lost the means 
 of proving it, was the first who confounded the two names 
 cti^ and 9ruf, which before his time represented two different 
 elements. 
 
 There is an Orphic fragment preserved by Clemens Alex- 
 andrinus, which distinctly describes not only the five states in 
 which the CXv^ might be found, but also that they were mutually 
 resolvable into each other. W T ater is the death of the air, and a 
 change back again is the death of water. Moreover, earth has 
 its source in water, and from earth again springs water ; from 
 water again \|/u%^, air, which forms or causes to revolve (as you 
 choose two various readings) the whole ether. 
 
 These semina rerum were, according to the theory described 
 in Virgil's Eclogue, collected into one mass, and served, when 
 aggregated, to form our visible creation, 
 
 ut his exordia primis 
 Omnia et ipse tener mundi concreuerit orbis. 
 
 Here we must take care not to suppose that the mundi orbis 
 was our globe. It was the ovum mundanum of later writers, 
 the visible heavens with all contained within them, and bounded, 
 according to the Aristotelian school, by a solid orbicular firma-
 
 THE VIRGILIAN COSMOGONY. 117 
 
 ment, formed on the principle of an arched vault, of which the 
 keystone was thrt famous Petra, of which Festus, borrowing 
 the words of ^Elius Gallus, thus speaks : " Petra is that stone 
 which, on the right and left of Jupiter, is to turn (expletura est) 
 .the arch, for the equipoise of the highest" arch. It is of this 
 orbis, thus solidly constituted, that Horace writes : 
 
 Si fractus illabatur orbis 
 Impavidum ferient ruiuse. 
 
 We all know how easy it was for even ignorant cosmogonists 
 to suppose that the elements, as they were called, would sub- 
 side, according to their respective gravities, into any given con- 
 geries like our earth ; but that alone would never have produced 
 the present form of our globe. Virgil, however, proceeds to 
 state the facts, that dry land was produced, and the sea confined 
 within certain limits, 
 
 Turn durare soluin et discludere Nerea Ponto, 
 
 without hinting at any Creator, or any law by which such a 
 result would be effected. Servius, the only commentator on 
 Virgil worth consulting, says, by way of paraphrase, " For he 
 sung how the solum began to harden itself, and by constriction 
 to exclude the water before mixed with it." If, in truth, we 
 take solum for the nominative, we must understand to harden 
 absolutely, i.e. to harden itself, and refer all that follows to the 
 solum and terrestrial objects. If solum is the accusative, all will 
 belong to mundi orbis. 
 
 Hence, probably, the best translation is, " How all coarse 
 outlines (exordia) and the yet tender orb of the universe itself, 
 began to concresce, then how it began to harden the terrestrial 
 globe, and to confine Nereus within its bason, and by degrees 
 to assume the forms of things as they are at present." 
 
 By this translation we procure something like an agent in 
 orbis mundi, who by some inherent power compresses the in- 
 animate uAvj, and stamps it with those rude forms which the 
 earth, the firmament, and the heavenly bodies would assume if 
 devoid of the sun's light and of organized life. 
 
 As the orbis cceli was supposed to be a globe, so, also, was
 
 118 THE VIRGILTAN COSMOGONY. 
 
 our earth assumed, from a very early period, to have the same 
 form. For the solum mentioned by Virgil, is only a Latin form 
 of the Greek foot, represented also in Latin by the Ennian 
 sollus, as in the expression " he burnt," sollos tauros, by way 
 of holocaust. But the whole also signifies one, for unity and 
 totality resolve themselves finally into one idea. Hence the 
 Greek oAo?, the English whole or sole, has three representatives 
 in Latin : 1st, " solus," one or alone, literally, all one ; 2nd, 
 the " solum terra," or " orbis terrarum," whence " solidus," 
 the adjective by which solids are characterized ; and 3rd, " sol, 
 solis." Who is xar'f o%viv, the one, and was, in ancient mytho- 
 logy, always regarded as the best visible type of the TO Jv, as 
 our solum was regarded as the best visible type of the TO aXAo ? 
 
 But although the Epicurean system tells us little of how the 
 separation took place between dry land and the sea, or, in 
 Virgil's language, how " Nereus," whose very name looks as if 
 it was made up of Nvj, not, and tpa, land, was despoiled of a 
 portion of his dominions, and induced to retire within fixed 
 limits, yet, if we go to the mythologists, we find this important 
 era in the history of our globe distinctly traced out, as being 
 the rebellion of the lurid giants, sons of earth, against the might 
 of Jove. In this war the earth-born are described as vainly 
 piling mountain on mountain, and preparing to tear down the 
 ramparts of heaven. The utmost that Jove could do to prevent 
 these infernal agents from confounding all things, was to bury 
 them under their own up-thrown hills, whence they still vomit 
 forth temporary flames and fires, and shake the earth in their 
 efforts to remove the superincumbent pressure. 
 
 The very names of these wyeveis are etymologically expres- 
 sive of their volcanic character ; and in mythology, etymology 
 is almost always a trusty guide. Hence, " Typhoeus " contains 
 the idea of smoke and darkened air ; " Enceladus," of a roaring 
 storm ; " Rhoetus," of the hissing blast of fire ; " Porphyrion " 
 is the fire-bearer; " Otus," the thrust er ; and " Ephialtes," the 
 up-springer. So well preserved was this traditionary doctrine, 
 that when Vesuvius, after a long repose, burst out A.D. 79,
 
 THE VIRGILIAN COSMOGONY. 119 
 
 the common people, as we are informed by the younger Pliny, 
 thought, that amid the dense clouds and pyramids of smoke, 
 glaring one while with the reflection of the volcanic fires, and 
 at other times rent and pierced by the lightning flashes, they 
 could recognize the forms of the rebellious giants engaged 
 once more in deadly conflict with their celestial foes. 
 
 The same process is described in a Homeric simile, which 
 seems to testify that the poet, although he nowhere else alludes 
 to volcanic action, had personally witnessed an outbreak of the 
 earth-confined fires. His words are, 
 
 " As if the whole ground was being devoured by fire. And 
 the earth groaned internally, as under the lash of Jove delight- 
 ing in thunder, when he is angry, and when he lashes the earth 
 all around ' Typhoeus,' eiv Apipoig, where they say that the bed 
 of Typhoeus is." 
 
 The Greeks of history could make nothing of the expression 
 eiv or ev Af*/xo/;, and consequently supposed it to have been the 
 name of a place. This place the Greeks of Asia placed in 
 Cilicia, where there was an immense cavern, the crater of an 
 exhausted volcano; and there even Pindar lodges the dragon- 
 limbed " Typhoeus." But the Greeks of Magna Grsecia, who, 
 as early settlers on the Campanian coast, were witnesses to the 
 violent action of the volcanic fires within the bosom of the 
 capacious crater now called the Bay of Naples, transferred the 
 couch of Typhoeus to the island of Ischia. Hence Virgil's 
 lines : 
 
 Turn Somtu Prochyta alta tremit, durumque cubile 
 Inarime lovis imperio imposta Typhoeo. 
 
 But the total ignorance of the Greeks of history concerning 
 the literature of the Homeric poems, may well be inferred from 
 these two extreme locations of one of the most striking scenes 
 described within the range of the Homeric poems. Still more 
 wonderful is it, that they should not have known that Apfut 
 was only the Phrygian term for mountains, as we have it re- 
 corded in one of their glossaries. 
 
 Now, it can be proved from the Iliad itself, that the author
 
 120 THE VIRGILIAN COSMOGONT. 
 
 or authors of it must have dwelt in the immediate vicinity of 
 the modern Smyrna. But Smyrna is within two days' journey 
 of that portion of Phrygia which gave its name to the whole 
 province. For yv\ q>%vyiv\ means only the burnt land ; and that 
 portion of it particularly liable to the action of subterranean 
 fires, which lies between the upper waters of the ancient Her- 
 mus and Maeander, was called by the Greeks themselves HI 
 HaTvzxextfu/Afvvj. Hence it is plain, that Homer uses the word 
 tiv AP//XO/C, among the mountains, in the same manner as an 
 inhabitant of Edinburgh would speak of something that might 
 be seen in the Highlands. And even Strabo, prosaic as he is 
 in general, when expatiating on the excellence of the wines of 
 this volcanic district, says that it was no bad fiction of the 
 mythologists, that the mother of the true Bacchus had been 
 reduced to cinders before the birth of the generous infant. 
 
 But, to close all doubts on this part of the subject, it will be 
 sufficient to quote the following passage fram the Theogonia of 
 Hesiod, where the birth of the mountains is not only recorded, 
 but the reason why this must have been a necessary step in the 
 work of progressive creation : 
 
 But the earth gave birth to long ridges of mountains, the genial lodgings 
 Of the goddess nymphs who dwell (or who flow) along the ravined mountains. 
 
 It can be easily shown that the Nymphai of mythology are 
 those genial essences which form the " pabulum" of organized 
 life. Hitherto the work of cosmogony is supposed to have gone 
 on without the intervention of the action of the sun ; for he is 
 on every system supposed to have been introduced at a later 
 period into the work of creation. 
 
 It was very easy for the Greeks of history to have imagined 
 a state of things when all this globe was covered with an 
 equally diffused coating of water, such as we see described in 
 the following passage of the Uept ruv Merfwpov of Aristotle. 
 
 " But the wiser men say that, at first, every spot on the face 
 of the globe was occupied by water ; but that this being drained 
 by the sun, being partly evaporated, formed the breathable air 
 and the food of the sun and moon ; and, being partly left in its
 
 THE VIRGILIAN COSMOGONY. 121 
 
 liquid state, became our present seas ; consequently, that these 
 being gradually drained, would, in the end, as they thought, 
 become altogether dry land." 
 
 But the older philosophy could not accept of any such solu- 
 tion of the difficulty, as no power emanating from the sun 
 alone, could possibly account for those inequalities in the sur- 
 face of the globe, which alone make it a fit habitation for the 
 higher animals. Hence, we find, that they imputed the up- 
 rising of the mountains to forces inherent in the earth itself, 
 and placed these active powers below its visible crust. Thus, 
 as we are told in a <r%oA<ov on Aristotle's treatise, Ilepi rov 
 Oupavou, "The Pythagoreans taught, that there was in the 
 middle and round the centre of the earth a 5vi/x;oujy;xov fire, 
 and that it gave a cherishing and vital warmth to the earth, 
 and preserved its orderly arrangement (5zxo<7f/,vj<v); and that 
 the earth was a star, and that this star, revolving round its own 
 axis, made night and day, because its conical shadow was night, 
 and the portion of it illuminated by the sun was the day. 
 Therefore, among other names, they called it etrrutf 
 o/xov V.CLI A*O (puXaxvjv." 
 
 It was from this system of philosophy that Vesta, or E<TT/, 
 the goddess of fire, was made the mythos of our earth, but of 
 our earth only at a time, when fire was the predominant ele- 
 ment, when there could be no production, and when, conse- 
 quently, she was the virgin earth, the goddess, not of genial 
 life, but of vestal purity or chastity. 
 
 The next step described by Virgil, after the assumption of 
 the present face of the framework of our visible creation, is the 
 appearance of the sun : 
 
 Jamque novum ut terrse stupeant lucescere solum. 
 
 In a paper like the present, I need not quote all the adducible 
 proofs, but I can safely affirm, that the doctrine of a repeated 
 destruction of the sun, and a consequent reappearance, is inti- 
 mately interwoven with ancient mythology. 
 
 It may have, in the first instance, sprung from the fact of 
 
 10
 
 122 THE VIRGILIAN COSMOGONY. 
 
 his daily rising and setting, as when Horace says that he is daily 
 born, 
 
 alter et idem ; 
 
 or, with greater probability, from his annual declination in our 
 hemisphere, and reascension : physical facts which were un- 
 doubtedly, on the one hand, lamented as a death, and on the 
 other, hailed as a resurrection. But still there are strong 
 grounds for believing, that a periodical destruction and a sub- 
 sequent re-formation of all the visible phenomena, was one of 
 the tenets of the more ancient systems. Thus Cicero tells us, 
 that the ancient philosophers believed that in the revolution 
 of the annus magnus there were fixed points during which the 
 destruction of the present form of things was a certain and 
 unavoidable result. I find a similar doctrine laid down by 
 Aristotle, nj/ Mereca^v, only that he confines the result to a 
 deluge. He says : 
 
 "But the bulk and magnitude of our globe is a mere nothing 
 in comparison with the whole ov$avo<;. But on all these sub- 
 jects we must suppose, that in the same manner as the winter 
 (literally translated the rainy season) occurs among our division 
 of the annual seasons, so, during a certain great revolution, there 
 recurs a great %e//judv and excess of rain." 
 
 However this be, we find a firm conviction among all the 
 civilized nations of antiquity, that the appearance of the sun 
 was comparatively a late event in the order of creation, and 
 that night, nox sola, brooded long over the first concretion of 
 our globe. Hence, Virgil says, " The dry lands were seized 
 with amazement when the sun began to shine." 
 
 When the sun's light was first reflected from the round con- 
 vexity of the sea, and from the partially dispersed mountain 
 ridges which had emerged from below its surface, it could not 
 have shone upon any being endowed with organized life. And 
 it must have been under the fostering influence of the god of 
 day, that Aphrodite, the Venus Marina of the Latins, our ge- 
 nial and productive power, first tried her " prentice hand " in 
 the formation of marine shell-dwellers. Hence, she herself is
 
 THE VIRGILIAN COSMOGONY. 123 
 
 represented in mythology as emerging from the sea in her 
 elegant shell-chariot ; and hence especially the honours paid by 
 poets and painters to that sivaXiog A<sr/5up/v0o?, which was looked 
 upon for more causes than one, as a fit type of the foam-born 
 
 goddess: 
 
 Si tameu in dia quondam concreta profunda 
 Spuma fui, Graiumque manet mihi nomen ab ilia. 
 
 If, says the poet, in the characeter of Venus, 
 
 If, however, formerly " concreta," in the deep vortex, 
 
 I was " spuma," and my Greek name still continues from that circumstance. 
 
 From the shell formation we can mythologically trace the 
 introduction of the different inhabitants of the sea under the 
 Mythoi of Ceto and Derceto and Phorcys, until we come to the 
 Phocae, the first beings who, as it may be supposed, made use 
 of the newly raised rocks. Hence, those amphibious animals 
 who feed in the sea, and rest and breed on the rocky shores, are 
 described in mythology as the favourite herds of Proteus, one 
 of the Greek mythos for the TO o:AAo, in its greatest capacity 
 of undergoing change, and who, consequently, is described as 
 assuming all shapes of organized existence. Proteus is the god 
 
 who not only 
 
 immania 
 Armenta et turpes pascit sub gurgite Phocas, 
 
 but also leads them to repose themselves in the rocky grottoes 
 with which the seashore is often indented. 
 
 Quum Proteus consueta petens e fluctibus antra 
 Ibat, cum vasti circum gens humida Ponti 
 Exultans rorem late dispergit amarum, 
 Sternunt se somno diversse in littore Phocae. 
 
 The next step described by Virgil is the effect of the action 
 of the sun upon the face of the visible creation : 
 
 Altius atque cadant submotis nubibus Imbres. 
 
 Now, the first effect of the newly created sun is to raise a 
 vapour from the surface of the sea. This vapour is gradually 
 raised by increasing heat to the higher ranges of the atmo-
 
 124 THE VIRGILIAN COSMOGONY. 
 
 sphere, where it first forms clouds, and then descends on the 
 bare and virgin earth in the shape of rain. In Virgil's words, 
 
 And how the showers fall from the clouds, raised to a greater elevation. 
 
 The Latin word imber is a corrupted form of the Greek 
 word o/x/3po, which means ros, dew or flow that drops from the 
 o/x/3, the round expanse of the atmosphere. It was this feeder 
 of land vegetation, and, consequently, of land animals them- 
 selves, that was made the object of especial attention with the 
 ancient civilized world. It was regarded as the only form of 
 the uAvi, or the TO u.Kho, which could support the sentient exist- 
 ence of land animals. Hence the sun was regarded as the life- 
 giver, because he was the author of dews and rain, or, more 
 properly speaking, the chemical manufacturer of sweet and 
 living water. Hence he was called Atifiy?, the distiller ; Atovvaog, 
 the circulator of fluids ; and hence, in the older philosophy, he 
 was identified with that water which flows from heaven. 
 
 Hence, in Hesychius, we find A/fyov explained &uypov, mois- 
 ture ; and also <reXa;, light : because, as states the note, Keity 
 means both water and the sun ; as among the Egyptians, Osiris 
 is both the sun and drinkable water, such as is the Nile water. 
 Hence, also, the constant association of living water with a 
 rock or a mountain ; for without the previous uprising of the 
 mountains, the descent of the rains of heaven could not have 
 proved beneficial to land vegetation and animals, but must 
 have, as still the greatest portion is to this day, commingled 
 their precious essences with the briny sea. 
 
 It was v\v\ in this purified state, and in a liquid form for uAvj 
 and the Latin uligo are the same word that was represented 
 by the mythological term vv/x<pvi ; originally we know that this 
 was Au/xpvj, the uAi set loose ; but latterly it came to assume the 
 meaning of the TO uKho, and to be the favourite term for a 
 bride : " plenis jam nubilis annis." Hence, also, the rich and 
 precious essences which are extracted from the sea, and which, 
 when dropped in fertilizing showers upon the face of the earth, 
 and converted into the splendid beauties of the vegetable crea-
 
 THE VIRGILIAN COSMOGONY. 125 
 
 tion, are especially called vvt*.<pzt. Hence, also, the %^/Tf?, or 
 gratia, the myths of the colour, form, and fragrance, which the 
 genial power loves to bestow upon her productions, were w^ipai. 
 So, also, were those muses, who, moving in obedience to their 
 guide and leader the sun, dispensed from their perennial 
 springs those living waters which caused their gardens to glad- 
 den the eye with perpetual bloom and verdure. Hence, also, 
 the fifty Nereids; hence, the Oceanides, the Naiads, and Oreads, 
 were all wwzi. " These," says Hesiod, speaking of them as 
 the daughters of Oceanus and Tethys, the male and female 
 myths of the sea " These are they who, with King Apollo 
 and the rivers, nourish men on earth. For this province they 
 hold by Jove's appointment." 
 
 In fact, Apollo was the A^/x/ou^yo?, that is, the sun was the 
 leading agent in loosening these benignant influences from the 
 more sordid mass of their parent ocean, in raising them aloft, 
 and again in causing them to descend upon the mountain 
 heights, whence flowing in innumerable channels to one com- 
 mon bed, they formed those ifora^oi without whose refreshing 
 aid life could not have existed in those regions where this lan- 
 guage and system were invented. 
 
 " Inachus," says a chorus in Euripides, addressing a river 
 god, " Inachus, the begetting father, child of the fountains 
 who are themselves the children of Father Oceanus, you greatly 
 benefit the fields of Argos, and the concretions of Hera, 
 
 In time the influence of sweet water, fostered and acted 
 upon by the sun's rays, would rouse into existence those semina 
 rerum, which, in the first place, would clothe the barren rocks 
 with the lowest order of vegetable life. And these, decaying 
 in the course of nature, would form a pabulum for more 
 vigorous plants, until, in the course of ages, forests would wave 
 where once the lichen alone had impressed its starry mark upon 
 the naked rock. Hence Virgil very properly proceeds : 
 
 Incipiant sylvse quum primum surgere. 
 
 \Vheu the sylvac, the vegetable world on laud, began to rise.
 
 126 THE VIRGILIAN COSMOGONY. 
 
 It may be worth remarking here, that the word uXvi, which 
 originally was only another name for the TO #Mo, should in 
 historic Greek have come to represent what we mean by the 
 word wood or timber. So also sylva, the Latin form of vXvi, came 
 to signify wood, and its synonym mater ia or materies came to 
 signify timber. 
 
 The difficulties and dangers which the infant fay had to 
 undergo before she could assume the higher forms of land ani- 
 mals, are shadowed out in many a fable : where a fair nymph 
 is represented chained to a naked rock, within sea-mark, ex- 
 posed to be devoured by a huge marine monster, who had 
 destroyed numberless nymphs of equal beauty, but who is in his 
 turn destroyed by some bold wanderer who rescues the nymph, 
 and thereafter makes her his willing bride. This mythos is 
 carried out in all its parts in the well-known tale of Perseus 
 and Andromeda. She is said to be the daughter of Cepheus ; 
 but Cepheus, in the same manner as Cephas, means only the 
 rock ; and Perseus, the rescuer of the abandoned maid, is one 
 of the best-recognized representatives of the sun. 
 
 The action of the sun, in converting the rock-deposited vAvj 
 into vegetable forms, is again strikingly typified in the story of 
 Phoebus and Daphne, in other words, of the sun and that por- 
 tion of the earth which first emerged from the sea and became 
 a recipient of the genial power of living water. For Aa-pvq 
 means nothing else than A-<pavvj, the visible earth. The sun in 
 his various operations is said to court this fair nymph, and 
 the result is that under his amorous pursuit, she assumes a 
 vegetable shape and becomes a laurel. 
 
 It would be endless to trace the various forms in which this 
 mythos is developed ; I shall, therefore, content myself with 
 mentioning some more prosaic passages where the same truth 
 is shadowed forth. I have ample means to prove that, in the 
 very old religion of the civilized world, every ur bs or orbis was 
 supposed to be a microcosm of our globe, and every citadel 
 or arx a central point. Hence it happens that we have the 
 same steps recorded as taking place in the history of innume-
 
 THE VIRGILIAN COSMOGONY. 127 
 
 rable cities, and these same steps are those which we are now 
 tracing in the progressive advance of our globe. 
 
 For example, we are told by Stephanus Byzantinus, in that 
 invaluable treasury of ancient mythology which he has given 
 us under the name of ITepj IIoAewv, that Egypt was originally 
 called Aepiu, the gaseous state ; then UorK^irvig, the oceanic state : 
 for TOT^pios and uxsctvog are, in the older language, the same. 
 3rd, Qyyyiz. But it can be proved that wyuy/a means the land 
 that first emerged from the ocean. 4th, fju,o%ufx,o?. Now, 
 fpjxo%u|xo? describes exactly the position of the vhy confined on 
 the rock ; for it is composed of the word e^ct, a foundation, 
 a bulwark, or groundwork; and %u/xo?, that form of uAvj out of 
 which vegetable life is immediately formed. For in the words 
 of an ancient scholiast upon the Platonic word Swfeiv, or 
 
 " The whole genus of those juices that are strained through 
 the medium of plants from the earth are called %u/xo/." The fifth 
 name of Egypt was MeA^jx^wAo?, black mould. 
 
 But $M\O; is the gleba, that mass of decayed vegetable life 
 which covers, in a smaller or greater degree, that substratum 
 which has been, in all ages, called the virgin earth. And even 
 Homer measures the fertility of a country by the depth of this 
 
 Now, the favourite idea of the older mythologists was, to 
 represent our orbis terrarum as an island surrounded by the 
 sea, from which it had originally emerged, and doomed again to 
 be swallowed up by it. This idea, again, was applied to the 
 microcosm of one city; and all Europe, Asia, and Northern 
 Africa, were covered with traditions of lakes which brood 
 silently over the ruins of swallowed-up towns, the prototypes 
 of those which still flourish on their banks. 
 
 Hence a wide-spread horror of paroxysmal deluges, and a 
 belief, if certain precautions were not taken, that destruction by 
 water was certain to occur. We have this doctrine, and the 
 origin of it, placed graphically before our eyes by Herodotus,
 
 128 THE VIRGILTAN COSMOGONY. 
 
 who tells us in one place, that Menes was the first human being 
 who ruled in Egypt ; and in another place favours us with the 
 following legend : " The priests told me that Menes, the first 
 king of Egypt, in the first place included Memphis within 
 mounds (aroyepupw^) ; for that the whole stream flowed close 
 to the sand-hills on the Lybian side. But that Menes, about 
 a hundred stadii above Memphis, had mounded up the elbow 
 to the south, and thus drained the ancient channel, and so 
 conducted the stream that it might flow between the two hills. 
 And to this day, this elbow of the Nile, which flows mounded 
 off (aTfp7jxfV9?) is most carefully guarded by the Persians, being 
 annually examined. For if the river, having broken down the 
 mound, were to overflow at this point, there is danger that all 
 Memphis would be destroyed by the deluge (xTxAu<r0vivfir/). 
 But when to this, Menes having become king, the portion 
 mounded off had become dry ground, in the first place he built 
 on it this city, which is now called Memphis ; for Memphis 
 is in the narrow part of Egypt; and on the outside of it he 
 excavated a lake-bed, which was supplied with water from the 
 river, both on the northern and western side. Eor the Nile 
 itself confines its eastern side." 
 
 A traveller who has most minutely examined Egypt, and who 
 has taken this tradition into consideration, does not hesitate, 
 after a careful inspection of the ground upon which Memphis 
 stood, to pronounce it a groundless fiction, and affirm that 
 such an operation as that ascribed to Menes, was neither done 
 ipso facto, nor capable of being done. Indeed, without his 
 authority, we might easily infer that the first human king of 
 Egypt would never have thought of dislodging the Nile from 
 its natural bed, in order to found a city in the drained channel. 
 The tradition communicated by the priests, evidently alluded 
 to the system now investigated by me, which made the founda- 
 tion of every city rest upon land which had emerged from 
 the deep. Even the Phrygians themselves, whom alone the 
 Egyptians allowed to be an older race than themselves, could
 
 THE VIRGILIAN COSMOGONY. 129 
 
 imagine a time when their hills were nothing but submarine 
 volcanoes, as may be proved from the sibylline couplet, 
 
 TpwTvj #v#5u<7vi cup' vSstro? #xpeu 
 yevtvjv 
 
 O Phrygia, thou first will emerge from the surface of the water; 
 Thou who first shall nourish another race of men. 
 
 But what, then, did Herodotus mean by talking of the care- 
 ful inspection of the mounds, lest Memphis should be deluged ? 
 To this my answer is, that every town was mythologically sup- 
 posed to have t^ara., bulwarks, and yepupa*, earthen mounds, 
 which were regarded as ocrc^e TAvjfu^/ Jo?, retainers of that deluge 
 to which every city was hypothetically liable, as resting upon 
 land reclining upon the surface of the deep. Of this mythos, 
 Herodotus himself saw a full representation at Buto, another 
 city in Egypt. 
 
 " The second most wonderful thing in this city is the island 
 called Chemmis. It is in a deep and broad lake, close to the 
 temple at Buto. Now, the Egyptians say that it is a floating 
 island. I myself, indeed, did not see it either float or move. 
 But on hearing, I wondered whether the island really did float." 
 Then he proceeds to tell the reason why it did float. " Be- 
 cause Latona, who had received the infant Horus (Apollo) from 
 Isis, there fostered it and concealed it from the searches of the 
 destructive Typhon." But this tradition is the same as the 
 birth of Apollo and Diana on the floating A>jAo?, which the 
 grateful god afterwards made stationary. In another temple 
 in Egypt, Herodotus saw a A<JXVVJ adorned with a marble facing, 
 and accurately rendered circular, and in size, according to his 
 opinion, equal to that in AvjAos, which is called T^%ml^, wheel- 
 shaped. 
 
 But in the territory of Re-ate, Rhea's town, in Italy, we have 
 a perfect representation of the mythos. First, a town, Kur- 
 iKiu, which, according to Varro, was mnbilicum terra, like 
 Delphi, FVj? ojxpaAov. But xur iKia. is made up of KUTO?, the womb, 
 and Ilia, another name of Rhea, in the same manner as KUT*, 
 
 17
 
 130 THE VIRGILIAN COSMOGONY. 
 
 the capital of Colchis, is made up of KVT and uiu, and Kufliiju of 
 Kur and qga. These were all imaginary centres, as we have 
 Atnsanctus, another supposed centre of Italy. Of this Cut-ilia 
 Dionysius thus speaks : 
 
 " Cutilia, a splendid city close to a mountain. Not far from 
 it is a lake, being four hundred feet distant. The lake is full 
 of spring water which flows perennially. It is said to be un- 
 fathomable. The inhabitants think that there is something 
 divine in this lake ; and fencing it on every side with garlands, 
 to prevent any man from approaching the water, preserve it 
 unapproachable, except when a biennial festival occurs, when 
 they whose duty it is, having visited a little island in it, offer 
 up certain legal sacrifices. This island is about fifty feet in dia- 
 meter, and it is raised only one foot above the surface of the 
 lake. But it is not fixed, but floats about in various directions, 
 as the wind whirls (J/vouvro?) it at one time to one place, at 
 another time to another place. But there grows in it a plant, 
 %Xovj, like the /SUTO/XO? and some other small shrubs." 
 
 The confinement of the sea within its bed, and its non- 
 encroachment upon the land, especially on flat shores, was re- 
 garded as a standing miracle ; and any similar representations 
 of the same truth upon a smaller scale, such as an island in a 
 lake, was regarded with singular honour. 
 
 Hence Dionysius, speaking of another island among the 
 Umbri, who were traditionally said to have fled from an inun- 
 dation of the Phrygian x^v/, thus writes : " But there is 
 shown a certain island, Issa by name, round which a lake flows, 
 which men inhabit without any protection made by man, that 
 is, without any s^v^x, mound, but using the shallows of the lake 
 as walls." 
 
 Such a city was also the Arcadian Oo%of/,fvoe, originally E?py- 
 (xfvoe, where the mythological ^Eneas is said to have founded 
 in a place called Nvjo-oc, although being inland, because it is 
 surrounded by marshes. 
 
 But there is one portion of the mythos of Cutilia which must 
 be remarked. The lake is unfathomable : that is, it was sup-
 
 THE VIRGILIAN COSMOGONY. 131 
 
 posed to be connected with those deep caverns in mountain 
 ridges which were particularly called the homes and shrines of 
 the nymphs, who reserved, as it were, huge reservoirs of sweet 
 and living waters for a perpetual supply of the urns of the 
 sun-drained rivers. These were speluncis lacus clausos, which 
 Aristaeus, in his visit to his mother Ku?vp/ti, was allowed to 
 visit. These lakes, Servius says, he calls the reservoirs whence 
 rivers and fountains are fed. And this he says not from poetic 
 license, but drawn from the Egyptian doctrines, which taught, 
 among other things, that there was below the earth an im- 
 mense body of water, which contained the seeds of all things, 
 and whence all things were procreated. 
 
 Founded on the same doctrine was the fable told to Hero- 
 dotus, that there were two fountains of the Nile on two several 
 high-pointed hills, and that one sent a branch to the north and 
 another to the south ; that this latter was sounded by Psamme- 
 tichus, who, although he constructed a cable thousands of 
 fathoms in length, was unable to reach the bottom. It was the 
 fear of the outbursting of this immense reservoir that formed 
 one of the popular terrors of the ancient world, and against 
 which the pontifices and ypvpzioi, or mound-makers, were sup- 
 posed to possess spells especially potent. The crust on which 
 every town reposed was supposed to be liable to a sudden sub- 
 sidence, and to allow the unfortunate city to be engulfed in 
 the water-filled caverns ; or again, some neglect on the part 
 of the especial guardians might possibly enable the confined 
 waters to rush forth on the principle of a syphon once set in 
 action, and not to cease until the land was once more sub- 
 merged. The mythoi in which these supposed dangers are 
 represented are numerous; but I content myself with alluding 
 to that inundation of which the Umbri were the survivors, 
 and which occurred owing to the bursting of the Phrygian 
 x?v]va/, or fountains, and to a tradition recorded by the elder 
 Pliny, that near Joppa, in Palestine, was shown the hole 
 through which the waters which had formed the deluge, again 
 re-entered the caverns from which they had issued forth.
 
 132 THE VIRGILIAN COSMOGONY. 
 
 As the whole knot of the system under consideration is 
 embodied in this origin of fresh water, I must allude to another 
 form of the mythos. IIo<-J-wv, the Latin Neptune (although 
 not originally the same god), represented not only the sea as a 
 vast magazine, whence the essences constituent of organized 
 life might be extracted, but also of the living water itself; and 
 of him in the latter character, the horse was the peculiar emblem. 
 Indeed aqnus and aqua were, mythologically speaking, con- 
 vertible terms. Of this we have a convincing proof in the fol- 
 lowing fact. In the first Georgic we have an address to Neptune 
 in the following words : 
 
 Tuque o cui prima fremuentem 
 Fudit equum magno tellus percussa tridenti. 
 
 On which Servius remarks : " The most ancient manuscripts 
 have fudit aquam. In the Cornelian (one of high authority) 
 equum. In the authentic, that is, Virgil's original manuscript, it 
 was aquam originally, but changed to equum by Virgil's own 
 hand." 
 
 We know that in general mythology, the account of the con- 
 test between Neptune and Athena, as to which should give a 
 name to Athens, teaches that he produced a horse and she an 
 olive-tree. But a more recondite version changes the horse 
 into a toxKctffffu. Pausanias says, " There is in this Acropolis a 
 shrine, said to be that of the earth-born e^fou?, in which are 
 both the olive-tree and the baha?, which, according to the 
 Athenian tradition, no<re<Jwv and Minerva produced as evidences 
 of their right to the country." 
 
 Nor was this confined to Athens. Pausanias, speaking of 
 the temple of no<rei$uv iKvios in Adria, writes : " There is an 
 ancient tradition that a wave of the buteo-tru appeared in this 
 temple. The Athenians tell the same story of the Ku/x in the 
 
 The Thessalians, on the contrary, pointed out, as we are 
 told by Servius, a very high mountain, on which this cquus 
 or aqua was first seen. 
 
 I have many things to say on this subject which at present
 
 THE VIRGILIAN COSMOGONY. 133 
 
 I prudently pass over, but may state, that the pilgrimages of 
 ancient Greece were made to the highest point of the rocks, 
 whence living waters descended, as these were especially the 
 distillers of the precions %u/xo/. 
 
 But the priests were not only pontifices, mound-guardians > 
 but also potifices, water-makers; and they could imitate, on 
 favourable occasions, the operations of nature. Here is the 
 account given by Pausanias of a scene on the heights of Ly co- 
 sura, a lofty peak in Arcadia, surrounded by the most striking 
 locations of ancient mythology : 
 
 " Of all the ToXf/5 which the earth brought to light, both on 
 the continent and in the islands, Lycosura is the oldest, and 
 this the sun first saw. When the fields were parched with want 
 of rain, the priest of the Lycean Jove (the Potifex of the day) 
 went up in solemn procession to the highest point of the hill, 
 where was the fountain Ayvw, the pure spring. The surface of 
 the fountain he stirred with the branch of an oak ; soon a 
 vapour (ar/xo?) arose, which, soon assuming a nebulous appear- 
 ance (o'fjuj^vi), gradually condensed into clouds and descended 
 into refreshing showers on the Arcadian fields." 
 
 The next step described by Virgil is the introduction of land 
 animals into our globe: 
 
 Kara per ignotos errent animalia montes. 
 
 There are three things here indicated by Virgil. First, 
 the existence of the mountains, to which he had not before 
 alluded. Secondly, the animals were but few, rara. Thirdly, 
 that they were the first that traversed them, as they were before 
 unknown. 
 
 I might here enter upon the inquiry, whether there are any 
 traces among the older philosophy and mythoi concerning the 
 doctrine of the existence of a race of animals not now known 
 on earth; but the induction would lead me into a tedious path 
 which it is not necessary for me now to tread. I may, however, 
 say, that I think that there are the strongest proofs to induce 
 me to conclude that there was such knowledge or supposed 
 knowledge.
 
 134 THE VIRGILIAN COSMOGONY. 
 
 The last scene in the progressive creation testifies to the late 
 appearance of man on earth, which Virgil typifies by the re- 
 creation of mankind by Deucalion and Pyrrha, after a general 
 destruction of the race.
 
 ON THE ARISTOTELIAN EXPRESSION, 
 "METATA *TEIKA." 
 
 IT has long ago been remarked, that more people talk of 
 Aristotle than ever read him ; and, unhappily for their own fair 
 fame, many have accused him of faults from which he was 
 entirely free, and have condemned him in terms which remain 
 lasting monuments of their utter ignorance of his philosophy, 
 and of the recklessness with which they ascribed opinions and 
 doctrines to this mighty mind which are nowhere to be found 
 in his writings. 
 
 The splendid edition of his works, now going on under the 
 auspices of the University of Berlin and the able and efficient 
 superintendence of Bekker and Brandis, proves that a revulsion 
 has taken place in the minds of the philosophers of Germany 
 at least, and that they have taken means, by the publication of 
 the valuable Greek Scholia on his works, to enable us to sepa- 
 rate the dross accumulated among the cobwebs of the Latin 
 schools from the pure produce of the Athenian mine. That 
 the mental revolution by which the system of the schoolmen 
 was utterly overthrown, had been rendered necessary by the 
 tyranny which, under the name of Aristotle, they had imposed 
 upon the human mind, cannot be denied. But it would have 
 been as rational in the religious reformers to impute to the 
 original writers of the New Testament, all the mummeries and 
 follies with which the monks of Egypt and Syria, and the bar- 
 barian priesthood of Rome, had overlaid and disfigured the 
 primitive truth, as it was for the reformers of philosophy to
 
 136 META TA PHUSICA. 
 
 ascribe to Aristotle the doctrines which were vended in his 
 name. 
 
 Bat, although the great founder of the peripatetic school was 
 thrown overboard along with the false expounders of his philo- 
 sophy, yet the emanations of his mind had so wrought them- 
 selves into the whole system of mental philosophy, that it was 
 impossible to escape his influence. Hence it came, that its 
 whole terminology is deeply impressed with the stamp of the 
 Aristotelian mint, and that we must have recourse to him, if we 
 wish to trace back to their source many of those words which 
 are at present as " familiar in our mouths as household terms," 
 and to which, nevertheless, every individual among us ascribes, 
 if not a different, at least an uncertain meaning. Among these 
 the word Metaphysics holds a prominent place; and to its 
 etymology, and the light thence to be derived, I propose 
 briefly to call the attention of the Society. 
 
 It is weh 1 known to most of the members that this name is 
 supposed in general to be derived from the place occupied by 
 Aristotle's treatise on the subject which afterwards bore this 
 name, and which treatise closed one cycle of his published 
 works, being immediately preceded by certain treatises on 
 Physics : hence, that its position, /xer T& <PV<TMU (after his phy- 
 sical essay) gave first its name to the treatise itself, secondly, 
 to the subject of which it treated. As I have every reason to 
 believe that the name was not the result of this chance position, 
 but that it is strictly scientific in its origin, I shall, without 
 further preface, enter upon the proof. 
 
 Knowledge, regarded as knowledge alone, and not in con- 
 nection with the practical duties of man, or with the instru- 
 mental and imitative arts, is beautifully arranged by the 
 Greek philosophers under the following three heads : 1st, T& 
 Qvaiv.cc, ; 2nd, ret jxa^jxaTar ; 3rd, TO. /xfra ra, $\wiv.u. ; and, in order 
 to see what is comprehended under each division, I shall pro- 
 duce some notices from Aristotle and his scholiasts. 
 
 At the commencement of his second book, Hep/ (JJuwxvic 
 , best translated Lectures Preparatory to the Study
 
 META TA PHUSICA. 137 
 
 of Physics, he defines the objects which come within the range 
 of the pus-mo;, as being roe, ovra <pvtret, things existing by what he 
 terms <pv?n;, of which word we may fix the meaning from the 
 following quotation : " Of ah 1 existents some exist tpvrei, others 
 owing to other causes. By <pu<r^, exist animals and their com- 
 ponent parts, and vegetables and simple bodies similar to earth, 
 fire, water, air ; for we say that these things and things like 
 them exist <puo-/." Hence, in our terms, the <pu<r/xos takes cog- 
 nizance of the animal and vegetable kingdoms, and of the per- 
 ceptible bodies from which both these and organized existences 
 .are composed. I say the perceptible bodies, because ^CUTVJ OAvf, 
 the primary matter which was held to be at the root of all 
 $>2/vojt/,V2, was not within the reach of the (pwmog, who, in 
 another portion of the same book, is described as being con- 
 versant with yfvv|T and cus^ra alone ; that is, objects pro- 
 duced and reproduced and cognizable by the senses. Hence 
 it is difficult to say whether the quinta essentia or atty, a fluid 
 described by him as diffused through space, and as being 
 denser than fire but more subtle than air, came properly 
 within the range of the pumos. 
 
 In order to explain the difference, according to Aristotle, 
 between the ra <pu<r/x# and the m jxafli^xara, it will be sufficient 
 to quote the following passages : 
 
 " But in the next place (that is, after the definition of <pv7i<l) 
 we must consider in what respect the o juu*0v]/x#'nxo? differs 
 TOU (pu^xov (the mathematician from the physician). For phy- 
 sical bodies have surfaces and solidity and length and points 
 which are the mathematician's study. We must also examine 
 whether astronomy is different from or only a part T*JJ Qvffmw ; 
 for if the o cpumoc is required to know what the sun or the 
 moon is, it is absurd to say that he ought not to inquire into 
 any of their accidents individually, especially since those who 
 write concerning (puovs, confessedly treat of the figure of the 
 sun and moon, and whether the earth and the universe be 
 spheres or not. The mathematician, however, treats of these 
 subjects also, but not as if their figure was the outline (or 
 
 18
 
 138 META TA PHUSICA. 
 
 bound) of a physical body, nor does he examine its properties, 
 as far as they are the properties of such bodies. He, therefore, 
 separates them (for by the intellect, vo^cei, they are separable 
 from x/vviff/?, motion, that is, from bodies subject to production 
 and reproduction), and it makes no difference, nor does any 
 error arise from the separation." 
 
 " Those who hold the doctrines of ideas (that is, pre-existent 
 forms in the mind of the Deity, according to which all indivi- 
 duals of a species or genus are to a certain extent moulded) 
 unconsciously perform the same abstraction ; for they separate 
 ret QvtriKu, being less separable than TO. ^^ara. This will be 
 evident, if we try the definitions both of their substances and 
 accidents ; for the equal and the unequal, the strait and the 
 curve, and number also, and line and figure, will still be without 
 y.ivv[ffiq, but flesh, bone, and man, without it, will disappear. 
 
 " And those of the ^a.^y.a.ra. which are tyveiMrepct, as OTTHXVI, 
 4f*0p4fnxtf, and aorfovo/xw, make this plain, as they have certain 
 references to geometry. But geometry treats of yga/x/xvj pu<r/xvj 
 (a line physically), but not as far as it is pu<xv] ; but OTT/XVJ treats 
 of the mathematical line, but not as far as it is /x6vjftT<x*j, but 
 as far as it is puo-mi." 
 
 Having thus seen Aristotle's own definition of pu<r/xtf and 
 ^ab^uTa,, and the distinction drawn by himself between the 
 two, it remains for us to examine his account of the subject of 
 the books inscribed Mera ra 4>u<r/x. 
 
 " It is manifest," says he, " that physical science is not prac- 
 tical nor effective, but theoretical. It is conversant with those 
 objects which have a principle of motion in themselves. Ma- 
 thematical science, likewise, is theoretical and conversant with 
 permanents, but not in reality separable. But there is another 
 science different from these two, conversant with that which is 
 really separable and immovable. If there be any such QVO-IS 
 among ra, ovra, and I am going to prove that there is, in it will 
 be ' the divine,' and it will be the^rs^and most absolute prin- 
 ciple. It is, therefore, clear that the theoretical sciences are 
 three in genus physical, mathematical, and theological. But
 
 META TA PHUSICA. 139 
 
 of the sciences, the theoretical are highest in genus, and of 
 them the last-mentioned is the highest, as it is conversant with 
 the most precious of beings. But higher and lower are predi- 
 cated of every science according to its proper subject. But it 
 might be doubted whether we ought to range the science of 
 being, as far as it is being, among the universals or not ; for 
 each department of mathematical science is conversant with 
 one distinct genus, but mathematical science, as an universal, 
 concerning all. 
 
 " If, then, physical substances are primary existents, physical 
 science will likewise be the first of sciences ; but if there is 
 another <pv<ri<; and substance separable and immovable, the 
 science of it must also necessarily be different and prior in rank 
 to the physical and universal, owing to such priority." 
 
 Hence we see that his own term for the subject was fito- 
 hoyta, at other times <roQiz, at others vj TTJWTVJ <ro$>ia, but the actual 
 expression Meret ra <i/<nxa is never used by him. Equivalent 
 terms are, however, used ; for, as he says that the <pv<rig of the 
 <>u<7<xou must have matter mixed with it, or, rather, be itself a 
 material form cognizable by some sense, it follows that the 
 sensible and the physical are with him equivalent terms. 
 Early in the inquiry he, therefore, states that, as it was to 
 investigate TK OVT&, it was requisite to determine " whether 
 sensibles alone were substances, or there were other substances, 
 jraptf rug ai<?Qv\Tcts, beyond the sensible." Alexander the Aphro- 
 disian's scholion on this subject is almost a repetition of the 
 same words : 
 
 " By these words he means that it is necessary to inquire 
 whether sensibles alone are substances, or whether there are 
 others also, napx TOCUTOU; ; for even this is not self-evident or 
 undisputed." 
 
 As the expression toya rot ouff^rx and /xera roe, $>v<nffa. are 
 equivalent in power and very similar in form, we may take it 
 for granted that there was a better reason than its chance posi- 
 tion, why this famous treatise obtained its peculiar name. And 
 that this reason was handed down in the traditions of the
 
 140 META TA PHUS1CA. 
 
 Peripatetic school, is evident from the following scholion, re- 
 corded by Asclepiades as taken by him from the vica-voce 
 explanations of the celebrated Atnmonius ; " At the com- 
 mencement of the present treatise we ought to explain the 
 object, order, and cause of the title. The object is Theology, 
 for Aristotle theologizes in it. Its order or place in the whole 
 work is this, because we draw our principles from sources 
 posterior to them in time, since those sources are more known 
 to us. On this account, therefore, Aristotle previously explained 
 Physics to us ; for physics, although posterior, fyveet, are to us 
 prior. But the present subject being prior in nature, inasmuch 
 as it is re Atiov, perfect, is to us posterior ; for the incorruptible 
 is prior to the corruptible, the not-generated to the generated." 
 
 I might quote other scholia to the same purpose, but this of 
 itself is sufficient to show that it was a tradition of the schools 
 that the book was thus inscribed, because a knowledge of its 
 subject, although ^ore^m fyvtrsi, was wre^a. fan : in other words, 
 that a perception of the tpxivo^evx, must, in the order of human 
 knowledge, preclude the active state of that power by which 
 we are enabled to regard them as phenomena, look through 
 and beyond them, and discover those principles, both internal 
 and external to us, which alone, among the ever-changing forms 
 of sensibles, can be held to be realities. Such are the objects 
 of Aristotle's treatise entitled To. jxera TO, 4>i/<nxa. 
 
 But for the further illustration of the subject, a few remarks 
 are necessary. In the study of physics we must have con- 
 tinual recourse to observation, and have nothing more to do 
 than, after ascertaining the sensible qualities of individuals, to 
 arrange them in the great frame-work of kingdoms, orders, 
 genera, and species. When this great cabinet has been scien- 
 tifically formed, and the relative position of the different com- 
 partments strictly ascertained and accurately defined, the great 
 medium for communicating the necessary knowledge is an 
 adequate nomenclature. 
 
 Among the mythi of the Greeks, none is more striking than 
 that by which Pan (as far as all things are cognizable by sense)
 
 META TA PHUSICA. 141 
 
 is made the son of Hermes, and the brother of Aoyo?. The in- 
 terpreter, or word-mover, Hermes, calls things into scientific 
 existence, and stamps them with a name. In an Eutopian 
 language, every such name ought to express both the genus 
 and difference of every species, and would facilitate, beyond 
 expression, the acquisition of physical knowledge. But it is 
 not a necessary requisite. As long as the object to be specified 
 is a rotii TI (the Aristotelian expression indicating a sensible 
 object, and which, if literally translated, would give us the 
 vulgar phrase, " this here thing "), it matters not essentially 
 what it is called, whether a bull be called stone, or a stone, bird. 
 The only requisite is, that the name (whatever it be) should, in 
 the mind, be attached to the object. 
 
 But in passing from <pv<rixci to r ^erix, roc, qvyivict, we come to 
 [La&wctTci, occupying, as it were, a middle position between the 
 two. In the words of Alexander the Aphrodisian, " For those 
 who hold the doctrine of pre-existent eternal forms, believe in 
 mathematical entities also, not homogeneous with the former, 
 nor with sensible substances, but placed between them both." 
 
 With respect to mathematical points, lines, and diagrams, the 
 teacher cannot say rode TI eariv, here is a something; but can 
 only say, " here is a representative of something, of which some- 
 thing I will give you a definition, by the help of which, and of 
 the sensible representative, you may conceive a prefect idea of 
 the form which I wish you intellectually to contemplate." 
 
 For, as Aristotle says, " sensible lines are not the same as 
 those with which the mathematician is conversant, for nothing 
 sensible is straight nor a perfect circle ;" for " the circle does 
 not touch the tangent line at a point," as n%oT#-yopctg said, in his 
 attempt to refute the certainty of mathematical truths. But, 
 although this be the case, yet it matters not what you call the 
 diagram, provided the definition be correct and the sensible 
 representative something like an adumbration, whether a circle 
 be called a square or a square a triangle. Yet it ought to be 
 remembered that, in the Greek language, every mathematical 
 term is confessedly on the plan of an Eutopian language, and is
 
 142 META TA PHUSICA. 
 
 what Democritus said every word ought to be, <rx/a e^yov, the 
 adumbration of the reality. 
 
 But without entering into the question, whether the pure 
 mathematics are or not essentially metaphysical, I can safely 
 state, that Aristotle does not attempt to disprove the assertion 
 of Plato and the Pythagoreans, that their elementary forms of 
 5<6jxo/, comprehending ^a,^^a.ra. (as well as numbers) are ret 
 ovrct, as far as numbers alone are concerned. His objections are 
 all directed against the eternal and absolute forms of the point, 
 the line, the square, circle, triangle, &c. And his commentators 
 seem aware of this, for Asclepiades says, " This science (meta- 
 physics) is the first and highest, but cognate with it are the 
 others; but some nearer, others further removed in degree. 
 The theoretic science of numbers, for example, approaches more 
 closely to the first philosophy than geometry, while geometry 
 is nearer than the theoretic science of harmony/' 
 
 Indeed, whoever has deeply thought upon the nature of 
 numbers, especially the one, two, and three, must have an in- 
 tellect acute, trenchant, and subtle as Aristotle's own, to enable 
 him to see the line which separates their theoretical science 
 from metaphysics ; nor are there any physical representatives of 
 numbers like those of the mathematical line, circle, or square, 
 by which our conception of the real nature of the one (the TO 
 Jv), and the relations thence generated, can be aided. 
 
 I can easily conceive their forms as pre-existent vov\ra in the 
 Deity, of which our minds become, through the dianoetic pro- 
 cess, cognizant with a certainty, purity, and truth, totally in- 
 dependent of materiality ; and that the theory of numbers is 
 conversant with a venerable order of things, prior indeed to 
 sensibles, \>\\.i posterior to the intellectual forms which are the 
 proper subject of the Aristotelian treatise. 
 
 As long as we confine our speculations on our own soul and 
 its operations, on God and spiritual beings, and on the uni- 
 versal order of things, stripped of matter and its accidents, to 
 our own thoughts, there is a freedom, a power, and a capacity, 
 for mental flight, which is almost boundless. But when we
 
 META TA PHUSICA. 143 
 
 come to embody these thoughts in words, and to communicate 
 them to others, the difficulties become great and serious. Of 
 the soul, for example, we can have no sensual conception. 
 There is no TO$S n which can, like a physical object, be sub- 
 jected to inspection ; nor is there any diagram or figure con- 
 ceivable, which, as in the case of the /xaQvjjxara, the mind, 
 combining it with the definition in words, can be aided in 
 depicting the real object proposed. Hence, if one attempts to 
 give the soul or any of its operations a name, he must either 
 use one bearing no note or mark, and hence unintelligible, or 
 he must adumbrate his internal consciousness by a word 
 already known as the representative of some physical pheno- 
 mena. Any attempt even to define it in words must fail, if 
 it go beyond the simple enunciation of its existence, as it can 
 be described only negatively ; and no system of exhaustion can 
 from accumulated negatives evolve a single positive. For ex- 
 ample, we may say that the soul is either one sense, or an 
 union of them all, or something else. Even its operations par- 
 take of the same nature, and the words descriptive of them 
 must have originally been metaphorical. For example, when 
 we say that we wiU deliberate on any proposal made to us, 
 etymologically speaking, we say, that we will weigh in a balance 
 the respective advantages and disadvantages before we decide. 
 But in physics, before we can perform this process, we must 
 have a lever, a counterpoise, a hook or scales, the object to be 
 weighed, and a person or thing to support the whole. But in 
 the mind we have only one to fulfil all these duties, and hence we 
 see how very different the two processes must be, and that by 
 the word we only convey the idea that we are going to perform 
 a mental operation, of which the best physical picture is that 
 of a man ascertaining with a pair of scales the comparative 
 weight of different substances. Yet, while I use this metaphor 
 in order to communicate my idea to another, I am conscious 
 that my mental operation is not a weighing of different sub- 
 stances, but something which I can perfectly understand by 
 reflection, although it would be in vain to attempt to convey a
 
 144 META TA PHUSICA; 
 
 knowledge of it to another except ^physical analogies, which 
 will guide him to call up the same mental ideas of which I am 
 conscious. 
 
 If this physical analogy be wanting, the metaphysical words 
 may do well enough for the intercourse of common life, for in- 
 dicating the passions and coarser operations of the mind, but 
 will prove totally inefficient for the purpose of philosophy, and 
 utterly inadequate for the construction of a system calculated 
 to represent the wonderful capabilities and, as yet, unreached 
 powers of the human mind. In such a state we are in con- 
 tinual danger of attempting to demonstrate the obscure by the 
 unknown : a circumstance which, according to Aristotle, often 
 occurs. " For," says he, " a man, blind from his birth, will 
 often syllogize rightly concerning colours. But yet his whole 
 reasoning will be conversant with words alone, as he cannot be 
 brought to know (voeiv) anything concerning them." 
 
 If this be true, and I have satisfied myself of its truth by 
 an examination coextensive with four languages, it will account 
 for the degeneracy of language by long use, owing to the supposed 
 improvement of ignorant men, who have always regarded meta- 
 phorical language as an evil, fit only for the poet; whereas, on 
 the contrary, metaphors are the only form of words by which one 
 mind can call upon another to create corresponding forms, pro- 
 cesses, and conclusions. As no metaphysician of modern times 
 has either seen or, at least, taken this leading principle as his 
 guide through the labyrinthine windings of spiritual operations 
 and spiritual existences, it must be clear that a great field is open 
 for the first philosopher who, setting out on perceptible prin- 
 ciples, will construct a system in words which, when carefully 
 studied by another, will enable the latter clearly to depict to 
 himself intellectually, all that the former wished to communi- 
 cate ; in other words, he must invent an adequate terminology : 
 a task which requires great knowledge of the subject, great 
 logical and philological precision, and a subtilty of intellect 
 which will enable him to ascertain and define the most delicate 
 of the processes which must be investigated. Until this be
 
 META TA PHTJSICA. 145 
 
 done, words may be multiplied, systems may rise and fall, but 
 modern metaphysics must remain what they have hitherto 
 been, the magnum opprobrium of regenerated civilization. 
 
 I might here close, were I not impressed with a conviction, 
 expressed two years ago, that in some ancient languages we 
 have an instrument, both logical and philological, constructed 
 on the principles of an Utopian terminology, and which may 
 be reduced to a few intelligible keys or roots. We know from 
 the Cratylus of Plato, that the Pythagorean school held the 
 same doctrine, and taught that the word, as a general principle, 
 was a picture of the idea to be represented ; and even Aristotle 
 himself, when taking advantage of the fineness of the instru- 
 ment, repeatedly hints that he does not know how to account 
 for the scientific accuracy of a common word, without supposing 
 it to be an inheritance handed down through periods of darkness 
 and barbarism, from an antecedent period, when the arts and 
 sciences had been in a flourishing state. In the eighth chapter 
 of the twelfth book of Metaphysics, when he, according to his 
 creed, had reduced the TO. OVTU to the moving essences of the 
 planetary bodies and of the circumscribing firmament, of the 
 primum mobile, and to the union of these in the immovable 
 one, he thus proceeds : " But it has been handed down 
 from those of old, and from the very ancient bequeathed to 
 posterity in the form of a mythos, that these are gods (or 
 movers), and that the Divinity embraces the whole system. 
 But the rest has been added inythologically, for the persuasion 
 of the multitude and for the support of the laws and public 
 advantage ; for they say that they are man-shaped and similar 
 to other living beings, and they introduced other descriptions 
 consequent upon and similar to the above. But were any one 
 to separate these additions, and take the first assertion alone, 
 that they regarded the primary substances as gods, it would be 
 a godlike tenet." 
 
 " And it is probable, that as every individual art and philo- 
 sophy has been repeatedly discovered as far as possible, and 
 
 19
 
 146 META TA PHUS1CA. 
 
 has again perished, these opinions also have been preserved 
 as remnants of such knowledge." 
 
 Thus, also, is his book n^/ Qvqccvov, when speaking of the 
 essence of ether, a subtle fluid diffused through space, he 
 adds : " But even the name appears to have been handed 
 down to the present age from those of old who held on the 
 subject the same opinion as I do ; for not once or twice, but 
 an infinite number of times, ought we to think that the same 
 knowledge has reached mankind. Wherefore, as if primary 
 matter was something different from earth, fire, air, and water, 
 they named it ctA^u, giving it this name from aet 0v, from its 
 eternal circular motion in the uppermost region." 
 
 I ought to explain that the TraXauo/ or aq%ccioi of Aristotle, 
 those of old, are invariably the philosophers from Thales to 
 Deniocritus and Empedocles men who preceded him from 
 two to three centuries, during which the science of mental, 
 mathematical, and natural philosophy had been much cultivated 
 in Greece. That the 01 TajXTraXa/o/, the very old, were Homer, 
 Hesiod, and other fieoXoyo/, between whom and the age of 
 Thales there existed a gulf of impervious darkness, across 
 which nothing had floated but the works of these ifx^a\xioi 
 and /xi/00/ and mysteries, the keys to most of which had been 
 lost, or, at least, are not to be found in the works of any Greek 
 or Roman writers now extant. 
 
 As I feel it is presumptuous in me to say that I have par- 
 tially found these keys that secrets never suspected by abler 
 men and profounder scholars have been discovered by me 
 alone that the very assumption of the possibility of such a 
 discovery is offensive to the limited and self-satisfied scholar, 
 and an object of suspicion to the most candid and judicious 
 I can only allege in my defence that I have been neither rash 
 nor hasty, and that nothing but the knowledge that the path on 
 which I am treading must eventually, although perhaps after 
 many deviations, lead to the demonstrable truth, could induce 
 me to submit to the toils and difficulties of such an investigation.
 
 META TA PHUSICA. 147 
 
 The commencement of the path was similar to that of the 
 Virgilian ^neas in his descent to the regions of the unknown 
 world : 
 
 Quale per incertam Lunara, sub luce mallgna 
 Est iter in sylvis ubi coelum Jupiter umbra 
 Condidit et rebus nox abstulit atra colorem. 
 
 But the light has increased as I have gone on, and truths are 
 now plain to me which, two years ago, were full of doubts and 
 difficulties. Yet in my proof I must bespeak the good will and 
 forbearance of my judges ; for they must approach the con- 
 sideration of such a subject with their judgment clouded by 
 prejudices in its primary and not offensive meaning, and almost 
 blocked up by foregone conclusions. In Aristotle's own words, 
 previous to entering on a consideration of his metaphysical 
 disquisitions : " Men listen to proofs according to previous 
 habit. For we wish to hear men speak in accordance with our 
 usual opinions, and anything contrary to these does not appear 
 consistent, but, from want of habit on our part, more strange 
 and unknown. But what strength habit has, is seen in our 
 laws and institutions, where things fabulous and childish have, 
 through habit, greater power than a true knowledge of the 
 principles on which they are founded. Some, therefore, will not 
 attend to a speaker except he speaks mathematically ; others, 
 except he illustrates his case by examples ; others require the 
 authority of some known poet. Again, some require precision 
 in all points; on the other hand, extreme precision is offensive 
 to others, because they cannot follow it, or because it descends 
 to minutiae trifling in amount. Extreme precision has some- 
 thing of this effect. Hence, as in contracts, so in discussion, an 
 attention to trifling minutiae appears ungentleuianly." The 
 difficulties which thus beset the path of every person who pre- 
 sumes to suppose that he knows some things in direct opposi- 
 tion to men's habitual opinions on the subject, are doubled by 
 the popular disfavour into which etymological investigations 
 had fallen during the last century, and from which, in this 
 country at least, it can as yet be scarcely said to have emerged.
 
 148 META TA PHUSIKA. 
 
 In the words of one of the ablest, if not the ablest, critical 
 philologers of the day, " We have been careful to write thus 
 much at length, in order to meet, on more than one ground, 
 the objection of many able and patient scholars to all the 
 novelties of the past which the present age is bringing to light. 
 Men, too, who have laboriously investigated one particular 
 branch of study, cannot generally be supposed to possess any 
 inclination to undervalue it, or turn to researches tending to 
 this end. But since all the learning that has been expended 
 in the research, has failed to penetrate into the real sources of 
 antiquity, may we not reasonably entertain a doubt, that the 
 process hitherto employed has been somewhere defective ? that 
 the authorities we have taken for our guides, though often un- 
 doubtedly a light in utter darkness, are also, too often, a pillar 
 of cloud when we are able to see a wider horizon. The ancients 
 may have told us all they knew, but were the ANCIENTS ac- 
 quainted with antiquity ? There is a fallacy in the terms, but 
 we might often with justice answer in the negative. If the 
 Greek or the Brahmin drew existence from a stone, a creation 
 from a flower, are we to contract our inquiries accordingly, 
 and this, too, when their aboriginal nationality is more than 
 questionable, and the Hebrew Scriptures, if no other authenti- 
 cated record, supply evidence of older races in other and more 
 probable countries ? " 
 
 It is in the face of such primd facie difficulties that I ven- 
 ture to state to the Society, that the A$XctH>i and nA#;o/ of 
 Aristotle knew no more than Aristotle himself of the principles 
 on which the language of the nce^KciXcuoi was constructed. In 
 the words of the same high authority, " As far as I am con- 
 cerned, the ridicule that has so idly and ignorantly followed 
 philological derivations may still continue its career, without 
 deterring, as it has too often, the best-qualified judges from 
 proceeding in the path of discovery thus laid open to them."
 
 SELECTION 
 
 FEOM CEETA1N 
 
 ARCHAEOLOGICAL PAPERS, 
 
 WBITTBN BY THE 
 
 ARCHDEACON OF CARDIGAN, 
 
 To maintain, in opposition to the Arguments advanced by 
 the Honourable ALGERNON HERBERT, in his work called 
 " Cyclops Christianus" the conclusion of those Antiquarians 
 who affirmed that Stonehenge and its Hierarchal Establish- 
 ments were far older than the Christian Era, and early 
 known to the Inhabitants of that Country which was after- 
 icards called Hellas. 
 
 I AM so certain that I hold the truth upon this question, that 
 I am quite ready to peril my reputation as a scholar and an 
 archasologian upon the final result of this discussion, and de- 
 servedly to merit those calumnies which Mr. Herbert so copi- 
 ously heaps upon our most respected Celtic scholars, and upon 
 every Saxon also who has dared to think for himself upon this 
 question. The gentleman is so calumnious in his charges, so 
 full of suggestions of fraud, vileness, and forgery, on every 
 author who advances any statement adverse to his own theories, 
 that I am absolutely compelled to quote all my authorities at 
 full length. The translations are my own, and if I entertain 
 any doubt respecting any word or passage, I do not attempt 
 to render it into English, but pass it over, indicating, however, 
 by asterisks, that there is a hiatus. 
 
 Now to the question. 
 
 Early in the sixth century before the Christian era, was 
 born Hecataeus the Milesian, a man of great learning, and the
 
 150 CONNECTION BETWEEN 
 
 author of many works, of which nothing but fragments has 
 reached us. He took an active part in the revolt of the lonians 
 from King Darius, about A.C. 500, and was thoroughly cog- 
 nizant of all the proceedings connected with the commercial 
 enterprise of the lonians in the earlier part of the sixth 
 century B.C. 
 
 The Phocaeans, one of the Ionian states, had, in spite of the 
 jealousy of the Carthaginians and Tyrrhenians, forced their way 
 in war-galleys to Tartessus and Southern Spain, and established 
 a commerce with the flourishing communities in that vicinity, 
 which had proved a great source of wealth to them, both ge- 
 nerally and individually. Arganthonius, a King of Southern 
 Spain, was an especial friend of the Phocaeans, and offered them, 
 as a community, an asylum in his dominions, when the Ionian 
 states were becoming alarmed by the increasing predominance 
 of the Persians, a Scythian race, under their great king, Cyrus. 
 
 The Phocseans refused the offer, but accepted gold, with 
 which they fortified in vain their continental city. 
 
 It is clear from this statement that, whatever Arganthonius, 
 the long-lived King of Tartessus, knew, was also known to the 
 Phocaeans ; and a man of the inquisitive spirit of Hecataeus, 
 who was a great traveller, and visited, among other regions, 
 Egypt, must have known what the Phocaean merchants knew. 
 
 Here follows the famous quotation from one of his works, 
 quoted by Diodorus Siculus, who flourished a short time after 
 our Saviour's birth. It is in the second book of his mytho- 
 logical work : " Now, after describing the parts of Asia lying 
 northward, we think it not inappropriate to narrate the mytho- 
 logical stories concerning the Hyperboreans. Now, Hecataeus, 
 and some other authors of ancient mythology, say that in the 
 regions over against ' Celtica,' there is in the ocean an island, 
 not smaller than Sicily; that this island is situated below the 
 constellation of the Bears, and that it is inhabited by men 
 called Hyperboreans, because they are placed beyond the blast 
 of Boreas. They add, that the land, being fertile and pro- 
 ducing everything necessary, and enjoying a fine temperature,
 
 HELLAS AND BRITAIN. 151 
 
 bears two crops in the year. Now, they mythological^ state 
 that Latona was born there, and that, on that account, Apollo 
 is honoured by them above all other gods ; that among them 
 there are some men priests, as it were of Apollo, and that, con- 
 sequently, he is daily and continuously hymned by them with 
 lyric songs, and exceedingly honoured ; that there is also in 
 the island both a consecrated precinct of great magnificence, 
 and a temple of corresponding beauty, adorned with numerous 
 dedicated gifts, and in shape spherical ; that there is also a 
 city sacred to the god, and that the majority of its inhabitants 
 are harpers, and that these, continuously harping in the tem- 
 ple, sing, lyrically, hymns to the god, and greatly magnify- his 
 deeds. They also state that the Hyperboreans have a peculiar 
 dialect, and are very kindly disposed to the Hellenes, and 
 especially to the Athenians and Delians, and that they have 
 inherited this friendly feeling from ancient times. They also 
 say that some of the Hellenes have passed over to the Hyper- 
 boreans, and have left there precious dedicated gifts, bearing 
 Hellenic inscriptions ; that in the same manner Abaris, in a 
 former age, had passed into Hellas, and renewed with the 
 Delians the bond of friendship and consanguinity. They also 
 say that the moon from this island appears to be not far 
 distant from the earth, and clearly shows certain earthly emi- 
 nences. It is also said that every nineteenth year the god 
 descends into this island. Now, every nineteenth year certain 
 returns of the stars to fixed positions take place, and on this 
 account a period of nineteen years is called by the Hellenes 
 the great year ; that when the god makes his periodical ap- 
 pearance, he both plays the harp and dances during the night, 
 from the vernal equinox to the rising of the Pleiades, taking 
 great delight in his own successful efforts." 
 
 " They also say that a family called Boreadas, descendants 
 of Boreas, are the kings of this city and superintendents of the 
 temple, and regularly succeed each other by birthright." 
 
 Now, if Hecatasus derived his information on this important 
 subject from the Phocasan merchants, who frequented the court
 
 152 CONNECTION BETWEEN 
 
 of Arganthonius, it is evident that these Hyperboreans were 
 the occupants of Great Britain, which is so accurately de- 
 scribed in the above passage, that even one of the earliest 
 editors of Diodorus could not refrain in his index from writing 
 " See whether this cannot be applied to Anglia." The south 
 of Britain, when visited by sailors, scorched by the summer 
 heat of Southern Spain and Western Lusitania, would cer- 
 tainly be a delightful temperature, and any person who has 
 spent a vernal or autumnal season in Kent, in the Isle of 
 Wight, or in South Devonshire, cannot imagine a more de- 
 lightful climate ; and if we add that there is in Britain what 
 there is not in Southern Europe, two seasons of vegetation 
 in fact, two springs in trees, shrubs, and grasses we may 
 acknowledge the truth of the description without supposing 
 that the delighted sailors had recourse to Virgil's well-known 
 exaggeration respecting his beloved Italy : 
 
 Bis gravitfee pecudes, bis poinis fertilis arbor. 
 
 As for the variety- of its productions, we have Caesar's au- 
 thority that our island produced all that the continent did, 
 with the exception of wine and olive-oil. 
 
 But we have other, and I must say more important, testi- 
 monies, as tending to prove the universality, within certain 
 limits, and at a certain period, of the religion connected with 
 megalithic structures, and of its prevalence in Eastern Asia, 
 Western Europe, and the intermediate regions. 
 
 Pindar, the great lyric and religious poet, who was born, 
 according to some, B.C. 560, according to others 540, writes 
 thus, 01. ode iii. verse 1 2, respecting the Cotinus, Oleaster, or 
 wild olive-tree, from the twigs of which the wreaths worn by 
 the victors in the Olympic games were woven : " (This olive), 
 the son of Amphictyon, transported from the shady fountains 
 of the Ister, that it might become an illustrious badge of the 
 Olympic games, after he had persuaded the community of the 
 Hyperboreans, a people who are ministers of Apollo." " His 
 spirit led him to the Istrian land." " In pursuit (of the
 
 HELLAS AND BRITAIN. 153 
 
 golden-horned stag) he saw that land at the back of the cold 
 blast of Boreas." 
 
 Here is a clear proof that the Hyperborean land was not 
 placed where later authors wished to find it somewhere be- 
 yond the Rhipsean Hills, and near the North Pole, but some- 
 where about the sources of the Ister or Danube. Another 
 passage from the Tenth Pythian Ode, v. 49, is equally satis- 
 factory respecting the non-arctic position of these renowned 
 Hyperboreans : " But to the Hyperborean race you will not 
 obtain a wonderful access either in ships or on foot." Here 
 Pindar seems to insinuate that he knew that some Hyper- 
 boreans lived in an island which required both travel by land 
 and a voyage by sea, before it could be reached from Hellas. 
 He then proceeds : " Now, among these formerly feasted 
 Perseus, leader of hosts. He, having entered their hall, found 
 them sacrificing renowned hecatombs of asses. Now, in 
 these sacrificial banquets and vocal songs of these people, 
 Apollo takes incessant and most intense delight, and laughs 
 while he views the petulance of the restive brutes. The Muse, 
 moreover, is not a stranger to their haunts, but everywhere 
 tuneful choirs of virgins, and the voice of harps, and the tones 
 of pipes, are set in motion ; and the assembly, crowned with 
 wreaths of the golden laurel, banquet merrily. Nor do dis- 
 eases nor decaying old age affect the sacred race ; and they 
 live free from toils and wars. Nevertheless, Danae's son, ani- 
 mated by a bold spirit, once visited them ; and Athena led 
 him to this happy people, whence (setting out) he slew the 
 Gorgon." 
 
 Every scholar, who compares this poetic description of the 
 Theban swan with the prose myth of Hecata3us, cannot fail to 
 see that one must either have copied from the other, which, 
 if we remember that they were contemporaries, is not pro- 
 bable, or that they drew their information from a common 
 source, which is most likely. 
 
 The close connection of the visit of Perseus to the Hyper- 
 boreans and his adventure with the Gorgon seems to have 
 
 20
 
 154 CONNECTION BETWEEN 
 
 puzzled an ancient scholiast on this passage in Pindar, whose 
 later ideas respecting the position of the Hyperboreans were 
 shocked by this juxtaposition. He therefore observes : " It 
 is asked how Perseus went to the Hyperboreans for the pur- 
 pose of cutting off the Gorgon's head ? For the Hyperboreans 
 dwell near the North Pole, but the Gorgons, according to some, 
 in the Erythraean and Ethiopic regions, which are to the east 
 and south, but according to others in the extremities of Libya, 
 which are to the west. But it is clear that the Gorgons are 
 not near the North Pole, because no author has placed them 
 there." 
 
 Perhaps the question of the honest scholiast may still receive 
 a satisfactory answer. 
 
 The next author of name and note who mentions the Hyper- 
 boreans, is the tragedian JEschylus, the son of Euphorion, who 
 was, perhaps, some thirty years younger than Pindar, who died 
 B.C. 480, the very year in which yEschylus fought so gallantly 
 at Salamis. In a chorus of his, " Choephorse " (and young 
 scholars should be reminded that in the earlier stage of the 
 Athenian drama, nothing could be introduced into a chorus 
 which was not familiar to the public mind), the Coryphaeus 
 thus speaks : 
 
 " O child, you speak of things more excellent and greater 
 than the gold and great prosperity of the Hyperboreans." 
 
 The wealth and supposed prosperity of the Hyperboreans 
 must have been proverbial topics, before this allusion could 
 have been made before the Athenian audience. 
 
 From a passage in Strabo, we know that Simonides had 
 mentioned the Hyperboreans with an especial allusion to their 
 long life ; and Clemens Alexandrinus enables us to state that 
 Hellanicus had described them in not very favourable colours. 
 
 I venture to make one quotation more under this head, 
 although I have not been able to ascertain the age of the 
 author, and scarcely anything else about him, except from a 
 passage in Athenaeus, who calls him "Pherenicus, a Heracleote 
 by birth." Now, a Heracleote might be either a citizen of
 
 HELLAS AND BRITAIN. 155 
 
 Heraclea, on the southern shores of the Euxine, or on the Ta- 
 rentine Gulf. If he was an inhabitant of the Italiot Heraclea, 
 his testimony is doubly valuable. The words are to be found 
 in the old Scholiast a highly valued authority upon the third 
 Olympic Ode of Pindar, v. 28. 
 
 Pherenicus says the Hyperboreans were of the Titanic race. 
 He thus writes : 
 
 "Around the Hyperboreans, who inhabit the extremities 
 under the protection of the Temple of Apollo, where they are 
 free from war. Now, their priests sing that they have sprung 
 from the blood of the Titans, prior in time, and dwell under 
 the sky-clear house of Boreas." 
 
 This distinct allusion to the great temple is peculiarly 
 valuable. 
 
 Hitherto my course has been rather easy, and the authorities 
 naturally lead us to look for the Hyperboreans in a country 
 abounding with olives, laurels, and asses ; and for the island 
 of Hecatseus in the ocean off the coast of " Celtica." But after 
 this period a new element entered into the description, which 
 has been productive of sad confusion. The author of this con- 
 fusion was Herodotus, a man who deserves and justly has won 
 the approbation of every inquirer into the history of mankind, 
 and the loss of whose works would have been an irr&parabile 
 damnum to the archaeological student. 
 
 But still Herodotus, with all his merits, was a victim to 
 those failings which are now called " crotchets." Among the 
 most prominent of those was a marked hatred of poetical 
 mythology, a great distrust of all writers who had preceded 
 him either as poets or prose writers, and a firm conviction 
 that, were he on any disputed fact to procure the testimony 
 of one eyewitness, it was sufficient to outweigh all that poets 
 might imagine, or mythologists enigmatically suggest. It is 
 with these prejudices strongly influencing his mind, that he 
 entered on the question of the locality of the Hyperboreans, 
 who never were supposed by preceding writers to have been 
 a separate nation like the Thracians, Scythians, Celta?, &c.,
 
 156 CONNECTION BETWEEN 
 
 but merely to have been so denominated from their position 
 in the line of " climates." I first quote the following passage 
 from the thirty-second chapter of his fourth book : 
 
 " But some things have been said by Hesiod about the 
 Hyperboreans, and something also by Homer in the Epiyoni, 
 that is, if Homer is truly the author of that poem." 
 
 The portion of Hesiod's work in which the Hyperboreans 
 were mentioned, and also the great epic of the Epigoni t 
 have perished ; but the very fact that the word was used by 
 Hesiod and the author of the Epigoni, enables us to test its 
 meaning by comparing it with similar compound adjectives 
 in the still surviving Homeric writings; and I can boldly 
 appeal to every Homeric scholar, who may choose to examine 
 this question by the light of Seber's Index, that almost without 
 an exception the adjectives compounded with the preposition 
 LT gain nothing but intensity by this prefix. But Hero- 
 dotus chose to assign a new value to the compound adjective, 
 and to assume that " Hyperboreans" meant " people beyond 
 the blasts of Boreas," and not " a very northerly people." 
 Reasoning on this new principle, he directs his whole argu- 
 ment to prove that there were no such things in rerum natura 
 as the Hyperboreans described in the Arimaspian hexameters 
 of one Aristeas, a Proconnesian, who, in rather a fabulous style, 
 had described his travels to the 1 north of the Euxine, where he 
 had thus graduated the nations from the south to the north, 
 first, the Cimmerians on the Euxine ; next, the Scythians ; 
 next, the Issedones ; and lastly, the Hyperboreans. It is 
 against this theory of the Proconnesian, who, according to 
 Herodotus, must have been coeval with Hesiod, if not with 
 Homer, that the Father of History directs his wrath, and 
 proves satisfactorily from his own inquiries, among both the 
 Scythian occupants of the northern shores of the Euxine and 
 the Maeotic Lake, and from the numerous Greek colonists in 
 the same regions, that there could not be to the north of these 
 well-informed people, any race of men which could be possibly 
 mistaken for the Hyperboreans of the Arimaspian, poet.
 
 HELLAS AND BRITAIN. 157 
 
 Having thus settled the question to his own satisfaction, he 
 utterly throws aside the evidence of men far higher than him- 
 self in the scale -of intellect and genius, and does not conde- 
 scend to allude even to thfe opinions of Pindar, ^Eschylus, and 
 Sinionides, first-rate men, or even of Hellanicus and Heca- 
 taeus, his own immediate predecessors in the path of history 
 in prose. 
 
 Nay, it is worth observing, that this matter-of-fact man 
 seems to have looked down with utter disdain upon men like 
 Simonides, ^Eschylus, and Pindar. He mentions a two-line 
 epigram of the first, blames the second for stealing an Egyptian 
 myth, and quotes with approbation a very doubtful moral 
 maxim of the third ; and that is all from him of these three 
 great men. 
 
 This is a digression, but a very necessary one, for almost all 
 the confusion upon this question has arisen from the almost 
 wilful incredulity of Herodotus. Eratosthenes blamed him 
 severely for denying the existence of the Hyperboreans ; but 
 as we have his criticism only in a very obscure state, in the 
 Second Book of Strabo, cap. 3, who seems inclined to defend 
 Herodotus, it is difficult to say anything positive on the 
 question. Strabo, however, adds, " If it is right to blame 
 Herodotus in any respect, it is in this respect, because he 
 supposed that those men were called Hyperboreans, in whose 
 country Boreas blows not. For, even granting that the poets 
 thus speak too mythically, their interpreters, at least, say that 
 the Hyperboreans are the most northerly." 
 
 If, however, we examine the account given by Herodotus 
 himself, we may, perhaps, discover some other source of his 
 error other than a mere etymological mistake. Lib. iv. cap. 32, 
 he thus writes : 
 
 " But the Delians, forsooth, say much more about the Hy- 
 perboreans, as they say that sacred gifts, bound up in wheaten 
 straw, are regularly conveyed to the Scythians, and that the 
 neighbours of these, receiving them in succession, convey them 
 to the Hadriatic, the furthest station from the West; that
 
 158 CONNECTION BETWEEN 
 
 thence, being conveyed southward, they are escorted until 
 the Dodonaeans, first of Hellenes, receive them ; that from 
 them they descend to the Malaean Gulf, and cross over into 
 Euboea ; and then that city sends them to another city until 
 they reach Carystus. But the Carystians, passing by Andros, 
 convey them to Tenos, and the Tenians to Delos. That in 
 earlier times the Hyperboreans sent two virgins to bear the 
 sacred offerings. These the Delians name Hyperoche and 
 Laodice; and that as an escort they sent with them five of 
 their citizens, whom they now call Perpherees, who have great 
 honours at Delos ; but that when the men thus sent forth never 
 returned back, the Hyperboreans, regarding it as a great evil 
 that it should always be their lot never to receive back the 
 men deputed, conveyed on this account the sacred gifts, bound 
 in wheaten straw, to their next neighbours, with injunctions to 
 escort them from their own to another nation, and they say 
 that the offerings, thus escorted, reached Delos." 
 
 Surely, if Herodotus had combined the statement of Pindar, 
 that there were a Hyperborean people at the sources of the 
 Danube, with the Delian report, that the course of the sacred 
 offerings had been from the West to the Hadriatic, he might 
 have come to a sounder conclusion than he did, and needed 
 not have regarded the whole affair as a non-reality. His own 
 inquiries among the Scythian tribes to the north of the Euxine, 
 and among the numerous Greek colonies in that vicinity, satis- 
 fied him that there were no such people in the Arctic portions 
 either of Asia or Europe. But it seems never to have occurred 
 to him that his inquiries were in the wrong quarter. He con- 
 sequently states, lib. iv. cap. 32, " But respecting the Hyper- 
 borean people, neither the Scythians say anything, nor any 
 others of those who dwell in their vicinity, except, forsooth, 
 the Issedones [upon the report of Aristeas]. But, according 
 to my own opinion, even they say nothing ; for otherwise the 
 Scythians would have spoken of them, as they do respecting 
 the one-eyed men." He insinuates very plainly that the 
 reports concerning them were to be classed with the myths
 
 HELLAS AND BRITAIN. 159 
 
 of the Gorgons, the Dragons of the Hesperides, and other 
 such figments. 
 
 But his ignorance respecting the west of Europe was extreme, 
 an ignorance for which it is most difficult to account, except 
 upon the principle that amidst the enormous false statements 
 of the mercantile community, and the mythological fables of 
 priests and poets, he would not believe a single statement 
 except it was confirmed to him upon the testimony of some 
 respectable eyewitness. 
 
 Listen to his own confession upon the subject, lib. iii. 
 cap. 115 : " Now, concerning the western extremities of Eu- 
 rope, I have no accurate account to give ; for I neither admit 
 that a river is called by the Barbarians ' Eridanus,' and empties 
 itself into the sea that faces the north wind, from which, report 
 says, ' Electrum' comes to us; nor do I know that the Cassi- 
 terides, from which Tin does come to us, are islands ; for, in 
 the first place, the very name Eridanus proves that it is a Hel- 
 lenic and not a Barbarian word, and that it was invented by 
 some poet ; and, in the second place, I cannot hear from any 
 eyewitness, although I have anxiously inquired, that the parts 
 on that side of Europe are a sea. It is, however, true that 
 both ' Electrum' and ' Cassiterum' come to us from that ex- 
 tremity of Europe." 
 
 I have merely to observe on this passage, that there was a 
 great river, probably the Vistula, falling into the North Sea, 
 whence Amber came ; and that there were islands off the coast 
 of Western Europe, whence Tin came ; and that their real ex- 
 istence could not be ignored merely because their names were 
 supposed by Herodotus to have been purely Hellenic ; and 
 because he could not find any autoptic testimonies on this 
 subject. But more hereafter. 
 
 Again, it is very difficult to comprehend the Herodotean 
 view of the course of the river Ister. Here is one of his de- 
 scriptions, lib. ii. cap. 53: " The river Ister, having commenced 
 its course from the Celtae and the city of Pyrene, divides 
 Europe into two equal parts. Now, the Celtse dwell on the
 
 ICO CONNECTION BETWEEN 
 
 outside of the Heraclean Pillars, and have common boundaries 
 with the Cynesii, who dwell furthest to the west, of those who 
 live in Europe." He then proceeds to make a statement which, 
 if explained literally, would naturally lead to the supposition 
 that the Ister entered the Euxine at a meridian line, passing 
 from south to north from the mouth of the Nile through 
 mountainous Cilicia to Sinope. 
 
 If such was his idea of the course of the Ister, his authority 
 upon the real geography of Western Europe must be utterly 
 disregarded. 
 
 Again, lib. iv. cap. 49, he thus writes " For the Ister flows 
 through the whole of Europe, having commenced from the 
 Celtae, who, furthest of those in Europe after the Cyneta3, 
 dwell to the setting sun," " and flowing through the whole 
 of Europe, it enters the flanks of Scythia." 
 
 We know that there was a sea to the West of Europe. He 
 knew that the Celtas were the westernmost inhabitants of 
 Europe. We hear from Hecataeus, that in that ocean sea, off 
 the coast of Celtica, beyond the Heraclean Pillars, in a northern 
 direction, was an island not less that the greatest in the Me- 
 diterranean Sea, which cannot be predicated of any other island 
 than Great Britain. 
 
 The later Greek authors of any note, with one exception, 
 seem to have all adopted either the theory of Herodotus, that 
 there really did not exist a nation of Hyperboreans, or that, if 
 they did exist, they were to be found under the north pole, 
 with a six months' summer of one day, and a six months' 
 winter of one night; and this theory, as Gesner states, was 
 with one mouth adopted by the Latin writers, who assigned 
 all the piety, happiness, and prosperity of the Hyperboreans 
 of history to an Utopia within the arctic circle. 
 
 No less an authority that Sophocles seems to have taken the 
 lead in this direction, for in a fragment of his Orithyia he says 
 that the Attic maiden was carried by Boreas, 
 
 Both over the whole sea to the earth's extremities, 
 Beyond the springs of night and the unfoldings of heaven, 
 To the ancient garden of Apollo.
 
 HELLAS AND BRITAIN. 161 
 
 But even Herodotus himself was obliged to confess, that the 
 notice of the Hyperboreans was immediately connected with 
 the earliest traditions of ancient mythologists respecting the 
 establishment of the Apollinarian worship in Greece. Here 
 are his words, lib. iv. cap. 35 : 
 
 " The Delians also say that both Arge and Opis, being vir- 
 gins from the Hyperboreans, * * * came to Delos long before 
 Hyperoche and Laodice ; that the latter came to bear to Ilithyia 
 the tribute imposed for quick childbirth. But that Arge and 
 Opis had come with the deities themselves, and that other 
 honours were paid to them by the Delians ; that their matrons 
 in assemblies invoked their names in a hymn composed for 
 them by Olen a Lycian ; and that both the islanders and 
 the lonians had learned from them to invoke in their sacred 
 assemblies the names of Arge and Opis. This same Olen 
 came from Lycia, and composed those other ancient hymns 
 which are sung at Delos." 
 
 Now, the scholar will please to remember that this and 
 other similar records (for the traditionary hymn is a record and 
 not a myth) carry us back to the patriarchal age, long before 
 the establishment of that which, for the want of a better name, 
 has been lately called " Hellenismus," as, according to a tra- 
 dition preserved by Pausanias, lib. ix. cap. 27, " The Lycian 
 Olen composed this hymn long before Pamphus and Orpheus 
 wrote." 
 
 But the Hyperborean memorials, thus ancient, survived the 
 sceptical inferences of Herodotus, and nearly two centuries 
 after his publication, we find Callimachus, that preserver of so 
 many ideas common to the heroic and mythic ages, thus sing- 
 ing in his hymn to Delos, verse 279 : 
 
 All states lead up your choric dances, 
 
 Those who in the east, west, and south, 
 
 Have fixed their lots, and also those 
 
 Who dwell beyond the Boreal shore, a long-lived race. 
 
 These commencing send forth the sacred sheaves 
 
 Of wheat-stalks, and the Pelasgi of Dodona 
 
 First receiving them arriving from afar, 
 
 21
 
 162 CONNECTION BETWEEN 
 
 * * * Secondly they come to the sacred city and hills 
 Of the Malsean Land. 
 
 This is, perhaps, the last vital notice by a man of genius ; 
 for genius he had, though Ovid would only concede him con- 
 summate skill. After this, we have only extravaganzas on this 
 subject of low Hellenic writers and of Latin authors, their ser- 
 vile copyists, with the exception of Temple Traditions, such as 
 Pausanias, and scholiasts, and lexicographers, have fragmenti- 
 cally preserved ; nevertheless, those same fragments are redo- 
 lent of the highest antiquity, of something older than Linus, 
 Pamphus, and Orpheus. 
 
 Now, then, my young antiquarian friends, listen to a few of 
 these Temple Traditions. First, of the Priests of the Olympian 
 Jupiter, in Elis, Pausanias, lib. v. cap. 7, " These say that the 
 wild olive (cotinus} was transferred to the Hellenes from the 
 Hyperborean Land by Heracles, and that these Hyperboreans 
 were men who dwell beyond the wind Boreas. Olen, the 
 Lycian, first sung in a hymn, which he composed in honour of 
 Achaea, that she had come to Delos from these Hyperboreans. 
 At a later period, Melanopus, the Cumaean, composed an ode 
 in honour of Opis and Hecaerge, stating that they also, even 
 before, had come from the Hyperboreans to Achaea, and also 
 to Delos." 
 
 Again, lib. ii. cap. 31, Pausanias thus writes of the same 
 priests " They say that Heracles laid down his club close to 
 this altar, and that it (for it was a cotinus), in the first place 
 (believe it who can), sent roots downwards, and in the second 
 place, sprouted upwards, and that this wild olive still grows. 
 They also say that Heracles, having found it close to the 
 Saronis, cut from it his club." 
 
 Hear, again, a tradition of the Athenian priests on this 
 subject, Pausanias, lib. i. cap. 18 : 
 
 " Near to it was built a temple of Ilithya, who, according 
 to the tradition of the Athenians, went from the Hyperboreans 
 to Delos, to aid Latona in childbirth. The Athenians also say 
 that everybody else borrowed this name from them. TheDe-
 
 HELLAS AND BRITAIN. 163 
 
 lians also both sacrifice to Ilithya, and sing a hymn composed 
 by Olen in honour of her." 
 
 Hear, again, a tradition of the priests of Delphi, peculiarly, 
 at a later time, jealous of their Cretan origin, Pausanias, lib. x. 
 cap. 5 : 
 
 " Boeo, a native Delphian woman, in a poem composed by 
 her, says that the oracle of Apollo at Delphi was established 
 both by others, who came from the Hyperboreans, and by 
 Olen ; that Olen gave the first oracular response, and that in 
 hexameter. These are the verses of Boeo : 
 
 Where the children of the Hyperborean Pegasus 
 And the high-born Agyeus established 
 A memorable oracle. 
 
 Then, after enumerating other Hyperboreans, she, at the end 
 of the hymn, thus named Olen : 
 
 And Olen, the first Prophet of Phoebus, 
 
 Who first composed a song in ancient hexameters. 
 
 I could easily multiply such notices, but these are quite 
 sufficient to prove how indelible were traditions connected 
 with the homogeneous character of the Hyperboreans, and the 
 ancient religious creed of Greece, or, rather, of the far-famed 
 Pelasgi. According to Herodotus, there had been a time when 
 the Pelasgi had no names for the numerous Hellenic gods. 
 He had heard this from Dodonaean priests and priestesses, 
 who also were aware of the time when Dodona was the only 
 oracle in the country afterwards called Hellas. Here is his 
 extraordinary testimony : " Now, whence sprang each of the 
 gods, and whether all of them always existed, and what were 
 their figures, men knew not, to use the expression, until yes- 
 terday and the day before; for, as I think, Hesiod and Homer 
 were only four hundred years older than myself. But these 
 are the men who invented the Theogony of the Hellenes, and 
 who gave names to the gods, who assigned to them several 
 offices and arts, and who shaped forth their figures." 
 
 If such was the case, the connection established between the 
 Hyperboreans and the well-known Pelasgian Oracle of the
 
 164 CONNECTION BETWEEN 
 
 Dodonaean Zeus of the Oak-grove, at a period long anterior 
 to Homer and Hesiod, leads us naturally to infer that in the 
 earlier ages the Hyperboreans were as free as the Pelasgi from 
 the pollution of Polytheism. 
 
 But we have some precious fragments to pick out from the 
 wreck of ancient literature, which require due consideration 
 from every scholar who aspires at the character of a guide 
 through the dark period intervening between the Patriarchal 
 and Polytheistic age. 
 
 First, under the word " Galeotse," you will find the follow- 
 ing fragmentary passage in Stephanus of Byzantium : 
 
 " A nation in Sicily or in Attica, from Galeus, the son of 
 Apollo, and of Themisto, the daughter of Thavius, king of the 
 Hyperboreans, as will be seen in the article Telmissus." 
 
 " Some, however, say that the Galeotae are a species of 
 Sicilian prophets. Now, they say that the first from the 
 Hyperboreans was Telmissus, * * (here a hiatus) * * and to 
 them the oracle in Dodona announced that one of them should 
 sail to the east, and the other to the west, and that each 
 should erect an altar, where an eagle should carry off the 
 thighs of the sacrificed victims. Galeotas arrived in Sicily, 
 Telmissus, in Caria, where the Temple of the Telmissian 
 Apollo now exists." 
 
 Now, Telmissus was famous not only for its Oracle and 
 Temple of Apollo, but to this day its megalithic structures 
 are the admiration of intelligent travellers. Hear Dr. Clarke, 
 vol. iii. cap. 8 : 
 
 " Everything at Telmissus is Cyclopean : a certain vastness 
 of proportion as in the walls of Tirynthus and Crotona, excites 
 a degree of admiration which is mingled with awe." 
 
 "The kings of Caria and of Lycia have left behind them 
 monuments defying the attacks of time and barbarians. Amidst 
 the convulsions of nature and the earthquakes, which have de- 
 solated the shores of the Carpathian Sea, these buildings have 
 remained unshaken. Some of the stones used in the construc- 
 tion of the theatre are nine feet long, three feet wide, and two
 
 HELLAS AND BRITAIN. 165 
 
 feet thick ; three immense portals, not unlike the ruins of Stone- 
 henge, conducted to the arena. The stones which compose 
 these gates are yet larger than those mentioned. The central 
 gateway consists only of five, and the two others of three, each 
 placed in the most simple style of architecture." 
 
 I cannot withold a further testimony from Dr. Clarke, whose 
 close observation of similar works in all parts of Europe and 
 Asia, entitles him to be considered as an authority upon the 
 subject. Vol. ix. p. 59 : 
 
 " After leaving Kiel we observed upon our left the first 
 monument of Danish antiquity. It was a Cyclopean structure of 
 the kind which is called in Wales Cromlech .: consisting of three 
 upright stones, supporting horizontally an enormous slab of 
 granite. It stands in the middle of a level meadow, the ground 
 being somewhat elevated whereon it is placed. The highest 
 point of it is now about seven feet from the soil ; but from the 
 very nature of such a work, and its great antiquity, it is evident 
 that the soil has greatly accumulated around it, since it was 
 first constructed. It appears to rest on the top of a tumulus, 
 whereof nothing but the summit is now visible. It would be 
 easy to enumerate many antiquities of the same form which 
 exist in our own country. That which is more difficult is, to 
 ascertain for what purpose, and by whom, they were erected. 
 ***** Respecting the people who have left these 
 monuments of their piety towards the dead in all the maritime 
 countries of Europe, and also in some parts of Asia, there is 
 very little information that can be relied upon. If they were 
 Scythians, it will naturally be asked, why such monuments are 
 not found in any part of that country ? And the time of their 
 construction carries us back to a period far beyond all that 
 history has recorded of the original inhabitants of Europe. It 
 seems to be evident that they are the works of the same people 
 who have left the other stupendous vestiges of Cyclopean archi- 
 tecture, which are exhibited in England by the remains at 
 Stonelienge ; in Greece, by the walls of Tiryus ; and in Italy, 
 by the walls of Cortona. We may consider the structure which
 
 166 CONNECTION BETWEEN 
 
 is now described as one of the specimens which they have left, 
 indicating the march they took. Of their written characters 
 we know nothing ; because it is the peculiar characteristic of 
 their monuments to be destitute of any inscription. There is, 
 therefore, nothing Gothic about them ; nothing denoting the 
 Cimbri ; or the Franks ; or the old Saxons ; but rather the 
 Gaulish, the ancient British, and the ancient Irish ; and, if this 
 be admitted, they were Titan- Celts ; the GIANTS of the sacred, 
 and the CYCLOPS of the heathen, historians." 
 
 But the name Telmissus was generic, as there was a second 
 Telmissus, and also a Terrnissus apparently the same ; and, as 
 I think, we may recognize a fourth at least in the Telmissus of 
 Macrobius. He writes, in the first book of his Saturnalia, that 
 in Thrace (the ancient Thracians were famous for their archaic 
 worship) there was a renowned temple, circular and hypaethral, 
 situated on Mount Telmissus, where a " native god " (un- 
 doubtedly the sun, as his name begins with '' sab ") was wor- 
 shipped with magnificent religious rites ; nay, more, the Siceli, 
 among whom the other missionary settled, were connected with 
 the Pelasgi, and with a secondary style of megalithic structures. 
 Hear the testimony of Pausanias, lib. i. cap. 23 : 
 
 " With respect to the Acropolis of Athens, with the exception 
 of that portion of the wall which was built by Cimon, the son 
 of Miltiades, it is said that the Pelasgi built the rest of the en- 
 closing wall when they dwelt under the Acropolis; as they say, 
 that the leaders of these Pelasgi were Agrolas and Hyperbius. 
 When I inquired about them, as to who they were, I could 
 learn nothing more than that they, being by origin Sicelians, 
 emigrated to Acarnania." 
 
 Perhaps this tradition may help us to connect the Cyclops 
 of Homer and of Lycia with the Hyperborean and Pelasgiaii 
 megalithic builders. The Siceli are known to have moved 
 eastward from Spain through Italy into Sicily. The very 
 name of their masonic leaders are suggestive of mythic truth. 
 "Agro-las" means " stone-gripper," the artist who gripped the 
 gigantic stone with a forceps, nipper, or shears, suspended by
 
 HELLAS AND BRITAIN. 167 
 
 a chain from a gigantic crane, and which required only to be 
 worked by the wheel and pulley of his partner " Hyperbius " 
 (that is, a man of surpassing strength), to be raised from the 
 ground, suspended in the air, and deposited wherever the 
 artist wished to deposit the huge mass. 
 
 This necessary connection between the Siceli, the Pelasgi, 
 and the Hyperboreans, may also throw some light upon the 
 predilection which the latter people felt for the Athenians, who, 
 according to good authority, were the last in discarding the 
 ancient rites, religion, and perhaps language of the older race, 
 and in conforming to " Hellenismus." This very pertinacity 
 on their part might have been one cause why they so suddenly, 
 when released from the Dorian chain, burst with such energy 
 and vigour into poetic life and intellectual development. 
 
 Here, again, I must make a digression, in order to connect 
 the sacred pathway of the Hyperborean virgins with megali- 
 thic structures. Of Dodona, the Pelasgic establishment, we 
 cannot safely predicate anything, except that its oaks were 
 oracular, and that its cauldrons might have been something 
 more than great metallic bells. As I have before said, I am far 
 more anxious to display the materials within my reach to 
 younger archaeologians, than scientifically to combine them 
 into a compact essay, and especially to reduce to silence those 
 " faineants " who would fain persuade the world that we 
 have not ample means for thoroughly investigating the whole 
 question. 
 
 The author of the Cyclops Christianus, page 29, says : 
 " Sir John Chardin relates that nearly two days' journey from 
 Tauris, in Media, towards Sultania, he saw large circles of hewn 
 stones ; and the Persians affirmed that certain giants called the 
 " Caous," waging war in Media, had held their councils in that 
 place, each bringing with him a stone to serve him for a chair. 
 They were so big that eight men could hardly move one, and 
 it was supposed .they must have been brought from six miles 
 off." Vol. viii. p. 371. 
 
 This account, according to Mr. Herbert, points to no age or
 
 168 CONNECTION BETWEEN 
 
 date nothing definite, certainly; but it assuredly implies 
 that the then existing generation of Perians assigned, like all 
 other nations, ourselves excepted, such constructions to a race 
 of giants " Caous," or " Cawr " not of their blood." 
 
 But these circles of hewn stones, and used as council-halls, 
 were, at least, as old as the time of Homer, as partly shown 
 before. But hear what Homer says, Odyssey, iii., v. 31 : 
 
 " They came to the assembly and the ' Hedrae/ or seats of 
 the Pylian warriors." 
 
 It was a solemn festival, and the whole community were 
 gathered together to sacrifice and feast. Of what materials 
 the " Hedrse " were, we learn from the same book, v. 407 : 
 " Nestor came forth and sat down upon hewn stones, which 
 were before his lofty gate, white, glittering with oil, on which 
 Neleus used formerly to sit." Evidently the seat of justice 
 before the gate. Then came his sons and " seated Telemachus 
 beside him." 
 
 The scholar may compare this seat with the " sedd," or 
 " gorsedd," whence Agamemnon, without rising from it, ad- 
 dressed the assembly (Iliad, xix. v. 7, 8). 
 
 Nay, in the descent from Dodona into the Malsean Gulf, the 
 Hyperborean maidens in older times, and the sacred gifts in 
 latter times, visited the most sacred precincts of the older re- 
 ligion, the very name of which is full of signification. 
 
 The land Mv^A/ar or MfA<; derives its name from the word Mv^Xct, 
 and is used to express a civilized region, in the same manner 
 as its root is applied as a general term both to the fruits which 
 man has reclaimed from the wild state and improved for his 
 own use, and to those animals, especially slieep, which we now 
 call the domesticated races. Hence the Latin " Mala," and the 
 Cumrian " Avalau," restricted to the mellow " fruits " alone. 
 The Celtic scholar will be reminded here of K Ynys Afallon." 
 
 Callimachus calls its chief city " Sacred," as may be seen in 
 the preceding quotation. " Within its bounds took place the 
 fiery self-immolation of Heracles, and his supposed ascent to 
 heaven. The scene of this catastrophe, so magnificently de-
 
 HELLAS AND BRITAIN. 169 
 
 scribed by Sophocles in his Trachinia, was Mount (Eta, where 
 it encroaches upon the ^Egsean Sea, and overlooks the narrow 
 strip of land known as the Straits of Thermopylae. Close to 
 the hot springs and baths was an altar of Heracles ; and where 
 the Asopus enters the sea there was a wider space, in which 
 was situated the lepov of the Amphictyonic Demeter, and where 
 still are the ' Hedrae ' of the Amphictyones and an ieqov of Am- 
 phictyon himself." Again, in describing the path along which 
 Ephialtes guided the Persians over (Eta to the rear of Leonidas 
 and his Spartans, my author thus writes " This path stretches 
 along the ridge of the hill, and ends over against the town 
 Alpenus, the first of the Locrian settlements from Melias, and 
 the stone called ' Melampugos,'" and the ' Hedrae ' of the Cer- 
 copes." All these quotations are from Herodotus, lib. vii. 
 cap. 176, 199, 200. 
 
 1 feel as confident as a man can be, that even if the " Hedrae," 
 both of the Amphictyonic Council and of the Cercopes, have 
 disappeared, which, nevertheless, I strongly doubt, yet the 
 stone " Melampugos," one of the nicknames of Heracles, still 
 remains undisturbed, where Herodotus saw it. Equally certain 
 am I that megalithic structures will be found still existing at 
 one of the sources of the Spercheius, in the same vicinity where 
 Dr. Clarke saw in the plain what he says is called in Wales a 
 " cromlech." It is also worth observing, that the Deputation 
 visited the little island of Tenos, famous for its megalithic 
 Logan-stone, mentioned by Apollonius Rhodius, and that the 
 islanders had the honour of escorting the sacred offerings to 
 Delos. 
 
 These regions have been for ages left alone in their glory, 
 and it was in similar deserted spots that Pausanias found most 
 of the rude stone circles described by him. For example, 
 lib. ii. c. 54, he thus writes : " Nearly half a mile from the 
 then more modern city of Hermione was the old site. Here 
 are circles of great ' Logades ' stones, and within them they 
 perform the mysterious rites of Demeter." 
 
 But we have positive testimonies respecting the western 
 
 22
 
 170 CONNECTION BETWEEN 
 
 position of the Hyperboreans. According to Poseidonius, who 
 himself travelled in Gaul (vide Scholiast on the Aryonautes of 
 Apollonius, ver. 677, lib. ii.) " Hyperboreans dwell in the 
 vicinity of the Alps of Italy." Plutarch, in his life of Camillus, 
 quotes Heraclides Ponticus, as recording " that the Gauls, who 
 conquered the Romans on the Allia, and captured the city, 
 were Hyperboreans," a statement which coincides with that 
 of Poseidonius. And a certain Protarchus, quoted by the 
 Byzantine Stephanus, writes " that all who dwell below the 
 Alps are named Hyperboreans." 
 
 Nay, more, we learn from a tradition, recorded by Diony- 
 sius of Halicarnassus, that Latinus was the son of Heracles by 
 a Hyperborean maiden, whom he had received as a hostage 
 from her father, and was leading with him. " Heracles, in his 
 return to his native Greece and Argos, came with his Hyper- 
 borean maiden into Italy, and gave her in marriage to Faunus." 
 These quotations are taken from Gesner's admirable paper 
 upon the subject of the Hyperboreans. See it at the end of 
 Herman's edition of the Orphica. 
 
 Gesner alludes to the fable of the Scythian or Hyperborean 
 Abaris, who, " when he was returning from Hellas to his own 
 country, that he might convey the gold he had collected for 
 the god to the Temple of the Hyperboreans, went to Italy, 
 where he saw Pythagoras, and recognized him as his own 
 Hyperborean Apollo." 
 
 "Now," adds Gesner, "is it to be supposed that the men, 
 who either invented or reported the travels of the sacred depu- 
 tation to the Delian Apollo, and of Heracles and Abaris, were 
 triflers without a grain of common sense, and not persons who 
 had sufficient acquaintance with the topography to enable 
 them to know, that persons intending to visit Delos from the 
 Pontus Euxinus, or Scythia from Greece, could have nothing 
 to do with Italy or the Adriatic ? What then ? There were 
 Hyperboreans, unless I am deceived, even on the western shore 
 of the external ocean. So that even Africans and Iberians, 
 washed by the Western Ocean, were included under the term."
 
 HELLAS AND BRITAIN. 171 
 
 From the various authorities recorded by me, I think it may 
 fairly be inferred that 
 
 First, There were a people called not by a Gentile name like 
 Thracians, Getse, Scythae, but from their geographical position, 
 Hyperboreans, intimately connected with the earliest inhabit- 
 ants of what, at a later period, was called Hellas, and with its 
 primitive religion. 
 
 Secondly, That they dwelt in a land where the olive, the 
 laurel, and, among other animals, asses, were to be found in a 
 fertile soil and a favourable climate. 
 
 Thirdly, That the western expeditions of the mythological 
 Heracles, in search of sacred plants, of milder fruits, and a 
 finer breed of animals, had been undertaken into the regions 
 now called the south-west of Spain and Gaul, west of the 
 Alps ; and that the inhabitants of these countries were called 
 Hyperboreans. 
 
 Fourthly, That in the ocean, over against " Celtica " (say 
 from the Spanish Cape Finisterre to the mouth of the Elbe), 
 there was an island, not smaller than Sicily, situated under the 
 Northern Bear, inhabited by men called Hyperboreans. 
 
 Now, all this depends on geographical evidence of the posi- 
 tive kind, and cannot be applied to any other island than Great 
 Britain. 
 
 But in the Hecataean description, we have other marks more 
 social and mythological respecting this insular Hyperborean 
 community. 
 
 First, it is stated that Latona was born here. Answer. 
 Latona was another name for night, from whom the sun and 
 moon outsprang. But the Western Celts, according to Caesar, 
 sprang from Dis, the male myth for night. Hence the pre- 
 ference among the Celtic nations of giving precedence to night 
 before day. So that a week is " wyth-nos," a fortnight 
 " pymtheg-nos." 
 
 Secondly, That the great God of the Hyperborean island was 
 Apollo. Answer. Our " Melin ap Cynfelin," the " Belinus " 
 of the Adriatic Veneti of the classic age, the " Belenus" of the
 
 172 CONNECTION BETWEEN 
 
 Armorican Paterae of the Oceanitic Veneti, and the " Beli" of 
 our more modern poets. 
 
 Thirdly, There was a sacred priesthood, a band of poets, of 
 harpers, of astronomers, and physiologists. For they knew the 
 Metonic cycle, by which the various revolutions of the moon 
 and planets are found to terminate and renew themselves at 
 fixed periods. The different ministers connected with the wor- 
 ship of the god, kept up a continuous service, and especially 
 during a vernal season, recurring every nineteenth year, a great 
 festival, which lasted, according to the best calculations, some 
 forty days. And yet that, though they had a dialect of their 
 own, they admitted Greek inscriptions on gifts offered by 
 Greeks in their temple, and were, from the earliest ages, well 
 affected to the Greeks or Hellenes. Answer. Now, where 
 but in Hyperborean regions, as geographically defined by me, 
 can either an ocean island, such as described by Hecataeus, 
 or a non-Hellenic people with their priests and their literary 
 and philosophical pursuits, if you refuse to recognize them in 
 Western Gaul and- Southern Britain, be possibly found? 
 I do not think that I shall lose anything in the judgment of 
 truth-seekers, if, instead of dressing up my proofs and autho- 
 rities scientifically and rhetorically, I content myself with a 
 literal translation of what Cluverius, a diligent and accurate 
 writer, compiled of our Druids about two hundred and fifty 
 years ago (lib. i. p. 171, Germania Antiqua). 
 
 In describing the wise men of the Celtae, he, quoting Caesar, 
 says " They are present at public worship, superintend public 
 and private sacrifices. When religious scruples arise, they solve 
 them. To them, for the sake of instruction, resort a great con- 
 course of young men, and they are highly honoured by the com- 
 munity. They decide almost all cases of a public and private 
 nature ; or if a crime has been committed, a man slain, or a 
 dispute about inheritances or boundaries arise, they are the 
 judges; and also assign rewards and fix penalties." Cluverius 
 then adds, that Caesar regarded them all as combined into one 
 system. From Strabo he then proves that the body or corpo-
 
 HELLAS AND BRITAIN. 173 
 
 ration was divided into three parts: Bards, Vates, and Druidae; 
 and from Diodorus and Marcellinus, that the Druids were The- 
 ologians. Strabo, moreover, adds, that they were the physiolo- 
 gists, moral philosophers, and the skilful lawyers; also "medical 
 men" and "augurs"; also "astrologers." Caesar says that 
 they discussed many questions concerning the stars and their 
 motions ; of the magnitude of the universe and of the earth, 
 and their figures ; and Mela said " They profess to know the 
 magnitude and figure of the earth, and of the universe ; the 
 motion of the firmament and fixed stars ; also that they have 
 their own school of eloquence, and professors of philosophy, 
 ' as well as/ according to Diodorus, ' lyric poets and musical 
 composers.' " Cluverius adds from Caesar, " that the course of 
 instruction originated in Britain," and was thence transferred 
 into Gaul. Also, according to Caesar, " the pupils were said 
 to commit to memory an immense number of verses, and so to 
 continue in some cases for twenty years under the course of 
 instruction ; as they do not think it consistent with their re- 
 ligion to commit the sacred doctrines to written documents, 
 although in recording almost every other kind of business, both 
 public and private, they use Greek characters." Again " A.11 
 the Druids have a president, who exercises superior authority 
 over them. When he dies, if one of their body is of superior 
 rank, he succeeds ; if more than one are equal in dignity, the 
 chief is elected by the votes of the Druids. Sometimes, al- 
 though seldom, they contend for the primacy in arms." 
 
 Here is collected, from a long and respectable list of Western 
 writers, some two thousand years and more ago, a body of 
 testimony corroborative, in every point, of Hecataeus and other 
 Oriental authors, which no " pooh-poohing" can set aside, nor 
 scepticism deny. And when it is added, that in the same 
 Britain there is to be found to this day a great sphere-shaped 
 temple, surrounded with other megalithic structures and tumuli, 
 which testify to modern eyes that Salisbury Plain was the 
 centre of a great hierarchy, which must have lasted long, and 
 flourished as the cradle and kebla of a mighty nation, united
 
 174 CONNECTION BETWEEN 
 
 in its worship, and anxious to be buried within sight of its 
 holiest sanctuary, it is difficult to conceive that scholars should 
 allow themselves to be so blinded as not to see that the sphere- 
 shaped temple could not have been anything else than our 
 Stonehenge. 
 
 Englishmen of high name and character, distinguished for 
 their superior scholarship, could not but perceive the identity 
 of the Hecataean Temple with the ruins of Stonehenge. The 
 author of the Cyclops Christianm, page 3, when proceeding 
 to destroy all preceding theories, thus writes " There is some 
 need to dwell on the Hyperborean theory. Stukely maintained 
 it faintly. * * * It found favour with Mr. Payne Knight, 
 was embraced by Mr. Maurice in his Indian Antiquities, by 
 Mr. E. Davies and others of that school, and in the splendid 
 volume of Sir Richard Colt Hoare." In page 11, the final 
 opinion of Maurice is thus given " Such is the account given 
 nearly two thousand years ago of this circular temple, for it 
 could mean no other, by Diodorus the Sicilian, from a writer 
 still prior in time." Mr. Herbert then proceeds to the work 
 of demolition, and begins with a quiet assumption, that the 
 Hecataeus of Diodorus was not the Milesian, but another very 
 obscure Hecatseus of Abdera, said by Suidas to have flourished 
 under the successors of Alexander. 
 
 Now, it is out of the question that Diodorus, in quoting a 
 famous name like that of Hecataeus the Milesian, should have 
 misled his readers, which he must necessarily have done, if, 
 under the bare name of Hecataeus, he had meant a very obscure 
 man. In the very same work Diodorus quotes Hecata3us twice 
 more : once when he classes him with Cadmus and Hellauicus ; 
 and again, where the Milesian was undoubtedly the authority 
 on the point respecting the Egyptian Thebes. Again, Stepha- 
 nus the Byzantine, in that meagre fragment which has come 
 down to us concerning cities, nations, and their names, quotes 
 twice, " Hecataeus the Abderite," in these very terms ; but in 
 quoting the Hecataeus, out of twenty times to which the index
 
 HELLAS AND BRITAIN. 175 
 
 refers me, he is called the Milesian once, bare Hecataeus nine- 
 teen times; and we know from the works quoted, that it was 
 the Milesian who was thus left without an epithet. 
 
 Again, Hecataeus the Abderite lived about the end of the 
 third century before Christ, when the Hyperboreans had be- 
 come a mere paradise at the North Pole, far removed from 
 rerum nattira and known geography. It is well known that 
 the knowledge of the geography of the North retrograded from 
 the days of Herodotus to this man's " acme," as it was then 
 taught that the Caspian was a gulf of the Northern Ocean, and 
 not an inland sea, as described by Herodotus. But let is hear 
 the precious testimonies of the Abderite. Under " Elisscea," 
 he writes, " An island of Hyperboreans, not less than Sicily, 
 and at the north of the river ' Cerambuca/ The islanders 
 Cerambucse as Hecataeus the Abderite." 
 
 Again, under " Carainbucae," " a nation of Hyperboreans 
 from the river Carambuca." 
 
 This is all. The mere repetition of the two expressions bor- 
 rowed from the Milesian, by the Abderite Hecataeus, seems the 
 only groundwork for Herbert's perverse assertion. You will in 
 vain look for the river or people in any other author, although 
 perhaps, as men cannot invent words, the northern promon- 
 tory of Asia Minor, called Carambis, suggested the name. We 
 know that at a later period the " Ram's Horn" was denomi- 
 nated the Hyperborean, and Carambis itself the Hypernotian, 
 capes of the Central Euxine. So little attention ought to be 
 paid to ignoble writers. 
 
 But Mr. Herbert has another authority. Pliny, in his Om- 
 nium Gatherum quotations, had copied more at large from the 
 same Abderite (lib. vi. cap. 16) : 
 
 " Beyond them and the commencement of Aquilo some few 
 have placed the Hyperboreans, said by most to have been in 
 Europe. Next is recognized a promontory of Celtica, Lytarmis. 
 The river Carambucis, where the ridges of the Rhipaean Moun- 
 tains fall along with the force of the stars."
 
 176 CONNECTION BETWEEN 
 
 Here the Abderite removed the Celtic promontory from the 
 West of Europe into Asiatic Siberia, and invented a promontory 
 not to be found by me in any other ancient author. 
 
 Had Mr. Herbert consulted Pliny's own ideas respecting 
 the Arctic regions, he would have found them very rationally 
 stated in the beginning of his fourth book, where he agrees 
 with Artemidorus that all was unknown to the north of the 
 Tanais and the Palus Mseotis. But Mr. Herbert has another 
 authority against the theory advocated by me. Apollodorus 
 the Mythologist places the Hyperboreans on the North Pole. 
 But, as he is supposed to have transferred the gardens of the 
 Hesperides, and the golden apples, to the same regions, let them 
 also be removed from Western Libya to the North Pole, where 
 I might safely allow that Apollodorus meant to have placed 
 them. For Apollodorus was at least a century junior to He- 
 cataeus the Abderite, and might have adopted the prevalent 
 opinion, that there was a Paradise under the Pole, such as the 
 Hyperboreans were supposed to have enjoyed ; consequently, 
 to make the Hesperides their immediate neighbours was an 
 easy step for the imagination to take, although it required the 
 removal even of the Mauritania!! Atlas to the Arctic regions. 
 But, after all, scholars know in what a sad plight the manu- 
 scripts of Apollodorus have come down to us, and that the 
 present work is only a patch-work of different commentators ; 
 nay, the very passage on which Mr. Herbert relies, is full of 
 corruptions and interpolations, as confessed by Heyne him- 
 self. The transfer of the Hesperides to the Caucasus is of 
 itself a proof that, if Apollodorus said so, he must have bor- 
 rowed it from some of the later Hyperborean romances 
 from the Abderite himself, for aught I know. 
 
 Mr. Herbert has another argument. He says that Diodorus 
 meant to have placed the Hyperboreans of Hecata3us in the 
 northern parts of Asia. We may easily grant it, without allow- 
 ing it in the slightest degree to affect the argument. It is not 
 likely that Diodorus believed otherwise upon the subject than 
 the men of his own age. But he was only a compiler, and as
 
 HELLAS AND BRITAIN. 177 
 
 such not to be trusted, for he had no critical judgment ; but 
 he is often a transcriber, and when he professes to act as 
 such, we may be almost certain that we have the substance of 
 his original author. For he was honest, and cares not for 
 the conflicting testimonies, which he often works into a self- 
 contradictory whole. Still, we must allow that it is very 
 extraordinary that when he came to describe our own island, 
 he should not have been reminded of the description of Heca- 
 tseus, and others who had written accounts of the ancient 
 Mythologies. 
 
 Here are a few points in which the historian Diodorus agrees 
 with the ancient Mythologist (book v.) : 
 
 For over against the Paroceanic Galatia there are in the 
 ocean many islands, of which one, being also the greatest, is 
 called " Brettanica." 
 
 Compare the island of Mythology, " an island off the coast 
 of Celtica, in the ocean." 
 
 Again, " the island being triangular, something like Sicily, 
 has not its sides equally long." 
 
 Compare this with the expression, " not less than Sicily." 
 
 Again, the Hyperborean island was " under the Bears." 
 
 Compare Britannia's position, " as it is situated under the 
 Bear." 
 
 Again, the Hyperboreans, from the Homeric times down- 
 ward, were described as undisturbed by wars ; none of their 
 neighbours ever molested them with the sword. 
 
 Compare with this the following passage from the history : 
 " The island in ancient times was never troubled by a 
 foreign military power. For we have not heard that Dio- 
 nysius nor Heracles, nor any other hero or prince, made war 
 against it." 
 
 Again, the Hyperboreans are described as innocent, prosper- 
 ous, peaceful. 
 
 Compare this description with the following account of the 
 inhabitants of Brettanica : " It is said that aboriginal races 
 inhabit Brettanica, who preserve in their habits the primitive 
 
 23
 
 178 CONNECTION BETWEEN 
 
 mode of life. For among other things they use chariots for 
 their wars, as it is handed down to us, the ancient heroes of 
 the Hellenes did in the Trojan war." " That in their habits 
 they are simple, and far removed from the craftiness and 
 wickedness of the present age. * * That the island is very 
 populous. * * That they have many kings and princes, and 
 that these for the most part are peacefully disposed towards 
 each other." " That those who inhabit the western promon- 
 tory of the island called Belerium, are hospitable even in an 
 exceeding degree, and, on account of their intercourse with 
 foreign merchants, completely civilized in their habits." 
 
 Any unprejudiced person, who compares these two portraits, 
 must confess that, to a certain extent, the historic is a rough 
 copy of the fancy painting, arid while he may wish that Dio- 
 dorus had more completely filled up the blank spots in his 
 canvas, yet he should remember that the Siceliot stops short 
 in his description, and thus accounts for it : " But I will re- 
 sume the description of their legal institutions, and of their 
 peculiarities in detail, when I arrive at the invasion of Britannia 
 by Julius Caesar." Unfortunately, however, that portion of his 
 works has perished, and we have only to appeal to those tes- 
 timonies already collected by Cluverius, to show that every 
 part of the fancy picture of Hecataeus and the older poets of 
 Greece was to be found realized among the Druidical hierarchy, 
 their system and followers ; and that these justified Diodorus 
 in saying that they were completely civilized. 
 
 Now, after demolishing successfully, as he thinks, previous 
 theories, Mr. Herbert is obliged to confess that he does 
 not know where to place the Hyperboreans of history, whom 
 he cannot possibly ignore. He, however, confesses, p. 7 : 
 " The site of their temple cannot be ascertained, and some of 
 the accounts of it are hard to reconcile." His final conjecture 
 is, that they were a colony of Greeks to the north of the Tanais 
 and Palus Maeotis, but who could never be found by their in- 
 quiring friends, and were finally swept off the face of the earth, 
 without leaving a trace of their existence, something like the 
 case of the Welsh Indians.
 
 HELLAS AND BRITAIN. 179 
 
 Yet Mr. Herbert must know that Gesner, after noticing 
 this theory when propounded by Bayer to the Academy of 
 St. Petersburg, and approved of even by Wesseling, quietly 
 set it aside in the most gentlemanly manner, as being " irre- 
 concilable with many facts of the case, which he must regard 
 as true." 
 
 Mr. Herbert has still another argument, a moral one. The 
 theory, as maintained by me, is against all history. The Britons 
 were unknown " savages" at the time, " painted people." It 
 is absurd to impute the structure of such a magnificent temple 
 to them. " No man alive" can credit such an absurdity. But 
 the Britons, after the departure of the Romans, were scientific 
 men they built it made it the temple of a renovated Christo- 
 druidism, and multiplied their megalithic temples, altars, cha- 
 pels, &c., over the face of these islands ! 
 
 What then, some persons will say, causes you to blame 
 Mr. Herbert, since you perceive that he is willing to concede 
 the structure of Stonehenge to the ancient Britons ? Nothing 
 but the love of truth, which, once established, is always prolific 
 in its results, and a certainty that Mr. Herbert, although right 
 as to the authors, is wrong about the age of the construction. 
 
 But, though the question has not been put by others, I may 
 be allowed to start a supposed interrogatory, and ask an ex- 
 planation of the anomaly : Why Mr. Herbert should not only 
 have regarded this megalithic subject as important enough to 
 deserve for its investigation the publication of a book, but also 
 have so firmly supported the affirmative that Stonehenge, with 
 all cognate structures, was the work of the British people, at the 
 close of the fourth or the commencement of the fifth century 
 after Christ? 
 
 In answer to the first part of the interrogatory, I hope I may 
 be allowed to suppose that Mr. Herbert agrees with me, that 
 no decent history of mankind can possibly be satisfactorily 
 composed, while the question of these megalithic structures is 
 unsolved ; and that it is absurd to pay such attention to the 
 inorganic and fossil remains of a ruined material creation, and
 
 180 CONNECTION BETWEEN 
 
 yet superciliously to neglect a science based on man's work and 
 his lasting monuments, which may safely guide us, not into 
 some antediluvian epoch, but to the very cradle of our post- 
 diluvian ancestors, from whom we derive not only our mate- 
 rial bodies, and moral and intellectual powers, but also healthy 
 traditions, affecting every relation in life, and which never have 
 been lost, except by those who have wandered from the central 
 light, cut themselves off from all such traditions, and have, 
 in the gloom of the forest, or in the solitude of islands, degraded 
 the spirit given by God. 
 
 The second part of the interrogatory, I believe, may be 
 answered more satisfactorily. Mr. Herbert is one of the best 
 Celtic scholars of the day, and has thoroughly studied our 
 ancient literature so far as it has hitherto been published, and 
 in studying it, he could not but find that the ancient Britons 
 had a central temple, the object of their enthusiastic and im- 
 perishable veneration, a sanctuary full of worship and life, 
 as celebrated by their singers and musicians, while they con- 
 tinued to hold it, as the city of Sion is in the Psalms of David, 
 and consecrated as deeply in their hearts and memories after 
 they had lost it, and had been driven from its precincts, as 
 the memory of Jerusalem is to this day cherished among the 
 outcasts, who formerly worshipped in the great Temple of 
 Jerusalem. 
 
 But here, for the present, I stop my hand : enough, I hope, 
 has been stated to show that a wide field is open, and that few 
 workmen are employed upon it. 
 
 ADDITIONS TO THE PRECEDING LETTER, PROM OTHER ARCHAEOLOGICAL 
 
 LETTERS. 
 
 Men are not yet, in general, emancipated from the servile 
 principle, that written documents are the only available proofs 
 in ascertaining the past history of man. The other monuments, 
 which have been aptly termed " Pre-historical Annals," were
 
 HELLAS AND BRITAIN. 181 
 
 comparatively neglected, because they could not record the 
 biography of individuals, and the transactions of states, nor 
 subserve the object of the pragmatical historians, like Thucy- 
 dides and Polybius. In the new science of Ethnology, they, 
 however, furnish the most useful materials, and give, when 
 rightly interrogated, the most satisfactory information. 
 
 It is well known that the bronze of the Egyptians, the As- 
 syrians, the Greeks, the Romans, the ancient Germans, and the 
 Danes, was an alloy of tin and copper, and specimens of this 
 compounded metal have been found of extreme antiquity. 
 
 Bronze weapons extracted from the tumuli on the shores of 
 Troy, and bronze nails found in the rubbish of the floor of the 
 building at Mycena3, called the " Treasury of Atreus," have, 
 when analyzed, given the same result, the amalgamation of 
 the same two metals. Moses mentions tin itself as being found 
 among the spoils of the Midianites, and Ezekiel describes it as 
 one of the metals of which " Tarshish was the merchant of 
 Tyre." 
 
 Whence, then, came the vast stores of tin which must have 
 been consumed in forming the countless instruments and 
 weapons, of which it was a constituent element? Ezekiel 
 expressly says that it came from Tarshish or Tartessus. 
 
 Herodotus, who had been in Egypt, Phoenicia, Syria, and 
 Assyria, while betraying extreme ignorance with respect to 
 their real position, positively states that the " Kassiteron " 
 came from the Cassiterides And the mode in which he 
 makes his statement, seems to indicate that he did not know 
 of any other place whence tin came to the East. 
 
 " The Phoenicians, " says a modern writer, " long concealed 
 the situation of the Cassiterides from all other nations. * * 
 It need not, therefore, surprise us to learn so little respecting 
 them from ancient writers, even though we adopt the opinion 
 that they continued for many centuries to be the chief source 
 of one of the most useful metals. The only districts, accord- 
 ing to Berzelius, where it is obtained in Asia, are the island 
 of Banca and the peninsula of Malacca. Cornwall still yields
 
 182 CONNECTION BETWEEN 
 
 a larger quantity of the ore than any other locality of the Old 
 or New World, where it has as yet been discovered, and many 
 thousands of tons have been exported by modern traders to 
 India and China, and America." 
 
 I have often pressed this argument in conversation with 
 men who, in other respects, were fair reasoners, but with a 
 rooted prejudice not to be eradicated. They will not look at 
 the inferences which must necessarily be drawn were the facts 
 acknowledged to be true. Such men will say, Sir Gardiner 
 Wilkinson conceived it possible that the Egyptians must have 
 wrought tin in the mines of Malacca, and that the Tyrians 
 thence derived " the multitude of their riches." But these are 
 all mere conjectures, and there is no evidence, not even the 
 slightest, in support of them. 
 
 Whence, also, was obtained the tin which entered into the 
 composition of the bronze metal so copiously used in Gaul, 
 Germany, and Denmark ? Worsse remarks (I copy from Wil- 
 son's Pre-historical Annals of Scotland, as accessible to the 
 general reader), "There are geological reasons for believing 
 that the bronze period must have prevailed in Denmark five 
 or six hundred years before the birth of Christ. It is highly 
 probable that the ancient bronze, formed of copper and tin, was 
 diffused from one spot over the whole of Europe, which spot 
 may be supposed to be England, because, not to mention the 
 quantity of copper which that country produces, its rich tin 
 mines have been known from the earliest periods to the nations 
 of the South ; while in the other parts of Europe there occur 
 only very few and doubtful remains of far less important tin 
 mines, which we are justified in believing to have been worked 
 at that time." 
 
 The necessary and inevitable conclusion seems to be, that 
 from the most ancient recorded times, long before Homer sung, 
 or Cadmus entered Europe, the western coast of Great Britain 
 must have been the resort of men deeply skilled in metallurgy, 
 who conveyed the peculiar produce of its mines to all parts of 
 the then known world, and perhaps to more distant regions ;
 
 HELLAS AND BRITAIN. 183 
 
 for it is rather too strong a demand upon our faith to call upon 
 us to believe that, should the bronze found in the mounds of 
 the Mississippi be similar to that of the ancient world, it could 
 have a different origin. " It is scarcely possible," adds Mr. 
 Wilson, " to conceive of such an intercourse, carried on for 
 centuries, by nations far advanced in the arts, and familar with 
 the civilization and learning of the oldest races of Asia and 
 Africa, without the natives of the Cassiterides acquiring from 
 them some knowledge of the fruits of ancient civilization. From 
 this, indeed, it has been supposed that the British miner first 
 learned even to smelt the ore, although we are almost forced 
 to the conclusion that the working of the mines must have 
 originated with natives or new colonists familiarized in some 
 degree with the nature of the metals and with metallurgic arts." 
 
 The latter is the stronger probability, and it is not at all 
 impossible that the first inhabitants of Great Britain were these 
 Oriental voyagers, who left no portion of the known world 
 unvisited. The island must, at that early age, have been in a 
 very primitive state, probably in most parts a mighty forest, 
 diversified by lakes and marshes. 
 
 What we know is, that the people of Damnonium, sprung 
 from that race which, according to its own traditions, came 
 from the East, and brought with them their language, arts, and 
 other valuable knowledge, retained possession during the whole 
 historical period of the mining districts, gave their own ex- 
 pressive names to mountains, rivers, woods, wells, towns, farms, 
 fortresses, &c., and, without having suffered from the various 
 invaders of the island a violent conquest or extermination, 
 united with the dominant race, without losing the character 
 which they had always borne of being a gallant, loyal, intelli- 
 gent, and religious community. 
 
 Their language, which gradually died away under the gentle 
 treatment and kind protection of the Royal Dukes of Cornwall, 
 was a dialect of the Cymraeg, and proves that the occupiers of 
 the mining districts of Cornwall and its islands were of the 
 same race and language as the other Cymry of Great Britain.
 
 184 CONNECTION BETWEEN 
 
 And the stone monuments, popularly called Druidical, which 
 abound in Cornwall, and are similar in character to the same 
 imperishable records in other parts of Great Britain, in Ireland, 
 and in more distant lands, prove the supremacy exercised by 
 one dominant influence over obedient votaries. 
 
 The Stennis Circle, being a monolithic temple in Pomona, 
 one of the Oread es, inferior in magnificence to Stonehenge 
 alone, was long gratuitously ascribed to the Scandinavians, by 
 men who were determined to see nothing in the Briton but a 
 helpless savage, has been restored to him by Professor Munch, 
 of Copenhagen, who has proved that the great Scottish circle 
 belonged to a population previous to the Scandinavian settle- 
 ment, " the stones of which," adds Mr. Wilson, " we may well 
 believe, were grey with the moss of centuries, ere the first 
 Norwegian prow touched the shores of Pomona." 
 
 I here repeat what I have before published. " The stone 
 monuments, commonly supposed to be connected with the 
 Druids, and hence called Druidical, were the works of a race 
 of men who occupied this island from north to south, from east 
 to west, in times far anterior to history, and who were not 
 temporary sojourners, but the possessors of, and dwellers in, 
 the land, who had brought with them from the East whatever 
 knowledge the East had then to impart " workers filled with 
 wisdom and understanding, and cunning to work all works in 
 brass," who for ages supplied Europe, Asia, and Africa, with the 
 metal most in use ; whose language was the Cymraeg, of which 
 they have left lasting monuments in the district of the mines. 
 Such names as Bodman, Bodern, Tremayn, Tremenhere, Car- 
 min, Minheneth, Pendarves, Pendennis, need no interpreter, 
 but tell their own story. 
 
 But there are words in the Cymraeg connected with the 
 metals and localities which require explanation. In addition 
 to haiarn, English iron, the Cymraeg has diir, mael, alcan, 
 ystaen, pres, evydd. Dur, pronounced like the middle syllable 
 in the Greek word ntyog, represents the English steel. Mael 
 appears to be the oldest and most general word for the pro-
 
 HELLAS AND BRITAIN. 185 
 
 duce of the iron-stone, and to have been used as the measure 
 of value. Since it also signifies gain, and maelierva means a 
 market, so do maelawr and maelva. It is difficult to ascertain 
 what was the distinction between the two metals, as in the 
 following passage : 
 
 Dur a mael oedd dnvy ymylau ei lavyn. 
 Dur and mael were in the edges of his blade. 
 
 Mael, like Haiarn, is used in the names of men, as Maelderw 
 or Dervael, Maelgad and Cadvael, Maelgwn and Cynvael. 
 Trevaelwr is a common name for a house in Cornwall, and 
 commemorates the time when the maelwr was either a worker 
 in iron or a merchant. 
 
 Alcan, one of the Cymric words, is still to be seen on the 
 Cornish map in Trevalcan, and was synonymous with Ys-taen, 
 Latin stannum, English tin. Although the word tin has not 
 appeared in our dictionaries, we see it in the word tincerdd, a 
 worker in tin English, tinker. The Gaelic still retains ceard 
 and caird, to represent in English, smith ; Cymric, cerddwr, a 
 craftsman. 
 
 Pres, English, brass or copper, Latin aes, needs no further 
 notice than that it apparently gave origin to the Latin word 
 pretium, confirmed by the word interpres, the broker who 
 settled the price between the foreign merchant and his cus- 
 tomers. Evydd, bronze or tempered brass, is the name in 
 general use of all vessels in which copper forms only a part. 
 Gwaew evydd is used in times comparatively modern for a 
 bronze spear ; but while pres is in constant use to express 
 copper coins, evydd is never so applied. 
 
 Of the antiquity of the British evydd, and of British metal- 
 lurgy, there can be no stronger proof than the following state- 
 ment : 
 
 On the ridge of the promontory called the Orme's Head, 
 there is to be seen a dismounted rocking-stone, commonly 
 called Cryd Titdno, the Cradle of Tudno, who gives his name to 
 the parish. In the promontory, copper mines are still worked, 
 and the miners, in the year 1849, broke into an ancient vvork- 
 
 24
 
 186 CONNECTION BETWEEN 
 
 ing of great extent. In this were found a great number of 
 hammers, or mauls, of various sizes, weighing from two to forty 
 pounds. Besides them there were a number of bones, and the 
 portion of a bronze tool. Thus were brought into close juxta- 
 position the British saint, the rocking -stone, the copper mine, 
 the stone hammer, and the bronze instrument. The proof that 
 the inhabitants of Great Britain used, and even coined, money 
 from the earliest periods, is now complete. In my Life of 
 Julius Ctssarihe whole subject is fully discussed, and the errors 
 originating in his carelessness, or ignorance, explained. How- 
 ever, it is to Scaliger, and not to Caesar, that the greatest 
 blame is to be ascribed, since the latter positively wrote that 
 the Britons used " aureis nummis," which the former changed 
 into the present text. It is not my intention, at present, to 
 enter into the discussion of the consanguinity of the Gael and 
 the Cymro, nor to the question as to the ethnology of the 
 Gauls, Belgians, etc. 
 
 I confine myself strictly to the question of those people who 
 spoke the Cymraeg, and who, I think, bore the name of Veneti, 
 Britones, Britanni, and Cymry. Nor will I enter into the ques- 
 tion, whether the men who spoke the Cymraeg were the first 
 inhabitants of this island. In all probability they found natives 
 here, who, perhaps the descendants of shipwrecked mariners, 
 had become savage wanderers in the forest. The fierce Gauls, 
 who left their native land in search of foreign settlements about 
 five hundred years before Christ, and who probably entered 
 Britain as well as other countries, seem to me to have been 
 a ruder race than the Veneti of Jtaly, of Gaul, and of Great 
 Britain. Whatever their origin was, they seem to have been 
 less civilized than the maritime Veneti, who were a commercial 
 and naval people. 
 
 I remember the prediction of an American statesman, that 
 the day would come when the Anglo-Americans, who also 
 went westward into the bush, would become comparative bar- 
 barians, and be certain to attack and plunder all the com- 
 mercial communities on the eastern land-board of America.
 
 HELLAS AND BRITAIN. 187 
 
 The discovery of the steam-ship has prevented the realization 
 of the prediction with respect to the Anglo-Americans. I was 
 told by a gentleman who tad lived five years in the back set- 
 tlements of Canada, that canoes, hollowed by fire, were used 
 by Englishmen, to whom shipbuilding was a known art, and 
 that instruments as rude as the stone hammer were in con- 
 stant use. 
 
 I have resolutely refrained, in the present work, from follow- 
 ing the Cymry into their Eastern habitations, and from illus- 
 trating their language and tenets by alluding to the Egyptian, 
 Sanscrit, and other Oriental tongues, and to what may be briefly 
 termed Bryantology. I leave this field and a wide field it is 
 to future investigation. 
 
 II. 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM ARCHAEOLOGICAL LETTERS OF TUB ARCHDEACON OF 
 
 CARDIGAN. 
 
 NEVERTHELESS, I not only hope, but firmly believe, that these 
 letters will prepare the way for a more scientific and profound 
 investigation of the origin and successive stages in the history 
 of these man-raised monuments, and enable us to fix with 
 something like precision the several steps by which the pure 
 religion of the Noachidse was debased, among the most intel- 
 lectual of their descendants, into either the brutal materialism 
 of the Epicurean school, or the homicidal sacrifices of Tyre, 
 Carthage, Gaul, and Britain. 
 
 Nay, more, I am confident that these same letters, though 
 published in the columns of a provincial paper, have no ephe- 
 meral character, but will be a lasting record, as long as the 
 Cymrian people, and the Cymrian language, continue to be 
 living witnesses of the great facts thus closely connected with 
 the primeval history of the human race. 
 
 And I think it "foul scorn" that during the last hundred
 
 188 DRUIDICAL REMAINS 
 
 years the leading scholars of the dominant race, while grudging 
 no toil, nor waste of time, nor even expense, in investigating 
 the obscure remains of the Pelasgians, Tuscans, and other still 
 less known races of the ancient world, should systematically, 
 not only discourage, but deride any similar attempts to throw 
 light upon the history and antiquities of the original inhabit- 
 ants of our island, from the admixture of whose blood with 
 that of the imported race the Briton of this day owes the high 
 distinction that he is not a Dutchman of Lower, nor a brutish 
 Saxon of Upper, Germany. 
 
 Still more to be deplored is the fact, that no small portion, 
 even of our own aristocracy, deserting their natural position 
 as the chiefs and leaders of their countrymen, should, if not 
 actually ashamed of the red blood which flows pure in their 
 veins, withhold their countenance and patronage from every 
 attempt to illustrate the ancient renown of their gallant fore- 
 fathers. But, thank God, better days are dawning, and we 
 can gratefully acknowledge the service done to the Cymrian 
 literature by many distinguished characters, not only in Wales, 
 but also in every quarter of the empire. 
 
 But I wish to remove the subject of discussion from every 
 locality where Greek, Roman, Saxon, Dane, could possibly have 
 had either the will or the power to erect these remarkable monu- 
 ments, still existing witnesses, as it were, of the past, and to 
 call your particular attention to the memorials of the ancient 
 world and its form of worship, yet to be seen in the parish of 
 Kirk Michael, in Perthshire. 
 
 Now remember, and it is worth remembering, that the parts 
 of Perthshire in which Kirk Michael is situated, were never 
 within the historic era possessed by any other people than the 
 ancient Britons, call them Picts, or Caledonians, or whatever 
 name you may choose to assign them, and that yet in that 
 sequestered portion of the world are still to be seen most mag- 
 nificent specimens of the " Logan-stone" in close connection 
 with other monuments commonly called " Druidical." For
 
 IN NORTH BRITAIN. 189 
 
 example, in the 76th page of the first volume of the Caledonia, 
 of the accurate and learned George Chalmers, you will find the 
 following classical passage : 
 
 " Among the vast variety of Druid monuments in North 
 Britain, one of the most interesting is the ' Rocking Stone,' 
 which seems to have existed in every period. That those sin- 
 gular stones are Druid remains cannot easily be doubted by 
 the scepticism which denies the evidence of Druidical remains 
 in North Britain." 
 
 " In the parish of Kirk Michael, in Perthshire, there is an 
 immense rocking-stone, which stands on a flat-topped eminence, 
 in the vicinity of a large body of Druid remains, that have been 
 already noticed. This stone is placed on the plain surface of 
 a rock, level with the ground. It is a very hard solid whin- 
 stone, of a quadrangular shape, approaching to the figure of a 
 rhombus, of which the great diagonal is seven feet, and the 
 less five feet; its mean thickness is about two feet and a half; 
 its weight must be about three tons and half a hundred ; for 
 a stone of the same quality was found to weigh eight stone 
 three pounds the cubic foot. By pressing down either of the 
 extreme corners, a rocking motion is produced, which may be 
 increased, so as to make the distance between their lowest 
 depression and highest elevation a full foot. This stone makes 
 twenty-six or more vibrations, from one side to the other, 
 after the pressure is wholly withdrawn." Stat. Acco. v. xv, 
 p. 547. 
 
 " On the south descent of the hill, which is opposite to the 
 Manse of Dron, in Perthshire, there is a large rocking-stone; 
 it is a block of whinstone, ten feet long, and seven feet broad: 
 and it is placed in a somewhat sloping position, and rests its 
 central prominence upon a great flat stone which is fixed in 
 the earth: on gently pressing the upper end, it begins a rock- 
 ing motion, vibrating in an arch from one to two inches; and 
 continues to vibrate for some time after the pressure is with- 
 drawn. 16, v. ix, p. 483. In the parish of Abernethy. in the
 
 190 DRUIDICAL REMAINS 
 
 same shire, upon Faog-water, near Bal-vaird, the town of the 
 bard, there is a rocking-stone, which attracted the notice of 
 Buchanan." 16, p. 484. 
 
 Any man who knows the locality of Strath Ardel and Glen 
 Shee, whose waters are tributaries of the magnificent Tay, and 
 who knows the history, broken as its links are, of the tribes 
 who occupied what I may call the innermost sanctuary of the 
 strongholds of the Grampians, must acknowledge that no 
 foreigner within the historic era ever forced their mountain 
 barriers until the Scot, Kenneth Mac Alpine, in the ninth 
 century of the Christian era, annexed, we know not by what 
 means, the whole of the Pictish kingdom to his own Arga- 
 thelian inheritance. 
 
 But what do we find in these innermost recesses of the 
 Grampian ridge? Listen again to George Chalmers, who in 
 the 72nd page of the first volume of his great work, Caledonia, 
 thus writes : 
 
 " The number and variety of the Druid remains in North 
 Britain are almost endless. The principal seat of Druidism 
 seems to have been the recesses of Perthshire, near the Gram- 
 pian range. Accurate inquify might perhaps discover that 
 the circles and ovals of erect stones, with stone pillars and 
 small earns within them, are the Oratories of ancient times ; 
 and that the circles of stones, having an altar or a cromlech 
 within the area, or on the outside of them, have been used for 
 the different purposes of making sacrifices. Those enclosures 
 are sometimes formed of a single circle, and often of double 
 and treble concentric circles, of upright stones." 
 
 After this quotation, I hope and trust that every truth-seeker 
 who, without prejudice, may examine these remains in the 
 most impregnable parts of the mid-northern Perthshire High- 
 lands, and shall compare them with the cognate structures 
 in Cornwall, Somersetshire, Wiltshire, Yorkshire, Derbyshire, 
 North and South Wales, Cumberland, and other parts of 
 Great Britain, must confess that they \vere the works of a homo- 
 geneous people acting on the same principle, and covering the
 
 IN NORTH BRITAIN. 191 
 
 whole extent of the then reclaimed parts with for want of a 
 better* term Cyclopean structures. 
 
 If doubts should still be entertained by any rational person, 
 I shall be happy to return to the subject, and leave any such 
 objector no sufficient grounds for his scepticism. 
 
 The only objection to my theory must be grounded on the 
 supposition that the Caledonians of the earlier, and the Picts 
 of the later, Roman writers were not our fellow-Britons, but 
 members of the great Gothic family of the Pinkertonian 
 school. 
 
 However, in the words of George Chalmers, " This absurd 
 hypothesis has not been proved either by the labours of learn- 
 ing or the diligence of research, either by the dexterity of 
 sophistry or the perversity of design ;" and he concludes his 
 sentence with the following pithy remark : "And as our fellow- 
 Britons in Perthshire were in possession from the remotest 
 time, they cannot, according to a maxim of common law, be 
 dispossessed except the claimant establish a better right, not 
 by presumptuous surmise, but by satisfactory proof." 
 
 But, before I enter further upon the question, let me again 
 and again remind you, that we are not arguing on trifling 
 points, but on grounds intimately connected with the history 
 of the only revelation in words which we have received from 
 God, and which was transmitted through Moses, the Patriarchs 
 and Prophets of the Old, and through the Apostles and Evan- 
 gelists of the New, Testament. 
 
 I cannot express my own feelings more truly upon the 
 subject of our own megalithic structures, than by quoting the 
 following passage from the preface of Dr. Stukeley's work upon 
 Stonehenge : " My intent is," says the doctor, " to promote 
 as much as I am able, the knowledge and practice of ancient 
 and true religion ; to revive in the minds of the learned the 
 spirit of Christianity, nearly as old as the creation, which is 
 now languishing among us ; to restore the first and great idea 
 of the Deity, who has carried on the same regular and golden 
 chain of religion, who keeps the medium betweeu ignorant
 
 192 DRUIDICAL REMAINS 
 
 superstition and learned free-thinking between slovenly fana- 
 ticism and popish pageantry between enthusiasm and the 
 rational worship of God, which is nowhere upon earth done, 
 in my judgment, better than in the Church of England. * * 
 I shall now show, likewise, that our predecessors, the Druids 
 of Britain, though left in the extremest West to the improve- 
 ment of their own thoughts, yet advanced their inquiries, 
 under all disadvantages, to such heights as should make our 
 moderns ashamed to wink in the sunshine of learning and 
 religion. And we may with reason conclude there was some- 
 what very extraordinary in those principles which prompted 
 them to such a noble spirit as produced these works, still visible 
 to us, which for grandeur, simplicity, and antiquity, exceed any 
 of the European wonders. 
 
 " That the doctrines and works of the Druids have hitherto 
 been so little considered (since authors only transcribe from 
 one to another the few remaining scraps to be found in classic 
 writers), was an incentive to me likewise in the following 
 attempt, and at the same time it pleads for me, and bespeaks 
 the reader's favour. I want, likewise, the great advantages to 
 be had from a knowledge of the remaining Celtic languages, 
 books, manuscripts, and history, the Cornish, Welsh, Irish, 
 Highland, &c. the chief repository now of their doctrines 
 and customs : so that, in my own opinion, I may very well say 
 with the poet, 
 
 " ' Interea Dryadum silvas et saxa sequamur 
 
 Intactas, tua Mecaenas baud mollia jussa.' VIRGIL." 
 
 I have already referred more than once to the stone monu- 
 ments of a prior age still existing in the parish of Kirk Michael, 
 in the central recesses of the Grampians of Perthshire, and 
 have stated that, according to my present views, they enable 
 us to prove demonstratively, that, as they are found in that 
 remote district in every form in which we see them in the more 
 southern parts of Britain, they must be the products of a people
 
 IN NORTH BRITAIN. 193 
 
 holding the same religion and social faith, and animated by the 
 same principles. 
 
 Those truth-searchers who may not have the opportunity of 
 visiting in person these imperishable monuments, are referred 
 to the 72nd, 73rd, and 74th pages of Chalmers's Caledonia, 
 vol. i., where they will find ample proof that every specimen of 
 what have been commonly called "Druidical " constructions are 
 still to be seen in that narrow locality. 
 
 I am not going to enter into all the follies and ignorance 
 connected with what has been commonly called " The Pictish 
 Question," but have no hesitation in affirming that the " Picts " 
 were our brothers in language, blood, and, anterior to the 
 Christian faith, in religion also. 
 
 They, in their last retreat from foreign aggression, still 
 retained the faith which they had inherited from their fathers; 
 and their various " stone circles," their " upright stones," and 
 what we are now obliged to call " Cromlechau," prove that 
 they were the same people who erected similar buildings from 
 north to south, from east to west, through all the extent of 
 Great Britain and the adjacent islands. 
 
 But the particular object of these my letters is to prove that 
 the ancient " cromlech" was something more than a sepul- 
 chral monument, and that, though it might have been used 
 as such at a later period, it is still to be found as a common 
 adjunct, but not as a necessary one, of " the circles " called 
 " Druidical," and of other stone constructions generally sup- 
 posed to be intimately connected with the religious worship of 
 our ancestors. 
 
 To prove this common connection of the " stone circle " with 
 that construction which I must call a "cromlech," I again 
 refer to the 74th page of Chalmers's Caledonia, vol. i., who 
 thus enumerates the many places in North Britain where the 
 "cromlech" and " stone circle" are found in juxtaposition. 
 
 " Many cromlechs are connected with Druid circles ; and several appear 
 without circles. In the parish of Old Deer, in Aberdeenshire, there is a num- 
 
 25
 
 194 DRUIDICAL REMAINS 
 
 ber of Druidical circles ; the most entire of these is on the hill of Park-house, 
 and has a large cromlech, the top stone of which is fourteen feet long, con- 
 tains about two hundred and fifty solid feet, and rests upon other two large 
 stones placed on their edges. In the enclosure of Kipp's house, in Linlith- 
 gowshire, there is a Druidical circle, having one or two erect stones in the 
 centre, and a large cromlech near it. In the middle of one of the Druidical 
 circles, in the Isle of Arran, there is a cromlech, consisting of a large broad 
 stone, which is supported by three lesser ones. In the parish of Castleton, in 
 Koxburghshire, there is a cromlech, at the south end of a large oblong earn, 
 near the north end of which there is a Druid circle, on a high ground. iS'ear a 
 mile north from the Church of Baldernock, in Stirlingshire, there is a circular 
 plain or area, of about a hundred paces in diameter, and surrounded by an 
 ascent of a few yards in height, in the form of an amphitheatre ; within this 
 area or enclosure, there is a remarkable cromlech, which is called the ' Auld 
 Wives' Lift,' and this area appears, from the remains, to have been once 
 covered by a grove of oaks." 
 
 You may well imagine that it is not vanity or love of fame 
 that tempted me to embody these deductions from a long series 
 of actual observation, and a course of reading on the subject, 
 in the ephemeral pages of a newspaper ; but a conviction that 
 in the present awakened state of Cambrian Archaeology, it is 
 of the greatest importance that the young and active minds 
 among us, and who feel as we feel, should, as far as it can be 
 done by me, find the field of investigation open and patent, and 
 not be liable to wander into labyrinthine mazes, in which they 
 are more likely to be lost than bring back to us any valuable 
 information. If there be any truth embodied in my commu- 
 nications to you under this head, it is this that the stone 
 monuments commonly supposed to be connected with the 
 "Druids," and hence called "Druidical," were the works of a 
 race of men who occupied this island, from north to south, 
 from east to west, from times far anterior to history, and who 
 were not temporary sojourners, but the possessors of, and 
 dwellers in, the land in short, that they were our own imme- 
 diate ancestors, whether called by the ancients, " Cimbri," 
 " Britones," " Veneti," or "Albani," or by ourselves, "Cymry," 
 " Lloegrwys," " Gwyr Gwynedd " or " Gwent," or " Gwyr yr 
 Alban."
 
 IN NORTH BRITAIN. 195 
 
 I wish to rouse the young members of our community to a 
 due sense of the glorious inheritance they have inherited from 
 their Titan ancestors, and to impress upon them this vital 
 truth, that the loss of national spirit necessarily induces a 
 paralysis of all the nobler feelings, and that a man who is 
 ashamed of an accident which he cannot help of " his 
 brethren according to the flesh," necessarily induces every 
 alien of generous feeling to look upon him as a renegade, to 
 whom he will give reluctantly the wages of his treason, and 
 still despise the recipient. 
 
 In connection with the parish of " Kirk Michael," I have to 
 call your attention to the name of the Patron Saint, and to 
 affirm that, to my knowledge, many churches, whether deno- 
 minated "Kirk Michael," " Cilmichael," "Saint Michael," 
 " Llanfihangel," &c., were built on localities which had been 
 previously consecrated to heathen worship, and that Saint 
 Michael was there installed as the Patron Saint to supplant 
 and expel his old enemy and antagonist the Devil. 
 
 III. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM AN UNPUBLISHED ARCHAEOLOGICAL PAPER. 
 
 OF these ancient stones of testimony, whether originating in 
 a wish to commemorate great events, to honour departed 
 heroes, or to celebrate public worship in union with a system 
 of auguries, and of religious sanctions for civil law and political 
 intercommunion, I think we may safely enumerate certain 
 classes. 
 
 First, the Maenchiciv or Maensigl, the Rocking, or Logan 
 Stones. Specimens of this class are mentioned by ancient 
 writers as objects of wonder in their age. Thus, in the third 
 chapter of the History of Ptolemy Heplusstio, we have this re- 
 mark : " Concerning the Gigonian rock on the shores of the
 
 196 DRUIDICAL REMAINS 
 
 ocean, and that it is moved by a single stalk of the asphodel, 
 although not to be removed by any application of force." 
 Pliny, lib. ii. cap. 93, writes : " Near Harpasa, a city of Asia, 
 stands a rock, ' horrenda/ movable with a single finger, but 
 when pushed, resisting all the force of man." And Apollonius 
 Rhodius, Argonautics, book ii., describes a stone in the island 
 of Tenos, poised on the summit of a tumulus, and moving in 
 obedience to the impulse of the wind. Examples of this kind 
 are to be found in all parts of Great Britain and Ireland, of 
 which the construction must be ascribed to the remotest ages. 
 As in the Craven dialect such a stone is called a " Roggan," 
 I infer that " Logan " is a corruption of it, and that the English 
 expression, " rocking a cradle," 1 is borrowed from one of these 
 movable rocks, just as the dismantled " Maenchwiv " at St. 
 Orme's Head, was called the Cradle of Tudno " Rhoc " is a 
 pure Cymric word. 
 
 Some people believe that all such stones are natural, not 
 artificial, just as an antiquated school of natural philosophers 
 ascribed fossil shells to certain freaks of Nature. 
 
 Sir Robert Sibbald, the Scottish antiquary, had seen one of 
 them dissected, and describes the motion as depending on two 
 tenons within narrow cavities, with the lower end of the one 
 poised upon the upper end of the other. 
 
 Second, the Megalithic Chamber, of which the monument 
 in Kent, called " Kit's Cotty House," is a complete specimen. 
 It answers almost exactly to the description of the " adytum " 
 in the temple at Delphi, as we find it in Pausanias. Of the 
 same character is a similar structure in Glamorgan, of which 
 there is a model in the British Museum. The district in which 
 it and other monuments are situated, is called "Dyffryn 
 Golych," the Vale of Worship. The whole ground, originally 
 a Druidical TS^VOQ, seems to have been transferred to the see 
 of Llandaff, of which it was one of the granges. 
 
 Third, huge stones, in general of a tabular form, resting 
 on uneven supporters, so short as to leave no sufficient room 
 
 1 "To log the cradle," is still used in Devonshire.
 
 IN NORTH BRITAIN. 197 
 
 for a chamber, and sometimes no space worth mentioning. 
 The tabular stone, varying in the dip of its inclination, has 
 often a gibbous form, and hence undoubtedly derived the 
 name of " cromlech," the gibbous flat stone, just as the round- 
 shouldered smith of Sir Walter Scott was called the " Gow 
 Crom." A whole district in Perthshire borrowed its corrupted 
 form of Cromlix from this word. 
 
 This was, probably, the nucleus of the Druidical altar. 
 
 Fourth, the Maen-kir or Hirvaen, with its varieties, from 
 the huge and formless masses, remarkable principally for their 
 magnitude and material, generally a gritstone, not always 
 found in their vicinity, to the less rude monoliths, on which 
 the hand of man has evidently been employed. 
 
 The hirvaen was, in general, an adjunct of the circle. 
 
 Fifth, the Stone Circle in all its varieties : some are single 
 circles, others are several concentric circles. There are ovals, 
 ellipses, and semicircles. Mr. Daniel Wilson, page 112 Preh. 
 Annals, writes: "The varieties apparent in their grouping 
 and structure are such as may well justify the conclusion, 
 that instead of being the temples of a common faith, they are 
 more probably the ruins of a variety of edifices designed for 
 diverse purposes, and it may be even for the rites of rival creeds. 
 This, at least, is certain, that the latest, if not the only, unques- 
 tionable evidence of their use which we possess, is not as reli- 
 gious temples, but as courts of law and battle rings, wherein 
 the duel or judicial combat was fought ; though this, doubtless, 
 had its origin in the invariable union of the priestly and judicial 
 offices in a primitive state of society." 
 
 The Latin word for a circle was circus, the Cymric cylch, 
 from which the name kirk or church, for an ecclesiastical 
 building, was widely taken. In Minshew's Dictionary, under 
 the word Church, we have the following list : 
 
 In Low Dutch Kirke 
 
 In Anglo-Saxon Circ 
 
 In the Helvetian and Swedish . . Kilch 
 
 In High Dutch Kirch
 
 198 DRUIDICAL REMAINS 
 
 Skinner, in his Etymologicon , says, that kirk was used for 
 " church by the Northern Angles and Scots," who borrowed 
 it immediately from the circus of the Romans. The true Scot 
 or Gael called the same building a clachan or stones. The 
 Cymric word llan expresses the same meaning as the Gaelic 
 clachan, for it means an open space within a fence as may 
 be seen in the compounds ydlan, a corn-yard, or hay-yard ; 
 perttan, an orchard; corphlan, a cemetery or churchyard, &c.; 
 and to this day the word henttan, old llan, is often used for 
 places where we in vain look for a traditionary church. 
 
 A great portion of Northern Europe having been Christian- 
 ized by Celtic missionaries, seems to have borrowed the Cymric 
 cylch to indicate the church Wachter, in his glossary, under 
 the word Kilch, calls it a sacred edifice, and quotes a very 
 ancient translation of the Psalms, where the Holy Church is 
 uns heilich chilcha, and proves that the words chrydir altan 
 Mlchin meant the creed of the old Church. Now Mlchin is 
 the Cymric cylchyn, a circle. He also states that the Helve- 
 tians, tenacious of their ancient language, called even in his 
 time a church or temple Mich. I am, myself, convinced that 
 the modern form Ml, in the names of churches in Ireland, 
 Scotland, and Wales, is mainly derived from this source. 
 
 The appropriation of the Druidical re^evo? to the use of the 
 Christian Church may be proved from the stone memorials of 
 the olden worship, which are still to be seen on some of the 
 oldest church lands in these islands. The vicinity of St. David's 
 Cathedral is studded with such remains, and even lona was 
 once the island of the Druids, and within the historical period 
 had its cromlech. 
 
 Sixth, the Cistvaen, or the stone coffin, however fashioned, 
 from its rudest form under the green mound or stone cairn to 
 those more elaborate sepulchres, many-chambered and often 
 buried under huge tumuli, sometimes crowned by large stones, 
 and encircled at the base by a stony ring. The latter have 
 nothing to do with our cromlech. They belong to a different 
 age and different rites.
 
 IN NORTH BRITAIN. 199 
 
 I believe that all, or at least most, of the five preceding classes 
 were by the ancient Cymry embraced under the general name 
 of coelvein, or coelveini, and coelveinau, which Pughe trans- 
 lates stones of omen ; stones of testimony ; good tidings ; the 
 Gospel ; honorary rewards. 
 
 Now coel, translated an omen, belief, trust, and coelio, to 
 believe, were the words which, in the transition from Druidism 
 to Christianity, seem to have been displaced by the Latin fides 
 and credere, corrupted into the forms fydd and credu. 
 
 " Thus coelbren, made up of coel andpren, a tree, or wood, 
 plural coelbrenau, now meaning simply a lot or ballot, were 
 the divining rods or tablets, or twigs by which the will of the 
 gods might be ascertained by man, whatever the inquiry might 
 be ; and coelcerth, made up of coel and cert/t, certain, was the 
 religious fire, sacrificial and expiatory, in which holocausts of 
 victims, both animal and human, were offered up at their great 
 festivals by our ancestors. It is curious that an oblation, some- 
 thing similar to the Druidical coelcertk, the certa fides of the 
 heathen, should in modern days have been named an act of 
 faith ; an auto defe." 
 
 There can be no doubt that the Church of Rome waged war 
 against the principle, " Da 'r maen gyda 'r Evengyl," and pro- 
 nounced an anathema against all persons who honoured with 
 any veneration those stone monuments which had not been con- 
 verted to Christian purposes. And, as Rome was dominant for 
 centuries, the priesthood succeeded in inducing the population, 
 to a great extent, to regard them as abominations. Hence, 
 the bad names by which many of them, especially in remote 
 places, are known to this day. If such a monument was not 
 appropriated to a saint, it was handed over to the foul fiend. 
 Hence, in Wales, such names as Llech yr Ast, Llech y Dyra ; 
 in England, HeUstone and Devil's Quoit ; in Brittany, Pou- 
 qualay, that is, the Stone Puck. 
 
 Hence, a friend of mine says, "We cannot derive any valuable 
 tradition on a point in which there is so complete a disruption 
 between the present and the past, especially in countries like
 
 200 DRUIDICAL REMAINS IN NORTH BRITAIN. 
 
 Brittany and Ireland, where every monument was converted 
 to the use of some saint or devil, to answer the purpose of 
 superstition under the garb of religion." 
 
 In the language, literature, and monuments of the Cymry, 
 we have instruments by which we are enabled to traverse, not 
 only the medieval darkness of the corrupt Church, but also 
 the Hettenismus of the ancient world, which invented new gods, 
 and introduced a new religion in singular contradiction to 
 the religion of God delivered to the Noachidae.
 
 ON THE 
 
 MEGALITHIC STRUCTURES IN AUVERGNE. 
 
 IT has been too much the practice among Celtic Archaeologists 
 to overlook the numerous remains of megalithic stuctures in 
 other parts of France, and principally to devote their labours 
 to those to be found in Bretagne alone. In fact, all the coun- 
 tries occupied by the Galli or Celtae of Caesar are studded 
 with fragments of these megalithic structures, in all parts 
 which belong to the older geological formations, and were not, 
 in ancient times, covered with undrained lakes or marshes. 
 In the latter case, they are to be found only in detached spots 
 which were once islands. This is peculiarly the case with 
 Auvergne, the province of the ancient Arverni, whose capital, 
 the " urbs Arverna," is now Clermont. The Statisque Mo- 
 numentale du Department du Puy de Dome, published by 
 Monsieur Bouillet, inspector in that department of historical 
 monuments, will furnish the student with ample proofs of this. 
 The authors who have ascribed such structures to' the Druids, 
 are perfectly justified in their assertions, although they cannot 
 quote the authority of written documents in support of them : 
 seeing the Druids themselves consigned none of their reli- 
 gious tenets to written documents, nor permitted themselves 
 to record their erection by lettered inscriptions. Still we have 
 historical evidence to show that the religion of the ancient 
 population of Gaul was intimately connected with these struc- 
 tures, and that their religion was the Druidical, brought from 
 Britain into Gaul. This Druidical religion, which had doc- 
 
 26
 
 202 MEGALITH 1C STRUCTURES 
 
 trines, practices, and a learned priesthood, which could not 
 be admitted into the Roman imperial system, had, at an early 
 period, been persecuted by the Roman emperors, both in Gaul 
 and in Britain, but could not be suppressed and destroyed, 
 as long as Ireland and Caledonia served as secure cities of 
 refuge for the persecuted parties. When Gaul became partly 
 Christian, and Christians as well as believers in Druidical 
 doctrines became equally subject to imperial persecution, we 
 know, from the history of all such events, that their common 
 sufferings from a common enemy would not have formed any 
 bond of union between the two persecuted parties. 
 
 So we need not wonder that, when Constantine and his 
 family became nominally Christians, they claimed a right to 
 enforce Christian doctrines and practices upon the whole 
 Roman world. And the last struggle between Constantine 
 and Licinius signalized not only the victory of the former over 
 the latter, but also that of Christianity over Paganism. But 
 Druidism had more vitality than the corrupt Heathendom of 
 the Greeks and Romans, and we can trace its existence by the 
 long-continued attempts of councils, bishops, and Christian 
 potentates to deter the votary from celebrating his secret 
 religious rites among the ruins of his primeval temples, so 
 imposing from their vastness and rude magnificence. " The 
 duty," writes Monsieur Bouillet, " has devolved upon us, who 
 live in modern days, to give an answer with impartiality to 
 the great questions, raised by the existence of the fragments 
 heaped up for so many ages upon our soil, and to invoke the 
 skilful observations of the studious to these rustic remains, 
 for example, the long stones, whether erect or recumbent, or 
 supported by other stones ; the fragments of rocks, grouped 
 together, or heaped on each other, or arranged in parallel 
 lines, or in circles, &c. These creations attest the power, the 
 religion, and the policy of our forefathers, at present perhaps 
 too much neglected. They deserve to be classed among the 
 primary creations of human industry. Primitive ages have 
 not left behind more authentic memorials, more venerable,
 
 IN AUVERGNE. 203 
 
 and worthy of our admiration. Religion, politics, the arts, 
 have no more ancient monuments, and which have so com- 
 pletely escaped the destructive hands of man and of time." 
 So wrote Monsieur Bouillet, fifteen years ago, and in page 1 1 , 
 adds, " The imagination is truly terrified at the sight of such 
 masses. The question is asked, How could people, in the 
 infancy of civilization, have possibly transported, often from 
 great distances and not without the aid of complicated ma- 
 chinery, these rude stones of such enormous magnitude and 
 weight?" 
 
 As soon as the Christian hierarchy in Gaul was recognized 
 and endowed by the Roman emperors, no small share of au- 
 thority in civil and religious matters was communicated to the 
 leading officers of the church, who were not slow in availing 
 themselves of the aid of the government in suppressing all 
 visible symbols of Paganism. Closely connected with the 
 whole Druidical system were the honours paid by them, not 
 only to rocks and stones of various forms, but also to certain 
 trees, and especially to springs of pure water, without which 
 they could not perform their sacred ablutions. To abolish all 
 such superstitious practices, became the special duty of synods 
 and councils. Hence, we find, that in a council held at Aries, 
 A.D. 452, the assembled clergy enacted the following canon: 
 " If unbelievers kindle torches before, or otherwise adore, 
 trees, stones, or fountains, and the bishop neglect to abolish 
 such usages in his diocese, let him know that he is guilty of 
 sacrilege." But owing to the unsettled state of Gaul in that 
 age, when Goths, Burgundians, Vandals, Franks, Romans, and 
 Bretons, were striving for mastery, it is not likely that the 
 authority of the bishop could be exerted beyond the limits of 
 the particular city which formed his seat. When, however, 
 the kingdom of the Franks was established, and the Mero- 
 vingian family was firmly seated on the throne, the Gallican 
 bishops, who had mainly contributed to that result, induced 
 their convert, the victorious Clovis, to issue the following order : 
 " We decree that whosoever shall have been admonished, that
 
 204 MEGALITH1C STRUCTURES 
 
 he has in his field idols consecrated to the demon, and shall 
 not have removed them, or shall have prevented the bishop 
 from breaking them, must give security, and appear before us, 
 that we may avenge the wrong offered to God." 
 
 But the stone-worshippers still continued their profane 
 practices, although they were professedly Christians, as in the 
 567 A.D., a canon was passed in the council held at Tours, 
 which " commanded their pastors to excommunicate all such 
 as were guilty of practising, before certain stones, offices un- 
 connected with the ceremonies of the church." 
 
 The Council of Nantes, held in the next century, ordered 
 all such stones to be buried, " so that people might never be 
 able to find them ;" and I am inclined to think that some of 
 the cromlechs, which are found buried below mounds of earth, 
 may have been thus covered, owing to this or some similar 
 injunction. 
 
 All these severe regulations did not, however, abolish the 
 abuse. It still prevailed in the ninth century, as the capitu- 
 laries of Charlemagne thus testify : " With respect to the 
 trees, stones, and fountains, where some foolish people go to 
 light candles and practise other superstitions, we decree the 
 abolition of all such usages, arid that he who, after being 
 sufficiently admonished, shall not cause all such images to dis- 
 appear from his fields, or who shall oppose any person com- 
 missioned to destroy them, shall be guilty of sacrilege." " In 
 order," proceeds Monsieur Bouillet, "to efface this ancient 
 religious respect, and as much as possible to remove all traces 
 of it, the clergy of the middle age laboured busily to surmount 
 the menhirs with crosses of stone or iron, such as we generally 
 see in the present day." 
 
 In the department of the Puy de Dome, there are specimens 
 of most of the Druidical monuments, such as rocking-stones, 
 cromlechs, meini-hirion, &c. Of the first kind the author 
 thus speaks : " It is now fully demonstrated among anti- 
 quaries, that these monuments are by no means, in general, 
 the effect of a lusus naturae, or of hap-hazard. They have
 
 IN AUVERGNE. 205 
 
 evidently been erected by the hand of man * * * * and 
 have, in general, a religious character." He then copies from 
 the transactions of the French Society of Antiquaries, a de- 
 scription of one of them, written by Monsieur Dulaure, in the 
 course of the last century. " It is," says he, " an enormous 
 mass of granite, so poised upon a smaller stone, that on push- 
 ing it with the hand on its western side, a very perceptible 
 vibratory movement is caused. The force of fifty men cannot 
 render the vibrations more numerous than that of a mere 
 infant. The inclination on the eastern side is so marked, that 
 one would expect it to yield to the slightet impulse, and 
 tumble down into the Vale of the Sey, which it overlooks. 
 This granite mass is seven metres long, and covered with 
 lichens. Several splinters have fallen from it, and others 
 threaten to detach themselves, and will probably destroy the 
 equipoise. The inhabitants of the vicinity have a religious 
 feeling concerning it, as they say that the Holy Virgin brought 
 it there and placed it in its present position." Monsieur 
 Bouillet then adds, " Since the time when Dulaure wrote, the 
 monument on Mont-la-C6te has lost nothing of its character, 
 and will still resist the injuries of time for a great number of 
 ages." Then follows a description of another rocking-stone, 
 given by Dulaure, which is to be seen in the same vicinity. 
 " The upper side," says he, " is much larger than the lower 
 part, and the portion which is in contact with the base is so 
 narrow, that, at first sight, one might believe that the slightest 
 effort would suffice to turn it over, and send it down into the 
 vale. When we examine the southern face of this mass, from 
 the vale which it overlooks, we are reassured respecting the 
 solidity of its seat. The line of contact between the support- 
 ing and the supported stones appears from this side five times 
 longer than it does on the former side. There are seen all 
 round, and especially on the parts near the base, slopings 
 made evidently by the hand of man, with the design to poise 
 it and cause the vibrations. A slight push on its eastern 
 point, with the shoulder or even the hand, will impress upon
 
 206 MEGALITHIC STRUCTURES 
 
 it a sensible movement; then this suspended mass, when 
 left to itself, will continue to vibrate for the space of twelve 
 seconds." 
 
 I have given this particular description, because I have seen 
 rocking-stones exactly in similar positions in Cornwall, York- 
 shire, and Scotland, all formed and placed alike. Monsieur 
 Bouillet then describes the various cromlechs in the depart- 
 ment, which, however, he calls Del-men, the name generally 
 given to them by the Bretons, and which means a table-stone. 
 But this monument is, as well as the maenhir, so well known 
 that it will not be described here. 
 
 In spite of the fulmination against such monuments, issued 
 by the council held at Tours in the sixth century, there is to 
 be seen at this day, on the chalk formation about ten miles 
 north-west of that city, a most magnificent megalithic struc- 
 ture, still perfect in all its parts. It consists of a large cell, 
 twelve yards long, ten feet high, and nine feet broad; and 
 is composed of twelve gigantic grit-stones. Six form the 
 two sides, while one closes up the southern end, and two are 
 at the opposite end, so as to leave an ample doorway, with 
 something like a vestibule in front. The room of the cell is 
 formed of three gigantic slabs, of which the centre stone alone 
 weighs more than twenty tons. The adjacent village is Saint 
 Antoine du Rocher, borrowing, apparently, a portion of its 
 name from this structure. The peasants call it, as they do 
 many similar objects in France, " Grotte des Fees," the 
 grotto of the Fata, the name which, in the decline of Roman 
 influence, was given to those female fanatics who claimed in 
 Gaul the gift of prophecy, and who exercised no small in- 
 fluence over the minds of some distinguished Romans. 
 
 It is impossible to survey this Cyclopean building, which is 
 pronounced by the author of France Monumentale to be the 
 greatest and best-preserved Druidical monument in central 
 France, without being convinced that the people who left such 
 imperishable memorials of their skill, in conveying from dis- 
 tant localities such ponderous masses, and arranging them as
 
 IN AUVERGNE. 207 
 
 we still find them, must have possessed a practical acquaint- 
 ance with some mechanical powers which no savages or mere 
 barbarians could possibly display. 
 
 Monsieur Bouillet, himself a practical engineer, while de- 
 scribing a somewhat similar structure in Auvergne, says, " It 
 is eleven metres long, about four metres broad, and about two 
 metres high. Its entrance is from the east. This is formed 
 of two stones standing erect in the field, without being 
 covered. Further in, the monument becomes brpader on both 
 sides, and an immense tabular stone of trachyte is placed 
 horizontally upon granite supporters." He then adds, in a 
 note, " Everything connected with the Celts astonishes. The 
 construction of their monuments is so extraordinary, as to 
 render it difficult to account for them. In the present case, 
 for example, how can we understand how this enormous stone, 
 which covers the second cell in this monument, was transported 
 from the mountains of Mont-Dore (the nearest point where 
 trachyte is to be found), distant more than twelve kilometres, 
 and over roads which present incredible difficulties ?" 
 
 In my late visit to France, I was particularly anxious to 
 visit the territories of the Carnutes, described by Caesar as 
 the favourite seat of the Gallic Druids, where, on consecrated 
 ground, supposed to be the central spot of all Gaul, they used 
 to hold their annual council. The modern city of Chartres 
 was the chief city of the Carnutes, and, in a corrupted form, 
 represents their name. The vicinity abounds with almost all 
 the forms of megalithic monuments, but mostly in a muti- 
 lated condition. My chief guide-book, France Monumentale, 
 led me to expect some things much more considerable. The 
 author thus writes : " The country of the Carnutes was, so 
 to say, the centre of the religion of the Druids. There were 
 held their national assemblies, in the open air, on ground sur- 
 rounded by a circle of rude stones, and in the bosom of the 
 vast forest with which the country was then covered. * * * 
 There are still to be seen the remains of that forest, where the 
 religious rites were performed on an eminence encircled by
 
 208 MEGALITHIC STRUCTURES 
 
 fosses of a round form, at the place anciently called 'the 
 Mountain of Lieues,' from which is corruptly formed the name 
 Leves. At a short distance from the bank of the river Eure, 
 there is a vast and profound cavern, excavated in the eastern 
 face of the mountain. It is said that in this and many other 
 such caves, the Druids used to reside during the time of the 
 national assemblies. It was there that they collected their 
 most trusted disciples, in order to give them instruction, and 
 to initiate them in the minute details of their religious prac- 
 tices. Opposite to this cavern was a sacred fountain, which 
 still remains, near the late Benedictine convent Josaphat." 
 But, alas ! every vestige of the ancient forest has been swept 
 away ! The eminence, with its circular fosses, has been cleared 
 away by improving agriculturists ; the caves in the chalk hills 
 have been converted into wine-vaults, and let out to the pro- 
 prietors of the neighbouring vineyards. The fountain alone 
 remained unchanged. It was only from the cure of the village 
 of Leves that we obtained an account of the changes which 
 had taken place. Among the villagers in general the tradition 
 even had perished. 
 
 The ground, however, round the village of Leves is of that 
 character that it could never have served for the position of a 
 great Druidical temple. The strong probability is, that the 
 present site of the Cathedral of Chartres was the spot where 
 the Druidical temple stood, as it possessed all the natural 
 advantages which fixed the choice of the Druids. I saw no 
 fragment on the site, of any Druidical stones. If they once 
 were here, they are probably buried in the foundations and 
 vast substructions of the splendid building. 
 
 Chartres cannot be regarded as the central spot of Gaul, 
 according to the loosest geographical calculation. It was so 
 denominated according to a fiction common to all the more 
 civilized nations of the ancient world, who regarded their own 
 national temple, where the great festivals were held, as the 
 centre of the earth. I have examined this question in the 
 Appendix to Gomer. I add, that from one of the ancient glos-
 
 IN AUVERGNE. 
 
 saries published by Professor Zeus, one meaning of the Curaric 
 word "earn" was "the middle," thus the phrase, "de medio" 
 is translated "orgarn." It does not now retain any such 
 meaning. But it evidently served as the root of carn-ut-es, in 
 modern Welsh, carn-wydd-on, anciently carnuit-on, the Gwyd- 
 don of the centre. 
 
 At one side of the great entrance into the cathedral of 
 Le-mans, not far from Chartres, is an undoubted maen-hir of 
 singular form. It is of great size, and probably occupied the 
 spot before it became the site of a Christian church. 
 
 I have now shown, from authentic documents, that the 
 Druids were the learned rulers of the people of central Gaul 
 down to the Christian era, that they were so formidable to the 
 Romans from their influence over the people, that their reli- 
 gion was proscribed and persecuted by the early successors of 
 Augustus, and by the Christians when they became the domi- 
 nant party, and yet that a great part of the same people 
 persisted for more than eight centuries in practising the rites 
 of the Druidical religion, and in frequenting those consecrated 
 spots where the structures built for the purpose of religious 
 worship according to the Druidic creeds, were to be found. 
 That, although numerous attempts to destroy these same 
 structures were made by episcopal councils and powerful 
 potentates, there still remain in central Gaul numerous monu- 
 ments which baffled all the efforts of their impotent assailants. 
 
 Here, then, are brought in contact with each other, the 
 megalithic structures and the nation which regarded them as 
 dedicated to divine worship. They inherited them from their 
 ancestors, who had constructed them, and these same ancestors 
 had a religious creed coeval with their temples. And, as it 
 can be proved that the inhabitants of Great Britain were 
 similar in their religious institutions to those of central Gaul, 
 it follows that what was true in Arvernia is true also in Bri- 
 tannia, and that all the megalithic structures with which Great 
 Britain is studded, from the Land's End to the Orcades, were 
 the work of a people who had Druids for priests, and were 
 
 27
 
 210 MEGALITHIC STRUCTURES 
 
 enabled by their skilful knowledge to erect such permanent 
 monuments of their religious system. And the superior 
 magnificence of these monuments in Great Britain, may lead 
 us justly to the conclusion that this island was the cradle of 
 that religious institute which, having been brought in early 
 infancy to our south-western shores, spread gradually over the 
 whole island, and hence westward to Ireland, and eastward 
 into Gaul. All the other historical nations who occupy coun- 
 tries where megalithic structures still exist, either sponta- 
 neously corrupted their primeval religion, or were forced by 
 foreign invaders to adopt the faith of then* conquerors. The 
 ancestors of those people, who at a later period called them- 
 selves Hellenes, occupied countries where megalithic monu- 
 ments still abound, and professed, as is well known, a simpler 
 and a purer religion than that complicated system of idolatry 
 which was prevalent among their descendants, the Greeks of 
 history. And the struggle between the new and old religion 
 is represented by many a wild and poetic myth as a bloody 
 war between the gods of the two dynasties. The older race 
 are described as discomfited, and compelled to hide themselves 
 in the Cimmerian lands of the Western world, according to 
 their myth, the realms of mist and darkness. The victorious 
 party would be certain to occupy all the Tf/xevvj of the van- 
 quished sect, and reform the buildings to suit the taste of the 
 innovators, and decorate them with those anthropomorphous 
 statues of their newly invented gods. 
 
 Still, as I have shown in another publication, the ante- 
 Homeric Greeks were very similar to the Celts of Gaul in their 
 worship of sacred fountains, groves of oak, high places, and 
 rude stones. 
 
 Now, what line of argument is suggested by the existing me- 
 galithic structures in the ancient territories of the Jrverni ? 
 
 We know that central Gaul was occupied by a people who 
 had for their legal and religious guides a class of men called 
 Druids, who, by a long course of instruction, qualified them- 
 selves for the important duties which they had to discharge,
 
 IN AUVERGNE. 211 
 
 and who constituted a regular hierarchy placed under the 
 superintendence of one elected chief. That the Romans, at 
 an early period, found the existence of this order incompatible 
 with their imperial sway, and proceeded to exterminate them 
 by persecution ; that, while this persecution was still going 
 on, the Christian faith became the religion of the rulers of 
 Gaul, and of a great part of the people. The proscription 
 which the Druids had undergone, together with the loss of 
 their privileges, rights, and property, accompanied by that 
 mysterious secrecy which prevented all faithful members from 
 consigning their tenets to written characters, had probably 
 caused most of the knowledge which their ancestors formerly 
 possessed, altogether to disappear, or at least to lose that 
 vitality which once made it an active principle. It left 
 no trace among the masses in central Gaul, which still 
 instinctively clung to their ancient superstitions, other than 
 those indicated by traditional forms and antiquated incanta- 
 tions. The persecution of the Druids in central Gaul had 
 continued for more than four centuries, when, we are in- 
 formed by the canon of the Council of Aries, "that there 
 were still within their jurisdiction, unbelievers who kindled 
 fires, and paid religious honours to trees, to stones, and foun- 
 tains." Heathen temples constructed on the principles of 
 Greek and Roman architecture, and principally placed in 
 cities, or in their immediate vicinity, were easily converted 
 into places of Christian worship ; but the huge megalithic 
 structures constructed in Gaul for civil or religious purposes, 
 defied such conversion : they might be demolished, but they 
 could not, like the consecrated lands, the re/xtv*), on which 
 they stood, be appropriated to Christian uses. They remained 
 literally " stones of offence," and their continuous existence, 
 especially in remote places or mountains, allured the " Pagani " 
 to worship with traditional rites, at the same rude altars and 
 shrines where their ancestors before them had worshipped. 
 And as no change in the population of Arvernia had taken 
 place between the Roman conquest and the year A.D. 452,
 
 212 MEGALITH 1C STRUCTURES 
 
 these same ancestors held the faith which the Druids of the 
 times of Julius Ceesar professed and taught ; and these same 
 rude altars and shrines were the same before which the Druid 
 priests had bowed down and worshipped. It is impossible for 
 any rational person to come to any other conclusion. The 
 order for abolishing them issued a century later by the 
 Prankish king, and the threat against all who should oppose 
 the bishops in their attempts to break them, attest the pro- 
 found impression which the doctrines and practices of the 
 Druids had left upon the Gallic mind. This is also shown 
 by the necessity of re-enacting, by imperial authority, the 
 laws for their destruction after the lapse of three centuries 
 more. 
 
 It is very wonderful that so many of these Druidical monu- 
 ments should still survive the repeated aggressions of the 
 Petro-clastic party, and be found in central Gaul. But many 
 of these were indestructible by any means which the barba- 
 rians, who ruled in central Gaul between the fifth and ninth 
 century of our era, could command. 
 
 We now know that the Celtic, Slavonic, Teutonic, Latin, 
 and Greek languages are branches of one mother speech, 
 which had its home in central Asia, and that the people who 
 spoke them must have moved westward in their migrations, 
 without having taken into their company any considerable 
 portion of that other ancient civilized race who spoke the 
 Semitic language. Whether the emigrants from the East 
 brought into the various countries of Europe a common lan- 
 guage, which was afterwards corrupted into the various forms 
 known to us historically, or whether the various corruptions 
 took place in the East, and were imported into Europe by 
 successive tides of emigrants, who followed each other at cer- 
 tain intervals, is a doubtful question. My own belief is, that 
 all the maritime coasts of Europe were at a very early period 
 partially occupied by settlers from the East, who were con- 
 veyed over the sea in ships. If central Europe, even within 
 the historic period, was, for the most part, covered by forests,
 
 IN AUVERGNE. 213 
 
 lakes, and marshes, what must have been its condition some 
 thousand years before profane history commences ? 
 
 The oldest written documents which historic Greece pos- 
 sessed, were the Homeric poems, strangely changed by the 
 Ionian scribes, to suit their improved grammar, and expressed 
 in characters unknown in the age of Homeric poets. 
 
 Hence the Latin language, as written two hundred years 
 before Christ, is a more archaic form of the language spoken 
 by the ancestors of the Hellenes, than are the Homeric poems 
 in the form which they have reached us. Even this travestied 
 language, patronized as it was by all the temple priests and 
 oracular prophets, did not become the common language, but 
 was lost in the various local dialects of the several provinces. 
 
 We know, from Polybius, that state documents written 
 500 B.C. were drawn up in a form of the Latin language 
 which learned Romans, contemporaries of Polybius, could not, 
 without great difficulty, understand. Again, when the same 
 Latin language, in its most polished form, became the speech 
 of imperial Rome in all her departments, it gradually dete- 
 riorated, and, though adopted as the authoritative tongue of 
 the Western Church, it could not long preserve its purity, and 
 finally degenerated into the various dialects which derive their 
 origin from it. The same course of reasoning is applicable to 
 the Teutonic language, when the different branches into which 
 it has diverged are compared with the Mceso-Gothic trans- 
 lations of the Gospels by Ulphilas, who lived about the end of 
 the fourth century of the Christian era. It is therefore pos- 
 sible that the speech imported into Europe by the first Eastern 
 colonies, into their various settlements, was far more uniform 
 in its character than the various dialects historically known to 
 us. Time and circumstances, internal and external, may have 
 S. produced, within the confines of Europe, the wide divergence 
 ^now existing between the European representatives of the 
 *> great Indo-European language. The first emigrants from 
 the East seem to have acted either under some extraordinary 
 impulse, and to have occupied the various countries which fell
 
 214 MEGALITHTC STRUCTURES IN AUVERGNE. 
 
 to the lot of the different tribes and families almost simul- 
 taneonsly, or at least during a space of time which may be 
 termed the age of migration and dispersion. I see no reason 
 to infer that the occupation of Britain by the people who 
 reared the megalithic structures, was much posterior in time 
 to the occupation of Greece by the same kindred race ; for 
 the principles of construction and the forms are the same in 
 both the easternmost and westernmost sides of Europe. Now, 
 the great corruptors of our language are, changes of religion, 
 foreign invasion and subjugation, and unrestricted commu- 
 nication with strange races, different in dialect : granting this 
 to be true, which of the people inhabiting Europe were less 
 likely to change their language and institutions than the 
 Celtic race, and especially the inhabitants of Great Britain ? 
 It was here that the traditionary lore and language brought 
 from their Eastern homes was longest preserved unaffected by 
 religious changes, foreign conquest, and unrestricted external 
 commerce. And this traditionary lore and language survived, 
 in various parts of the island, the domination of Rome and 
 the conquest of the Romanized Britons by various Teutonic 
 tribes. That lore and language still exist, and, as I have 
 proved in my Gomer, contain a philosophy unknown to the 
 sages of Greece and Rome, and full of spiritual truth and life. 
 The creed of the Druid, before it, like all other secret systems, 
 was corrupted and debased, contained many truths, which 
 prepared its votaries for the willing reception of Christianity ; 
 and some of the symbolical figures of expression occurring in 
 the Scriptures, which represent the Deity as the Rock of Ages, 
 and our Saviour as the stone hewn out of the mountain, and 
 his doctrines as living water springing from the Rock, were 
 in such close connection with his own system, that we need 
 not wonder that the Christianized Druid appropriated as a 
 motto, and that from the earliest period, the ancient proverb, 
 " Da r rnaen gyda r Efengyl ! }>1 
 
 1 " Good is the Maen with the Gospel."
 
 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 
 
 A Letter to the EDITOR of the EDINBURGH REVIEW. 
 
 ) Si yXwcrer' errt /SpoTutv, TTO\\OI 8' tvi ftvOot, 
 ioi' iTrsatv Sf iro\i>c VO^IOQ tv9a KOI tvQa. 
 ov tiiryo9a tiros, roiov ic' tTraicovffaiQ. 
 
 Iliad xx. ver. 248. 
 
 " Flexile the human tongue, and stored with many myths of varied form, and words 
 are freely bandied to and fro. And when you speak, expect a likely answer to each 
 say." 
 
 DEAR SIR, The reviews connected with classical scholarship, 
 which at an earlier period used to distinguish the celebrated 
 journal of which you are the present editor, have been fewer 
 of late years. I have therefore to thank you for the long and 
 elaborate article on my Homerus, which you have admitted 
 into your 155th number. Nor would I have addressed you 
 upon the present occasion, had I not cause to fear, that many 
 scholars, whose attention I am anxious to obtain, may, from 
 the tone of that review, be deterred from personally examining 
 the theories which I have proposed, and from duly considering 
 the induction by which I have attempted to verify them. 
 Were I sure that every sound scholar who may read the 
 review, would also honour my Homerus with an attentive 
 perusal, I should not hesitate on the line of conduct to be 
 adopted by me, but leave the final decision to such a reader's 
 unbiassed judgment. 
 
 But as it is a certainty, that, as an immediate result, fifty 
 will read the review for every single individual who will read 
 the Homerus, I have taken the present step, on the probable 
 supposition that many will read a letter to the editor of the
 
 216 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 
 
 Edinburgh Review, who are not likely to read a book which, 
 from its title, may be supposed to be written for scholars 
 alone. And should two or three men of clear heads, and 
 sound in their religious and moral principles, be induced by 
 the present publication to examine the whole question, my pre- 
 sent object will be fully obtained. I wish it, therefore, to be 
 understood, that, although this letter must contain some fuller 
 development of the principles laid down in the Homerus, it 
 is primarily intended for those who have read the review, and 
 not the Homerus ; and, consequently, that the reader of the 
 latter will find in it much that is contained in that publication. 
 
 Now, had the reviewer given anything like a fair statement 
 either of the theory on which the doctrines propounded in the 
 Homerus were based, or of the line of argument by which 
 such theory was supported, any repetition on my part would 
 be unnecessary. But, as the reviewer has either suppressed 
 or misinterpreted all that I have adduced under these heads 
 which can be regarded as important to the right understand- 
 ing of the question, no choice is left to me. 
 
 And, although I carefully abstained "from entering into 
 any formal line of speculative argument," and confined myself 
 to a statement of truths apparently developed in the Homeric 
 literature, yet I was fully aware, and so, if I mistake not, is 
 my reviewer also, that the most interesting questions connected 
 with the true history of man, with his relation to this world 
 and its Creator, are opened up in the Homerus ; and that the 
 dispute is not de pauper e regno. In writing Homerus, I was 
 anxious, on the one hand, to refute an error on the other, to 
 establish a truth. 
 
 The error was thus described in the preface to the Homerus: 
 " It seems to the author, that ever since the days of Epicu- 
 rus, there has existed a popular belief, that man came from the 
 hands of his Creator equally ignorant and helpless, and that 
 by degrees he advanced from strength to strength, until he 
 finally reached that high degree of civilization in which we 
 find him when profane history first presents him to our view."
 
 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 217 
 
 The truth, on the other hand, which I wished to establish, 
 rested upon the fact, that " Noah the common parent of all 
 men now living was ' a just man and perfect/ ' a preacher of 
 righteousness,' with whom God entered into covenant, and to 
 whom, consequently, must have been known all those great 
 truths which describe our duties to God and to man, and 
 known to him through the revelation, and under the sanction, 
 of God himself; that the children of Noah must have received, 
 by inheritance, the same truths so revealed and so sanctioned, 
 and have transmitted them to their descendants ; that the 
 characters of Job, Melchizedec, and Jethro, as described in 
 the Old Testament, prove that the knowledge of the one true 
 God, and the relation existing between him and the work of 
 his hands, were not unknown at a period comparatively re- 
 mote from the flood." 
 
 In attempting to show that the same great truths might be 
 traced in the Homeric poems, I never even thought, much 
 less insinuated, that the author of the Homeric poems was to 
 be held up as a sort of " Pagan Job, Moses, or Abraham." 
 These three great patriarchs are described in Scripture as 
 holding immediate communication with God a privilege 
 which certainly never was ascribed, by me, to the Homeric 
 writers. My object was to show, and my arguments went to 
 prove, that the traditions inherited by the Noachidae from 
 their father, and in which were virtually embodied most of 
 the essential principles by which the Christian religion is dis- 
 tinguished, and which were apparently pure in the days of 
 Job, could be traced in the Homeric literature ; " yet that the 
 corruption was so complete, and the truth so utterly disguised, 
 that it was impossible to recognize it, except by the light of the 
 Christian revelation" 
 
 This most important conclusion of my sentence the reviewer 
 chose to suppress ; and its suppression looks very like an ugly 
 example of the suppressio veri, as it enabled him the more 
 effectually to mislead the reader, and prevent him from seeing 
 the very groundwork on which my theory was based. It is 
 
 28
 
 218 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 
 
 in the same spirit that the reviewer coolly asserts, " that the 
 scope of Archdeacon Williams's researches is virtually little 
 more than a resuscitation of the dormant mysteries of the 
 'Hebrew Homer.' The poet is with him, as with Gerard 
 Crcesius, the inspired organ whether conscious or involun- 
 tary, does not appear of inculcating pure patriarchal and 
 evangelical truth, under the guise of heathenish fable and 
 symbol. The only vital difference between the two systems 
 is, that while the Archdeacon is less minute and specific than 
 his predecessor in his application of the sacred to the profane, 
 he greatly extends the principle of analogy. With Crcesius, 
 Homer's allegory, comprehensive as it is, is limited to the 
 past, and to the details of Mosaic history. He contents him- 
 self with demonstrating, historically and etymologically, that 
 Troy is Jericho Agamemnon and the Greeks, Joshua and 
 the Israelites Helen, the harlot Rahab. Nestor is Abraham, 
 Ulysses, as a versatile man, is Moses, Abraham, Lot, or, as 
 occasion may suggest, each in his turn. Penelope is Sarah ; 
 her insolent maidens, Hagar; her geese, %vjvf?, are the Clian- 
 aanites ; the eagle that destroys them, the Divine Wisdom. 
 Alcinoiis in his garden, is Adam in paradise. Mr. Williams's 
 views, though less minutely developed, embrace a wider and 
 more comprehensive range of hiero-didactic mysticism. Al- 
 though satisfied with tracing, in the action of the Iliad, the 
 evangelical principles of atonement and retributive justice, to 
 the single case of ' sinful and accursed Troy,' he assures us 
 that it is but a striking representation of many a drama which 
 has since been acted upon the theatre of the world ; and the 
 fate of Athens, of Syracuse, of Carthage, and, above all, of 
 Jerusalem itself, is only a real form of this shadowy representa- 
 tion." ("Review, page 50.) The first observation that I have to 
 make upon the above passage, Mr. Editor, is, that although 
 the reviewer accuses me, in another place, of embodying 
 the poet's simple doctrines " in Scripture phraseology," yet 
 he ascribes to me most gratuitously the use of the words 
 "atonement" and "evangelical," and the phrase " sinful and
 
 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 219 
 
 accursed Troy," expressions which are not to be found in 
 Honicrus. 
 
 The second is, that, if the Edinburgh Review had been 
 established to give a false representation of a new publication, 
 the foregoing passage would have been in excellent keeping 
 with such a purpose. For the system on which the Homerus 
 was composed, carefully excludes the hypothesis that the 
 author or authors of the Homeric literature derived any re- 
 vealed knowledge from any source, subsequent to the call of 
 Abraham, and confines the channel through which the patri- 
 archal traditions reached the Hellenic race, to persons to whom 
 Abraham and Moses were equally unknown. The passage 
 before adduced, and which was suppressed by the reviewer, 
 shows how far I was from regarding the poet as an " inspired 
 organ of pure patriarchal and evangelical truth." And the 
 passage which immediately followed ought to have prevented 
 the reviewer from adducing such unfounded charges. I 
 had stated, " that the doctrines and knowledge transmitted 
 from the patriarchs, and which might still be traced in the 
 Homeric poems, were so completely corrupted that it was 
 impossible to recognize them, except by the light of the 
 Christian religion." Then followed these words : " If this 
 be true, it will necessarily follow, that God, being a just and 
 righteous God, left not the fathers of the human race without 
 the knowledge of his will, and that all the ignorance, and 
 consequent sinfulness, of the heathen world, originated in the 
 corruption and final suppression of God's revealed will ; that 
 this was permitted to take place in that nation which, above 
 all others, was distinguished by its intellectual power, its love of 
 the arts and sciences, and its ardent investigation of speculative 
 truths." 
 
 Yet, Sir, with all these passages before him, and without 
 the slightest ground for his inference, your reviewer hesitates 
 not to assert, that the " only vital difference " between my 
 system and that of Crcesius is, that I " greatly extend the 
 principle of analogy " " that my views embrace a wider
 
 220 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 
 
 and more comprehensive range of hiero-didactic mysticism." 
 And he grounds this misrepresentation upon the perversion 
 of a simple statement, not easy, in my opinion, to be honestly 
 mistaken. 
 
 The analysis of the whole fable of the Iliad, which was the 
 last part of the published Homerus, was thus headed : 
 " Application of the truths, developed in the course of the 
 foregoing inquiry, to the Iliad considered as an exoteric poem, 
 exemplifying the mode in which a great nation is signally 
 punished for national sins." Any person who will read the 
 analysis, will discover a striking coincidence between the Ho- 
 meric doctrine of national sin overtaken by national punish- 
 ment, and the same doctrine as inculcated in the Holy 
 Scriptures. My inference consequently was, that Homer 
 had translated to us in his Iliad a great truth, affecting not 
 only nations in immediate covenant with God, but common to 
 all social states, Patriarchal, Heathen, Jewish, and Christian ; 
 and that the Iliad was a striking representation of many a 
 scene which has since been acted on the theatre of the world ; 
 and that the fate of Athens, of Syracuse, of Carthage, and, 
 above all, of Jerusalem itself, was only a real form of this 
 shadowy representation." Who could have imagined that 
 this simple statement of a few historical facts, which vividly 
 exemplify the principles developed in the Iliad, could have so 
 far been distorted as to make it a proof, and the only proof, 
 that my "views embrace a wider and more comprehensive 
 range of hiero-didactic mysticism " than was ever contem- 
 plated by Crcesius, and justified the reviewer in classing me 
 with every delirious dreamer, from the Empress Eudocia and 
 her pioneer Pelagius, down to Joshua Barnes, who would fain 
 refer to Solomon as the author of the Homeric poems ? The 
 only deduction to be fairly drawn from the fact, that there 
 " is a curious list of authors who have held that the theology 
 of Homer was only that of the Bible disguised," was this, 
 that there are certain doctrines in the Homeric literature, for 
 which the authors could not account without referring them
 
 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 221 
 
 to a Hebrew source ; not that I, who disclaimed any such 
 Hebraising views, was to be classed as a servile pupil of the 
 Hebraising school. 
 
 But the reviewer himself may allege that he has brought 
 this charge against me on other grounds, and that I have 
 " mystified " the matter, by the " cabalistic phraseology with 
 which I have disguised the simple words of the author." I 
 know nothing but at second hand of the " mysteries of the 
 Cabala," and am therefore obliged to conjecture that the 
 suspicion of my cabalistic tendencies can be founded only on 
 my adoption of a few scriptural expressions, in describing the 
 Trojans and their rulers as nationally responsible for their 
 national sins. The insinuation that the adoption of such 
 expressions on my part is not only " uncritical but also un- 
 clerical," and likely to prove as offensive to the Presbyterian 
 sympathies of the Edinburgh reviewer as of my own " ortho- 
 dox brethren on the other side of the Tweed," I shall treat 
 with great gentleness, as I regard it as a sign of grace in your 
 pages, although it strongly reminds me (that I may not quote 
 Scripture on the occasion) of that unfortunate giant, who used 
 to devour windmills, grindstones, and all such indigestible 
 commodities, with wholesome impunity, but was at last choked 
 in the fruitless attempt to swallow a pound of butter. 
 
 But I may perhaps add, that I have a theory of my own 
 on this point, which will always prevent me from adopting a 
 double terminology for the one moral code which should in 
 practice be our rule of life, and from placing sin and righte- 
 ousness under one, and vice and virtue under another, cate- 
 gory. To this abuse of words I never will be a party, even 
 should the contrary practice be for the moment offensive to 
 the religious feelings of an Edinburgh reviewer. 
 
 For I hope that I shall be able to prove that I have not 
 applied "any cabalistical phrases" to the Trojans and their 
 rulers, but have adopted, and that but rarely, only those 
 scriptural expressions by which the conduct of the great cities 
 and nations of the ancient world is described, although such
 
 222 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 
 
 cities and nations were not included in the Abrahamic 
 covenant. 
 
 Babylon with its Assyrians and Chaldeans, Thebes, the 
 " populous No " of Scripture, with its Egyptians, Tyre and 
 Sidon, with their Canaanites, were not more sacred than pro- 
 fane Ilium and its Trojans ; and the countless passages in 
 which their sins and consequent punishment are denounced, 
 contain not only the same, but much stronger expressions 
 than those which I have applied to Ilium, and are more than 
 sufficient to justify every expression adopted by me. 
 
 But as it might be objected, though perhaps not on tenable 
 grounds, that the prophets were prompted by the Spirit to 
 apply such expressions to these cities, because they were 
 nationally connected with the Israelites, who were imme- 
 diately in covenant with God, I will not avail myself of the 
 precedents deducible from the language in which their sins 
 and punishments are recorded, but will confine myself to 
 Nineveh ; the history of which great city has been recorded, 
 as it seems to me, for our especial instruction as to the mode 
 in which the just and merciful Lord of all men visited those 
 cities and nations which had no other religious guides than 
 the patriarchal traditions. Two different scenes, at two dif- 
 ferent periods in the history of this mighty city, are described 
 to us in the books of the prophets Jonah and Nahum. In 
 the first prophet we read that the word of the Lord came unto 
 him, saying, " Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry 
 against it ; for their wickedness is come up before me." But 
 when Jonah had obeyed the word, and had announced publicly 
 in the streets, " that in forty days Nineveh would be over- 
 thrown," 1 " the people of Nineveh believed God, and pro- 
 claimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them 
 even to the least. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, 
 and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, 
 and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he 
 caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by 
 
 1 Jonah iii. 4.
 
 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 223 
 
 the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man 
 nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing : let them not feed, 
 nor drink water : But let man and beast be covered with 
 sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God : yea, let them turn 
 every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in 
 their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and 
 turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not ? And God 
 saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and 
 God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do 
 unto them ; and he did it not." 1 
 
 The veiy announcement to the Ninevites, "that their 
 wickedness had gone up before God," accompanied by the 
 threat, that within forty days the great city was to be over- 
 thrown, wrought in them that sincere repentance, followed by 
 a change of conduct, which averted the day of wrath, and 
 saved that generation from the destruction with which it had 
 been threatened. " The people of Nineveh believed," " pro- 
 claimed a fast, and put on sackcloth." " The king of Nineveh 
 arose from his throne, laid his robe from him, covered hiaiself 
 with sackcloth, and sat in ashes." Both the king and his 
 nobles joined in issuing a proclamation, in which, after enjoin- 
 ing all outward forms of humiliation, the Ninevites were 
 ordered " to cry mightily to God ; yea, let them turn every 
 one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their 
 hands." They felt conscious that their iniquities deserved the 
 wrath of God ; they consequently gave credence to the pro- 
 phet's denunciations ; yet, in full reliance upon the mercy of 
 God, they humiliated themselves before him : " they turned 
 away from their evil ways," induced by the hope that God 
 also " might turn and repent, so that they might not perish." 
 
 Now, what knowledge could the Ninevites, their king and 
 nobles, have possessed, which was not equally patent to the 
 Homeric Priam, his chiefs and people ? Nay, as the acme of 
 the prophet Jonah is placed about the year eight hundred and 
 fifty before Christ, and Troy is supposed to have been de- 
 
 1 Jonah iii. 5, &c.
 
 224 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 
 
 stroyed some three or four hundred years before, the know- 
 ledge inherited by the Trojans from their patriarchal ancestors 
 ought to have been purer among them than among the less 
 primitive Ninevites. At least, the doctrine upon which the 
 latter were guided in their conduct is the same which we find 
 embodied in the declaration of Phoenix to Achilles " Achilles, 
 subdue your violent anger ; you ought not to cherish a merci- 
 less heart. Even the gods themselves can be turned, although 
 their virtue, honour, and power are far greater : Yet when 
 mankind transgress and sin, they soften even the gods by in- 
 cense and humble prayers, by libations and sweet savour, and 
 turn them from their purpose." 1 
 
 Thus also, on the repentance, humiliation, and change of 
 conduct of the Ninevites, they were spared, and the city and 
 empire were allowed another century of prosperity and im- 
 punity. But the descendants forgot the warning and mercy 
 vouchsafed to their ancestors, and Nineveh again incurred 
 God's anger. The prophet Nahum, whose acme may be 
 placed some one hundred and twenty years after Jonah's, 
 thus announces God's final judgment against them, and their 
 king and nobles : " Woe to the bloody city ! it is all full of 
 lies and robbery." "And it shall come to pass, that all they 
 that look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is 
 laid waste : who will bemoan her ? whence shall I seek com- 
 forters for thee ? Art thou better than populous No?" "Thy 
 shepherd's slumber, O king of Assyria : thy nobles shall dwell 
 in the dust : thy people is scattered upon the mountains, and 
 no man gathereth them. There is no healing of thy bruise ; 
 thy wound is grievous : all that hear the bruit of thee shall 
 clap the hands over thee : for upon whom hath not thy 
 wickedness passed continually ? " 2 
 
 Soon after the announcement of this prophecy, the Assyrian 
 
 empire was dismembered by the successful revolt of the Medes, 
 
 and the pride of the mighty city was humbled in the dust. 
 
 And, although the capital itself did not immediately share the 
 
 1 Iliad ix. ver 492. * Nahum iii.
 
 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 225 
 
 fate of the fallen empire, " yet its bruise was never healed," 
 " its wound continued grievous," until, after a series of dis- 
 asters and internal discord, it fell, like Troy, never to reappear 
 on its ancient site. 
 
 It is a remarkable fact in this Scripture history of Nineveh, 
 that Jonah's orders were not to instruct, but to warn the king 
 and his subjects of their impending fate. They derived no 
 knowledge concerning their duties from his mission. Their 
 speedy destruction was the only knowledge which he was 
 commissioned to communicate to them ; and their own con- 
 sciences reminded them of their sins, and suggested to them 
 the only means by which their doom might be averted. They 
 had heard from their fathers that God's vengeance was sure 
 in the end to overtake the violent wrongdoer. They were of 
 the same race, and lived in the immediate vicinity of that sub- 
 lime writer whose patriarchal traditions are embodied in the 
 book of Job " For," says Bildad, " inquire, I pray thee, of 
 the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their 
 fathers : For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, be- 
 cause our days upon earth are a shadow : Shall not they teach 
 thee P" 1 And this traditionary knowledge is rightly ascribed 
 to its true source to the fathers of the human race, to whom 
 God had given the earth for an inheritance. In the words of 
 Eliphaz the Temanite, " I will shew thee, hear me ; and that 
 which I have seen 1 will declare ; which wise men have told 
 from their fathers, and have not hid it ; unto whom alone the 
 earth was given, and no stranger passed among them. The 
 wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the number 
 of years is hidden to the oppressor. A sound of terror is 
 in his ears. In prosperity the destroyer shall come upon 
 him." 2 This is the same doctrine which the Homeric Aga- 
 memnon, who was himself one of the conservators of the 
 primary laws transmitted from Zeus, so firmly announces in 
 these words : " For I know this well, both from reason and 
 feeling the day will come when sacred Troy shall perish, and 
 1 Job.viii. 8. 2 Job.xv. 17, &c. 
 
 29
 
 226 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 
 
 Priam, and the people of the spear- wielding Priam, when Zeus 
 the son of Cronus, who, raised aloft, dwells in the ether, 
 angry at this treachery, shall himself shake his dark JEgis at 
 them all." 1 It was a conviction based upon the truth of the 
 same doctrine that caused Hector, in his calmer hours, to an- 
 ticipate with such melancholy forebodings the sure destruction 
 which was to overtake himself, his family, and country. As, 
 therefore, the same knowledge was impartially transmitted to 
 the Pagan Trojans, which was at a much later period still 
 prevalent among the Pagan Ninevites, and as I have not used 
 any expressions concerning the former which are not fully 
 justified by the terms applied by the prophets to the latter, 
 I may be allowed to deny the charge of having used " a 
 cabalistic phraseology for the purpose of mystifying my 
 argument." 
 
 Should it, however, be objected, that I have not fully proved 
 that what was well known to the Ninevites at a later, was also 
 known to the Trojans at an earlier, period, I may add, that the 
 author of the Homeric poems describes the Trojans and their 
 king as in full communication and alliance with the Lycians, 
 Phrygians, Maeonians, and other civilized communities of Asia, 
 that the royal family had commercial transactions with 
 Egypt and Sidon. Nor can it be doubted, that by the epithet, 
 " Son of the Morning," which he bestowed upon the splendid 
 Memnon, he meant to represent that hero as a royal prince of 
 that great kingdom whose sovereigns were so long called the 
 " great kings," and were saluted as impersonations of the 
 sun-god. There are strong reasons for suspecting that the 
 intercourse even of the Hellenic tribes with their oriental neigh- 
 bours was much closer previous to the conquest of Asia by the 
 Persian Cyrus than it was after that event. The victories of 
 Cyrus appear to have impressed a more Scythian and barbaric 
 character than they had previously borne, upon the court of 
 the great king, and of its dependent satrapies. The intimacy 
 of Thnles of Miletus (a Phoenician by descent, according to 
 
 1 Iliad, ix. ver. 493.
 
 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 227 
 
 Herodotus) with the royal family of Lydia, itself connected by 
 marriage with the Median monarchs, may be quoted as one 
 instance, among many, of this fact. And not only the close 
 connection between the princely Alcmseonidae of Athens with 
 the court of Croesus, but also the pre-eminence and precedence 
 and other privileges enjoyed by the Lydian nation in the Del- 
 phian Temple, are facts for which the narration of Herodotus 
 will certainly not enable us to account. 
 
 Of the same kind is the close intimacy between Polycrates 
 of Samos and Amasis king of Egypt, which may remind us of 
 the intercourse between the Homeric Agamemnon and Cinyras 
 king of Cyprus. Of a still more striking character is the 
 anecdote recorded by Diogenes Laertius, 1 that on the tomb of 
 a Midas, a Phrygian king, which was surmounted by a bronze 
 figure of a recumbent maiden, Cleobulus of Lindus, one of 
 the seven wise men, wrote the inscription in Greek, which may 
 be thus translated : 
 
 I am a bronze maiden, and recline upon the tomb of Midas. 
 
 As long as water shall flow, and trees grow tall, 
 
 And the ascending sun shall shine, and the moon be bright ; 
 
 As long as rivers shall fill their channels, and the sea wash the shore, 
 
 So long I, remaining here upon this much-wept-at tomb, 
 
 Will inform the by-passers that Midas is buried here. 
 
 Perhaps it would be difficult to prove that Cleobulus the 
 Lindian wrote this Hellenic epitaph for the mausoleum of a 
 Phrygian king ; yet it can be proved, from the following 
 fragment of Simonides, that, even in the sixth century be- 
 fore Christ, the inscription was believed to be the work of 
 Cleobulus : 
 
 Who, gifted with understanding, will praise 
 
 Cleobulus of Lindus, 
 
 Who compares to perennial streams, 
 
 And to venial flowers, 
 
 And to the blazing sun and golden moon, 
 
 And to marine eddies, 
 
 1 In Vita Cleobuli,
 
 228 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 
 
 The permanence of a statue ? 
 For all things are weaker than the gods, 
 While even mortal hands shatter marble. 
 This is the sentiment of a man not wise. 
 
 Nay more, it can be shown that a Greek warrior, closely 
 connected with the literature of Greece, had done good service 
 to the king of Babylon, while Nineveh was as yet undestroyed. 
 Alcasus, the Lesbian poet, celebrated his brother Epimenides, 
 who, " acting as an auxiliary to the Babylonians, performed a 
 great achievement, and delivered them from danger, when he 
 slew a warrior of royal race only one palm short of five cubits." 
 Alca3us commemorates an " ivory sword-handle also, which 
 his brother had brought from the extremities of the East;" 
 " probably " (adds Miiller) " a present from some oriental 
 prince." 1 
 
 Phocylides, a gnomic poet of Miletus, whose acme is placed 
 at the year 540 before Christ, that is, some seventy years after 
 the final destruction of Nineveh, could refer to the frantic con- 
 vulsions of that great city, as conveying a salutary warning to 
 all nations not to be guilty of the same conduct. His words, 
 as preserved by Dion Chrysostorn, may be thus translated : 
 " This also, says Phocylides, a city based upon a rock, in 
 which order dwells, although small, is stronger than a frantic 
 Nineveh." 
 
 If, therefore, this Hellenic poet of the sixth century before 
 Christ could refer historically to the destruction of Nineveh 
 as the consequence of the insane follies of its inhabitants, why 
 should I be blamed for attempting to show that the destruc- 
 tion of Troy, poetically adorned by the older Hellenic poet, 
 was ascribed by him to the folly, iniquity, and impenitence of 
 its rulers? Especially, was I, a Christian and a clergyman, 
 to be debarred, as such, from applying any Scripture expres- 
 sions to the case of Pagan Troy, seeing our Saviour himself 
 
 / ' 
 
 has held out to all nations the faith and penitence of Pagan 
 1 See Muller's Hist. Greek Liter, p. 167, and the note.
 
 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 229 
 
 Nineveh as an example and a warning ? " The men of Nine- 
 veh shall rise in judgment against this generation, and shall 
 condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, 
 and behold, a greater than Jonah is here." 
 
 So far from having any sympathy with Croesius or the 
 Hebraising school, of which your reviewer describes me as 
 a faithful follower, I have, from a very early period in my 
 scholastic career, held and taught that it must have been in 
 consequence of some extraordinary delusion, that so many 
 Christian scholars sought for the origin of Hellenic doctrines 
 in the several details of the Mosaic law, and the revelations 
 subsequent to its establishment. According to my belief, all 
 the doctrines and practices common to the Hellenic and 
 Hebrew nations are to be traced up to a common source, the 
 patriarchal traditions ; while the Mosaic dispensation, with its 
 peculiar laws and customs, was a close system, divinely pro- 
 vided to keep one people distinct from other nations, by 
 building up a wall of separation between them and all with 
 whom they were likely to come in contact. And that the great 
 difficulty in this theocratic system was to prevent the Israelites 
 from adopting the corrupt traditions and practices of their 
 Gentile neighbours ; who are never described as inclined to 
 derive any pure knowledge from the hateful, because godless 
 (as they deemed them), followers of Moses. 
 
 My doctrine went still further, and tended to the conclusion, 
 that the language in which Moses embodied his revelation 
 was also (comparatively speaking) a language of separation ; 
 and that the long-continued effort to trace the various dialects 
 of the Western world to a Hebrew source is not among the 
 least striking proofs of the extent to which the errors of good 
 and wise men may be carried, should they commence their 
 inquiries with an inveterate prejudice : and of this character 
 was the glossolatry with which the language of Moses was 
 long and extensively honoured. Should any language have 
 been rationally deemed as more worthy than another, it was 
 assuredly that dialect which the Holy Spirit adopted for the
 
 230 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 
 
 more perfect revelation in Christ, after the wall of separation 
 was thrown down, and when the glad tidings of salvation 
 were to be conveyed to the ends of the earth. 
 
 Of the language thus honoured, the Homeric poems contain 
 the oldest form, which may justly be regarded as the best 
 representative of the spoken tongue of those Noachidae who 
 poured into Europe through Asia Minor and its adjacent seas, 
 and whose dialect had little in common, not even the numerals, 
 with the vocabulary of the descendants of Heber. 
 
 Having thus disposed (to my own satisfaction at least) of 
 the most important charges adduced by the reviewer, I now 
 proceed to answer others, which, if not provable, have at 
 least the advantage of being grounded upon passages to be 
 found in the Homerus. 
 
 I can submit with patience to the reviewer's assertion that 
 my knowledge of the Homeric question " might have been 
 possessed by a scholar of the commencement of the last 
 century." 1 But should he honour me with a call, I shall be 
 happy to show him a choice collection of " Homericana," from 
 Feithe and Seberus, down to Frank, Coleridge, Clinton, and 
 Miiller; and among these, a translation, with notes, in my 
 own handwriting, of the prolegomena of Seberus, Wolfe, Vil- 
 loisin, and Payne Knight. But I early adopted the principle 
 of stating only my own views of the truth, without alluding to 
 the errors and mistakes of men wiser and better than myself. 
 The establishment of a truth is, by far, the best confutation 
 of an error. In alluding to the Wolfiari theory, I meant to 
 state that the supposition that the Iliad was nothing more 
 than a congeries of ancient ballads, had been utterly demo- 
 lished by the very minute and elaborate analysis, by which 
 both Payne Knight and Fynes Clinton had proved the neces- 
 sary connection between all its parts. The dictum on which 
 the reviewer fixes, as betraying my ignorance of the Wolfian 
 theory, was uttered to enable me to assume without further 
 proof of the authority of the Iliad as a well-known document 
 
 1 Review, p. 51.
 
 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 231 
 
 in the time of Solon, and to prepare the way for that new 
 proof which I adduce, that the scenes of the Iliad were 
 familarly known to the Western Greeks at a period far ante- 
 rior to the acme not only of Peisistratus but of Solon. 
 
 Another proof adduced by the reviewer in support of his 
 charge, that " my Homeric studies seem scarcely to have kept 
 pace with the spirit of the age," is grounded upon " the 
 supercilious contempt with which (according to him) I treat 
 the Alexandrian critics." On re-reading the passage in the 
 Homerus to which the reviewer refers as proving the charge, I 
 allow that my statement, although intended for the particular 
 case under consideration, might easily, by a loose interpreta- 
 tion, be regarded as a general condemnation of the Alexan- 
 drian school. My intention was solely to stigmatize the 
 principle on which they pretended to decide between genuine 
 and spurious passages in the Homeric poems a principle 
 which had no other guide than their own taste and judgment, 
 and which consequently varied with the various standards of 
 the individuals. Their authority, as a final court of appeal, in 
 deciding upon the genuineness or spuriousness of any given 
 passage, I therefore utterly disclaim, and will always reject. 
 But my own practice ought to have taught the reviewer how 
 far I was given to disparage them as grammarians and verbal 
 interpreters of the text. So high do I hold their authority as 
 interpreters of words and passages, that there is not a single 
 translation in all my Homerus for which I cannot quote the 
 authority of some one Alexandrian critic. 
 
 I reject their authority, when they claim to be new " Ho- 
 meri," because, as Leo Allatius, quoted by Villoisin ! in his 
 prolegomena, writes " Such is the madness of critics, and 
 their depraved taste, that in editing authors, they do not 
 attempt to discover what the author himself has said, but 
 what ILC ought to have said, and prescribe to him a course, not 
 that followed by himself, but that which they think should 
 have been the right course." I honour and value them, 
 
 1 Page xxxiv.
 
 232 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 
 
 because they did not destroy those passages to which their 
 condemnatory obelus was affixed, and because they preserved 
 for us all the various readings which the more esteemed 
 editions, whether published by states or individuals, seem to 
 have contained. But, granting that the reviewer might have 
 mistaken my meaning on this head, it was hardly fair to infer 
 from it that I felt anything but respect for the name and 
 character of Aristarchus. Before the reviewer had arrived at 
 the ambiguous passage, he must have read the following 
 observation : "Now, when men like Pindar, Siraonides, Aris- 
 totle, Thucydides, and Aristarchus, the foremost men in intel- 
 lect of their age," 1 &c. &c. My own fear was, that from a 
 class-spirit I might have too greatly exalted a mere critic, by 
 placing him among such prima virorum. Certainly I did not 
 expect to be ranked among those " who despise the labours 
 of the great masters of the court of the Ptolemies," much less 
 as " one who would pronounce an anathema against them and 
 their Coryphaeus." 2 
 
 But it seems, that though my principle, with respect to the 
 authority of the Alexandrian critics, was wrong, yet my prac- 
 tice was right. For the reviewer enters at large upon repeated 
 appeals to their authority, to be found in the Hon/erus, and 
 thus sums up his charge : " Here we have ten citations of 
 Alexandrian critics, either in support of the Archdeacon's own 
 views, or as evidence that much of his theory was known in 
 their school. On various other occasions, where their opinions 
 are quoted as at variance with his own, they are yet considered 
 of sufficient weight to be analyzed and combated. Nowhere 
 are they appealed to as authorities for varieties in the text of 
 the Iliad. How is this to be reconciled with his previous 
 declaration that their authority is worse than useless, and that 
 he will pay no attention to them, unless where they furnish 
 us with various readings?" 
 
 Half of this charge has been already answered. With 
 respect to my non-appeal to various readings, I have to state, 
 1 Homenis, p. 8. 2 Review, p. 53.
 
 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 233 
 
 that the character of my analytical translation of the Iliad 
 did not allow me to arrest the attention of the reader by any 
 critical disquisitions of a verbal nature, nor to distract it from 
 the consideration of the substance laid before him. The 
 translations published in the Homerus were made after a 
 careful consideration of all the various readings, and in accord- 
 ance with that reading which I regarded as the best ; the 
 process by which I arrived at the final object of my preference 
 was passed over in silence. 
 
 The principle upon which I proceeded cannot be better 
 exemplified, than by a minute examination of the two passages 
 which the reviewer has selected, " among various others which 
 might have been more accurately rendered/' 1 I had written 
 thus : " Men falsely say that you are the son of the jEgis- 
 bearing Jove ; for you are far inferior to those warriors who 
 sprang from him in the preceding generations. But such 
 (as they say) was the mighty Hercules, my undaunted lion- 
 hearted father." On which the reviewer thus comments : 
 "At p. 125, the two verses commencing "Axx" olov Tivztpctffi, are 
 an exclamation ; and the best editions consequently have after 
 6u/xoAfovra a note of admiration, not of interrogation. Of Mr. 
 Williams's English version of the passage, we confess our- 
 selves unable to discover either the import or the syntactical 
 construction. 2 
 
 The following note from one of the Alexandrian critics (and 
 selected because it is the shortest, and contains all the various 
 readings and interpretations) will show the choice I had ; so 
 that, if I erred, it was from a defect of judgment, not of gram- 
 matical knowledge : " The word olov must be aspirated, for 
 it denotes admiration ; but some reject the aspirate, and look 
 upon it as equivalent to /xovov. But others make AAo/ov one 
 word, that this may be the sense * All the sons of Zeus were 
 brave, but Hercules, as they say, was so in a different manner 
 from others, and superior to them all.' But Pius says that 
 olos is used here for faotoe : 'they (says he) were not as you are, 
 1 Review, p. 70. 2 Page 53. 
 
 30
 
 234 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 
 
 but such as Hercules was/ For such, according to him, is the 
 power of the word aAAa." In other words, " You falsely say 
 that you are Jove's son, for you are far inferior to his offspring. 
 They were not like you, but such as Hercules was," which 
 is my translation, and, as I still believe, the best. 
 
 The other passage selected by the reviewer for his ani- 
 madversion is thus criticized " At page 364 the verb eirXero 
 (lib. xix. ver. 57) is rendered is, in the face of the grammar, and 
 with a complete sacrifice of the sense of the original. Enters 
 is here the aorist indicative, with conditional power; for 
 which the Archdeacon's version substitutes the simple present. 
 The Greek idiom is here not very tractable, but the following 
 represents pretty faithfully the tenor of the passage : ' O 
 Atreides, this (conciliatory spirit) had indeed been better for 
 both thee and me, at the time when we contended in the heart- 
 gnawing strife for the maiden." 3 My own translation ran 
 thus : " O son of Atreus, the present transaction is better for 
 you and me than when we, both of us, grieved in heart, con- 
 tended with heart-gnawing strife concerning a maiden." 
 
 The scholar will instantly see, that the only dispute be- 
 tween me and (in this instance) my not over-courteous critic, 
 turns upon the meaning of the Homeric word frAero. In 
 ascertaining this, we must have recourse to the authority of 
 Homer himself, and by his practice the critic's interpretation 
 must either stand or fall. In all such cases this is a certain 
 test of the truth or falsehood of any interpretation. Now, the 
 word extero occurs eighteen times in the Iliad. In ten 
 passages it must be translated by the present verb is, my 
 own translation ; in six, by the historical tense was. In a 
 single instance it must be translated as a conditional ; but in 
 that one case it is accompanied by the conditional particle av. 
 The eighteenth example of its recurrence is in the passage in 
 question. And had I adopted the reviewer's translation, I 
 should have done so without a single precedent, and in the 
 face of the Homeric grammar. No Alexandrian critic sug- 
 gests the possibility of rendering the passage according to the
 
 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 235 
 
 reviewer's view of the meaning, while my translation is plainly 
 indicated in the following words : " p n TOVTO a^tpore^oit 
 enKero e)iov ijTff erf ^f/? %vujxevo/ /xfviflvfi2|xffv." The reviewer's 
 criticism upon my etymology of ariruKKa will do him no credit, 
 should his name ever become public. The scholar is referred 
 to my examination of the word. 
 
 With respect to some minor observations, such as my re- 
 jection, as a general ride, of the pronoun " thou," and the use 
 of such expressions as " personally," " in one respect," " indi- 
 vidually," " on the contrary," &c., I have no answer to make ; 
 on such points every man should consult his own taste, with- 
 out being annoyed by his neighbour's criticisms. The extreme 
 deficiency of our own language in marking such indications 
 of opposition as are indicated by the Homeric Je, J'u, 5'oOfi/s, 
 aAAtf, aura??, will long prevent a scholar from presenting such 
 a translation to the public as shall thoroughly meet with his 
 own approbation. The rule to be adopted with respect to you 
 and thou is equally unsettled and unsatisfactory, and requires 
 some authoritative settlement. 
 
 Still more difficult is it to disprove the truth of other more 
 important charges adduced against me by the reviewer, and 
 to prove that certain ascribed faults, of which the origin must 
 be referred to critical blindness, mistaken taste, and want of 
 judgment, are in reality no faults : as, for the settlement of 
 disputes which may arise on questions of this nature, there 
 is unfortunately no court of appeal, and all that can be done 
 is to examine their bearing by the light furnished by the 
 author himself, without attempting to darken his original 
 meaning by our own fanciful theories. With these sage ob- 
 servations I doubt not my reviewer will cordially agree, and, 
 while professing that they have been his only guides, will 
 accuse me of having violated them all. Still, perhaps, a recon- 
 sideration of the case may prove, even to the reviewer himself, 
 that I have allowed Homer to be his own interpreter, that 
 the only ethical code by which I have examined his works, is 
 that code which I found contained in his own words, that
 
 236 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 
 
 it was by the light drawn from his own explanation of the 
 words 0fpu?, A/xvj, Ti/xvi, JIo/vii, A-nj, "Tfyi?, hnai, that the whole 
 high moral tone of the Iliad had been, if not deduced, at least 
 illustrated, while my reviewer, in attempting to account for 
 the same undoubted tone, has been compelled to call to his 
 aid various theories and supposed speculative truths. 
 
 After carefully deducing, from the Homeric poems them- 
 selves, the ethical principles which furnished, in my opinion, 
 the key-notes for constituting a system of Homeric harmony, 
 I had applied them to an analytical examination of the argu- 
 ment of the Iliad, which I regarded, on Homeric principles, 
 as " an exemplification of the mode in which a great nation is 
 signally punished for national sins." To borrow the words 
 of a writer who has concealed his name, and to whom, except 
 as an anonymous writer, I consequently cannot refer my 
 reader, "The slightest observer cannot fail to see that the 
 Iliad is not written at random. But its full and true argu- 
 ment has not yet ceased to be matter of dispute. So long, 
 however, as we are ignorant of that, we must be unable to 
 appreciate its merits. As Father Hardouin justly observes, 
 " We have no means to enable us to decide upon the merits 
 of a poem, or upon the character of the actions which it brings 
 before us, except we see the poet's ultimate object." 
 
 I flattered myself that this " ultimate object" had been dis- 
 covered by myself, and that, in consequence, a strong light 
 had been thrown both upon the main argument of the Iliad, 
 and upon the striking characters graphically delineated by 
 the poet's pencil. Nor has any observations of my reviewer 
 tended in the slightest degree to shake this my self-complacent 
 conviction. On the contrary, the careful manner in which 
 the reviewer has contrived to exclude from his article the 
 very principles of my work, and the application of them in 
 detail, makes me doubt whether he himself is not afraid of 
 the effect which the very enunciation of them might have 
 upon the wavering adherents of his school, and, consequently, 
 whether this very article itself does not betray some symptoms
 
 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 237 
 
 of a conversion latent, indeed, and reluctant to my doc- 
 trine. At least it may be said, that in one passage the re- 
 viewer allows the truth of the supposition upon which my 
 whole theory depends, and which, once granted, must neces- 
 sarily lead to all the conclusions which I have drawn from it. 
 These are his words : " It may also be conceded, that the 
 primary source of this belief of a God, the rewarder of virtue 
 and chastiser of vice, is the scriptural tradition of a corrupt 
 but responsible human nature, perpetually liable to be seduced 
 by the passions consequent upon that corruption, into reckless 
 sin or confirmed depravity ; their deliverance from which can 
 only be effected by repentance and the atoning propitiation of 
 divine grace. From which it in some sense results as a corol- 
 lary, that the less perfect notions of morality and religion, 
 common, under various modifications, to the heathen, reflect 
 more or less polluted emanations from this purer fountain- 
 head. Thus far we are able to go along with Mr. Williams." 
 The spirits of Hardouin and of Granville Penn, the only 
 modern scholars in whose works something like an outline of 
 my system may be traced, would have been delighted had 
 they been permitted to witness this acknowledgment in the 
 pages of any journal so extensively influential, Mr. Editor, as 
 your own ; especially as previous to the publication of my 
 Homerus it would be vain to look in any journal, cond ucted 
 on your principles, for such an acknowledgment. But 
 whether this acknowledgment be the result of a real per- 
 suasion of its truth, or merely a concession to the rapidly 
 increasing respect for scriptural authority, the traditionary 
 knowledge concerning right and wrong, inherited from the 
 fountain-head by the fathers of Homeric literature, was, upon 
 the reviewer's theory, practically unproductive. According 
 to him, it might have existed, but was not called into action, 
 and consequently could produce no practical results. For, if 
 we believe him, we must not impute to this tradition the high 
 moral tone which, as all must confess, pervades the Iliad, 
 whether a real history or a poetical figment, but to the simple
 
 238 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 
 
 fact that the poet was himself a Greek, consequently the 
 national eulogist of his countrymen, and the patriotic libeller 
 of their Trojan enemies ; that, in short, " the Iliad is nothing 
 more than a running commentary upon the fable of the man 
 riding the lion." 
 
 Were this the truth, does not the reviewer see that even 
 this concession is sufficient for my purpose ? For nothing but 
 a complete knowledge of the moral law, as now known, could 
 have enabled the Greek poet to tell his tale with such con- 
 summate skill, that all the facts mentioned prove to this day 
 the aggressive violence and bad faith of the Trojans, and the 
 justice of the Achaean cause, and the superior national trust- 
 worthiness of the Achaean community. Compare the Iliad 
 with the Commentaries of Julius Caesar, and it will be seen 
 how that great man and accomplished scholar, with all his 
 skill, has failed to carry our sympathies along with him. 
 According to his own explanations, he was the redresser of 
 wrongs, the protector of the feeble, and a model of good faith : 
 the facts stated by himself prove, that, on the contrary, he 
 was a violent aggressor, a contemner of the law of nations, and 
 merciless in his vengeance. 
 
 But are Homer's birthplace and country so well ascertained, 
 that the victory of the Achaeans, and the justice of their cause, 
 and the defeat of the Trojans, with their malpractices, may 
 safely be ascribed to the mere fact, that Homer was descended 
 from some branch of the great confederacy under Agamemnon, 
 and that he had no connection with any of the tribes of Troy 
 and her allies? Hardouin, 1 no mean authority, would have 
 it that he was a subject of one of the ^Enead dynasty in the 
 Troad. But, instead of repeating a former statement of my 
 own, I transcribe a passage from the same writer already 
 quoted : "It is well known what a number of cities contended 
 for the birth of Homer, both in the continent and islands of 
 Greece, and upon that seaboard of Asia where so many of 
 the families of the same race were settled. Chios, the seat 
 1 Hardouin, Apol. (FHomere, p. 11, Paris, 1716.
 
 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 239 
 
 of the college of the Homeridae, Smyrna of ^Eolis, and Colo- 
 phon, loudly asserted their claims. Argos, Athens, Salamis, 
 Ithaca, Teos, Lebedos, Grynium, and Crete, were also compe- 
 titors for that honour. This in itself suffices to involve his 
 origin in mystery, and we behold with astonishment so many 
 claiming what none could substantiate. 
 
 " But the matter becomes more serious when we find his 
 birth variously assigned to Cyprus, Egypt, Maeonia, Italy, 
 Lucania, Rome, and Troy, and that he was esteemed and 
 called a cosmopolite * On the whole, every state claims the 
 man, whence he may properly be called a cosmopolite/ He 
 was not given to the various countries enumerated in a literal 
 sense, but by force of some inference, and in some argumenta- 
 tive sense which served to connect him with them all." 
 
 Here, surely, we have sufficient grounds for doubting whe- 
 ther we can safely refer to the accidents of Homer's birthplace 
 and local patriotism, as the sources of his moral excellence as 
 a poet ; for the ambiguous nature of the fact must necessarily 
 affect the conclusion thence to be derived. 
 
 Should we, however, adopt the reviewer's theory, and view 
 the moral lessons, so strikingly inculcated in the Iliad, and 
 exemplified in the fate of the Trojan monarchy, as nothing 
 but the result of national partiality on the poet's part, who 
 had merely adopted " the invariable policy of the victor in 
 such cases, and represented the vanquished rival as an old and 
 heinous delinquent, or, as Mr. Williams would express it, as 
 ' a hardened and unsanctified sinner/ whom divine vengeance 
 has overtaken, and himself as an aggrieved party, the righte- 
 ous instrument of well-merited vengeance upon incorrigible 
 guilt," if, I say, we adopt this theory as our guide in esti- 
 mating the moral character of the Iliad, we must necessarily 
 apply the same test to the Odyssey. 
 
 The war companions of Ulysses, and the Achaean commu- 
 nity of Ithaca, held the same relation to the Homeric writer, 
 whatever that might have been, which existed between him 
 and the Aclueaii confederates under Agamemnon. But the
 
 240 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 
 
 partiality which is supposed to have distorted the views of the 
 poet of the Iliad, and to have induced him to represent the 
 Greeks as the righteous victors because they were his country- 
 men, and the Trojans as the guilty vanquished because they 
 were not, totally disappears in the Odyssey. 
 
 The Cicones, whose territories were piratically invaded, 
 and whose property was recklessly plundered, without any 
 previous declaration of hostilities, defeat and inflict a signal 
 punishment upon the marauding Achseans of Ulysses. 
 
 Even the unpardonable offence which finally sealed the fate 
 of these same Achseans was an act of sacrilege the seizure, 
 under a very pressing necessity, of sacred property, and the 
 conversion of it to their own use. This " appropriation act " 
 was, according to my terminology, a " sin," although I must 
 doubt, Mr. Editor, whether you will allow me to call it a 
 " crime." 
 
 The author, Achaean as he was according to the reviewer's 
 assumption, seems to have had no sympathy with the flower 
 of the Achasan nobility of Epirus and the adjacent islands; 
 for in his poetical character he slaughters them all without 
 mercy, in a manner most disgraceful to them, by the hands of 
 four men, of whom two were slaves of foreign blood. 
 
 I do not wish to anticipate any of the views to be developed 
 in Homerus, Part II., but I must make two observations. 
 
 First, that the Phceacian community is described as far 
 superior in civilization and its attendant enjoyments, to any 
 Argive, Achaean, or Ionian community. 
 
 Secondly, that were I to accept the reviewer's theory as my 
 guide, and to assume that the most virtuous and prosperous 
 community described by the author was necessarily his own, 
 I should undoubtedly infer that Homer was an Egyptian, for 
 Egypt is exalted in his poems far above other lands. 
 
 In the Iliad, her capital, the hundred-gated Thebes, is 
 described as the wealthiest in the world capable of daily 
 sending forth, were their oervices needed, twenty thousand 
 war-chariots with their forty thousand horses and warriors.
 
 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 241 
 
 And the men of Egypt were as generous and kind to 
 strangers (the Homeric test of high civilization) as they were 
 wealthy lovers of peace, yet brave in war devoted to agri- 
 culture and the useful arts herbalists of no mean acquire- 
 ments deeply skilled in medical lore and, what is still more 
 rare among nations, merciful to suppliant foes, and liberal to 
 the poor. 
 
 These characteristics of the Egyptian people may be inferred 
 from the following passages : " And Helen came forth from 
 her fragrant lofty chamber, like Artemis with the golden 
 distaff. And Adrastea arranged for her the well-finished 
 reclining chair. And Alcippe bore a cushion wrought from 
 soft wool. Then Phylo brought the work-basket which was 
 given to Helen by Alcandra, the wife of Polybus, who dwelt 
 in the Egyptian Thebes, rich in accumulated wealth. Polybus 
 gave to Menelaus two baths of solid silver, and two tripods, 
 and ten talents of gold. His wife also presented Helen with 
 a golden distaff, and with a silver basket running upon wheels, 
 the edges of which were all mounted with gold. This basket, 
 filled with balls of well-spun thread, Phylo placed before her 
 mistress, and across it lay the distaff, bearing violet-coloured 
 wool. Then Helen sat upon the riclining chair, with her feet 
 upon the footstool." 1 
 
 " Then Helen, daughter of Jove, thought of another device. 
 She infused into the bowl whence they were drinking, a drug 
 which allayed all sorrow and anger, and obliterated the me- 
 mory of all evils. Should any one drink of it after it was duly 
 mixed in the bowl, not a tear would he shed for that day, 
 no, not even were his father and his mother to be dying, 
 or were a brother or beloved child to be slaughtered before 
 his eyes. The daughter of Jove possessed such drugs, skil- 
 fully prepared, and of great virtue, which were given to her 
 by Polydamna, the wife of Thaon, in Egypt, where the life- 
 bestowing earth bears most drugs, many of great virtue when 
 duly prepared, and many poisonous, and where every indi- 
 1 Odyssey iv. ver. 120, &c. 
 
 31
 
 242 PRIMITITE TRADITION. 
 
 vidual is a physician more skilful than all other men, for they 
 are of the race of Paean." 1 
 
 In the following passage the reader may observe the strong 
 contrast drawn by the Homeric writer between the conduct 
 of a body of Cretans, his supposed countrymen, and that of 
 an Egyptian community, aliens in blood and feelings, who, 
 according to the reviewer's theory, the poet must have re- 
 garded as a people to be duly punished for their incorrigible 
 guilt in resisting men who, according to the reviewer's sup- 
 position, were the poet's own countrymen. 
 
 A pirate captain sails with nine ships from Crete, and on 
 the seventh day anchors his vessels in the gently flowing Nile. 
 His narration then thus proceeds : " My orders to my faith- 
 ful adherents were for them to remain on board and protect 
 the ships, and send forth scouts to commanding points. But 
 they giving way to a spirit of violence, and following their 
 own inclinations, commenced plundering the splendidly culti- 
 vated fields of the Egyptians. They were slaying the men, 
 and preparing to carry off their wives and helpless infants. 
 But the war-cry soon reached the city, and on hearing it, the 
 citizens with the dawn came forth, and the whole plain was 
 filled with foot -soldiers, war-chariots, and gleaming armour. 
 Then Zeus, delighting in thunder, instilled cowardly fear into 
 my companions, nor did one of them, encompassed as they 
 were on all sides, dare to resist : there many of us were slain, 
 and many carried off captives, to work for the Egyptians 
 under compulsion. But Zeus himself suggested this thought 
 to me, * * I took off my well-wrought helmet, laid 
 
 down my shield, and threw away my spear. Then I ran up 
 to the king's chariot, and seized and kissed his knees. He 
 pitied and protected me, and, having seated me in his chariot, 
 carried me weeping to his own palace. But many, eager to 
 slay me, exasperated as they were, thrust at me with their 
 ashen spears ; but the king prevented them, and dreaded the 
 anger of Zeus, the protector of strangers, who visits evil deeds 
 1 Odyss. iv. ver. 219.
 
 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 243 
 
 with his vengeance. There I remained in the country for 
 seven years, and gathered great wealth among the Egyptians, 
 for all were liberal in their gifts." 1 
 
 The principle proposed by the reviewer as our guide in 
 estimating the ethical characters of Homeric heroes thus 
 utterly fails, when applied as a general rule. It may even be 
 doubted whether the author or authors acknowledged any 
 difference of race and blood between the various tribes which 
 fought before Troy, whether they were the Achseans, Argives, 
 ^Etolians, Cretans, Cephallenians, &c. of the confederacy under 
 Agamemnon, or the Trojans, Lycians, Pelasgians, Caucones, 
 Paeonians, Leleges, &c. of the confederacy under Priam. In 
 the Iliad itself we have one instance, and on the Homeric 
 principle that is quite sufficient to show that the chiefs, 
 in making their selection between Agamemnon and Priam, 
 were induced to do so by other reasons than those arising 
 from a national feeling. The example is contained in the 
 following passage (Iliad xiii. ver. 362, &c ) : " Idomeneus 
 slew Othryoneus, who was present from Cabesus, and he had 
 newly come to win honour in arms. Without offering bridal 
 gifts, he demanded in marriage Cassandra, the very beautiful 
 daughter of Priam. But he promised a mighty deed, that he 
 would drive by force the Achseans from the Troad. And the 
 aged Priam promised and consented to give her to him. 
 Thus he fought, relying upon the promise." Idomeneus then 
 thus proceeds to mock his fallen foe: "O Othryoneus, I 
 pronounce you the most renowned of mortals, if you will 
 indeed perform all your promises to the Dardan Priam, and 
 he promised his own daughter. Now we, having made a 
 similar promise, will perform it, and having brought her from 
 Argos, will give to you in marriage the most beautiful of 
 Agamemnon's daughters, if you will aid us in destroying the 
 well-inhabited city of Ilium. But come along, that we may 
 agree about the marriage at the sea-traversing ships, since we 
 are not illiberal in exacting bridal gifts." The ancient com- 
 
 1 Odyss. xiv. ver. 259.
 
 244 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 
 
 mentators knew nothing of the country and tribe of Othry- 
 oneus. Some placed Cabesus upon the Hellespont others 
 in Cappadocia ; a third tradition described him as a Lycian, 
 and the brother of Sarpedon ; while a fourth, to the great dis- 
 paragement of the Queen of Troy's character, represented him 
 as the illegitimate son of Hecuba. What is really known 
 concerning him must be derived from this passage alone ; 
 whence we may infer that he was a powerful chieftain, who 
 had long wavered between the two belligerent parties, and 
 had finally joined the Trojans. His power as a chief, and his 
 status as a highly civilized member of social life, are indicated 
 by the fact that both Agamemnon and Priam were willing 
 to secure his services by giving him a daughter in marriage. 
 If we examine the question by the light furnished by the 
 Homeric poems alone, the conclusion must inevitably be, that 
 the author never hints at any superiority of race in the Achaean 
 over the Trojan confederates : with him, Asteropseus, Sarpe- 
 don, ^neas, and the other Dardanidee, are as divine in their 
 origin and as high in civilization as the ^EacidaB, Atreidae, and 
 Heracleida? ; nor are the ladies of Acha3a and Argos (Helen 
 alone excepted) superior in beauty and accomplishments to 
 the Asistic heroines Chryseis, Briseis, and Andromache, not 
 to mention the Polydamnas and Alcandras of Egypt. Even 
 the very origin of the war the preference given by the 
 elegant and accomplished Helen to the " godlike " and bril- 
 liant Paris infers the equality of the two races, as even the 
 reclaimed Helen of the Odyssey (iv. 264), when comparatively 
 speaking of Menelaus, can say nothing stronger in commenda- 
 tion of her first choice, than that " he was not inferior in any 
 point, neither in intellect nor in person." 
 
 The same impartiality with which Homer describes the 
 individual members of either confederacy is equally visible in 
 his portraiture of the several members of Agamemnon's con- 
 federacy. It is in vain to attempt to adduce any proof from 
 the Iliad and Odyssey which will justify us in regarding him 
 as an Acha3an rather than an Argive, an Argive rather than
 
 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 245 
 
 an Ionian, an Ionian rather than a Cretan, a Cretan rather 
 than a Cephallenian, or a Cephallenian rather than a clansman 
 of any other tribe among the confederates of Agamemnon : 
 we may safely infer that he was not a Dorian, but certainty 
 extends no further. The mind which could thus sacrifice 
 self, and leave no trace in the mighty works which still attest 
 its wonderful powers, of the name, country, and race of its 
 possessor, must have conquered the " last infirmity of noble 
 minds," and have soared immeasurably above those low feel- 
 ings which tempt men to exalt themselves, their family, and 
 nation, by falsely ascribing to their own circle all the virtues, 
 and calmnniously pronouncing their opponents guilty of every 
 vice and crime. The spirit of Homer had nothing in common 
 with such men ; and if he could forget his own fame, in com- 
 posing the imperishable monuments of his genius, satisfied 
 with the fact, that, though not to be identified with any 
 locality or age, his fame was never to perish, he was not the 
 man to yield to minor temptations, and to 
 
 Heap the shrine of luxury and pride, 
 
 With incense kindled at the Muse's flame. 
 
 This spirit of fairness and impartiality long survived the 
 Homeric age ; and it would be as difficult to fix the brand of 
 wilful falsehood and partiality upon either of the two great 
 historians of Greece, Herodotus and Thucydides, as it would 
 be to defend the great body of historians from the truth of 
 such a charge. The deliberate falsification of facts for dis- 
 honest purposes was the work of more ignoble spirits ; and 
 those writers who, for party purposes, wilfully distort the 
 truth, whether the party be national, political, or religious, 
 must seek for a prototype somewhere else than in the Ho- 
 meric poems. 
 
 But, according to the reviewer, there is another general 
 principle which might sufficiently account for the striking 
 moral lessons which may be derived from the study of the 
 Homeric poems. This is his explanation of it : " Perhaps
 
 246 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 
 
 the best practical illustration of that primary axiom of every 
 sound theory of moral sentiment that there exists in the 
 breast of the natural man, even in the most corrupt state of 
 society, an instinctive approbation of what is right, and con- 
 demnation of what is wrong is supplied by the history of 
 narrative composition in every age and country. Even in the 
 records of real events where the actual facts are most stubborn, 
 we can trace a pervading tendency to interpret success as the 
 reward of virtue disaster as the punishment of crime. But 
 in works of fiction the operation of this principle becomes a 
 fundamental law, any broad departure from which is sure to 
 involve in a corresponding degree the credit of the author or 
 of his composition. The rule holds good, more especially, 
 perhaps, in the literature of a primitive age, when the social 
 relations between man and man are more direct and obvious 
 than in periods of greater refinement, where, in proportion as 
 they are more complicated in themselves, the speculative 
 theories concerning them become more subtle and abtruse. 
 
 "Among profane poets, ancient or modern, Homer, the 
 most ancient of all, is the one whose excellence in this depart- 
 ment of his art shines pre-eminent, owing no doubt, in some 
 degree, to the favour of his age, mainly, however, to the bent 
 of his own admirable genius." 1 
 
 Were I sure that niy definition of the" natural man" and 
 of the " primitive age" would coincide with my reviewer's, 
 there would not be much discrepancy between his creed and 
 mine on the truth of this principle. According to my defi- 
 nition, the age was primitive in proportion to its proximity in 
 time to the patriarch Noah and his immediate descendants, 
 and the " man natural " to such an age ought to bear that 
 intellectual and moral character which a due training in the 
 doctrines and practices in the, as yet, uncorrupted school of 
 patriarchal tradition might be expected to form. But if by 
 the " natural man " we are to understand the savage, who, 
 having wandered into the wilderness at some unknown period, 
 
 1 Review, p. 57
 
 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 247 
 
 has there lost all traditionary knowledge, and has preserved 
 nothing but the instincts of his nature if he is to be regarded 
 as the earth-born brute of the Epicurean school, who was sup- 
 posed to have gradually raised himself in the scale of existence, 
 until, proceeding from strength to strength, he finally stood 
 forth among the nations with the expanded faculties, the intel- 
 lectual powers, and moral feelings, of which the author of the 
 Homeric poems so unequivocally displays the very early ex- 
 istence and if the word " primitive " of the reviewer is to be 
 understood as conveying the same meaning which the expres- 
 sion commonly bears in modern authors, who employ it to 
 denote a condition rather than any determinate period, and 
 according to whom it may be applied to the Red Indian of 
 North America, and the still more degraded Australian, I 
 reject the whole hyphothesis, and assert, without hesitation, 
 that it is advanced in direct contradiction to all the known 
 facts of history. 
 
 No man could have achieved the wonderful creation of the 
 Homeric poems by an act of genius, however consummate, had 
 he not received a rich inheritance from his immediate prede- 
 cessors an inheritance which he received in common with 
 the audience which he addressed, who, without attainments of 
 the highest nature, could neither have honoured the poet nor 
 appreciated his works. Of the inheritance thus transmitted to 
 him, the language which he used was the most magnificent 
 heirloom, being itself a still living record of the wisdom, the 
 science, the taste, the sentiments, and intellect of the race 
 from whom the poet received it. It was this language not 
 invented by him, but bearing unequivocal marks of having 
 been worn down by constant use before it passed into his 
 hands this language, so simple in its vocabulary, so methodi- 
 cal in its formation, so scientific and fixed in its grammatical 
 structure, that enabled the great poet to embody the thoughts 
 and acts of a race of whom we know nothing historically, in 
 words, clauses, and sentences, which, after the lapse of some 
 three thousand years, convey more vividly the originally
 
 248 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 
 
 conceived ideas to the scholar's mind, than any other language 
 after the lapse of three centuries. The very fact that the 
 earliest poems of the Achaean muse transmitted to us were 
 also the best, is an irrefragable proof that they were the 
 productions, not of a gradually improving age, but of one 
 which, whatever might be the cause, was in the full possession 
 of a moral and intellectual system fully developed. 
 
 The reviewer's appeal, in support of his own theory, to the 
 practice of those writers among civilized nations who have 
 imitated Homer, and his attempt to make their works a 
 standard by which we are to measure the moral capacities of 
 the ancient poet, are neither logical nor satisfactory. Even 
 should they, like Pindar, ^Eschylus, and Sophocles, have 
 thoroughly imbibed the spirit of their great master or, like 
 Ennius and the disciples of the Latin school, only dreamed 
 that they were Homers or should they, like the poets and 
 fiction-writers of modern Europe, have derived their models 
 from classical antiquity, their practice cannot enable us to 
 throw any light upon the principles of their great master; 
 and to reason from them to him is childish in the extreme. 
 Strike off, in the literary world, the names of those writers 
 who have not derived their inspiration either from the Ho- 
 meric, that is, the classical school, or from the Holy Scriptures, 
 and there will not remain among men a literature worth the 
 name. The Homeric system must have been based on the 
 great truths inherited by the Noachidse ; and even in its worst 
 production, like similar productions of the worse portions of 
 the modern French school, proves that the light originally 
 derived from heaven was never among them thoroughly 
 extinguished. 
 
 Indeed it is impossible to compare the passages already 
 adduced from the writings of the patriarch Job with portions 
 of the Iliad, without feeling a conviction that the doctrines 
 there set forth were learned in the same school. It is to his 
 having associated with " those of old," whom no man born at 
 a later period could equal, that Nestor ascribes that superior
 
 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 249 
 
 wisdom to which he lays claim in the assembly of the chiefs. 
 It is to the wisdom and practice of former heroes that the 
 aged Phoenix appeals as the strongest reason why Achilles 
 should follow the advice tendered by him. Above all, it is to 
 the daughters of Memory that Homer himself appeals as the 
 legitimate source of that knowledge which he could not obtain 
 except by some process equivalent to the evidence of a written 
 record. Before entering upon the description of the catalogue, 
 a dry list of names, numbers, ships, nations, and warriors, 
 he calls upon the Muses to furnish him with the necessary 
 information : 
 
 For ye are goddesses, and are present and know all things ; 
 But \ve only hear reports, and know not anything. 
 
 It was in the school of the Muses, daughters of Zeus and 
 Mnemosyne, whatever was the reality indicated by the mythos, 
 that Homer acquired those instructions which enabled him to 
 produce the works which, as productions of combined art, 
 judgment, and genius, have hitherto remained unrivalled. 
 
 In the words of a first-rate scholar, " Much of their mani- 
 fest and extraordinary merit is more generally felt than easy to 
 define, arising from the simple sweetness both of their lan- 
 guage and their rhythm, from the golden mean observed in 
 the use of images, and, above all, from their just and noble 
 view of the human character : neither dissembling its bad 
 passions and infirmities in order to display an unnatural per- 
 fection, nor yet showing them in such a glaring light as to 
 offend both the taste and moral sense of the reader." 
 
 Modern philosophers have amused themselves with certain 
 theories about a supposed statistical progress of the social life 
 of man. Hence we have, as a type of a very primitive state 
 of existence, the hunter life, then the shepherd life, then the 
 agricultural life without a central city, and lastly the agri- 
 cultural life in combination with a central city and Avith 
 commerce. Such a division is harmless in itself, and one with 
 which we need riot quarrel. But when the disciples of this 
 
 school attempt to infer, from the past or present existence of 
 
 33
 
 250 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 
 
 communities in such various states of social combination, that 
 the whole race must necessarily have passed from the simpler 
 to the more complicated forms of social organization, they 
 assume a conclusion for which they can produce no proofs, 
 and assume it in direct contradiction to the testimony of the 
 only records we possess of the earlier ages of mankind. 
 
 Each of these social states was well known to the Homeric 
 authors, from the rudest condition of savage life, to the most 
 highly civilized and flourishing political communities. This 
 will be shown more at large in Homerus, Part II. But 
 although this juxtaposition of the various states of life, placed 
 at a simultaneous period under the reader's eye, shows that 
 Homer was a much sounder philosopher than the modern 
 disciples of the statistical school, yet still more redolent of 
 " hoary learning," of matured skill and severe art, is the defi- 
 nite rule within which the action of both the great poems is 
 confined : " There is one definite feature which divides the 
 primeval epic from all other metrical writings, and that is the 
 unity of action and limited duration of time : the former tend- 
 ing to one end or to several ends ingeniously combined, and 
 the latter confined to not many days. Nothing so plainly 
 demonstrates the existence of systematic rule, as the shifting 
 we see used to evade it. We cannot read the English tragedy 
 of Cato, without seeing that unity of place is rigidly exacted 
 in the school to which the author belongs ; and the like ob- 
 servation must occur to us concerning time, when we see that 
 King Alcinoiis and his family are kept the whole night listen- 
 ing to a narration which occupies four books, and compre- 
 hends the events of a far longer period than was permitted 
 for the action of a poem. But in procees of time the arts of 
 the Homerida3 were so far forgotten, that the minstrels of a 
 later age, who sought to imitate them, never discovered even 
 the principles upon which they wrote. Hence, Aristotle 
 writes : " Consequently all such poets as have composed a 
 HeracF is and a Theseis, or other poems on the same principle, 
 seem to have erred ; for they think that, as Hercules is one
 
 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 251 
 
 person, so also all that can be related concerning him must 
 be one action. But Homer, as he excels in all other respects, 
 seems to have seen the truth on this point also, whether he 
 
 owed the discovery to art or to genius." " Indeed the 
 
 great philosopher, when he came to analyze poetry, was led 
 back to those very principles which the past generations of 
 men had known and practised, and which he found already 
 embodied in the remains of Homeric literature. Homer was, 
 therefore, taught in schools, antique laudis et artis, and was 
 separated from the next following revival of learning by such 
 a gulf of time as had obliterated even the memory of the rules 
 and canons of good taste upon which he had acted." 
 
 This confirmation of my own views, read by me since 
 the publication of the Homerus, only tends to show that at 
 certain periods, minds unaccountably hurry to the same con- 
 clusions, and that a new light dawns generally upon many, 
 instead of being suddenly discovered by one individual. The 
 time is rapidly coming, when every person, not labouring 
 under an epidemic monomania, will be forced to confess that 
 the Homeric poems were the production of a mind trained in 
 a first-rate school of highly civilized men. 
 
 I willingly bring these more general disquisitions to a close, 
 and proceed to examine the grounds on which the reviewer 
 has accused me, not only " of being blind to the historical 
 and poetical value of the Iliad," but of having allowed " my 
 eccentric doctrines to affect my judgment of the individual 
 characters of the poem," which, according to him, I have dis- 
 torted or exaggerated in order to make them square with my 
 favourite theory." 1 
 
 The characters which I am charged with having especially 
 misunderstood, and consequently misinterpreted, are those of 
 Priam, Hector, and Achilles. Let us, then, examine minutely 
 the leading features of these Homeric portraits, and see how 
 far my copies, as expressed in English, have departed from 
 the truth of the Greek originals. 
 
 1 Review, p. 61.
 
 252 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 
 
 And, first, concerning Priam. The reviewer, dissatisfied 
 with my representation, thus sketches the Trojan monarch : 
 " In the character of Priam, as really conceived and portrayed 
 by Homer (one of the finest and most delicately drawn of the 
 poem), we see the generous, easy-tempered, kind-hearted, old 
 oriental sultan, worn out in mind and body by an accumulated 
 joad of affliction, consequent on the disastrous war in which 
 he had been involved by over-indulgence to the sensual plea- 
 sures of a favourite son, and to the ardent spirit of martial 
 rivalry on the part of his people to a proud hostile confede- 
 racy." This is a spirited sketch, but fanciful, and very 
 deficient, as I believe, in truthfulness. For if by the oriental 
 sultan are meant any such characters as have occupied in 
 modern times the despotic thrones of the Eastern world, Priam 
 was certainly no such sultan, but a limited sovereign, holding 
 his sceptre by the same tenure as the Achaean and Argive 
 kings. His polygamy had nothing in common with that of 
 the seraglio, but was the result of the same policy which 
 induced the Macedonian kings and the leading chieftains of 
 ancient Germany to form marriage connections with the 
 daughters of chiefs of independent tribes for political purposes. 
 These inferior wives lived among their own people, and never 
 were domiciliated in the palaces of their husbands. The 
 history of our own Cambro-British chiefs fully illustrates the 
 principles of this policy. 
 
 Priam was venerable in appearance, majestic in person, 
 courteous in manners ; and, when unexcited by grief or anger, 
 kind-hearted in his treatment of his immediate friends and 
 dependants. And such, as I believe, has been the character 
 of most of the powerful-minded tyrants of mankind : such 
 spirits must have their hours of social enjoyment and relaxa- 
 tion, when nought but the velvet of the tiger's claw is displayed 
 in action. 
 
 While preparing this answer, I was much struck on in- 
 cidentally reading the following passage in Lord Francis 
 Egerton's Eastern Travels. His Lordship is describing the
 
 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 253 
 
 Emir Bechir of Mount Lebanon, whom, he had called a 
 venerable man : " The barbarian who sits before us has the 
 advantage of his European visitors in many outward particu- 
 lars in grace of attitude, richness of costume, and dignity 
 of manner. He is generally, in the latter, a personification of 
 mildness, gravity, and good humour. * * * He was brought 
 up in scenes of blood and danger. * * * Powers of craft and 
 intrigue raised and retained him where we found him." 
 
 The Homeric Priam was also a prince who from his boy- 
 hood was conversant with danger, wars, and bloodshed. At 
 an early period of life, he had witnessed the invasion of his 
 native land by a resistless warrior the king, his father, slain 
 and the capital taken by storm, and totally destroyed. In 
 Homer's words, " Hercules had sacked Ilium, and widowed 
 her streets." 1 From this state of desolation and humiliation 
 it had, under Priam's guidance, struggled through all diffi- 
 culties, and risen to that pre-eminent position in which the 
 poet describes it as existing previous to the Achaean invasion. 
 At that period, the empire of Priam far surpassed in wealth 
 and power all the neighbouring communities. This result 
 could not have been achieved without the manifestation of 
 great wisdom and energy on the part of the monarch himself. 
 Hence Hecuba, his royal consort and confidant, when con- 
 sulted by him respecting his intended visit to Achilles, thus 
 remonstrates with him : " Alas ! whither, pray, has fled your 
 prudence, for the exercise of which you were wont to be 
 renowned, both among foreigners and among your own sub- 
 jects?" 2 Homer, with his usual striking economy Homer, 
 " qui nil inolitur inepte," furnishes us with two facts, from 
 which the prudence and energy of Priam may safely be in- 
 ferred, and that he was no oriental sultan, who ruled his 
 empire from the secret chambers of his harem. From the 
 first fact we learn that he had been sent on a special mission 
 by the Trojan state, or, what is more intelligible, that he had 
 volunteered to be his own ambassador to. the fierce Thracian 
 1 Iliad v. ver. 642. 2 Iliad xxiv. ver. 201.
 
 254 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 
 
 tribes of the opposite continent, and that his mission had 
 terminated to the mutual satisfaction of both parties. 1 For 
 the Thracians gave, and Priarn accepted, as a pledge of their 
 agreement, a splendid bowl, a valuable heirloom for the royal 
 house. The second fact stated by himself informs us that the 
 Trojan prince in person had conducted a body of auxiliaries 
 to the assistance of his neighbours the Phrygian kings, when 
 on the banks of the Sangarius they had assembled to repel the 
 invasion of the Amazons. 2 Such was the Homeric Priam 
 previous to the Achaean invasion a prince who had succeeded 
 to a nominal throne, who had raised his country to a high 
 position, famed for his wisdom, an able statesman and enter- 
 prising warrior. 
 
 To represent this great man as " worn out in body and 
 mind," even in the tenth year of the war, may be allowed to 
 pass in a fancy sketch, but must be thrown aside as an idle 
 imagination if we wish to discover the real features of the 
 King of Troy. Twenty years had elapsed between the offence 
 of Paris and the close of the war ; while the refusal to listen 
 to the claims of justice, and make full satisfaction for the 
 aggressive offence, had been given when the " oriental sul- 
 tan's " youthful energies might be expected to have been 
 not repressed, but chastened by the more mature wisdom of 
 advancing age. 
 
 Priam's offence was committed at a time when there was 
 no pressure from without of foes threatening sudden venge- 
 ance, but consisted of a deliberate refusal to listen to any 
 satisfaction for a great wrong committed by his son and 
 subjects. And he persisted in the same refusal to the last, 
 unmoved and immovable. His ruling passion was ambition ; 
 and when this was rudely checked by a series of adverse 
 circumstances, he seems to have decided, that, perish people, 
 perish children, he was to cling to his idol to the last, and 
 not to part with power except with the last gasp of life. I 
 am forced to be minute upon the subject, as I feel convinced, 
 
 1 Iliad xxiv. ver. 234. - Iliad iii. ver. 155.
 
 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 255 
 
 that without a full comprehension of Priam's character, the 
 Iliad cannot be adequately understood and appreciated. 
 
 My reviewer makes a serious mistake when he supposes 
 Hector to have been " the real guide and governor of the 
 nation." For, not to speak of civil government, Priam had, 
 up to the opening scenes of the Iliad, retained the direction 
 of military affairs in his own hands. This we learn from 
 Hector's complaint in the fifteenth book, that the Trojans had 
 up to that time been cooped within their walls, and prevented 
 from active operations, " owing to the cowardice of our elders, 
 who, although I wished to fight at the sterns of the ships, 
 both checked me, and restrained the troops." 1 Even when, 
 at last, Hector, in consequence of an express message from 
 Zeus, had assumed the uncontrolled command of the troops 
 in the field, Priam never allowed the reins of civil government 
 to fall from his hands, and retained to the last the military 
 command within the city walls. By borrowing an illustration 
 from the living characters of our own age, I can safely assert, 
 that I would as soon expect the present very Priam-like ruler 
 of Egypt to demit one jot of his civil sovereignty in favour of 
 Ibrahim, his favourite son, and commander in the field, as 
 allow any such demission of power to have been compatible 
 with the hardened and ambitious spirit of the King of Troy. 
 In the very first scene where he is personally introduced to 
 the reader of the Iliad, the poet describes Priam's character 
 with a depth of imprint which ought at once to stamp his 
 leading features on our imagination. 
 
 The poet's own estimate of human life is in strict conformity 
 with the scriptural doctrine, " that man is born to misery 
 as the spark flies upward;" and, without referring to other 
 passages strongly indicative of the fleeting and unsubstantial 
 nature of human enjoyments, it will be sufficient to appeal to 
 that melancholy statement which the poet places in the mouth 
 of the father of gods and men the usual mode in which he 
 conveys to his audience his own more solemn convictions : 
 1 Iliad xv. ver. 715.
 
 256 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 
 
 " Was this done that you might endure sorrows among un- 
 happy men ? for of all the creatures which breathe and creep 
 upon the face of the earth, none is more miserable than 
 man." 1 
 
 But the theory ascribed by the poet to Priam was far dif- 
 ferent ; for with him, prosperous as he once had been, but 
 then crushed by national and domestic disasters, great and 
 boundless power was still the god of his idolatry, and the 
 source of his happiness. 
 
 The Trojan king, encompassed by his aged councillors, and 
 seated upon the lofty tower of Troy, looks down upon the 
 movements of two mighty armies : the one composed of his 
 own subjects and allies, and led forth to battle by his own 
 son the other a foreign host, which had for years been cutting 
 short the quarters of his kingdom, and was then advancing to 
 take his capital by storm. There is something frightful in 
 the composure, calmness, and even kindly temper which he 
 displays in such an emergency, when the embattled hosts were 
 hastening to meet in deadly conflict. The tears of Xerxes, 
 when reviewing his own mighty army alone, as the thought 
 arose that within a few years' space, the whole multitude would 
 be swept away by the course of fate, showed sweet sympathy 
 with his fellow-men, when contrasted with Priam's apathy on 
 the very eve of the battle shock. But the secrets of his heart, 
 his inmost and most cherished feelings, are laid open to us in 
 the words which burst from his lips on being told that he had 
 recognized, by the beauty of his person and the majesty of 
 his mien, the leader of the assailing host, the king of men 
 himself. " Helen spoke, and Priam gazed with admiration 
 upon Agamemnon, and thus spoke : ' O blessed son of 
 Atreus, born in a happy hour, highly favoured by fortune ! 
 numerous, in truth, are the Acha3an warriors who bow sub- 
 missively to your sway.' " 2 He then recurs to the mighty 
 armies which he had himself seen congregated, and adds, but 
 
 1 Iliad xviii. ver. 446. 
 
 2 Iliad iii. 182 T Q MA'KAP 'Arptitt}, ftoipijyfvff, i>\piotaifiov !
 
 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 257 
 
 even these were not so numerous as the dark -eyed Achaeans. 
 The very word which I have translated "bow submissively" 
 strongly indicates Priam's love of unlimited power; for an 
 Alexandrian critic thus explains it : " The metaphor is taken 
 from irrational animals, for the word in its first meaning is 
 applied to the act of taming them." In fact, an inveterate 
 spirit of ambition had rendered Priam callous to every feeling 
 which did not bear immediately upon himself, his pride and 
 power ; and this pride was so strong, that it would prevent 
 the living man from giving up the power. 
 
 The quiet coolness with which Priam and his councillors 
 were contemplating the movements of the adverse hosts from 
 the lofty tower of Ilus, was suddenly interrupted by the arrival 
 of the herald Idaeus, who informed him that the military 
 leaders on both sides had agreed to refer the decision of the 
 war to the issue of a single combat between Menelaus the 
 complainant, and Paris the accused, arid that his presence 
 was called for to ratify the solemn agreement by which both 
 parties were preparing to bind themselves. The poet states, 
 that on hearing this announcement, "the aged king shud- 
 dered," but instantly proceeded to obey the summons. Con- 
 cerning the solemn manner with which he entered into the 
 treaty, and the awful imprecations which were invoked upon 
 the head of that party which should first violate the compact, 
 it is not necessary to dwell. But when the transaction was 
 concluded, Priam, after publicly stating that he could not be 
 a spectator of the combat between his dear son and Menelaus, 
 and referring its issue to Jove, returns to Troy. 
 
 But here I must observe, that there are passages, especially 
 in the first eight books of the Iliad, which would prompt us 
 to believe that the ironical style, in its modern meaning, was 
 not altogether unknown, even to the more serious moods of 
 the Homeric school. In Miiller's words : " The countenance 
 of the ancient bard, which in the beginning assumed a serene 
 character, and is sometimes brightened with an ironical smile, 
 acquires by degrees an excited tragic expression." Something 
 
 33
 
 258 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 
 
 of this, as 1 believe, may be seen in the fact which the poet 
 states, after allowing the old warrior to profess that his sensi- 
 bility would not permit him to be an eyewitness of the com- 
 bat " Thus he spoke, and the godlike man placed the two 
 lambs in the chariot." 1 The veteran warrior did not allow 
 his feelings to interfere with his prudential habits ; and, as he 
 had furnished the victims for the sacrifice, so he also took 
 care that he and his friends alone should feast upon them. 
 
 The treaty, which had been solemnly concluded in the 
 presence and under the sanction of Priam, although, perhaps, 
 he was only a silent and idle spectator of the scene, was soon 
 followed by its reckless violation, and the heavy loss and 
 defeat of the Trojans. 
 
 The evening of the same day shows us the assemblage of 
 the Trojan community at the gates of Priam a concourse 
 which the poet describes as " fearful and disorderly." The 
 events of the day had been such as to shake the confidence of 
 the community in the wisdom and honesty of their rulers. A 
 treaty which had been nationally guaranteed, had been violated 
 by individuals. This violation had led to a sanguinary con- 
 flict, in which the community to which the violating indivi- 
 duals belonged had been severely punished. Hence it is a 
 necessary consequence, that every member of the community 
 who possessed any feelings of honour and honesty should feel 
 indignant at such conduct, especially when it had been followed 
 by consequences so destructive. And in this view an Alex- 
 andrian critic upon the passage agrees with me : " The 
 assemblage mtist have taken place, for they were compelled to 
 look to the necessary consequences, seeing the king's two sons 
 had been defeated, the city itself almost captured by Diomed, 
 and that they themselves were dispirited on account of the 
 violation of the treaty." Another adds : " It is clear that 
 the king had not convoked them, but they in their indigna- 
 tion crowded to the palace." 
 
 It was under these circumstances that Antenor, Priam's 
 1 Iliad in. ver. 310.
 
 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 259 
 
 own chosen companion in the morning visit to the battle-field, 
 and who had seen his sovereign himself ratify the treaty which 
 had been so instantaneously violated, proposed publicly that 
 the Trojan community should act up to the terms of the com- 
 pact by which they were so solemnly bound. The proposal 
 was met by a contemptuous and abusive declaration of Paris, 
 who, nevertheless, professed his willingness to restore the 
 stolen property, with some additions from his own stores ; 
 but stated his firm determination to retain the lady. Hector 
 was silent, but Priam, without a single allusion to Antenor's 
 argument without even an attempt to excuse the public vio- 
 lation of faith, decided the whole case himself, and dismissed 
 the assembly " Now," said he, " take your evening meal in 
 the city as before, place sentinels, and be vigilant. On the 
 morrow let Ida3us go to the hollow ships, and mention to the 
 Atreidae, Agamemnon, and Menelaus, the proposal of Alex- 
 ander, for whose sake the contest arose ; and let him also add 
 this equitable request, that they will cease from hoarse- 
 sounding war until we burn our dead. After that, we will 
 fight until the Deity separate us, and give the victory to either 
 party." 1 The poet prefaces this short speech of the Trojan 
 king by the following words : "Then rose to them Priam, the 
 descendant of Dardanus, equal to the gods in council;" which 
 must be interpreted as an ironical expression, or that the poet 
 wished to insinuate that the characteristic wisdom, for which 
 he had been renowned in former days, had now, by his sins, 
 been changed into a foolish infatuation. 
 
 No portion of the Iliad seems to have given more trouble 
 to the Alexandrian critics, than the whole behaviour of Priam 
 during the course of this day. They were by no means pre- 
 pared to believe that it was sensibility alone which prevented 
 Priam from being an eyewitness of the combat, and they in- 
 dulge in long disquisitions to account for the coolness with 
 which at an after period he could gaze upon the flight, combat, 
 and fall of Hector. One suggests, that Homer judged it 
 1 Iliad vii. ver. 366.
 
 260 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 
 
 necessary to remove the Trojan king from the field, as, had 
 he been present when his son was conquered, he must almost 
 from necessity have fulfilled the treaty. A second hints that 
 he retired in order to have a better view of the combat from 
 the tower of Ilus. A third insinuates that his object was to 
 guard the city, which, whatever might be the event, he was 
 determined to keep in his own hands. One thing is clear, 
 from the close of the message to the Atreidse, that he had no 
 wish to terminate the contest by any compromise whatever, 
 but was determined to leave the final result to the fate of war. 
 Had he stated the same determination before he entered into 
 that treaty, which, had his son proved victorious, would have 
 relieved him and his people from their difficulties, the farce of 
 the solemn oaths and obligations might have been spared. 
 
 In full keeping with the stern reality of Priam's character, 
 but in contradiction to the theory, that his calmness and 
 gentleness were based upon sympathy with the common feel- 
 ings of the human heart, are the orders by which the weeping 
 and mourning Trojans were forbidden, 1 while burying their 
 slain kinsmen, to lift up their voices in sorrow, and were 
 compelled to heap the funeral pile in silence. 
 
 But the completest development of the character of the 
 Homeric Priam is exhibited in the measures adopted by him 
 for the preservation of the city from the imminent danger in 
 which it was placed, by the total defeat inflicted upon the 
 Trojan army by the irresistible Achilles. 
 
 Hector, emboldened by his momentary success, had en- 
 camped with all his warriors for two nights in the plain, and 
 had devolved the defence of the city upon the youthful strip- 
 lings and hoary-headed elders. But the partial success had 
 not lulled to sleep the vigilance of Priam, who seems never to 
 have willingly left his favourite station upon the tower of Ilus. 
 When the son of Peleus was driving before him the broken 
 battalions of the Trojan host, the poet thus describes Priam 
 and his operations : " The aged Priam stood upon the god- 
 1 Iliad \\i. ver. 423.
 
 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 261 
 
 built tower, and recognized the terrible Achilles. Before him 
 the Trojans were thronged in flight, nor was there any resist- 
 ance. With, a deep groan he descended from the tower, and 
 summoned the trusty gate- wards to their post. ' Hold the 
 gates wide open until the flying troops shall have entered the 
 city; for close at hand moves Achilles, driving the troops be- 
 fore him, and I fear there will be sad destruction. But when 
 the Trojans within the walls shall breathe again, then reclose 
 the well-fitting valves, for I fear this destructive warrior 
 may spring into the city/ Thus he spoke, and they drew 
 back the bolts, and threw open the gates, which secured the 
 safety of the fugitives." 1 The annotation of an Alexandrian 
 critic on the first line of this quotation, shows how completely 
 his conception of Priam's energetic character agrees with 
 mine : " The very fact that the aged king was on the tower, 
 shows how full he was of the spirit of the struggle. So the 
 poet, having conducted the army within the walls, did not 
 think it consistent with character that any other than Priam 
 should make all the necessary arrangements ; for he was the 
 king, and a wise king, who had ceased from field operations 
 on account of his age alone." 
 
 By Priam's own orders the gates were thrown open by 
 his own order they were again closed and bolted. Nor when, 
 on reascending the tower, he discovered that the son who was 
 his peculiar pride and glory had been shut out, does Homer 
 allow us to suppose that they would have been reopened for a 
 moment, after the close approach of Achilles had rendered it 
 possible for that swift-footed warrior to " spring into the city" 
 with any fugitive. 
 
 On the contrary, we know from the poet's statement, that 
 the gates must have been closed against him in his greatest 
 need. Here follow the proofs (Iliad xxii. 5): "Then destruc- 
 tive fate fettered Hector to remain there before Ilium and the 
 Scsean gate." It must be remembered that the tower of Ilus 
 surmounted the arch of the Scaean gate. At the thirty-fifth 
 1 Iliad xxi. ver. 526.
 
 262 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 
 
 line, Hector's position is again mentioned : " He stood in 
 front of the gate, resolutely eager to fight Achilles." But 
 when the critical moment came, when his ethical courage sank 
 under the immediate fear of death, there was no refuge within 
 the walls the gates were still closed. Hence the poet adds 
 (ver. 36), " But when Hector saw him, terror seized him, nor 
 had he resolution any longer to remain there, but left the gate 
 behind him, and fled away." 
 
 Priam had been the first to see the approach of the defeated 
 Trojan army, and of Achilles pressing upon their rear. So 
 also, again, he was the first to descry the second approach of 
 the conqueror, who had been beguiled by Apollo for a short 
 period from his main object. So that, according to the poet's 
 own authority, even the most common infirmity of old age 
 had not overtaken him, and his eye was still bright, and from 
 long experience could, undiinmed by time, distinguish objects 
 where younger men could only see confused masses. 
 
 Even the remonstrance and appeal, which the father makes 
 from the summit of the tower to his fate-fettered son at the 
 gate, are not only deeply pathetic, but also characteristic of 
 his own serious deficiencies as a moral and responsible being. 
 In the pressing entreaties with which he urges Hector to 
 enter the city, and to live, the whole body of argument is based 
 upon the loss which, should Hector perish, would be sustained 
 by Priam and his people. But while he deprecates in the 
 strongest terms his own fate, under a melancholy description 
 of the unseemly appearance of an old man's naked and dis- 
 honoured corpse, he overshoots his mark, and unconsciously 
 glorifies the death by which Hector was then to fall. 
 
 His words are (after describing the unseemly appearance 
 of the slaughtered body of an old man) " But when a young 
 warrior is slain in battle, and pierced by the sharp sword, he 
 lies a goodly spectacle, for every member of the slain hero 
 appears beautiful to the eye." 1 The comment of an Alex- 
 andrian critic upon this passage is very apposite : " This 
 appears, on Priam's part, rather an exhortation to brave death, 
 1 Iliad xxii. ver. 7 1 .
 
 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 263 
 
 than a dissuasive to avoid danger, although the wish is appa- 
 rent to persuade Hector to enter the city, and not to await 
 Achilles." Priam's error in the management of his argument 
 is, according to my theory, to be ascribed solely to the influ- 
 ence of Ate ; but still the poet's own argument proves, that, 
 although Priam loved his son much, he loved Troy as a secure 
 possession much more. 
 
 During the long pause which took place while Hector was 
 soliloquizing during the long-continued race during the 
 preparations for the combat during the combat itself, and for 
 a certain time after Hector's fall, we hear nothing of Priam; 
 during the whole period he had remained an inactive spec- 
 tator. But had not his fears of the destructive Achilles pre- 
 dominated, he would certainly have ordered the gates to be 
 thrown open, a body of troops to rush out, and an attempt at 
 least to be made for the preservation of his fate-bound, terror- 
 stricken son. 
 
 But another short digression must be made here, to show 
 that to the poet was fully known a principle, which never has 
 hitherto been sufficiently developed, namely, that where there 
 are two parties engaged in contest one honest and honour- 
 able, the other dishonest and perfidious the latter party 
 never knows when Ms acts have assumed that character which 
 renders it impossible for his honourable antagonist to place 
 the slightest confidence in his words and actions, and which 
 compels him to treat him as a party whom nothing but force 
 can coerce. Such offender, however, when treated according 
 to his deserts, never ceases to exclaim against the conduct of 
 his antagonist, in thus enforcing the rules of common justice, 
 according to the dictates of common sense. Thus the poet 
 describes the Trojan king as totally unconscious of the change 
 in the whole character of the war, which had been wrought 
 by his own barefaced perfidy and perjury. He was not, 
 according to the poet's account, aware that it had become 
 internecine, and that the Achaean leaders no longer hoped for 
 any settlement of the quarrel upon mutual terms of accom- 
 modation, but that the struggle had changed its character,
 
 264 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 
 
 and had become, instead of an attempt to exact honourable 
 satisfaction for wrong, a contest to the death for superiority. 
 The system of sparing prisoners, and releasing them on re- 
 ceiving ransom, had passed away, as we read even in the sixth 
 book, where Menelaus was prepared to act upon the same 
 principles upon which the war internationally had been carried 
 on before the act of perfidy. But Agamemnon severely re- 
 buked his gentler brother for his proposed mercies, in the fol- 
 lowing stern address : "O soft-hearted Menelaus, why trouble 
 yourself for these men ? Precious work have the Trojans per- 
 petrated in your house ! Let not a man of them escape im- 
 pending destruction from our hands not even the child in 
 his mother's womb, should he be a male but let all in Troy 
 perish unmourned, and their memory be effaced." 1 This 
 sentence of the commander-in-chief is ratified by the poet 
 himself, who thus comments upon it : " The warrior having 
 thus spoken, changed his brother's purpose, as he advised 
 him rightly." On the Homeric principle, 2 the penalty exigible 
 for such perfidy was a heavy one, the offenders were to 
 expiate the crime at the expense of their own lives and the 
 captivity of their wives and children. But Priam, according 
 to the poet's account, was not aware of this change in the 
 relative position of parties. He seems to have regarded it 
 possible for him and his to trample under foot all the rules 
 of international law, and at the same time to have expected 
 the enemy to deal with him according to its gentlest forms 
 between honourable opponents. Hence he says, " Achilles 
 has deprived me of many and gallant sons, both by slaying 
 them and by selling them into foreign islands. And even now, 
 since the Trojans have crowded into the city, I cannot see two 
 of my sons, Lycaon and Polydorus, to whom the princely Lady 
 Laothoe gave birth. But if they are alive in the Acha3an camp, 
 they shall be ransomed for gold and bronze; for there is 
 
 1 Iliad vi. ver. 56. 
 
 2 The truth of this principle was brought out unmistakeably by the late 
 proceedings at Delhi.
 
 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 265 
 
 abundance in my palace, as the renowned chief Altes gave a 
 splendid dowry with his daughter." 1 
 
 There are other apparent anomalies in Priam's conduct, the 
 consideration of which must be postponed for the present, 
 but which will be more distinctly brought out hereafter ; but 
 I cannot close the present review of his character, without 
 placing the " unsanctified " sorrow of this " Pagan " king in 
 strong contrast with the more sanctified sorrow of the King of 
 Nineveh, equally a Pagan. We have already seen the effect 
 with which the announcement of the misfortunes impending 
 over Nineveh was accompanied, in the true repentance of the 
 king, nobles, and people of that mighty city. The contrast 
 exhibited by Priam and his people and nobles is presented to 
 us in a striking light by the Homeric poet : " And they soon 
 came to the palace of Priam, and there they found clamour 
 and lamentation ; the sons, sitting round their father within 
 the court, were bedewing their garments with tears. But the 
 aged king in the midst was enveloped in sackcloth, and his 
 head and shoulders were densely covered with ashes, and he, 
 rolling upon the ground, took them up with both his hands." 2 
 
 Here we have all the outward signs of sorrow for the 
 occurrence of a calamitous event, accompanied with long fast- 
 ing upon Priam's own part, as afterwards mentioned without 
 a single expression of consciousness of sin without a single 
 allusion to the long train of iniquitous acts, of which that 
 calamitous event had been the consequence. He displays all 
 the outward acts of repentance, without giving a single sign 
 that any correspondent change had taken place, either in his 
 own mind or in that of his nobles and people. 
 
 Even the embassy personally undertaken to Achilles seeins 
 to me to have been described by the poet in admirable keep- 
 ing with my portrait of Priam. That great and haughty king, 
 who never would willingly have bowed his head to the em- 
 bodied majesty of the king of men, voluntarily throws himself 
 at the feet of the great warrior from whose hands he had suf- 
 1 Iliad xx. ver. 43. 2 Iliad xxiv. ver. 160. 
 
 34
 
 266 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 
 
 fered so severely. But for the favour thus humbly sought, au 
 ample recompense is proffered, and its acceptance by Achilles 
 places the two heroes upon an equality; for much gratitude 
 could not be due for a favour so dearly purchased. If any- 
 thing could have softened the heart of the infatuated King of 
 Troy, and have induced him to seek to avert from himself and 
 people the evils which were immediately impending over them, 
 it would have been the scene in the tent of Achilles. But he 
 was not to be deterred from his purpose of resistance to the 
 death: the only favour which he would condescend to ask 
 from the softened Achilles was eleven days' truce, in order 
 that the funeral honours might be duly paid to Hector's re- 
 mains : " On the twelfth day," adds the stern old warrior, 
 " we will resume the contest, since fight we must." Achilles 
 answered : " 'Aged Priam, this shall be as you request; I will 
 restrain the war according to your desire.' Thus having 
 spoken, in order that he might dissipate all his fears, he took 
 the aged monarch by the right hand." But Priam would not 
 trust even this solemn pledge ; for on the eleventh day out- 
 posts were stationed on every side, lest the Achaeans should 
 suddenly assail them. One of the Alexandrian critics thus 
 expresses himself on the foregoing passage : " It was high 
 generalship, and full of judicious foresight, to place no con- 
 fidence in the truce, and not to expose the Trojans in disorder 
 to their Achaean enemies." In my opinion the passage was 
 inserted by Homer, in order to show that the faithless usually 
 judge of others according to their own feelings, and that Priam 
 did not appreciate the character of Achilles when he thus prac- 
 tically disclaimed confidence in the sacred promise of eleven 
 days' truce, which he had received from the stainless warrior 
 who never could have violated it. 
 
 The Homeric Priam, thus judged by his actions and senti- 
 ments, and not by his calm temper and gentle manners when 
 unexcited, was a monarch of great wisdom and energy but 
 proud, wicked, and unjust in his royal capacity, and despe- 
 rately obstinate to the last in his adherence to wrong, and
 
 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 267 
 
 refusal to execute justice ; so that the poet justly placed the 
 following condemnation both of him and his race in the mouth 
 of a god : 
 
 For now the son of Saturn hated Priam and his race, 
 
 " on account of the violation of the treaty," says an Alex- 
 andrian critic : according to my estimate, in consequence of a 
 long continuance in iniquitous courses. 
 
 Hector's character has, according to the reviewer, been also 
 misrepresented by me. But by a curious fate, for which I 
 certainly was not prepared, I am accused of having leaned too 
 much to the side of mercy in judging him: "Judex damnatur, 
 cum nocens absolvitur." Hector, if we believe the reviewer, 
 was " the real guide and governor of the nation," and conse- 
 quently to be regarded, "by the sound critic moralist," as 
 responsible " for the evils which the crime of his brother and 
 family had brought down upon their heads." The preceding 
 observations will enable the reader to judge whether Hector 
 was or was not, " the real guide and governor of the nation." 
 The reviewer's more than confirmation of the unfavourable 
 view taken by me of Hector's character, makes me rather 
 doubt, whether its lines were not drawn in too dark charac- 
 ters, especially as I have received more complaints and pro- 
 tests against the conclusion at which I arrived respecting his 
 moral offences and delinquencies, and that from competent 
 judges, than against any other doctrine in the Homerus. The 
 writer, in order to fix upon me the charge of over-leniency in 
 Hector's case, thus writes : " This most unprincipled Hector 
 is made to ' free his soul from guilt,' ' and expiate his faults/ 
 by the strangest kind of deathbed repentance we have hitherto 
 happened to read of an attempt, namely, to drive a bargain, 
 and a most unfair one, with Achilles, whom he was on the 
 point of engaging, with scarcely a hope of success, to the effect, 
 that if that hero will abstain from mutilating his corpse after 
 death, he (Hector), if victorious, will treat the remains of 
 Achilles with similar respect." 1 The reviewer then adds, in a 
 
 1 Review, page 61.
 
 268 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 
 
 note : " The better to appreciate Mr. Williams's doctrine of 
 Homeric responsibility, the reader is referred to his own text 
 (p. 260) for an account of Hector's mode of honouring the 
 remains of the ' sacred dead/ when without the fear, or rather 
 the certainty, of his own death before his eyes." The passage 
 from which the reviewer thinks himself justified in charging 
 me with having said that Hector had absolutely " freed his 
 soul from guilt," and " expiated his faults," runs thus. After 
 describing the savage terms in which Achilles announced his 
 intentions to maltreat the dead body of his foe, I added : "The 
 dying Hector, who, by promising to abstain from such useless 
 barbarities, had freed his own soul from the guilt attendant 
 upon his own indulgence in the same bad feelings on former 
 occasions, was permitted to announce his approaching end to 
 his ruthless vanquisher." 1 The expression, " expiated his 
 faults," is taken from a very different passage, where Hector 
 is said to have " expiated his faults by a condign punishment." 
 Your review, Mr. Editor, ought not to be made the vehicle of 
 such wilful representations, which reflect anything but credit 
 on the author. He should have remembered also, that the 
 same terms which were proposed by Hector to Achilles, re- 
 specting the treatment of the body of the vanquished, had 
 been propounded by him, anterior to his " deathbed " scene, 
 as the conditions of the combat between him and Ajax, the 
 champion of the Acha3ans. He might have also remembered, 
 that, however faulty Hector might have been in intentions, yet 
 he had never mutilated a foeman's corpse, nor maltreated what 
 I must still call the " sacred dead." 
 
 But the previous mistakes committed by me should, accord- 
 ing to the reviewer, be regarded as trifling in comparison with 
 the fatal error, the sad misconception, under the influence 
 of which I have (should he be believed) misrepresented the 
 character of the protagonist of the Iliad, " because Mr. Wil- 
 liams's theory had blinded him to the noblest element of the 
 epic spirit of the Iliad" 2 and because I had "systematically 
 1 Homenu, p. 392. 2 Review, p. 66.
 
 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 269 
 
 subjected Achilles, equally with Agamemnon, to the degrading 
 ascendancy of the demon Ate." The source of this blindness 
 on my part is thus fairly and distinctly stated : " It formed, 
 in fact, a necessary element of the plan of confounding the 
 profane with the sacred, developed in the Homerm of the 
 Archdeacon, that the reign of Ate, the tempter to sin (Satan, 
 as it were), should be universal, and equally exemplified with- 
 out respect of persons in every class of human delinquency 
 or delinquent. Such, however, is not the plan of the Homerus 
 of the Iliad, who makes not the smallest allusion to the exer- 
 cise of any such influence on the mind of Achilles. In his 
 breast one mighty impulse drives out another; compassion 
 gives place to wrath wrath to grief and remorse remorse 
 to revenge and, finally, revenge to mercy. But Ate has 
 neither part or lot in the matter. We here state not a theory 
 but a fact, which may be verified by an appeal to the text of 
 the poem ; so that when the Archdeacon talks of Achilles being 
 ' under the domination of Ate ' ' purifying himself from the 
 stains of Ate ' he misinterprets Homer's text as broadly as 
 he misunderstands the noblest creation of his muse." This 
 assertion of the existence of a fact in opposition to my theory, 
 is grounded upon the evidence adduced in the following pas- 
 sage : " Out of the thirty-two occasions (inclusive of the 
 cognate verb *), on which the term is introduced in the 
 Iliad, whether in an active or passive form, it has been used 
 in no less than twenty-four with reference to the conduct of 
 Agamemnon. The greatest proportion of these examples 
 occur in his own speeches, where he appeals to her power in 
 palliation of his own errors, according to the practice so fami- 
 liar with Homer's heroes, of shifting the blame of their mis- 
 conduct from their own shoulders to those of their objects of 
 superstitious worship. Of the remaining eight occasions, it is 
 used twice with reference to the rash valour of Patroclus as 
 the immediate cause of his death, through the hostile agency 
 of his divine enemy Apollo ; once, in each case respectively, 
 to characterise the crime or folly of five other personages,
 
 270 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 
 
 Helen, Paris, Phoenix, Dolon, and Agastrophus ; and once, in 
 a general sense, without reference to individuals." I assure 
 you, Mr. Editor, that I should have been in very good com- 
 pany had I at once stated that the Homeric Ate was some- 
 thing very like the Scripture Satan, not with Crellius and his 
 school, but with many ancient fathers, who could not account 
 for the strong similarity between certain Homeric tenets and 
 facts, and the Scripture statements, without the unwarranted 
 assumption that he had copied them from Hebrew sources. 
 In the words of the preface of Seberus : " In the first place, 
 there is in truth no moral virtue, nor any department of phi- 
 losophy, of which you cannot deduce an example or a testi- 
 mony from the Homeric poems. And our guides in this 
 investigation are not only a numerous body of profane writers, 
 as Plato, Aristotle, Xenophon, Plutarch, Athenasus, and others, 
 to whom may be added the proverb-compilers and mytho- 
 logists of a still later age, but also not a few of the holy fathers 
 of the Church, especially Justin Martyr and Clemens of Alex- 
 andria, who positively assert that Homer had transferred into 
 his own work many passages from the Books of the Prophets ; 
 and abundantly show this by examples, such as of the visible 
 creation depicted on the shield of Achilles, of paradise typified 
 by the gardens of Alcinoiis, and of the expulsion of Satan 
 from heaven, indicated by the fable of Ate." 
 
 But, whatever my private opinions might have been, I had 
 not advanced any opinion concerning the ultimate identity of 
 Satan and Ate, nor asserted the universality of the reign of 
 the latter demon. Had I made the latter assertion, it would 
 have been authorized by the text of the Iliad, which extends 
 the dominion of Ate over every region of the earth, and de- 
 scribes her as injuring all equally, whether gods or men. 
 Phoenix, in laying down a series of moral truths for the con- 
 sideration of Achilles, thus speaks : " Achilles, subdue 
 your great spirit ; for you ought not to cherish a pitiless heart. 
 Even the gods themselves, whose virtue, power, and honour, 
 are so much greater, are themselves exorable, and men, after
 
 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 271 
 
 transgressing and erring, turn away their anger by softening 
 them with incense, gentle prayers and libations, and a sweet 
 savour. For the Litae are the daughters of mighty Zeus. They 
 are lame, wrinkled, with eyes looking askance. These, follow- 
 ing in the train of Ate, have their fixed duties to perform. 
 Ate is vigorous and foot-sound ; therefore she far outstrips 
 them all, and precedes them in her destructive visits to men 
 in all regions of the earth. But they, halting after her, en- 
 deavour to remedy the mischief. The daughters of Zeus 
 greatly benefit the man who duly honours them when they 
 visit him, and listen to his prayers ; but should a man refuse 
 and sternly reject their prayers, they then visit Zeus, the son 
 of Cronus, and beseech him to allow Ate to overtake such a 
 man, that, impeded in his course, he may pay the penalty." 1 
 This doctrine is further developed in Agamemnon's speech in 
 the reconciliation scene : " But I am not the cause, but Zeus 
 and Moira, and Erinnys who walks in darkness, who instilled 
 wild Ate into my bosom in the assembly, on that day when I 
 took away the reward of Achilles. But what could I do ? the 
 god accomplishes all things. Not of modern days is Ate, the 
 daughter of Zeus, who injuriously afflicts all men with blind- 
 ness (y KuvTa,<; aarai}. Pernicious is her course, and soft her 
 tread, nor does she walk upon the ground, but over the heads 
 of men, injuring mankind, and many a man she completely 
 fetters. Nay more, she once blinded even Zeus, the most 
 powerful of gods and men. But Hera, a female goddess, 
 deceived even him." 2 
 
 In translating the words QFO$ $tu KUVTX Tetevrct Tcqeafra A/of 
 fivyarvjp ATVJ, I have followed that reading and interpretation 
 which to me seemed the best. Many of the Alexandrian 
 critics refer the word Qeos to Ate, and make her the prime 
 agent in the affairs of this world ; one of them even divides 
 / into the two words JW, and thus explains the passage : 
 
 " M/2 vj 00 V) A.TVI TO KCtVTUV %/ TfAOf," the goddeSS Ate 
 
 alone decides all things. This interpretation is pronounced 
 1 Iliad ix. ver. 492. 2 Iliad xix. ver. 91.
 
 272 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 
 
 false by another Alexandrian authority, who adds : " Ate has 
 not all things at her disposal, as she has nothing to do with 
 the distribution of blessings." 
 
 Ate and the Litse were equally the daughters of Jove, and 
 contrary duties were assigned to them in a mythology which 
 did not acknowledge an evil principle in opposition to the sole 
 sovereignty of the father of gods and men ; consequently they 
 are but another illustration of the truth depicted in the fol- 
 lowing classic passage from the twenty-fourth book of the 
 Iliad: "Two jars lie at the threshold of Zeus ; the one is 
 full of the evils the other, of the blessings of life." The 
 expulsion of Ate from heaven, and her visit to the ground 
 cultivated by man, and the sorrowful sympathy with which 
 Zeus contemplated the evils, struggles, and death of his be- 
 neficent son, have no necessary connection with the present 
 inquiry. 
 
 But I cannot prevent myself from expressing surprise that 
 the reviewer, undoubtedly a clever man, should, with these 
 passages before him, have perilled the truth of his whole sys- 
 tem in opposition to mine, upon the assertion, or rather sup- 
 position, that it could have been compatible with the poet's 
 doctrine to display a human being in a complete state of 
 exemption from the " ascendency of Ate, and as guilty of 
 serious offences against the moral law, in which Ate had 
 neither part nor lot." Surely the Homeric Achilles was not 
 superior to the Homeric Zeus? The very supposition of 
 such superiority would be Homeric blasphemy. Nor can I 
 sufficiently admire the self-sufficient coolness with which the 
 reviewer blames me for inferring that Achilles had fallen 
 under the dominion of the same demon who had gained a 
 momentary victory over Zeus himself. 
 
 That my inference was neither rash nor novel, is evident 
 from the following commentary of an Alexandrian critic on 
 the words, " injuring mankind, and many a man she com- 
 pletely fetters." The critic thus comments : " Some, by a 
 violent perversion of the meaning, suppose that Agamemnon
 
 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 273 
 
 here refers to Achilles and himself. But ' the assertion is 
 a general one,' xa:60A;xo o Aoyu? : the poet therefore, having 
 enunciated the broad principle, refers for a particular example 
 of its truth to Zeus, the being who had the greatest self- 
 control." 
 
 But without dwelling upon the reviewer's theory for the 
 full understanding of the character of Achilles a theory 
 according to which (certainly no novel doctrine), " certain vir- 
 tues when carried to excess become vices," and the assertion, 
 " that the faculty of distinguishing where the transition from 
 moderation to excess takes places, is very imperfect, or alto- 
 gether awanting in the moralist of a primitive age," I have 
 only to observe, that no new light is thrown upon the charac- 
 ter of Achilles by the theory, and that the poet, " the moralist 
 of a primitive age," has accurately drawn the line between 
 the just resentment and implacable wrath of Achilles, and 
 has convicted him, on the testimony of all his friends and 
 well-wishers, of grievous offences against the ethical code of 
 the Homeric age offences which nothing but an early death 
 could expiate ; in other words, that he had fallen under the 
 dominion of Ate. 
 
 Previous to entering upon this demonstration, I have, in the 
 first place, to observe, that the Homeric writer does not apply 
 for our edification the moral lessons deducible from the scenes 
 and incidents developed in his works, but leaves us to draw 
 the inferences. In the lamented Muller's words, when alluding 
 to the fall of Pandarus, close following upon the violation of 
 the treaty, " Homer does not make on this occasion the reflec- 
 tion which we expect, but it is his practice rather to leave 
 the requisite moral impression to be made by the simple 
 combination of the events, without adding any comments of 
 his own." 1 
 
 In the second place, that if we adopt the reviewer's theory, 
 that the frequency with which the word Ate is used in de- 
 scribing the extent of her dominion over each individual, is to 
 1 Muller's Hist. Greek Lit. p. 52, note. 
 
 35
 
 274 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 
 
 be taken as the test of such an individual's subjection to her 
 influence, then Patroclus, with all his warm feelings of sym- 
 pathetic patriotism, must be regarded as twice more guilty 
 than Paris and Helen, respecting whom the term is only once 
 applied; and that Hector and Priam, in connection with 
 whose names it is never applied, must have been altogether 
 guiltless. The reviewer's appeal to fact is consequently most 
 unfortunate, and altogether subversive even of his own theory 
 of the guilt of the several characters. 
 
 But, if we examine the question more closely, it will be 
 found, that although the poet is not sparing in the introduction 
 of passages where the king of men is made to confess his sins, 
 and of others in which Achilles and his friends charge him 
 with guilt, he yet carefully abstains from personally confirm- 
 ing the truth of any such charge. If, however, we test the 
 question by other trials, the result will be, that Achilles as 
 well as Agamemnon is described as acting under the blinding 
 influences of Ate. 
 
 The effects of Ate's dominion over Agamemnon's mind are 
 thus described by Achilles : " For he rages with destructive 
 mind, nor does he know how, at the same time, to consider 
 both the past and the future, so that the Achseans may fight 
 in safety at the ships." 1 Here Agamemnon's Ate is appo- 
 sitely described as mental darkness, terminating in destruction. 
 The very same description is applied by the god Neptune to 
 Achilles, after he had rejected the satisfaction, ample in all 
 its parts, proffered by Agamemnon : " Now, in truth, the 
 destructive heart of Achilles rejoices in his breast, as he views 
 the slaughter and flight of the Achaeans, since he has no un- 
 derstanding." 2 And he had been distinctly warned by his 
 affectionate instructor Phoenix, that such judicial blindness 
 was necessarily consequent upon the rejection of the supplica- 
 tion of the Litse, the daughters of Zeus : " Do not you," says 
 Phoenix, " entertain such feelings ; and may not the gods 
 guide your steps to such a course !" 3 On this passage an 
 
 1 Iliad i. ver. 342. 2 Ibid. xiv. 139. 3 Ib. ix. 596.
 
 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 275 
 
 Alexandrian critic observes most justly: "Phoenix speaks out, 
 but with diffidence, and prays that a great evil may not befall 
 Achilles." 
 
 The effect of this judicial blindness is most clearly indicated 
 by the utter oblivion ascribed to the vindictive warrior, of an 
 important prediction communicated by his mother ; according 
 to which, the bravest of his myrmidons was to fall in battle, 
 even during his own lifetime a prediction which, if Achilles 
 had remembered at the proper time, would have certainly 
 prevented him from exposing his dear friend, alone and unac- 
 companied by himself, to the dangers of war. 
 
 The " primitive moralist" of the Iliad found no difficulty in 
 drawing the line between " just resentment" and " implacable 
 wrath," as is evident from the representation of the feelings 
 not only of Phoenix and Patroclus one the calm, the other 
 the chivalrous, friend of the inexorable son of Peleus but of 
 the very body of the myrmidons, to whose coarser principles 
 revenge would naturally appear a more glorious characteristic. 
 "Yet," according to the poet, " every one of them blamed him, 
 and said, ' Obdurate son of Peleus, your mother assuredly 
 nursed you with gall. O merciless man, seeing you retain at 
 the ships your reluctant companions.' "* To what else, espe- 
 cially when we take into consideration the severe punishment 
 with which his inexorable spirit was overtaken, except the 
 influence of Ate, could such singular obstinacy be ascribed ? 
 A person who had not carefully studied both sides of the 
 character of the Protagonist of the Iliad, might be tempted to 
 agree with the following very one-sided representation : 
 " Achilles spurned the proffers of more than justice, of more 
 even than friendship rejected the counsels of those who had 
 cherished his infancy, and imprecated ruin and death upon all 
 his friends and comrades." Again : " No one but a most 
 attentive reader can discern the almost diabolical character of 
 that perjured and vindictive traitor the Homeric Achilles." 
 Such undoubtedly was not the character of the Protagonist of 
 
 1 Iliad xvi. 200.
 
 276 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 
 
 the Iliad, in its real features ; but all these harsh terms might 
 justly be applied to him when labouring under the temporary 
 influence of Ate. 
 
 The reviewer, who denies this fact, appears to me to have 
 never comprehended the ethical system developed in the Iliad, 
 and to be himself labouring under a state of judicial blindness. 
 Even the miserable loophole which he has wrought out for 
 himself, in order to allow him to escape from the numerous 
 difficulties of his false position, will not avail him. 
 
 The poet, in the passage in which he says, " Even I have not 
 ventured to misinterpret," clearly testifies that Achilles was 
 labouring under a Jove-sent Ate. After Agamemnon had, with 
 all due ceremonies, sworn that Briseis had been treated with 
 scrupulous delicacy while an inmate of his quarters, and had 
 imprecated curses upon his own head were this not the truth, 
 Achilles arose and said : "0 Father Zeus, assuredly you give 
 great Ata3 to men : were it not for that, Atreides would never 
 so utterly have roused the spirit within my breast, nor would 
 he have led away the maiden against my will ; but Zeus, 
 whom nothing can resist, evidently willed the death of many 
 Achseans." 1 The dominion of the daughter of Zeus is here 
 described as equally extending over Agamemnon in inflicting 
 the injury, and over Achilles in imagining such injury to be 
 much greater than it was; and consequently in fostering a 
 resentment disproportionate to the real provocation. 
 
 The only Alexandrian critic whose observations upon this 
 passage have been transmitted to us, seems to have understood 
 the passage as I have expressed it. His words are : "Achilles 
 having given full credence to the king's purity of character 
 with respect to Briseis, owing to the solemn nature of his 
 oath, refers the cause of his anger to the gods." This is, after 
 all, " but an immoral and antinomian apology for the violence 
 and corruption of men's hearts." But it should be remem- 
 bered, that such imputation of evil to the Deity is in the 
 Homeric poems always made by the offend 01 * themselves, 
 1 Iliad xix. ver. 27f
 
 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 277 
 
 never by the poet, nor placed in the mouth of any god as the 
 expounder of the law. 
 
 But the author of the Iliad has placed Achilles before our 
 eyes in other striking positions, from which we can infer the 
 extent of the domination exercised by Ate over his spirit. 
 Without entering at full length into the investigation at the 
 present time, it will be sufficient to appeal to his merciless 
 treatment of the Trojan suppliants in the field to his haughty 
 boasts over his fallen foes to the complacent feelings with 
 which he contemplates the picture of the voracious inha- 
 bitants of the deep banqueting on the flesh of his victims 
 and especially to the expression of his foul wish to pollute the 
 whole fair-flowing stream of the Xanthus with the corpses of 
 the warriors who had been born and bred on its banks. The 
 poet describes Achilles as struggling against the powers of 
 nature, and as thoroughly vanquished by them, were it not for 
 the intervention of his guardian deities. This chapter in the 
 Iliad has never yet been worthily analyzed, nor the important 
 truths to be deduced from it placed before the public eye. 
 There is something inexpressibly striking in the vain efforts 
 made by the indomitable Protagonist of the Homeric drama 
 against the swelling violence of a mountain torrent, in the 
 hopeless struggle of the mightiest, swiftest, and most energetic 
 man-hero against the power of the wild elements once let 
 loose. The result of this contest is summed up briefly in the 
 following words of Achilles when baffled in the struggle : 
 " O Father Zeus, then no one of the gods undertakes to save 
 me in my compassion-deserving state from the river; and 
 what I may suffer next, I know not. But of all the heavenly 
 deities, no one is so much to be blamed by me as my own 
 mother, who infatuated me by her falsehoods. She said that 
 I was to perish under the wall of the breastplate- wearing Tro- 
 jans by the swift-flying arrows of Apollo. Would that Hector, 
 the bravest of the Trojans, had slain me ! In such a case 
 a brave man would have been the slayer, and would have 
 despoiled a brave man. But now I am destined, enclosed by
 
 278 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 
 
 this great torrent, to be overtaken by a sorry death, like a 
 swine-herding child swept away while crossing a storm-swollen 
 current." 
 
 Closely connected with this subject is the review of the 
 moral character of Achilles when tested by an appeal to the 
 Homeric code of laws, according to which the bodies of the 
 slain were to be treated. The principles of this code must 
 be examined carefully before they be applied to particular 
 cases. 
 
 In the Paschal Chronicle^ we find a curious division of the 
 human race, which is supposed to have taken place at some 
 uncertain period after the flood, into Scythism, Hellenism, arid 
 Judaism ; " and these," adds the author, " are the decided 
 and renowned mothers of all heresies." It would be useless 
 to insert here a long dissertation upon the probable origin of 
 the division. I shall, therefore, adopt it as enabling me, while 
 throwing Judaism out of consideration, to describe certain 
 doctrines concerning the treatment of dead enemies, as peculiar 
 to Scythism on the one hand, and to Hellenism on the other. 
 It would also be equally useless to swell this short essay, by 
 elaborately proving that, perhaps even from the days of Nim- 
 rod, there existed a strong and vigorous sect, which became 
 the mother of many nations which assumed force as the only 
 test of rightful supremacy erected the naked sword to the 
 honours of divinity honoured it with human sacrifices, espe- 
 cially at the funeral obsequies of a leading chief and did not 
 always escape the suspicion of partaking of the flesh and blood 
 of the victim. 
 
 Of this sect, both in Asia and Europe, the Scythians were 
 the meet representatives. These, and their co-sectaries, whe- 
 ther Persians or Parthians, Germans or Celts, treated the dead 
 bodies of their slain enemies with useless contumely, and bar- 
 barous mutilation and exposure. 
 
 It is not my intention to enter into an elaborate proof of 
 this fact, but will take it for granted that the Scythians, as 
 
 1 Page 42.
 
 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 279 
 
 described by Herodotus, used to scalp their war-captives to 
 use these same scalps, when tanned,* as hand-napkins to 
 gibbet the naked sculls or, as among the Celts and Scandi- 
 navians, to use them as drinking cups to make pyramids of 
 these same heads, like the Scythians of the East, or like savages 
 of a similar school in Western Europe to spike and erect 
 them as graceful ornaments over the most public gateways 
 and bridges. In strong contrast with the Scythian was, on 
 this point, the Hellenic school of doctrine. Its tenets were so 
 mild and so pure, that we, the Christians of modern Europe, 
 have, even to this day, been unable to persuade ourselves 
 that its very mildness ought not to be ascribed to a morbid 
 state of feeling, rather than to the dictates of a wisdom su- 
 perior to our own. Hence it is, that although the whole 
 tragic drama of Athens is deeply impregnated with the spirit 
 of the doctrine, we find it difficult to sympathize with the 
 milder and purer spirits even of the Ajax and Antigone of 
 Sophocles. For a proof of the deep impression wrought by 
 this doctrine upon the national mind of Greece, I need but 
 briefly refer to the exaggerated form which its spirit assumed 
 in that sad record of superstitious zeal, wickedly directed, 
 which ended in the legal murder of those Athenian generals 
 who had unavoidably left their fallen warriors to the mercy of 
 the winds and waves. 
 
 Still more impressive, from the simplicity with which it is 
 recorded, is Xenophon's testimony regarding the horror with 
 which any violation of the dead body was regarded. He argues 
 from the fact that Artaxerxes had mutilated the corpse of his 
 own full brother, by cutting off" his head and right hand, and 
 gibbeting them, that no mercy could be expected by those 
 mercenaries who had assisted Cyrus, and that they must resist 
 to the death. Even when, under unexampled provocation, the 
 soldiers of the Anabasis had mutilated, in order to terrify their 
 pursuers, the bodies of the slain, the pupil of Socrates tells us 
 " that such mutilation was perpetrated without orders, and 
 that it was a spontaneous act of the soldiers."
 
 280 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 
 
 The Homeric doctrine is clearly expressed in that passage 
 of the Odyssey, where Ulysses says to Etiryclea, " You will be 
 impious should you boast over the slain." 1 " Ye gods," says 
 Apollo in the Olympian assembly, " you favour the destruc- 
 tive Achilles, who has no equitable feelings, nor an exorable 
 spirit within his bosom, but is savage as a lion, which, relying 
 on his great strength and impetuous courage, assails the flocks 
 of men, that he may devour them. Thus Achilles is without 
 mercy, and without any sense of shame, * * * and, after 
 depriving him of life, drags the noble Hector at his chariot- 
 wheels round the tomb of his friend. This will not, however, 
 prove either honourable or advantageous to him, and let him 
 beware lest he excite our indignation, for in his rage he is 
 treating with contumely the senseless clod." 2 According to 
 an observation of an Alexandrian critic, the poet uses eix/& for 
 u/tyf/; but a.iv.10. is not only vfyig, but also TO a7%o?. This con- 
 tumelious conduct of Achilles is slill more emphatically con- 
 demned by Jupiter himself, who thus addresses Thetis : "Go 
 to the camp, and tell your son that the gods are angry with 
 him, and I above all the immortals, because with frantic spirit 
 he retains Hector at the ships, and has not restored him for 
 ransom." 3 An Alexandrian critic thus accounts for the strong 
 expression, /xa/vo/xm^ <pqe<n, in the following terms : "To treat 
 senseless bodies with contumely is a characteristic of 'Mania.'" 
 The poet as strongly disapproved, in his own words, of all the 
 Scythistic acts of Achilles, and characterized them by a stronger 
 word than u/3j/?, which he applied to the maltreatment which 
 Agamemnon, under the dominion of Ate, had inflicted upon 
 Achilles. When this victorious warrior, who had previously, 
 as in the case of Eetion and his sons, treated his fallen foes 
 with the honours due to the dead, for the first time polluted 
 his hands by injurious mutilation of the " senseless clod," 
 Homer observes " Then Achilles prepared to inflict contume- 
 lious treatment upon the noble Hector." 4 And it was when 
 
 1 Odyssey xxi. ver. 410. 3 Iliad \\iv. ver. 113. 
 
 3 Iliad xxiv. ver. 39. 4 Iliad xxi. ver. 393.
 
 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 281 
 
 the father had seen the results of this preparation, and the 
 dead body of his son dangling after the chariot-wheels of his 
 conqueror, that he called Achilles arK^xKog, not for chasing his 
 panic-stricken son round the walls of Troy not for slaying him 
 in combat, but for this contumelious treatment of the dead, 
 hitherto unprecedented on the part of Achilles. Still stronger 
 is the poet's own language when describing the truly Scythian 
 funeral with which Achilles honoured his slain friend. It was 
 not sufficient to send his horses and dogs as his companions 
 in death. Twelve gallant sons of high-spirited Trojans cap- 
 tured in battle, and spared for the time, were also inhumanly 
 slaughtered, and cast upon the funeral pile deeds which 
 Homer justly pronounces " evil." Now, to suppose that a 
 Homeric warrior, thus described by gods and men as " per- 
 nicious," " without mercy," " without shame," " frantic with 
 rage," and contumelious in words, and " evil" in his deeds, 
 was not under the dominion of the Homeric Ate, is "a vain 
 and fond imagination," and is a proof that the reviewer has 
 totally mistaken the ethical system developed in the Iliad, and 
 must be himself labouring under something very like the 
 influence of Ate. 
 
 With this observation I draw my remarks to a conclusion, 
 but would, before closing, call the attention not only of your- 
 self, Mr. Editor, and of your contributors, but of the rising 
 generation of classical scholars, to a fact which, as it seems 
 to me, does not appear to be duly appreciated in the learned 
 world, that the day of mere verbal scholarship has passed 
 away that the emendators of the text, and the expurgators 
 of false readings, have had their day, both of utility and re- 
 nown that even a Bentley cannot have an everlasting vocation 
 in the limited circle of ancient literature, and that the pre- 
 sent demand, the article most needed and least supplied, is a 
 judicious and learned exegesis of the generally received text 
 and that this art or, rather, science is as yet but in its 
 infancy. 
 
 You will pardon me for complacently expressing my own 
 
 36
 
 282 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 
 
 opinion, that the publication of my Homerus was a movement 
 in advance of the scholarship of the age, and that it opens a 
 wide field for future wholesome investigations. 
 
 Even since I have been an unprofitable labourer in the 
 cause, the symptoms of a rapid progress, especially in the 
 schools of Germany, have been marked. I devoutly hope that 
 the science may advance from strength to strength, until it 
 may be successfully applied to the full development of the 
 wonderful, and yet most merciful, system of God's dealing 
 with man a system revealed to us in the Holy Scriptures in 
 words, and which, beginning with Adam in the garden of 
 Eden, ends with the establishment of the Church of Christ, 
 God's own garden, upon earth. 
 
 Erasmus, when once a copy of the New Testament in Greek 
 had been fairly committed to the press, said, in the spirit of 
 the highest wisdom, " Henceforth our business is to ascertain 
 the real meaning of this precious book." Little, however, has 
 been done from that day to this, to carry the plan of Erasmus 
 into systematic execution. The work is yet to be done. 
 
 For the full perfection of the exegetic development of God's 
 own truth, I look upon the Homeric poems as necessary 
 materials. In them we see combined the might and weakness 
 of man his intellect in unrivalled vigour, his inherited prin- 
 ciples sound, his moral sense delicate, and yet all unavailing 
 for the preservation of the truth ; the moral sense vanished, 
 and the strong intellect degenerated into drivelling superstition 
 or bold blasphemy. 
 
 The same Providence which selected the Greek language for 
 the channel of the most precious communications between God 
 and man, also preserved for our use the older forms of that 
 language, "that we might the more fully understand the 
 words and sentences in which God's will is embodied." 
 " What but the power of Providence has blunted the scythe 
 of the destroyer, and handed down these volumes, not, like 
 the Scriptures, exempt from interpolations, but preserved, like 
 them, from the curtailment of an iota? "
 
 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 288 
 
 Aspice Mseonidem a quo seu fonte perenni 
 Vatum Pieriia ora rigantur aquis. 
 
 The radical difference between the school of which I am an 
 unworthy disciple, and the school of which, upon this subject, 
 the Edinburgh Review is a very Coryphaeus, seems to me to 
 be this, that I hold that the first man, as an intellectual, 
 moral, and spiritual being, as far as the spiritual work could 
 be performed on earth, had nothing to learn from experience; 
 that as a labourer in the struggle against matter, and in sub- 
 duing the earth, he had almost everything to learn ; and that 
 our triumphs over the material world triumphs daily obtained 
 will never give us individually more intellectual, moral, and 
 spiritual principles, than were possessed by him ; that your 
 school, on the contrary, expects new truths to be discovered 
 in this same field, from modern experience, and that the 
 " spirit of the age " is indeed a light from Heaven, which, 
 trusting to its own inductions, may be assumed by us as a 
 sure guide, superseding Moses, the prophets, and patriarchs, 
 and be proclaimed as the gospel of the nineteenth century. 
 
 This " spirit of the age" is no gospel, but embodies a great 
 truth, that, materially, we are fulfilling our vocation, and 
 "subduing and replenishing the earth;" but, intellectually, 
 morally, and spiritually speaking, we derive no benefit from 
 the great triumphs of modern art. Excitement, encourage- 
 ment, and enlarged power for diffusing the blessings of " the 
 knowledge from above," we undoubtedly do derive, and 
 may God grant us his grace to render our triumphs over 
 matter subservient to the spread of the truth, as embodied, 
 first, in the traditions of the patriarchs, then typified and fore- 
 told by Moses and the prophets, and finally developed in the 
 " everlasting gospel." 
 
 Farewell, Mr. Editor ; and believe me when I say, that I 
 would not have used your name as a handle to this pamphlet, 
 were it not for the hope that many might wish to see what
 
 284 PRIMITIVE TRADITION. 
 
 might be said against your review, who would not trouble 
 themselves with any explanation which, without the use of 
 such a name, I might adduce. 
 
 I have the honour to be 
 
 Yours respectfully, 
 
 JOHN WILLIAMS. 
 
 EDINBURGH ACADEMY, 
 July, 1843.
 
 THE ANTIQUITY OF CELTIC COINS. 
 
 AN inquiry into the antiquity of Celtic Coins during the 
 ante- Roman period, cannot be better commenced than with the 
 decision concerning them pronounced by Edward Hawkins, 
 Esq., Keeper of the Antiquities in the British Museum, who 
 thus speaks upon the subject : 
 
 " The nature of the money circulated in this island among 
 its earliest inhabitants has been involved in much obscurity ; 
 and of the numerous writers who have undertaken to discuss 
 the subject, all have ended their labours by an acknowledg- 
 ment that they could not satisfactorily arrive at any definite 
 expression of opinion. 
 
 " If we were to believe the interpretation commonly put 
 upon that passage from Caesar which every author has quoted, 
 we should confess, that previously to his arrival there was not 
 anything which could fairly be called money, but that the 
 dealings of the people were conducted by means of barter, aided 
 by brass or iron rings adjusted to a certain weight. This passage 
 is the only one which bears directly on the subject before us ; 
 and it unfortunately is perplexed with a variety of readings 
 much more numerous than any other passage throughout his 
 whole work. His editors not understanding the subject, and 
 misled perhaps with the idea, that, as the inhabitants of this 
 island were considered barbarians, they could not possess an 
 established currency, have selected from all the readings the 
 one probably the most incorrect. By so doing they have 
 made Caesar declare that which there is now every reason to 
 believe was untrue, and contrary to that which, in all proba- 
 bility, he really intended to assert.
 
 286 THE ANTIQUITY OF CELTIC COINS. 
 
 "There is in the British Museum a beautiful MS. of Caesar, 
 of about the tenth century, which reads the passage thus : 
 'utuntur aut sere aut nummo aureo aut annulis ferreis ad 
 certuin pondus examinatis pro nummo.' 
 
 " The reading is confirmed by several other manuscripts, 
 while some vary only very slightly ; and it may, perhaps, be 
 safely asserted, that every manuscript expressly mentions the 
 use of money, either gold or copper, as prevailing among the 
 Britons. It is only about the middle of the seventeenth 
 century that the editors of Caesar (Scaliger taking the lead) 
 corrupted^ the passage, and made that writer assert that only 
 substitutes for money were used by the natives. Facts all 
 tend to prove the general correctness of the MSS. and the 
 errors of the editors. For coins of gold, sometimes of silver, 
 and more rarely of copper, are found occasionally in various 
 parts of the island, which, from their form, fabric, and type, 
 cannot have been constructed upon any model introduced 
 subsequent to the establishment of the Romans in Britain. 
 The money of that people is rather thin, quite flat ; and such 
 would undoubtedly have been the form of British money, had 
 it been first made after the arrival of the Romans. It is, 
 however, on the contrary, thick and disked exactly after the 
 manner of the Grecian coins, and the types are such as appear 
 to have derived their origin from Macedon. That the coins 
 commonly called British have a Greek origin, is beyond all 
 doubt ; that they were struck in this island is also certain, be- 
 cause they are frequently discovered here, and not in any other 
 country ; and there is no period in its history when such coins 
 could have been introduced after the arrival of the Romans. 
 The cause appears probably to have been, that, either from 
 commercial visits of the Phoenicians or through the commu- 
 nications which must have taken place between Britain and 
 Gaul, Grecian coins became known in this island, and were 
 coarsely imitated by native artists. These were executed with 
 various degrees of want of skill, till the intercourse with the 
 Romans improved the workmanship; and as this becomes
 
 THE ANTIQUITY OF CELTIC COINS. 287 
 
 apparent, upon the coins Roman letters are introduced. Under 
 Cunobeline, British coins attained their greatest perfection, and 
 then finally disappeared ; for the Roman power became esta- 
 blished in this country, and Roman coins became the only 
 circulating medium. 
 
 " In conclusion, it may be safely asserted, that previous to 
 the invasion of Julius Caesar, in the year 55 A.C., and before 
 the Roman dominion was generally established throughout 
 the island, the Britons had a metallic currency of struck coin 
 upon a Grecian model. Julius Caesar himself, when correctly 
 read and interpreted, asserts the fact; and the actual discovery 
 of coins in various parts of the island unequivocally confirms 
 it."- Page 8. 
 
 The work of Henry Noel Humphries on Ancient Coins 
 (page 56) contains some opinions which cannot easily be har- 
 monized with any existing system, nor indeed satisfactorily 
 with each other. He teaches, in unison with the best autho- 
 rities on the subject, that the first money in circulation con- 
 sisted in pieces of metal of a fixed weight, without bearing any 
 stamp ; but when it was found in practice, that such pieces 
 did not always correspond with each other, certains kings, 
 states, and communities, affixed to them a stamp representing 
 some symbol revered as sacred by such authorities, and ori- 
 ginally, that only one face of the coin received the impression, 
 while the reverse was merely disfigured by the mark of the 
 punch, which was used to keep the piece of metal in its place 
 while it was being hammered down into the die. That the 
 more ancient coins, whether Lydian or Grecian, are all of 
 this character, and that coins inscribed with letters, whether 
 single, double, or triple, were not equally ancient. Yet, when 
 he comes to speak of Celtic coins, he thus expresses his 
 opinions : 
 
 " I, therefore, speak here only of such Gaulish coins as may 
 be considered native. It appears that the art of coinage, find- 
 ing its way northwards through Macedonia and Thrace, must 
 have, at a very early period, found its way into Transalpine
 
 288 THE ANTIQUITY OF CELTIC COINS. 
 
 Gaul, and even Switzerland, a few rude coins being known 
 which appear to be barbarous copies of the early Grecian 
 coinage, at the time when an impression was only produced 
 on one side, the other being occupied by the mark of the rude 
 punch, by the blow of which the impression had been pro- 
 duced on the obverse. Some gold British coins belonging to 
 the same early mode of fabric, inasmuch as they have only 
 one perfect side, have recently been discovered. The early 
 coins of Gaul have lately occupied much of the attention of 
 French archaeologists, and considerable light is likely to be 
 thrown by their aid upon the state of the country previous to 
 the appearance of the Romans. From recent researches it 
 would seem that the ancient Gaulish coins do not all present 
 mere copies of Grecian or, rather, Macedonian types, as had 
 been previously taught, but that coins of a strictly national 
 character also existed of many varieties, and that these are 
 found as far north as Holland. * * * Some of an earlier 
 date present the carious mode of fabric peculiar to some of 
 the coins of Magna Gra3cia ; that is to say, the incused back, 
 or the same subject struck in hollow at the back that appears 
 in relief on the front. One such is described in the Revue 
 Numismatique for 1842 (page 165), which must belong to a 
 period at least four, if not five, centuries previous to the 
 Christian era." 
 
 According to the theory of Mr. Hawkins, the Gaulish coins 
 of the best formation were imitations of the gold staters of 
 Philip the Second, the son of Amyntas and father of Alexander 
 the Great, which were probably introduced in abundance into 
 Gaul in consequence of the victorious conquests in Thrace and 
 Greece of those Gauls who invaded the East at the close of the 
 third century before Christ. That these imitations, becoming 
 gradually worse and worse in the hands of native artists, 
 passed over from Gaul into Britain, where they were copied 
 by still inferior artists, who eventually struck such coins as 
 only bore a remote likeness to the Macedonian type, but pre-
 
 THE ANTIQUITY OF CELTIC COINS. 289 
 
 scnting undoubted marks of original identity to the practised 
 eye of the numismatic connoisseur. 
 
 In support of this theory, he selected certain specimens of 
 British coinage from the collection of coins in the British 
 Museum, and had them engraved in his work. 
 
 The first specimen chosen for this purpose is a gold coin, 
 thus described by Mr. Hawkins : 
 
 "Ob. Ahorse with various ornaments. Rev. Convex, plain, 
 96 grains. This coin was found in Kent. There is little 
 doubt but that a biga is intended to be represented, copied, 
 each worse than its predecessor, from the gold coins of Philip 
 ofMacedon." (Coin No. 1.) 
 
 On the contrary, should I be guided by my own judgment, 
 and by observation of those marks which are laid down by 
 the best authorities as our best guides in ascertaining the 
 relative antiquity of coins, I should at once pronounce that 
 the British coin must be referred to a much earlier period 
 than that of Philip of Macedon. The convex or gibbous form 
 of the reverse, the want on it of all impressions, and, above all, 
 the absence of letters, seem to point out that era in Britain 
 when it was not deemed lawful to consign any words, however 
 sacred, to the custody of letters. 
 
 When I add, that the supposed figure of the biga is partly 
 made up of symbols which, both separately and conjointly, 
 are found on various other coins both in Britain and Gaul, it 
 becomes very probable that the intention of the artist was to 
 produce certain symbols emblematic of some mysterious doc- 
 trines of his countrymen, rather than to imitate the biga of a 
 Macedonian artist. His eyes were too familiar with the war- 
 chariot of his people to suppose that he could successfully re- 
 present it by the fragments of a figure which might be com- 
 posed into the form of a horse : such a horse has come down 
 to our own times, in the well-known fragmentary delineation 
 on a chalk surface, which is commonly called the Yorkshire 
 White Horse. 
 
 I do not deny that certain ancient coins found in France, 
 
 37
 
 290 THE ANTIQUITY OF CELTIC COINS. 
 
 and believed to be the work of native artists, are undoubted 
 imitations of the Philippian stater; but I cannot allow the 
 reasonableness of the argument by which it is attempted to 
 be proved that the British coins, which bear the strongest 
 marks of a high antiquity, owe their origin to such imitations 
 imported at some unknown period into Britain. 
 
 These coins, of which a very large deposit was discovered 
 in Carnbre, in Cornwall, and of which Dr. Borlase has de- 
 scribed several gold specimens which had fallen into his hands, 
 seem especially British in character, and to have imitated some 
 ancient Greek prototype in the fineness of the material, and its 
 circular form, size, and weight. But hitherto no attempt of a 
 successful nature has been made to classify British coins, and 
 still less success is likely to attend any future attempt, as long 
 as the numismatic world is content to accept as decisive the 
 following conclusions : 
 
 1. That the most barbarously executed British coins are for 
 the most part the latest. 
 
 2. That, if the Britons had a coinage of their own previously 
 to the arrival of Caesar, the fact is not proved by existing 
 examples. 
 
 The French writers, who have within the last twenty years 
 laboured so diligently and successfully in the numismatic field, 
 have had to struggle with difficulties natural from the triple 
 source whence various Gaulish coins took their origin. First, 
 from the Phocean colony at Massilia, which has left numerous 
 specimens of its mintage from the time of its foundation down 
 to the Roman imperial rule. The coins ascribed to Massilia 
 by the best French authorities are divided into several epochs. 
 Those supposed to have been the earliest are all of silver, 
 having their reverses marked merely by " rude cavities " or 
 rude indented squares, and without any lettered inscriptions. 
 The favourite types are seals, lions, griffins, and heads assigned 
 to the Ephesian Diana. These may be fairly deemed repre- 
 sentatives of the coinage of the mother city at the time of the 
 foundation of the colony. The second source was the Mace-
 
 THE ANTIQUITY OF CELTIC COINS. 291 
 
 donian mintage of Philip of Macedon, whose gold coin with a 
 laurelled head of Apollo, having for its reverse a biga and the 
 driver, served as the favourite model which Gallic artists strove 
 in vain to copy accurately. The third source was the Roman 
 denarius, being the well-known consular or family coins, which, 
 after the establishment of the province in the south-eastern 
 part of Gaul, became current there, and were naturally imitated 
 by the neighbouring states. 
 
 In consequence of the difficulties arising from this triple 
 source, Mr. Lambert, keeper of the Public Library at Bayeux, 
 and an esteemed numismatician, wrote, some twelve years ago, 
 an essay on the subject, in which he confined his researches to 
 the ancient coins of the north-west of France. He states, at 
 the commencement of the essay, that it was his intention to 
 confine himself to " the types and classification of Armorican 
 coins, and also of some others, which have been found for the 
 most part between the Seine and the Loire an area within 
 which are principally to be found those coins so remarkable for 
 dimensions and a character which clearly place a distinction 
 between them and all other coins." 
 
 Acting within this confined sphere, Mr. Lambert believes 
 that he can establish three distinct periods of coinage among 
 the Armorican nations, which he thus classifies : 
 
 First period, placed by him about 300 B.C., and which he 
 extends to the year 278 B.C. He divides this very short period 
 into three classes. 
 
 The second period commences with the imitation of the 
 Macedonian stater, and is extended to the year 100 B.C. He 
 divides this period into four distinct classes, during the third 
 of which he supposes what he calls the Armorican Coin sys- 
 tem, to have been established. This system is characterized 
 by the figure of the Androcephalous horse, a symbol peculiar 
 to the states placed within this limited area. The coins of 
 these two periods are what he calls Mute, that is, have no 
 letters inscribed upon them. 
 
 The third period, commencing with the year 100 B.C., ex-
 
 292 THE ANTIQUITY OF CELTIC COINS. 
 
 tends to the abolition of all Gallic coinage under Tiberius, and 
 is called by him the Epigraphic period, during which the 
 Roman influence began to prevail, and finally introduced the 
 Denarial system, and the letters commonly called Latin. Mr. 
 Lambert concludes his essay in the following manner : 
 
 " Mr. Lelewel, in his curious and scientific work, has clearly 
 brought out one remarkable and astonishing fact, that among 
 the mass of the known epigraphic coins, the produce of three 
 hundred states, there are only forty localities which are in- 
 scribed at length. Some coins present abbreviations, showing 
 only first letters or syllables ; about a dozen of these abbre- 
 viations have been explained, and, if you add the names of 
 Greek cities in the south of Gaul, there will still be found the 
 names of only sixty localities, out of the immense number of 
 nations, states, cities, towns, and cantons. The religious in- 
 fluence of the Druids had thus smitten with their own mute- 
 ness the whole Gallic coinage, up to its very termination. 
 
 " It is evident," continues Mr. Lambert, " that inscribed 
 coins were imported from Greece, and implanted in Southern 
 Gaul, by the colonists who had settled there. Certain towns 
 began to inscribe in Greek characters their own name. These 
 inscriptions received successive modifications up to the time 
 when the introduction of Roman coins became common, and 
 the Greek were replaced by Latin inscriptions. It was never 
 intended in this work to follow up in detail all the changes in 
 Gallic epigraphy ; those who wish to make these a particular 
 study should have recourse to the work of the distinguished 
 Pole quoted by me. It is full of rich research, and of lumi- 
 nous views worthy of the deepest attention. 
 
 " My mission is not so general, because the country which 
 I had principally to explore is that portion of Gaul which on 
 this point is darkest of all, as the Tractus Armoricanus is the 
 abode of silence and the most complete mutism. In fact, 
 with the exception of some states situated near the mouth of 
 the Seine, who inscribed their names upon their money, it is 
 impossible to produce any inscribed coins which can be re-
 
 THE ANTIQUITY OF CELTIC COINS. 293 
 
 ferred to the occupiers of Armorica as far south as the mouth 
 of the Loire. Coins bearing the name of the people have 
 never been found among the Viducasses, the Biocasses, the 
 Unelli, the Abrincates, the Redones, the Curiosolites, the 
 Osismii, the Corisopites, the Veneti, and the Namnites. The 
 very small number of inscribed coins to be found in this 
 country belong either to other districts or to unknown Gallic 
 chiefs. 
 
 " It necessarily results, from a fact so well proved by the 
 numerous discoveries of mute pieces in gold and electrum, in 
 silver or bullion, made at various epochs within the limits of 
 ancient Armorica, that this province never admitted inscrip- 
 tions on their coins. The money which circulated among 
 these nations during the third must have been coined in the 
 course of the second period. The long-continued currency of 
 the coins, notwithstanding the vigour of the impression and 
 the durability of the material, is sufficiently indicated by the 
 worn state of most of the specimens." 
 
 The striking fact thus brought to light by Mr. Lambert, of 
 the persistence of the Armorican states in abstaining from the 
 use of letters on their coins at the time when so many of the 
 other Gallic states, and even the "veteres Galli" of Central 
 Gaul, had violated the Druidical tradition, and adopted lettered 
 inscriptions, proves the singular tenacity with which the occu- 
 piers of those regions adhered to their national faith and 
 observances, and refused to become Roman provincials. It 
 also proves that the abstinence from the use of inscriptions 
 did not arise from a want of acquaintance with alphabetical 
 characters, but from the policy which Caesar so distinctly 
 ascribes to the Druids of reserving to their own order all 
 literary knowledge. 
 
 Now, it is to be remembered that the Veneti whom Caesar 
 found in possession of the Armorican ^ysfjiovia were a people 
 far advanced in the arts of peace, workers in metal so skilful 
 that they used as cables chains of wrought iron, and carried 
 on a widely extended commerce between the Continent and
 
 294 THE ANTIQUITY OF CELTIC COINS. 
 
 Great Britain, in ships admirably constructed for the purpose 
 of surmounting the dangers of a boisterous ocean, with its 
 rapid tides and deceitful currents. 
 
 When we see that a people, who, from, their commercial 
 habits, must have had a familiar knowledge of both the Roman 
 and Greek alphabet, persisted so obstinately in refusing to 
 impress them upon their public monuments, one is tempted 
 to believe that other nations, better known to us from earlier 
 ages, might have been induced, by other causes than the non- 
 possession of an alphabet, to act in accordance with a similar 
 policy, and to pursue similar practices. 
 
 Croesus was thoroughly conversant with letters, and could 
 order despatches, sealed and written, to be conveyed to him at 
 Sardis from distant localities, and yet not a single letter is 
 visible on any of the Lydian coins, ascribed either to him or 
 his ancestors. Darius, the son of Hystaspes, is known to 
 have recorded on the rocks of Upper Asia, many of his great 
 achievements; but on the coins called after his name, and 
 which are supposed to have been intended for circulation 
 among his Hellenic subjects in Lower Asia, no inscription is 
 to be found. To come nearer to the point : all the earliest 
 coins of Athens, Thebes, and ^Egina, &c., are unlettered ; and 
 even the coins of Massilia, assigned by the French numis- 
 matists to the first epoch, are as silent and mute as the speci- 
 mens of the Armorican mint ; and, as the earliest pieces of the 
 colony of Massilia were not lettered, it may safely be inferred 
 that the first coins of the mother city Phocoea were in a 
 similar condition. 
 
 Even granting that the gold pieces of Central Gaul were 
 generally imitations of the Macedonian stater, it must be ad- 
 mitted that the officers of the Armorican mints, while borrow- 
 ing the biga, resolutely rejected the letters which formed so 
 conspicuous a feature on the reverse of the Philippus, and 
 thus kept to the last their coins in a state of Druidical purity. 
 
 The same Armoricans distinguished themselves above all 
 members of the Gallic race, by the preservation of the mega-
 
 THE ANTIQUITY OF CELTIC COINS. 295 
 
 litliic structures with which their peninsula is studded, and 
 which remain to this day, imperishable monuments of the 
 skill and power of their ancestors. 
 
 The men who built them entered Gaul on its ocean side, 
 and gradually spread inland, by following the course of the 
 Seine and Loire up to their sources. Each bank of both 
 rivers, and the space enclosed within them, together with the 
 whole maritime coast from the mouth of the Garonne to that 
 of the Somme, include, almost without exception, all the mega- 
 lithic structures in Gaul worthy of inspection. 
 
 One of the strongest contrasts presented by history is in 
 the different fate which attended the efforts of the Greeks to 
 settle themselves in the Eastern and the Western world. In 
 the West they established colonies in times long anterior to 
 the commencement of profane history, and, while developing 
 Hellenic characteristics, covered Italy Proper and Sicily with 
 cities whose wealth, population, and civilization, were immea- 
 surably superior to all that the inhabitants of the Vale of the 
 Tiber, and of the Seven Hills of Rome, could display ; and yet, 
 within a period comparatively short, they, as it were, miracu- 
 lously lost their superiority, and finally ceased to exercise any 
 direct influence on the fate of the Western world. In the 
 East, on the contrary, after a long and unequal struggle with 
 the powerful dynasty of the Persian AchaBmenidae, they not 
 only regained the ascendency which they had partially lost, 
 but actually conquered, and so completely Hellenized,the whole 
 of Asia west of the Euphrates, that, when the seat of the 
 Roman government was transferred from the banks of the 
 Tiber to the shores of the Bosphorus, the Romans became, 
 first in character and language, and finally in name, also 
 Greeks, who still have sufficient life and activity to disturb, if 
 not to rule, the world. 
 
 Far too much influence in the history of the Western world 
 has been attributed to the establishment in the south of Gaul, 
 of the Phocaean colonies, who never succeeded in spreading 
 their settlements from the maritime districts to any locality
 
 296 THE ANTIQUITY OF CELTIC COINS. 
 
 distant from the shores. In fact, had not the Romans, for 
 political reasons, taken them under their own protection, they 
 must have succumbed under the attacks of the neighbouring 
 nations, to whom they were unequal in the open field. 
 
 The entrance of Roman armies into that department of 
 Gaul, about a century and a half B.C., the settlement of Roman 
 colonies at Aquae Sextiae, Narbo Martius, and Nemausus, to- 
 gether with the reduction of the whole country into the form 
 of a province, cut off Massilia from all actual contact with 
 the inland states, and brought the Romans into close connec- 
 tion with the Arverni and the ^Edui, who not only claimed 
 to be, but were permitted to call themselves, " brothers and 
 kinsmen" of the Roman people. 
 
 The effect of this closer intercourse upon Gallic institutions, 
 and even on their religious practices, was seen in the emis- 
 sion, both by individuals and by states, of coins bearing legends 
 in manifest violation of a Druidical canon. Mr. Lambert 
 supposes that this practice commenced about 100 B.C. ; Mr. 
 Lelewel would wish to place the introduction of the novelty 
 some half a century sooner. It must have accompanied, or 
 soon followed, the rejection of the Greek and the adoption of 
 the Roman money system, as the standard of the circulating 
 medium in Gaul. But the instances do not seem to have 
 been numerous before the arrival of Julius Caesar in Gaul, 
 who, during his ten years of command, despoiled the people 
 not only of their liberty and independence, but of their 
 national faith and religion, for which, however, he had nothing 
 better to substitute. Most of the inscribed coins discovered 
 in France are assigned either to contemporaries of the great 
 Gallic conqueror, or to their successors in the next age; a few 
 may belong to an earlier generation or two. Letters on coins 
 were adopted in Gallia Proper by the Arverni, ^Edui, Sequani, 
 Helvetii, the Turones, the Andecavi, the three tribes named 
 Aulerci, the Caletes, the Veliocasses, the Lexovii; and in 
 Belgium, by the Atrebates, Eburoues Mediomatrici, the Nervii,
 
 THE ANTIQUITY OF CELTIC COINS. 297 
 
 and the Treveri. Of these, the Caletes alone have inscriptions, 
 both in Greek and Latin characters. 
 
 Now, it is not very natural to believe that the ancient 
 Britons, who have left such abundance of coins, both inscribed 
 and free from any letter, whether Greek or Latin, should have 
 reversed the process followed by all other nations, and have 
 commenced with inscribed, and have terminated with mute 
 specimens have begun with the more perfect, and ended with 
 the rudest forms. 
 
 This theory cannot be true ; we must, therefore, wait until 
 the British coins both published and unpublished, both in- 
 scribed and uninscribed are placed before us in a more intel- 
 ligible form than they are at present. There is every reason 
 to believe that the Armorican communities were closely con- 
 nected with the South- Western Britons, in blood, language, 
 and religion, and that the latter sympathized with their conti- 
 nental kinsmen in their aversion to adopt inscriptions on their 
 coins, which, nevertheless, in an unlettered state, might have 
 circulated amongst them from a very early age. 
 
 The inscribed coins of Britain may perhaps have all been 
 struck subsequent to the first invasion of the Romans ; for 
 had it been the practice in the time of Cassivelaunus to in- 
 scribe the names of chiefs upon the coins, we should naturally 
 expect to find his name still visible ; but it does not appear on 
 any well-authenticated piece. The same is the case with the 
 Suesson Divitiacus, who, as we are told by Caesar, was in a pre- 
 ceding age king paramount over some parts of Great Britain. 
 
 Probably letters were first inscribed on British coins by 
 Commius, the Atrebatian, the friend and king client of Cassar, 
 who had intimate relations with his Belgian kinsmen in 
 Britain, and had served under Caesar during both his inva- 
 sions of the island. He survived the Caesarian wars in Gaul, 
 and is supposed to have struck coins bearing his name, which 
 have been found on both sides of the Channel. The conti- 
 nental silver coin stamped Com. is universally ascribed to him, 
 and the British specimens to supposed sons of his. 
 
 38
 
 298 THE ANTIQUITY OF CELTIC COINS. 
 
 King Cunobelin seems to have exerted all his influence in 
 order to Romanize his subjects by other means, and also by 
 adopting not only Roman letters, but also the Latin language 
 on his coins. He thus paved the way for the conquest of his 
 dominions and the death and capture of his sons, who were 
 unable successfully to repel an invasion far less formidable 
 than that conducted by the great Julius against their pre- 
 decessor Cassivelaunus. 
 
 An examination of the various symbols impressed on the 
 Gallic uninscribed coins has been conducted with great skill 
 and caution by Mr. Lambert, and serves to throw new light 
 upon the theology of the Pelasgian race in earlier times, before 
 temple priests and poets, skilled in art, had peopled heaven 
 with new denizens, whose beauty, wisdom, and power, embo- 
 died in the human form, tended not to raise man to heaven, 
 but to bring down the gods to earth. 
 
 The time has not yet arrived for undertaking a similar 
 examination of the British unlettered coins, and of instituting 
 a comparison between their symbols and those of ancient 
 Gaul and Greece. I agree with Mr. Lambert in holding that 
 the famous coin of Philip of Macedon had no reference to 
 any Olympic victory, but bore on its face religious symbols 
 which could easily be recognized in countries which still pre- 
 served the purer traditions. Plutarch's authority on the 
 question has no weight, as he was much fonder of retailing 
 scandalous anecdotes than of inquiring into the truth of them. 
 The chariot races in the Roman Circus were not derived from 
 Elis, but were transmitted from the earliest times, as a neces- 
 sary part of a great religious drama which was connected with 
 the ancient doctrines respecting the revolutions of the heavenly 
 bodies. It would be very difficult to prove that the elegant 
 coin of Syracuse, which is supposed to have been copied from 
 the biga of Philip of Macedon, had not, on the contrary, served 
 as a model to the Macedonian artist, who might easily have 
 omitted the Sicilian triquetra. (See Coin, No. 2.) 
 
 There is an archaic coin of Syracuse which exhibits on the
 
 THE ANTIQUITY OP CELTIC COINS. 299 
 
 reverse the punch-mark, impressed with a small head of 
 Proserpine (see Coin, No. 3) ; on the obverse it has a figure 
 conducting a biga. It is generally assigned to the end of the 
 fifth century, about 490 B.C., long before Philip the Second 
 ascended the Macedonian throne. 
 
 There is another rare coin of Syracuse (see Coin, No. 4). 
 " It is," writes Noel Humphreys, " of a curious and interesting 
 period of archaic Sicilian art, and is one of the earliest speci- 
 mens of a complete coin, when the punch with which the 
 reverse was struck had become a perfect die like that of the 
 obverse. In this instance, the small head of Proserpine in 
 the punch-mark of the preceding piece has become a large 
 and well-executed head, surrounded by dolphins, one of the 
 principal emblems of the Syracusans, and has the full inscrip- 
 tion. It now forms the obverse, while the biga is removed 
 to the reverse. It is supposed to be of the period of Gelo I., 
 who died 478 before Christ." 
 
 Should any one compare the figure of the driver on this 
 coin with the Macedonian auriga, he will clearly see that the 
 latter was borrowed from the former. Above the horses hovers 
 a winged female, and below them there is a lion running. 
 
 The " bigati stateres " of Philip presented to the Western 
 world no new religious symbols, but such as were long before 
 looked upon as sacred, and had been impressed upon Sicilian 
 coins while the intercourse between the Greeks of Sicily with 
 the southern provinces of Gaul was, as yet, free from the 
 hostile prohibitions of Carthage. 
 
 It is true that the staters presented the original symbols in 
 a less corrupted form than that in which they appear in the 
 Syracusan coins ; and that might have been one reason why 
 the Druids of Gaul had so eagerly adopted them, both as cur- 
 rent coins and as models for imitation. But this was done 
 in violation of the primary rules of their religion, which re- 
 quired the absence of all engraved figures and letters from all 
 their public monuments. The imitations of the figures were 
 soon followed by the introduction of inscriptions upon the
 
 300 THE ANTIQUITY OF CELTIC COINS. 
 
 coins of all the states who were in a hurry to become 
 Romans. 
 
 The Armoricans alone, who had admitted the figures, refused 
 to adopt the letters, and, as I firmly believe, altogether re- 
 nounced the art of coining as a culpable innovation and incom- 
 patible with their religious principles, and that their example 
 on this point was followed by their co-religionists in Great 
 Britain. Without admitting this, it would be impossible to ac- 
 count for the non-appearance of Celtic coins in Ireland, where 
 the Druidical body found a safe asylum from Roman perse- 
 cution, and where they so successfully organized that Celtic 
 party which eventually drove the Romans from Great Britain. 
 
 The symbols on the famous Macedonian coin were extremely 
 simple, and of a primitive character. The laurelled head of 
 Apollo was the type of the material sun, which itself was sup- 
 posed to be the best representative of the one creative spirit ; 
 and the biga and its driver represented the moon, which, in 
 its turn, was supposed to be a sufficient type of the Duad, or 
 the passive principle, which Greek philosophers named <pu<r/, 
 and the Latins natura, and which mythology has designated 
 by a thousand myths. It was, however, as movers, and as the 
 two visible sources of light, that they were supposed princi- 
 pally to cause life and generation, as being those 
 
 Ccelo qui ducitus annum, 
 
 and brought on in regular order the four seasons, and the 
 other changes of which the creating spirit had made them the 
 instruments most apparent to man. The carmen s&culare of 
 Horace embodies the popular ideas respecting the worship 
 and praise due r to the two great luminaries, for the benefits 
 which they were supposed to confer upon mankind, and forms 
 one of the best hymns composed by the Roman muse. 
 
 But the Druids of Gaul did not long content themselves 
 with the mythical symbols impressed upon the Macedonian 
 coin. They innovated greatly upon the original design. And 
 here again let Mr. Lambert speak for himself (p. 69) : 
 
 " But this state of things did not continue long, since we
 
 THE ANTIQUITY OF CELTIC COINS. 301 
 
 discover at an early period the biga reduced to a single horse, 
 and the conductress exchanging her whip or goad for certain 
 mysterious symbols. Then commences the veritable transforma- 
 tion. The conducting guide, having quitted the car, places 
 herself above the steed (see Coin, No. 5), and seems to whirl 
 through space as an ethereal traveller ; sometimes it assumes 
 the form of a simple horseman armed with sword and buckler 
 (see Coin, No. 6), and rapidly gallops along, until at last it is 
 replaced by the eagle (Coin, No. 7), the emblem of swiftness, 
 or even by a dragon (Coin, No. 8). 
 
 " I have already said that Selene, the conductress of the 
 moon, is seen on certain Gallic coins. All know that the 
 ancients regarded her as a divinity, and that the Greeks raised 
 altars to her. In the eighth Orphic Hymn she is described 
 as the guide of peaceful nights ; but her name is only one of 
 the epithets of Diana, commissioned to give light to the world 
 during the night Diana Lucifera or Phaesphorus is the same 
 as the moon. She is the sister of Helios, or the sun, and is 
 represented as sitting in a car 
 
 et tuas lente 
 Kemeare bigas, pallida Phoebe. 
 
 "It is commonly believed, on the testimony of Plutarch, that 
 the gold coin of Philip had its origin in the Olympic victories 
 of that prince. But is it certain that Plutarch was not mis- 
 taken on the subject ? There may, perhaps, be some reason to 
 suspect this, when we look at the beautiful Philippian stater in 
 the king's cabinet (see Coin, No. 2), having on one side the 
 laurelled head of Apollo ; and on the other a figure in a biga, 
 holding in her right hand a baguette, and in her left the reins, 
 and having below a radiant head of the sun. It will probably 
 be objected to us, that here the head of the sun is a mint 
 variety, as on the other specimens there are to be found a 
 thunderbolt, a victory, a diota, the flower of the Balaustium, a 
 helmet, and the triquetra. I can, however, quote in support 
 of my own opinion, a fragment of beautiful Gallo-Roman 
 pottery, red and fine, picked up among the ruins of the ancient
 
 302 
 
 THE ANTIQUITY OF CELTIC COINS. 
 
 city of the Viducasses at Vieux, near Caen, on which is seen 
 Diana Luna mounted on a biga directing the two steeds, pre- 
 ceded by the evening star. This appears to me to approxi- 
 mate closely to the Philippian coin, and I give a representation 
 of both of them side by side, that they may be better compared. 
 
 However that may be, I feel myself authorized in concluding, 
 that was the way in which the Druids understood the type 
 on the Macedonian coin, because I can now produce a hand- 
 some gold coin (see Coin, No. 9) from the cabinet of Mr. 
 Drouot of Mans, which, with the laurelled head of Apollo on 
 one side, presents on the other a single horse conducted by 
 a figure with a fantastic head, having below a circle with rays, 
 thus indicating the advance of the noctural luminary to replace 
 the light of the setting sun. This intention of the Gallic 
 artist cannot be mistaken, seeing he has placed above the 
 horse's ears a crescent, in order to complete the myth." 
 
 But the Druids, as we are distinctly told by Strabo, were 
 not only professors of natural philosophy, but also moral 
 teachers. They held with the true philosophers, that there was
 
 THE ANTIQUITY OF CELTIC COINS. 303 
 
 nothing great in creation but man, nothing great in man but 
 his soul, which never died. When they, therefore, adopted 
 symbols as mute teachers, which spake not but to the initiated, 
 they wanted something more than the Hellenic symbol of 
 0u<r/e or natura, personified under a myriad of names. They, 
 therefore, fixed upon a symbol of human nature which alone 
 was capable of moral treatment, and expressed it by convert- 
 ing the two horses of the biga into one, to which they gave 
 the human face, that no doubt might be entertained as to its 
 real mythical character. The animal propensities of human 
 nature are represented by the equine body, and his rational 
 powers and moral capacity by the human head. They no less 
 clearly indicated the mythical character of the Hellenic con- 
 ductress, by changing it into various forms, and removing it 
 into a higher region external to the symbolized figure, thus 
 teaching that, if human nature is to be properly guided and 
 restrained in its course, it must move in obedience to the 
 guidance of a superior intelligence, and to the influence of a 
 wisdom from above. On some coins the conducting figure is 
 altogether removed from the face of the coin, and only hands 
 holding the reins are presented to the eye. This necessity 
 of superhuman aid, actually taught that there were also 
 superhuman enemies which human nature alone could not 
 successfully resist. 
 
 Mr. Lambert, who confounds the mythic horse with the 
 celestial guide, did not see this. Nevertheless, he writes very 
 much to the purpose : 
 
 " It is but natural to admit, that from the moment when that 
 Druidic thought was first expressed upon the coins, the next 
 step would be to ascribe to it the character of a victorious 
 divinity successfully combating against malignant influences, 
 consequently the genius of evil, a species of Typhon, the symbol 
 of darkness opposed to light, was depicted on the coins as an 
 armed being, sometimes with wings, always overthrown and 
 trampled under the feet of the Androcephalous figure ugli- 
 ness, leanness, and monstrous forms, were usually assigned to
 
 304 THE ANTIQUITY OF CELTIC COINS. 
 
 the personified Typhon. These characteristics can be easily 
 recognized on the coins of the Cenomanni and Andecavi. The 
 evil genius lies on the ground opposed to the beneficent Deity, 
 who is in the skies. He is the evil principle or matter. 
 
 " Typhceus, who is undoubtedly the Greek representative of 
 the Egyptian Typhon, united, according to Apollodorus, the 
 limbs and figures of men and wild beasts ; other ancient 
 authors describe him as winged or covered with feathers. 
 He is thus exactly represented on some gold coins of the 
 Cenomani.'' 
 
 These Gallic coins contain numerous other symbolical 
 figures, which not only throw a flood of light upon the esoteric 
 doctrines of the Druids, but serve to prove that the great pri- 
 mary truths of religion, such as we find them expressed in the 
 Book of Job, were from the earliest period known to the priests 
 and rulers of the Celtic race. But they, like the sages of other 
 nations, although " professing themselves wise, became fools, 
 and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image 
 made like to corruptible man, and to birds and four-footed 
 beasts and reptiles." In their vain imaginations, they repre- 
 sented the divine intelligence by which this world is governed, 
 not only by a human being, but also by an eagle and a dragon, 
 which on the coins are found occupying the place of the my- 
 thical conductress, and, like her, holding the rein of the Andro- 
 cephalous figure. Her place is also occupied by the symbol 
 S or oi , which is continually found in all parts of Gallic coins, 
 and is supposed to indicate the revolutions of the sun and 
 moon. Here also, according to Lambert, the Isiac Bark is dis- 
 tinctly seen in the hands of the conductress, borne along in its 
 heavenly course, who at other times holds also in her hands the 
 mystic key and sacred peplum. Here, also, are to be found the 
 eye, emblematic of Divine Providence ; the lyre, of celestial 
 harmony and various types of the solar ray, among which the 
 figure V or ^ is conspicuous. " The symbols," says Mr. Lam- 
 bert, " which accompany this figure all tend to make us believe 
 that it is only another symbol of the luminous ray. In fact, by
 
 THE ANTIQUITY OF CELTIC COINS. 305 
 
 what accessories is this type attended ? By globes, by radiant 
 stars, by spoked wheels, by circles simple and concentric, and 
 half-circles. I believe that there is a close affinity between 
 all these various emblems which occur in characterizing the 
 solar divinity, in a manner easy to be recognized by the ini- 
 tiated, but well calculated to baffle all attempts on the part of 
 the profane to decipher the unknown signs." 
 
 " The Druids," wrote Caesar, " prelect at large on the stars 
 and their motion, on the size of the universe and of the earth, 
 on natural philosophy, and the force and power of the im- 
 mortal gods, and transmit their doctrines to their youthful 
 disciples." 
 
 These doctrines, whether true or false, were held tenaciously 
 by the Armoricans and their allies in Britain until the advent of 
 our Saviour ; and the disciples of their school were far better 
 prepared to receive the glad tidings of the Gospel than any 
 other people then living. Missionaries of the apostolical age 
 found willing hearers among the disciples of the Druids in 
 Britain, and willingly received the tidings of salvation. 
 
 By the Church, then established in Great Britain, was pre- 
 served, amidst all trials and persecutions, the faith, pure and 
 undefiled. Nor did the Britons think it incompatible with 
 that faith to keep their own time-honoured traditions and 
 ancient tongue ; and well is it for the true history of mankind 
 that they did so, as we can, by the help of the monuments, 
 written and unwritten, connected with their race, break through 
 that wall of darkness which the vanity or wickedness of the 
 Greeks of History built up between themselves and the past, 
 and see what kind of men were those primeval people who 
 brought into Europe, among other patriarchal inheritances, the 
 knowledge of a pure religion and of the one true God, and 
 whose children, nevertheless, abused this knowledge, gradually 
 concealed it from the public eye, and substituted for it that 
 abominable system which we denominate the Greek Mythology. 
 
 The series of Gallic coins served to illustrate the language 
 and literature of the Cumri on most important points ; and 
 
 39
 
 306 THE ANTIQUITY OF CELTIC COINS. 
 
 much that was dark and obscure in the mystic poems of 
 Taliessin and other bards, when read by the light of the coins, 
 became intelligible ; but these illustrations will require further 
 research before they can be submitted to the public. 
 
 A comparison of a greater number of the uninscribed coins 
 of the Britons than are at present within my reach, both with 
 each other and with the Gallic coins belonging to the same 
 class, must be instituted before they can be satisfactorily 
 classified. 
 
 It seems, however, certain that all those gold coins found in 
 various parts of Great Britain, and which have an impression 
 only on one side, must be referred to a much older date than 
 any pieces which bear inscriptions, and can in no way derive 
 their origin either from the Macedonian biga or a Roman 
 denarius. An examination of all the tin coins (see Coins, 
 Nos. 10 and 11) would be very desirable, as probably they 
 may be still older than even these gold pieces of ancient fabric 
 and unborrowcd types. 
 
 The Pentagon on a Greek Coin.
 
 A FEW OBSERVATIONS 
 
 ON 
 
 CERTAIN VERY ANCIENT TRADITIONS AMONG 
 CERTAIN PRIMITIVE NATIONS. 
 
 IN reading the second volume of the Life of the late learned 
 and lamented Carnhuanawc, I came upon a striking passage 
 contained in a letter written by him in the year 1840, to the 
 lady who has ably written his life, and edited his literary 
 remains. She had requested him to give her all the informa- 
 tion he could command respecting Druidism. His answer, 
 after professing his own difficulties, and almost total ignorance 
 of the subject, thus proceeds : 
 
 " I ought to inform you there is one person living who professes to be a 
 Druid, and to have received the secret of the order from his father and others, 
 and he is Mr. Taliessin Williams, of Merthyr Tydfil, son of lolo Morganwg, 
 and he is the only one of the order now surviving. He is as secret and mys- 
 terious as Abaris himself could have been, if Abaris was a Druid. All that 
 he will say is, that Davies and all the rest knew nothing about the matter, 
 and he says that he himself was, for twenty years, under a sort of Druidical 
 training with his father, and that the system is of so sublime and intellectual 
 a nature, that, unless he can find some one qualified in such a way as to be a 
 worthy member of the order, the secret shall die with himself. Of course in 
 such a case it is impossible to form an opinion. Sometimes I have been able 
 to discover, in conversation, a tendency to approve of the doctrine of metemp- 
 sychosis. But, as far as my own experience goes, I assure you I have not 
 been able to form the most distant idea of ancient Druidism from anything 
 that he may have said. I will confess that he has now and then staggered 
 me a good deal, by referring to some ancient bardic lines, when I have 
 doubted the antiquity of his system. For instance, this /|\ which they say 
 contains the elements of the bardic alphabet, as there is no letter in that 
 alphabet that is not formed of one or more of these lines ; and also that all
 
 308 A FEW OBSERVATIONS ON 
 
 the ancient European alphabets may be resolved into these elements, the 
 round strokes being later additions for the facility of writing with a pen ; 
 whereas the Coelbren letters were cut on sticks, and therefore the horizontal 
 and round letters would not do, as the grain of the wood did not admit of it. 
 
 In accordance with this elementary system of three lines, they 
 
 have a story about its being revealed to some one in a vision of three rays of 
 light, and announced by three shouts, or voices. Now, all this I thought to 
 be the mere production of the leisure hours of old lolo Morganwg, or some 
 other person, in modern times ; but one day, by accident, I happened upon 
 an ancient englyn, in the Myfyrlan Archaiology, attributed to Gwenddydd, 
 the sister of Merlin Silvestris, in which it is said, that on some future time, 
 when some events shall take place, which I do not understand, then happy the 
 mouth that shall utter three words of the old original language, 
 
 ' Gwyn ei fyd y geneu yn rhwydd gyfeistrin, 
 A lefaro trigeir o'r heniaith Gysevin,' 
 
 whenAb lolo said, 'there, that's Druidism;' and he directed my attention to 
 so many expressions bearing upon the same subject, that I was completely 
 mystified, and was obliged to acknowledge there appeared to be something 
 handed down in these poems in concealed meanings, and which could not be 
 made out by ordinary readers." 
 
 It is much to be regretted that Mr. Price did not register 
 the passages in the works of the ancient bards, which the 
 hints thrown out by Ab lolo enabled him to understand, as 
 conveying an esoteric as well as an exoteric doctrine. We 
 may well imagine that enough to rouse the desire to know 
 more was communicated by the Druid, although he could not 
 reveal the system which he professed to know, to one who 
 was not willing to accept the revelations upon the same condi- 
 tions upon which they were to be traditionally handed down 
 from teacher to disciple. These conditions were, that the 
 disciple should previously bind himself, by the most awful 
 oaths and imprecations, not to communicate, except with the 
 traditionary observances, the knowledge thus confidentially 
 imparted. Now, Mr. Price was too good a Christian to submit 
 to any such unlawful bonds ; consequently Mr. Taliessin Wil- 
 liam, whom paternal authority and a long course of education 
 has released from all similar scruples, was as conscientiously 
 bound to respect the oath which he had freely and willingly
 
 CERTAIN ANCIENT TRADITIONS. 309 
 
 taken. vThe Druidical succession has not, however, perished 
 with Ab lolo ; and many individuals of the present day profess 
 publicly that they have been duly initiated, and are in full 
 possession of all the Druidical doctrines held under the sanc- 
 tion of the bardic chair of Glamorgan. And it must be con- 
 fessed that these self-named illuminati justly complain that 
 they are vilified, reviled, and calumniated, merely because, 
 from a conscientious observance of their oaths, the awful 
 rhydyngiad, they refuse to communicate to the profane the 
 deposit which can be handed over to the initiated alone. 
 
 I, however, who neither calumniate the order, nor am yet 
 willing to submit to their conditional self-imprecations, must 
 either remain in ignorance of their secrets, or discover some 
 more legitimate mode of acquiring the withholden knowledge. 
 And I now proceed to make my first attempt. When Mr. 
 Sharon Turner was preparing his triumphant vindication of 
 the Ancient British Poems, published in the first volume of 
 the Myfyrian Archaiology, he was principally furnished with 
 materials by lolo Morganwg and Dr. Owen Pughe. Instructed 
 by them, he makes the following statement : 
 
 " Among the Welsh remains is a manuscript of poetical Triads. It has 
 been intituled ' Barddas,' or the book of bardism, or Cyfrinach Beirdd Ynys 
 Prydain, that is, the secret craft of the bards of the Island of Britain." 
 
 " The Triads," adds Mr. Turner, " were collected together 
 at different periods ;" and then, in a note, subjoins : 
 
 " That the reader may have some idea of the work which I am going to 
 quote, I think it right to insert some extracts from its prefaces, with which 
 Mr. Owen has favoured me. The book was last transcribed and revised by 
 Edward Dafydd, who died 1690. His original manuscript is yet extant in 
 the library of Llanharan, in Glamorganshire, now the property of Mr. Turber- 
 ville. The collection was made before him, by Llywelyn Sion, who flourished 
 in 1580, and died in 1616." 
 
 In another note Mr. Turner states : 
 
 " The book of bardism containing these tenets (namely, the whole doctrine 
 of the metempsychosis) has not yet been printed ; I believe it will appear in 
 the fourth volume of the Welsh Archaioloyy . But copious extracts from it
 
 310 A FEW OBSERVATIONS ON 
 
 may be found at the end of the second volume of Mr. Edward Williams's Poems, 
 with translations." 
 
 Now, the extraordinary fact is, that Mr. Edward Williams 
 (lolo Morganwg) lived to publish an edition of this manuscript 
 under only one of its names, Cyfrinach y Bei.rdd, a very well 
 written system of poetics, both in form and substance ; and 
 which no one, but a man of genius and of great Celtic scholar- 
 ship, could have possibly composed. But the secret doctrines 
 of the supposed Druidical philosophy have no place in lolo's 
 published work, although Dr. Owen Pughe professed to have 
 drawn and translated them, for the use of Mr. Turner, from the 
 same work when in manuscript. 
 
 I ought to add, that the prefaces by different persons, and 
 furnished by Dr. Pughe to Mr. Turner, differ not from the same 
 prefaces as published by lolo Morganwg, and have not the 
 slightest allusion to any philosophical doctrines ; but state that 
 the great object of the composers of the work was to search 
 out and establish anew the old order and regulation of the art 
 of song and its relations, and as to the privileges and customs 
 of the bards of the Isle of Britain. 
 
 " Its authors, teachers, and judges, who sanctioned the system and code, 
 were the Druids and bards, after they had come to the faith in Christ." 
 
 This, therefore, was not the source from which Dr. Owen 
 Pughe drew the Druidical doctrines made public by Sharon 
 Turner. But we find in his Dictionary, certain quotations 
 from a work which he calls Barddas, which exhibit doctrines 
 redolent of extreme antiquity, and commemorative of philoso- 
 phic systems, which the peasants of Glamorgan, comparatively 
 illiterate, could never have extemporized. At present I shall 
 confine myself to a single quotation, inserted under the word 
 " Nev," and give both the original and literal English 
 translation : 
 
 " Pump tywarchen y sydd ; sef daiar, dwr, tan, awyr, a'r Nef, ac o'r pedair 
 cyntaf pob defnydd dify wyd ; ac o'r nev Duw, a phob By wyd, a Bywydol ; 
 ac o ymgyd y pump hyn pob peth, ai bywydawl ai ammywydawl y bo." 
 Barddas.
 
 CERTAIN ANCIENT TRADITIONS. 311 
 
 Translation : 
 
 "Five constituents there are earth, water, fire, air, and the Nef ; and out 
 of the first four, every material, void of life ; and out of the Nef, God, and 
 every life and living (thing) ; and from the mutual union of these five, every- 
 thing, whether it be animate or inanimate." 
 
 I may as well confess that I had long been expecting the 
 publication of the work which Dr. Owen Pughe had thus 
 quoted, and that my disappointment was great on reading the 
 work, which lolo, after a long delay, had at last published, 
 and finding that there was no such passage in it, nothing even 
 like it, and that the editor passed over the whole subject in 
 profound silence. 
 
 At a later period I had an opportunity of examining all the 
 manuscripts which both lolo and his son Taliessin left behind 
 them ; and can safely say that among them there was not a 
 trace of either a book called Barddas, or of the passages 
 which Dr. O. Pughe has quoted from it. I am, therefore, com- 
 pelled to conclude that in them we have genuine fragments 
 of a secret philosophy, which, having accidentally seen the 
 light, were left without sanction, and without any legitimate 
 authority. As such I accept them. 
 
 In other parts of Europe we must go far back in time 
 before we can find any proof of a belief in the existence of 
 more than the commonly received four elements; and, even 
 when we discover this, it will not in any degree harmonize 
 with the system described in the supposed quotation from 
 Barddas. This can be proved from comparing two passages 
 from Aristotle. The first is as follows : 
 
 " Therefore a person, reasoning from all these things, might be brought to 
 believe that there exists, in addition to the bodies present here and around 
 us, some other one, separated from us, and having a more valuable nature in 
 proportion as it is further removed from our sphere." 
 
 The second passage, taken also from his book About the 
 Heavens, reiterates the same doctrine, and brings the word 
 ojiQtip as a proof that his conclusion was confirmed by the 
 authority of preceding ages. His words are : 
 
 " But even the name appears to have been handed down to the present age
 
 312 A FEW OBSERVATIONS ON 
 
 from those of old who held on the subject the same opinion as I do. For not 
 once, or twice, but an infinite number of times, ought we to think that the 
 same knowledge has reached mankind. Therefore, as if the first body was 
 something different beyond earth, fire, air, and water, they named it aiOipa, 
 giving it this name from au Qttiv, from its eternal circular motion in the upper- 
 most region." 
 
 But the succeeding philosophers of the material school did 
 not accept Aristotle's doctrines ; they preferred to follow the 
 example of Anaxagoras, " who had abusively treated the word 
 uibtpct, and confounded it with fire/' and finally made the 
 "empyrean" the supreme God, in the language of Ennius : 
 " Adspice hoc sublime candens quern invocant omnes Jovem." 
 
 In Strabo we have a short summary of the main doctrines 
 held by the ancient philosophers of India, as recorded by 
 Megasthenes, a trustworthy author, well acquainted with the 
 subject. They held "that the universe was subject to genesis 
 and destruction, and that it was sphere-shaped ; and that the 
 God who forms and administers it has pervaded it through its 
 whole extent ; that the principles of the universe are different : 
 water, for instance, is the first principle of the fabrication of 
 the world (query, our globe ?) ; that, in addition to the ele- 
 ments, there is a certain fifth nature, of which the heavens and 
 
 stars are composed They also interweave myths, 
 
 like Plato, concerning the soul's immortality, and the judg- 
 ments in Hades." 
 
 Had Megasthenes reported that the fifth element was the 
 principle of life, as well as of the heavens and the stars, the 
 harmony of the Indian system would have been complete. 
 Even as it is, the similarity is too great to allow the supposi- 
 tion that they could have a different origin. 
 
 The Hon. Algernon Herbert, as we know from that strange 
 and fanciful work named An Essay on the Neo-druidic Heresy, 
 was strongly impressed with an opinion that some connection 
 had existed of old between India and Britain : 
 
 " Other considerations," he states, " induce me to believe that such was 
 the case, and even to suspect that this island may once have received a visit
 
 CERTAIN ANCIENT TRADITIONS. 313 
 
 from some Brahmins, and that they may have beheld the famous Stonehenge 
 probably within some thirty or forty years after its completion." 
 
 The sincere writer who now advocates the reality of the 
 valuable cyfrinion, 1 known to himself and brethren, labours 
 hard to prove the existence of the same connection ; but, as 
 his bonds do not allow him to reveal them to the uninitiated, 
 he maintains the contest with his right hand tied up, or rather 
 fails to convince, as no satisfactory explanation can be given 
 which is not conveyed in words of sincerity and truth. 
 
 But we have great light thrown upon the quotation sup- 
 posed to be taken from Barddas, by a reference to the Egyptian 
 mythology, and I make no apology for the following pas- 
 sage, taken from the Materia Hieroglyphica of Sir Gardener 
 Wilkinson, p. 1 : 
 
 " So little has been faithfully recorded, and, indeed, so little was known by 
 ancient authors, of the deities of Egypt, that we cannot place much confidence 
 in the vague accounts given by them. Admitting that the general division is 
 correct, namely, eight principal deities, from whom were born twelve others, 
 and from these again the remaining minor divinities, I proceed to point out 
 the names of those that have been ascertained, beginning with the eight 
 great gods. 
 
 " KNEF, NEF. 
 
 "The first of these is Knef, or Nef, the deity of Elephantine and the 
 Thebaid. The sons of Ham had taught their descendants, the early inha- 
 bitants of this country, the true worship of one spiritual and eternal Being, 
 who had alone disposed the order of the universe, divided the light from the 
 darkness, and ordained the creation of mankind. But the Egyptians, in pro- 
 cess of time, forsook the purer ideas of a single Deity, and admitted his attri- 
 butes into a participation of that homage which was due to the Divinity him- 
 self. Kneph, or, more properly speaking, Neph, or Nef, was retained as the 
 idea of the spirit of God." 
 
 And we learn from Plutarch that the inhabitants of the 
 Thebais worship their god, Kneph, alone, whom they look 
 upon as without a beginning, and also without end. All other 
 deities, or quasi deities, must have been regarded as, partly at 
 least, emanations from this spiritual and everlasting divinity. 
 
 But this also is the doctrine embodied in the quotation, that 
 from Nef came God, and everything having life. 
 
 1 Cov~rinion, mysteries or runes, understood by the initiated. 
 
 40
 
 314 A FEW OBSERVATIONS, ETC. 
 
 The worship paid by the Egyptians, not only to qualities, 
 emanations, and abstract virtues of the one God, but also to 
 animals, from the highest to the lowest, from the most useful 
 to the most noxious, and to vegetables of all kinds, must 
 have been grounded on this principle, and could never have 
 been justified, as the defenders of such corruptions have 
 often asserted, on the advantages derived to man from such 
 productions. 
 
 I refer to my Gomer for a proof of the extent to which Nef 
 and its derivatives entered into the religious systems of the 
 ancient Gauls and Britons. This of itself proves the existence 
 of a very early connection between these nations and Egypt, 
 and, if with Egypt, with the whole ancient civilized world. 
 And here I terminate, for the present, my explanation of the 
 ancient doctrine upon this point. 
 
 I may, however, before I conclude, state that, in the three 
 volumes of the Myfyrian Antiquities, there are numerous allu- 
 sions, not only to the secret doctrines of the ancient Druids 
 while yet heathens, but also ample expositions of the faith, 
 morals, and ecclesiastical principles which the Cymry, when 
 converted to the faith in Christ, adopted as their Christian 
 institutes. These are especially to be found in the third 
 volume, containing the collection called " Doethineb y Cuinri," 
 the wisdom of the Cumri, and which is ascribed principally 
 to St. Catog, and to a bard called Glas-y-gader. 1 In my next 
 communication I propose to return to the subject, and illus- 
 trate at some length the other doctrines contained in the quo- 
 tations from Barddas. 
 
 I may add, that I am certain that they are genuine frag- 
 ments of ancient lore, and that Dr. Owen Pughe or some other 
 person copied them from some written document, which may 
 perhaps be still forthcoming, should the surviving members 
 of the chair of Glamorgan become, through God's grace, true 
 Christians. 
 
 1 Otherwise " Glas-geraint," the glasgerion of the old English poets.
 
 THE ANCIENT PH(ENICIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE. 
 
 IT may now be accepted as a proved fact, that, of the generic 
 language of mankind, there are, at least, two specific types 
 the Indo-European language, and the Semitic : to the former 
 belong the languages called Iranic, Indie, Hellenic, Italic, 
 Winedic, Celtic, Teutonic ; to the latter, the Arabian, Aramaic, 
 and Hebrew dialects. The specific difference between these 
 two classes is sufficiently marked to enable any good linguist 
 to refer any language tolerably known to either of these 
 branches, or to exclude it as not traceable to their types when 
 once developed and formed. Now, the intention with which 
 the present paper is written, is to examine whether there 
 remain sufficient materials connected with the memorials of 
 tfre ancient Phoenicians to enable scholars to decide whether 
 that extraordinary people belonged to the Indo-Celtic or Se- 
 mitic race. I am speaking not of the Kuhuioi Phoenicians, but, 
 to use the expression of Aristotle, of the ica.[Lifa.Kcnoi of those 
 Phoenicians whom the Persian literati described as emigrants 
 from the Erythraean Sea, and as foreign settlers in Phoenicia, 
 where they established themselves as sea-traversing merchants. 
 The words of Herodotus are : 
 
 " Now, the historians of the Persians say that the Phrenicians were the 
 cause of the variance (between Europe and Asia), for they say that these 
 having come from the sea called Erythra to this our sea, and having occupied 
 that very country which they even now occupy, instantly applied themselves 
 to long sea voyages." 
 
 This may be adduced as a proof that the Persians believed
 
 B16 THE ANCIENT PHOENICIANS 
 
 the Phoenicians to be foreigners, who, at a very early period 
 in Hellenic history, took possession of ancient Phoenicia. 
 
 The learned Persians, from whom Herodotus derived his 
 information, must have well known the ethnology of central 
 Asia, which at that period was governed by Persian satraps ; 
 and the fathers of many of them must have been present in 
 the camp of Xerxes, where were collected, according to their 
 races, the armed warriors of all the empire. They had been 
 present in council with the Phoenician kings, when summoned 
 by Xerxes, to give their advice respecting naval affairs, pre- 
 vious to the battle of Salamis : they were, therefore, adequate 
 judges of the truth of the statement respecting their Eastern 
 origin advanced by the Phoenicians, and confirmed it by their 
 testimony. Now, the same Herodotus had been among the 
 Phoenicians, of whom he gives this additional account : 
 
 " Now, these Phoenicians in ancient times dwelt long, as they themselves 
 say, upon the sea Erythra, but having thence set out, and having crossed over 
 Syria, they inhabit the maritime coast of the Levant. Now, both this position 
 of Syria, and the whole country as far as Egypt, is called Palestine." 
 
 As to the period when this emigration and new settlement, 
 traditionally recorded by the Phoenicians, and confirmed by the 
 learned Persians, took place, we must be content to refer it to a 
 vague antiquity, the age of lo, the daughter of Inachus, which 
 epoch Mr. Fynes Clinton is pleased to fix some sixteen genera- 
 tions from the siege of Troy. In his own words, " Inachus, the 
 father of Phoroneus, was the highest term in Grecian history." 1 
 The commencement of Hellenic history dates from the Argive 
 Inachus. Africanus makes him a little older than Moses ; 
 Eusebius has placed Moses 300 years below him, but agrees 
 with Africanus in placing Inachus 700 years before the fall of 
 Troy. Other traditions, however, to which Pausanias refers, 
 make Phoroneus the first king. Acusilaus records this tra- 
 dition: "For Acusilaus says that Phoroneus was the first 
 man, whence also the poet of the Phoronis says that he was 
 
 1 Fasti, Hellenici, vol. i.
 
 AND THEIR LANGUAGE. 317 
 
 the father of mortal men." According to other traditions, 
 Inachus, not Phoroneus, was the first man, the uTo%0v, the 
 son of the earth. Now, this was an inveterate error among the 
 Hellenic archaeologists. They continually created their ances- 
 tors, and referred their origin to trees, stones, rivers, or gods and 
 goddesses. The ancient nations of the East might well laugh 
 at their credulity and folly on this point. But modern authors, 
 who write as if the first emigrators from the East must have 
 found Europe occupied by wild savages, are practically guilty 
 of the same folly, and would hold with Tacitus, that the ancient 
 Germans must have sprung from the soil, seeing that no settlers 
 from a better climate would have ever emigrated into such a 
 dreary, marshy, cold, ungenial, and uncleared region. But we 
 now know that the languages spoken in ancient Germany, al- 
 though they may have been corrupted in various regions and 
 various modes, are really cognate with Greek and Latin, and 
 must have been conveyed, together with their speakers, from 
 some common home, after that period which had separated 
 the Indo-Celtic from the Semitic type. Now, there are various 
 forms, both of the vocables and grammar, which Indo-Celtic 
 dialects have assumed in Europe, which may be exemplified in 
 the Greek, Latin, and ancient Teutonic and Celtic tongues. 
 The question, which of these approaches nearer, and recedes 
 further from, the original model, or whether the various, either 
 developments or decadences, took place in the original seats, or 
 were worked out in the several localities in Europe, is one more 
 easily asked than answered, but which, nevertheless, has a very 
 close connection with the affiliation of tongues, and the history 
 of the human race. Those who accept the Scripture accounts 
 of the origin of man, and the leading events in primeval times, 
 as trustworthy records, hold that the first man and the first 
 woman were made by God Himself, by an immediate mira- 
 culous act, and that the whole human race springs from that 
 pair, and that these were represented after the deluge by the 
 patriarch Noah and his sons, who handed down to their pos- 
 terity one tongue, which became at a. later period miraculously
 
 318 THE ANCIENT PHCENICIANS 
 
 confounded and divided into three several branches, whence 
 have been derived all the spoken dialects of the earth ; and 
 this is a far more rational system, and more in unison with the 
 experience of man, than that advocated by the author of The 
 Vestiges of Creation, or by those who allow of certain great 
 laws, but deny the existence of a legislator. 
 
 The confusion of tongues is described in Scripture as imme- 
 diately followed by a dispersion, which scattered mankind over 
 certain portions of the ancient world. This we may well believe 
 was more done by water voyages than by land travelling for 
 many centuries after the deluge ; and the men who came from 
 the Erythraean Sea to the shores of the Mediterranean, in very 
 early ages, and there immediately applied themselves to naval 
 operations and long voyages, must have brought with them 
 from their Eastern homes the arts both of building and navi- 
 gating ships, in which they transferred to Western regions the 
 rich produce of India, Assyria, and Egypt. To the carrying 
 trade they soon added home manufactures on the most ex- 
 tensive scale. The following passage from the prophet Ezekiel, 
 as translated by Mr. Charles Taylor, gives a graphic view of 
 the extent of their commerce, and of the variety of the arts and 
 manufactures which distinguished the Tyre of his day : 
 
 " Tarshish was thy commissioned agent for thy great and general assort- 
 ment of silver, iron, tin, and lead, which they have supplied to thy fairs. 
 Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, these were thy dealers in persons of men, and 
 vases, and brass, which they furnish to thy magazines. From the house of 
 Togarmah, horses, and high-mettled steeds, and mules, they furnish to thy 
 fairs. The sons of Dedan were consignees to thee, factors for thee ; many 
 islands committed their consignments to thy hands, were female dealers to 
 thee : horns of teeth and ebony they contributed to thy store. Aram was 
 ihy female dealer in thy very numerous manufactures, in carbuncle, corals, 
 and rubies, and purple, and brocade embroidery, and fine linen, furnished in 
 thy fairs. Judah, and the land of Judah, they were thy dealers, customers, 
 factors, in ' comminith,' 'panag,' honey, oil, and gums, furnished to thy 
 market. Damascus was thy female dealer, especially in thy numerous manu- 
 factories, because of thy great and general demand in wine, ' chelvon,' and 
 white wool. Dan also, ' mantzel ' (in our translation, going to and from), in 
 thy fairs, furnished bright iron, cassia, and calamus, these were included in
 
 AND THEIR LANGUAGE. 319 
 
 thy marvels. Dedan was thy female dealer in very curious hangings for 
 chariots. Oreb, and all the chiefs of Kedar, they were factors to thy hand 
 with lambs, and kids, and goats : in these were his consignees to thee in the 
 head (prime) of all aromatics, spices, in all precious stones^ and gold, they 
 furnish thy fairs. Charan, and Canneh, and Heden, were thy merchants, 
 factors ; Sheba, Ashur, Chilmad, thy female dealers. These themselves were 
 thy dealers generally in all things, in blue coverings, and embroideries, and 
 in cabinets of rich inlayings, in ornamental net-work, in bindings, and cedar 
 wood-works in thy merchandises. The great ships (men of Tarshish) were 
 chiefs in thy markets : and thou art full, and hast glorified thyself greatly in 
 the middle of the sea." 
 
 Such were the condition and transactions of the Phoenicians 
 at the termination of the sixth century before Christ. They 
 traded directly with Tartessus, in Spain, whose ships and 
 captains were seen also in the harbours of Phoenicia, whither 
 they brought, among other articles, silver, iron, tin, and lead. 
 As tin, in large quantities, could be procured from Great 
 Britain alone, and as it entered so largely into the com- 
 position of the bronze utensils, ornaments, and weapons, used 
 in the earlier ages, they must have held intercourse, either 
 direct or indirect, with the British Islands. 
 
 The metal thus composed has been found in vast quanti- 
 ties, not only on the coasts of the Mediterranean, but on the 
 shores of the Euxine, and west of the pillars of Hercules, 
 along the Atlantic and German Oceans, from Southern Spain 
 to the Baltic regions, and over the whole extent of all the 
 British Isles. We have, therefore, in these bronze remains, 
 a proof of commerce widely diffused in space, and continued 
 during a lapse of time we can only guess at. 
 
 Profane history is either totally silent respecting the colo- 
 nization and settlement of Europe from the continent of Asia, 
 or has only transmitted information, disfigured by myths and 
 fabulous legends, of which the most substantial parts are 
 genealogies, changeable in forms, and uncertain in dates. The 
 learned Jacob Bryant premised his inquiries respecting the 
 original inhabitants of Hellas by the following declaration : 
 
 " The sons of Japheth were certainly the first inhabitants of those countries,
 
 320 THE ANCIENT PHCENICIANS 
 
 but the Helladians (Hellenes), although by family lonians, were uot of this 
 race. They came afterwards, and all their best writers agree that, when their 
 ancestors made their way into these provinces, they were possessed by a prior 
 people." 
 
 Faber, in his Horts Mosaics, adopted the interpretation of 
 Bryant, and sums up his conclusion in these startling terms : 
 
 "In short the most celebrated leaders of the Grecian colonies,' such as 
 Danaus, Erectheus, Cecrops, Cadmus, and Phoenix, all came from Egypt. 
 Hence it is evident that the Greeks were, strictly speaking, an Egyptian 
 nation, and consequently not the descendants of Japheth." 
 
 Fynes Clinton, in examining these same questions of the 
 early inhabitants of Greece, prefaces his inquiry with the 
 following statement : 
 
 " It naturally occurs to inquire whether these were descended from the 
 original occupiers of the soil, or whether they were sprung from settlers of a 
 later date, by whom that original race was displaced. Four establishments 
 were ascribed, but the exchange effected by these establishments of Danaus, 
 Cecrops, Cadmus, and Pelops, was not such as to deserve to be accounted 
 the introduction of a new race of people, such as is introduced by force of 
 arms, or by a large body of invaders overwhelming the ancient inhabitants. 
 Nothing of this character belonged to the settlements made in early Greece. 
 These were made within three centuries of the Trojan war, when the country 
 was already in the possession of powerful tribes, which subsisted after these 
 establishments, and increased so far as to supersede them. All these four 
 settlements are examples of a smaller received into a larger number. These 
 were adopted by the body of the people by whom they were received, and the 
 Egyptian, Phoenician, or Phrygian settler was lost in the Greek ; exclude, 
 then, these from the inquiry, we must rise to a higher point of time, and 
 extend our survey over the early tribes, by whom the country was possessed, 
 in order to determine how far the Greeks were an original people." 
 
 The only argument adduced by him in support of these 
 sweeping assertions seems to be based on a quotation from 
 the French historian Clavier, who, writing on the same subject, 
 says : 
 
 " It was not at all necessary that these colonies should be numerous ; they 
 were only commercial establishments round which certain families gathered 
 together. Afterwards, instead of causing their hosts to adopt their language, 
 the Phoenicians had themselves to learn the language of the country. The 
 Phoenician colony which Cadmus conducted into Bccotia was uot so powerful
 
 AND THEIR LANGUAGE. 321 
 
 as to cause its influence over the language to extend itself over the rest of 
 Greece." 
 
 The argument seems to be this 
 
 " Cadmus and his fellow- colonists carried into Boeotia the Phoenician 
 language, which must have been radically different from the Hellenic ; but 
 they and their language disappeared from the face of Hellas, without leaving 
 a trace of themselves either in the country in general, or in Boaotia in 
 particular." 
 
 The question is at once assumed that the language of 
 Cadmus and his companions was different from that of the 
 Boeotians, in other words, that it was Semitic; but, when 
 once this assumption is not allowed, the whole argument falls 
 to the ground, unless the assumption be supported by ade- 
 quate proofs. 
 
 These proofs, such as they are, I now intend to review, to 
 give them their proper weight, and enable the reader to form 
 his own conclusion. Should he fail to be convinced by them 
 that the early Phoenicians spoke a Semitic language, he will 
 then be in a proper temperament to examine, without pre- 
 judice, the arguments and testimonies to be adduced by me 
 to show that their language belonged to the Indo-European 
 class. And, as the proofs will partly depend upon the au- 
 thority of writers both sacred and profane, I quote here the 
 very just summary respecting their respective value from the 
 Introduction to Scripture Chronology, by Fynes Clinton : 
 
 " The history contained in the Hebrew Scriptures presents a remarkable 
 and pleasing contrast to the early accounts of the Greeks. In the latter we 
 trace with difficulty a few obscure facts, preserved to us by the poets, who 
 transmitted to us, with all the embellishments of poetry and fable, what they 
 had received from oral tradition. On the contrary, we have, in the annals of 
 the Hebrew nation, authentic narratives written by contemporaries, and 
 those writing under the guidance of inspiration. But, as the narrative comes 
 with an authority which no other writings can possess, so in the matters 
 related it has a character of its own." 
 
 Clinton then shows that the entire history, from the call of 
 Abraham to the time of Malachi, was a series of miracles : 
 
 " It is so much the object of the Sacred Scriptures to describe these, that 
 
 41
 
 822 THE ANCIENT PHOENICIANS 
 
 little else is recorded ; the ordinary events and transactions which constitute 
 the history of other states are either very briefly told, or omitted altogether. 
 From this spirit of the Scripture history, the writers not designing to give a 
 full account of all transactions, but only to dwell on that portion in which 
 the divine character was marked, many things which we might desire to know 
 are omitted, and, on many occasions, a mere outline of the history is 
 preserved." 
 
 If the facts connected with their own history were but 
 scantily noticed, we must not expect more minute details 
 respecting neighbouring states, but willingly accept as true all 
 the notices of them recorded in the Sacred Volume ; they are 
 as follows : The name Phoenicia, itself, does not occur in the 
 canonical books of the Old Testament ; but frequent and even 
 very early notices of Sidon remain on record. Ham, in the 
 tenth chapter of Genesis, is said to be the father of Canaan, 
 whose eldest son was Sidon. 
 
 From this passage it has been inferred that this third de- 
 scendant from Ham founded the city called after his name, 
 and was the father of all the Sidonians of early history, as his 
 brothers were the stocks from which the other Canaanites 
 sprung ; but, while admitting the fact, we may deny the in- 
 ference. Sidon might have founded and given his name to 
 the city ; and yet we may safely accept the testimony of the 
 Sidonians themselves, confirmed by that of the learned Persians, 
 that the emigrants from the Sea Erythra had acquired, either 
 by force, favour, or purchase, the site and city once held by 
 descendants of Canaan, and occupied it without changing its 
 name. This might have well happened in the long interval 
 between the third descendant of Ham, and the period in which 
 Sidon is next mentioned in the Old Testament. If we place 
 the acme of the third descendant of Ham about the year 
 2000 B.C., and the campaign of Joshua against Jabin king of 
 Hazor, and his confederates, about the year 1450 B.C., there 
 will remain an interval of 550 years, during which the emi- 
 grants from the Sea Erythra had ample time to establish their 
 flourishing cities on the strip of shore which in aftertimes 
 was known as Phoenicia. The whole passage bearing on this
 
 AND THEIR LANGUAGE. 323 
 
 point is here quoted from the eleventh chapter of the book of 
 Joshua : 
 
 " And it came to pass, when Jabin king of Hazor had heard those things, 
 that he sent to Jobab king of Madon, and to the king of Shimron, and to the 
 king of Achshaph, and to the kings that were on the north of the mountains, 
 and of the plains south of Chinneroth, and in the valley, and in the borders 
 of Dor on the west, and to the Canaanite on the east and on the west, and 
 to the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Jebusite in the 
 mountains, and to the Hivite under Herraon in the land of Mizpeh. And 
 they went out, they and all their hosts with them, much people, even as the 
 sand that is upon the seashore in multitude, with horses and chariots very 
 many. And the Lord delivered them into the hand of Israel, who smote 
 them, and chased them unto Great Zidon." 
 
 Now, in this general muster of the Canaanites in their 
 vicinity, no communication was held with the Tyrians and 
 Sidonians, nor help asked by the king, " which beforetime was 
 the head of all these kingdoms." Had they also been Canaan- 
 ites, such an omission and neglect could hardly have taken 
 place, nor would the king of G reat Zidon allow men of his 
 own blood and religion to be massacred before his face. 
 
 Both Tyre and Sidon were equally neutral in a war which 
 Barak and Deborah waged, some two centuries later, against 
 another Jabin king of Hazor, who was also king of Canaan, 
 " so that they prevailed until they had destroyed Jabin king 
 of Canaan." 
 
 In the description of the lot of Asher, Sidon is again called 
 Great Zidon ; and the strong city Tyre, apparently the Pala3- 
 Tyrus of Arrian, is placed on the seashore. When, in addition 
 to these facts, we take into consideration that the almost uni- 
 versal voice of profane history, proclaiming Tyre to be a colony 
 of Sidon, is ratified by that passage in the twenty-third chapter 
 of Isaiah, in which Tyre is called the daughter of Zidon, we 
 must come to the conclusion that Sidon had, long before the 
 entrance of the children of Israel into the land of Canaan, been 
 a prosperous and flourishing city, and had been enabled to 
 found another city superior to herself in historic renown, and 
 which eventually disowned her parent, and claimed a separate 
 origin.
 
 324 THE ANCIENT PHOENICIANS 
 
 From Scripture evidence we thus derive no proof that the 
 Sidonians of ancient times were Canaanites, or a Semitic 
 people ; on the contrary, that they were, as professed by them- 
 selves, emigrants from the shores of an Eastern sea into the 
 land of Canaan. They were undoubtedly surrounded by Syrians 
 and Canaanites, whose speech was Semitic, and, in the great 
 lapse of ages, the later occupiers of Tyre and Sidon might have 
 first corrupted, and finally replaced, the ancient Phoenician 
 tongue by one of the numerous Aramaic dialects. In addition 
 to the repeated invasions of the region in which they were 
 occupied, we have authentic records testifying to the total 
 destruction of Sidon, and all its inhabitants, by the Persian 
 king Ochus, who left it an utter desolation in the fourth century 
 B.C. The similar fate of ancient Tyre, by Nebuchadnezer, six 
 centuries and of insular Tyre in the latter part of the fourth 
 century B.C., are equally well ascertained. During the wars 
 of the successors of Alexander, especially of the kings of Syria 
 and Egypt, their peculiar territory, as well as the Isle of Cyprus, 
 was the favourite field of battle. When Rome prevailed, new 
 colonies were placed in all these cities, being composed princi- 
 pally of Roman soldiers levied in every part of the empire. 
 
 To suppose, therefore, that the dialect spoken by the people 
 inhabiting Phoenicia in the fourth century after Christ was a 
 fair representative of the language of the ancient Sidonians, the 
 Eastern navigators who, some two thousand years before, had 
 founded the city of Great Zidon, and the strong city of Tyre, 
 is a merely gratuitous assumption. As well might a line of 
 argument be drawn up to show that the languages now spoken 
 at Syracuse, Taranto, or Marseilles, were adequate representa- 
 tives of the Achaean, Dorian, and Ionian dialects of their his- 
 toric founders. 
 
 Nevertheless, the strongest proof adduced by the learned 
 Bochart is derived from the testimony of St. Jerom and St. 
 Augustine, who flourished at the close of the fourth century 
 after Christ. Augustine, who was ignorant of Hebrew, but 
 acquainted with the Punic dialect spoken in the vicinity of
 
 AND THEIR LANGUAGE. 325 
 
 Carthage, pronounces only for the cognation, not for the same- 
 ness, of the two; and supposes that the original Phoenician 
 language in Canaan was nearer to Hebrew than the more 
 corrupt form of it which he found at Hippo. 
 
 St. Jerom, a man of great and accurate learning, states that 
 the Punic language is in a great degree a close neighbour 
 (confinis) to the Hebrew. He states also that the Afri had 
 corrupted the language of the Phoenicians. I believe St. Jerom 
 and St. Augustine's testimony, as far as it goes, and that the 
 language spoken in the geographical Phoenicia of their day, 
 and in the vicinity of Carthage, was some corrupted form of 
 an Aramaic dialect. But neither of these learned fathers was 
 in a position to prove that such a dialect had any character in 
 common with the primitive tongue which the ancient Sidonians 
 brought into Syria, and diffused among their colonies. 
 
 I was long ago forced to come to the conclusion that, at 
 some period unknown to history, some events took place which 
 broke the connection between succeeding Tyrians and the 
 early Phoenician founders of the city, of which the result was, 
 a claim on the part of Tyre to be the metropolis, the mother- 
 city, of the Phoenicians, a claim which, even under the Ro- 
 mans, was carried on with vehemence, and alternate success, 
 by the rebellious daughter and indignant mother. 
 
 Under the notice of a Tyrian medal, No. X. in Taylor's 
 Additions to Calmet, article " Tyre," we have the following 
 observations : 
 
 " This medal shows that Tyre qualified herself as metropolis of Phoenicia : 
 this title is rarely taken, as a city which was a colony seldom mentioned the 
 region of which it was a metropolis. The occasion of the striking of the coin 
 here mentioned, very probably arose from long-standing disputes between Tyre 
 and Sidon for the primacy, which at last came to open "war between them. 
 The Emperor Augustus, displeased with both, deprived both equally of these 
 assumed rights and dignities. Adrian restored to Tyre the title and privileges 
 of the metropolitan city. Elagabalus deprived it of the titles of metropolis 
 and colony, and transferred them to Sidon. Instantly on this acquisition, 
 Sidon struck a great quantity of medals, and continued so to do during this 
 whole reign. Tyre, in the mean time, continued its coinage, but inscribed its 
 currency without titles.
 
 326 THE ANCIENT PHOENICIANS 
 
 " Severus Alexander, to whom our present medal is referred, restored to the 
 city of Tyre its ancient titles of colony and metropolis, to the exclusion of the 
 city of Sidon. This was a splendid victory for Tyre over its rival, as the title 
 ennobled Tyre as the metropolis of Phrenicia, whereby its precedence over 
 Sidon, as well as the other cities of Phoenicia, was secured." 
 
 In the expedition of Xerxes, a naval council was called before 
 the battle of Salamis, when, as recorded by Herodotus, 
 
 " The kings and naval leaders of the several nations were summoned to 
 attend, and they took their seats as the king had granted to them the honour. 
 First, the Sidonian, and next to him the Tyrian, and in succession the 
 others." 
 
 The Persian court was not to be deluded by the false claim 
 of Tyre. The extent of such claim may be inferred from the 
 following passage from Herodotus, vol. ii. cap. 44 : 
 
 " Being willing to derive, on these points, some certain knowledge from all 
 possible sources, I sailed to Tyre, of Phosnicia, and I heard that there was in 
 that city a holy temple of Heracles ; and I saw it richly furnished with other 
 numerous sacred gifts ; find in it were two pillars, one of pure gold, and the 
 other of an emerald stone, emitting at night a brilliant light : and, on con- 
 versing with the priests, I asked them for what length of time the temple of 
 the god was built. And I found that these, as well as the Egyptians, did not 
 agree in their accounts with the Hellenes; for they said that the temple was 
 built at the time when Tyre was being founded, and they had dwelt at Tyro for 
 2300 years. I found in Tyre another temple of Heracles, suruamed the Tha- 
 sian. I went to Thasus also: in it I found a temple of Heracles, built by some 
 Phoenicians, who, having sailed abroad in search, of Europa, built Thasus, and 
 these things were done no less than five generations of men before Heracles, 
 the son of Amphitryon, was born in Hellas ; these inquiries plainly show that 
 Heracles was an ancient god." 
 
 From this, and similar accounts, we see that the Tyrian 
 priests utterly ignored their mother city, and claimed her 
 ancient legendary history as their own ; hence we read in 
 Arrian's account of the capture of Tyre by Alexander the Great, 
 that the Tyrians had an Agenorium, or building dedicated to 
 Agenor, the father of Cadmus, as well as the Sidonians, and, 
 if they claimed the father, they would assuredly claim the son 
 also. 
 
 There is no doubt that the connection between the earliest 
 Phoenicians and Egypt was contemporaneous with their settle-
 
 AND THEIR LANGUAGE. 327 
 
 ments on the shores of the Mediterranean, nor that they had 
 factories there which directly furnished the more Western world 
 with Egyptian produce. From this seems to have proceeded 
 the error which confounded them with the Egyptians them- 
 selves. Hence Eusebius mentions a tradition, that both Cad- 
 mus and Phoenix came originally from Egypt ; and, in another 
 place, that Cadmus brought a colony of Saitae into Greece, 
 and in company with them founded both Athens and Thebes ; 
 hence, also, the prevalent tradition in later times that Cecrops, 
 an Egyptian, founded Athens. 
 
 Had the great work of Trogus Pompeius, a Vocontian Gaul, 
 whose grandfather had served under Pompey in the Spanish 
 war, and whose father had been secretary to Julius Ca3sar, 
 reached our times, we should have probably derived much in- 
 formation respecting the connection between the Western and 
 the Eastern world, as viewed from the Gallic and Spanish side 
 of the question. But we have only a very meagre abridgment 
 of his forty-five volumes, drawn up by Justin, and dedicated 
 to Antoninus Pius, with an expressed wish that the Emperor 
 would be pleased to amend any defects. From his eighteenth 
 book the following singular account is taken : 
 
 " Now, since we have mentioned the Carthaginians, a few words must be 
 said concerning their origin, after having first more deeply investigated the 
 affairs of the Tyrians, whose misfortunes are also to be lamented. The city of 
 the Tyrians was founded by the Phoenicians, who, being disturbed by an earth- 
 quake, quitted their native land, occupied first the Assyrian Pool, and soon after, 
 the shore closest to the sea. There they built a city, which, from the abund- 
 ance of fish (for the Phoenicians call a fish sidori), they named Sidon. Many 
 years after these events, being driven out by force by the king of the Ascalon- 
 ites, being conveyed thither in their ships, they built the city of Tyre, one year 
 before the fall of Troy. There, after having for a long time, and in various 
 ways, being worn out by the wars of the Persians, they were indeed victorious ; 
 but, as their strength was diminished, they had to undergo undeserved penalties 
 from their slaves, who, having formed a conspiracy, murdered all the free citi- 
 zens, including their masters. And thns, being masters of the city, they occupy 
 the houses of their masters, seize upon the government, marry wives, and beget, 
 what they were not themselves, free-born children." 
 
 This brief summary agrees with Sidonian, Persian, and
 
 328 THE ANCIENT PHOENICIANS 
 
 Scripture accounts, except that it falsely asserts that the build- 
 ing of Tyre was the result of the capture and destruction of 
 Sidon by the Ascalonites, who were thus described as unable 
 to prevent a* vanquished foe from founding a formidable city 
 and fortress, much nearer to Ascalon than Sidon had been. 
 
 Justin, then, after a short episode about a grateful slave and 
 his master, thus proceeds : 
 
 " This atrocious act of the slaves became well known, and was regarded as 
 a fearful precedent by all the world; therefore Alexander the Great, when, after 
 a long interval of time, he was waging war in the East, acting as it were the 
 part of an avenger of public security, when he took by force their city, crucified 
 all those who survived the contest, in memory of the ancient massacre. He 
 preserved the family of Strato alone, and restored the kingdom to his descend- 
 ants ; he then gave the island to new inhabitants, free-born and free from guilt, 
 that, after the extirpation of the servile race, there might be a new foundation 
 of citizens. In this manner the Tyrians, being refounded under the auspices 
 of Alexander, by frugality and laborious acquisitions, soon regained their 
 strength." 
 
 Now, as the desolation of Sidon, and the self-immolation of 
 all its inhabitants, men, women, and children, only took place 
 some ten years before the capture of Tyre, it must be supposed 
 that the Sidonians whom Alexander found at Sidon on his 
 entrance into Phoenicia, were Sidonians only in name, and that 
 the Tyrians whom Alexander destroyed were, undoubtedly, 
 closely connected with the Carthaginians, and were probably 
 the descendants of the founders of Carthage, and the intro- 
 ducers of a Semitic language, and of Canaanitish idolatry. For 
 it may well be imagined that the slaves of ancient and wealthy 
 Tyre were drawn from the adjacent tribes, and spoke some 
 Aramaic dialect, which, after the revolution, would become the 
 prevalent language ; and with their language, the religion of 
 the neighbouring tribes would naturally be introduced also. 
 
 Justin expressly states, after Trogus, that the Tyrians, before 
 the massacre of the masters, while they were flourishing both 
 in wealth and population, sent forth colonists into Africa, and 
 founded Utica, two hundred and seventy years before the com- 
 mon date assigned for the foundation of Carthage. If this be
 
 AND THEIR LANGUAGE. 329 
 
 a fact, then Utica must have been founded while the Tyrians 
 were still Sidonians, but superior in power and influence to 
 Sidon, which she had deprived of the supremacy before she 
 could have sent forth a colony of her own on such a scale. 
 The new settlement was called Carthada, or New Town. The 
 fact of the Tyrian supremacy over Sidon was known to the 
 Prophet Ezekiel, who says, that " the men of Zidon and Arvad 
 were the mariners of Tyre." I find the following passage in 
 my note-book, but am at present unable to refer to its source, 
 although I can answer for its being an accurate copy from 
 some author : 
 
 " Sanchoniatho states, that the supremacy over the Phoenicians was vested in 
 the Sidonians from Bimalus, B.C. 1820, to Gadylcarus, B.C. 1066, and that the 
 Sidonians, prior to the latter date, had sent out colonies to foreign countries, 
 and, among others, to Aradus." 
 
 We have thus traditional authority for saying that the an- 
 cient Sidonians sent out colonies, during their supremacy, into 
 various regions ; that the Tyrians, while they were still Sido- 
 nians, sent colonies into Africa, and founded the great city of 
 Utica, second to none but Carthage alone, and often her rival 
 and enemy. That after the successful insurrection of the 
 slaves, and the massacre of the masters, the new dominant 
 race sent forth a flourishing colony, whose members were 
 called by the Romans Carthaginians, from the name of their 
 new city ; and Poeni, a supposed corruption of Phcenices, who 
 also at a later period sent forth their own peculiar swarms ; 
 while Hellenic and Latin literature applied the common name 
 Phcenices to all these settlers of various ages in various lands. 
 
 Before I enter upon the argument deducible from philology 
 or uninscribed monuments, it will be necessary to state the 
 extent of our knowledge derivable from profane authors re- 
 specting the introduction of written characters into the Western 
 world ; and this will be best explained by translating the fol- 
 lowing passage taken from the Rev. Hugh James Rose, who 
 thus expresses himself in his preface to his elegant work, 
 entitled Inscriptiones Grceca Vetustissimae : 
 
 42
 
 330 THE ANCIENT PHOENICIANS 
 
 " I willingly pass over all the discussions of learned men respecting Cad- 
 mus introducing into Greece the art of writing, or the contrary supposition 
 that the Greeks were acquainted with letters before the emigration of Cadmus, 
 for I have vainly spent too much time in such trifles to make me desirous of 
 abusing my readers' patience. Why should I gravely quote Boher, who cites 
 the insane follies of Diodorus as to the destruction of Greek written records 
 in the deluge of Deucalion ; or bring forward Eustathius, babbling marvels 
 about the Pelasgi, called, forsooth, divine, because they alone, after the deluge, 
 had the knowledge of letters ; or should we listen to Salmasius, who, while 
 investigating the rise of the Greek language, inquires, with immense toil and 
 great circumlocution, whether Deucalion's deluge took place in the Peloponese, 
 or in Thessaly, and also lays down propositions about the renovation of man- 
 kind by Pyrrha and Deucalion, and other questions of the same nature ? Nor, 
 by Jove, am I spitefully speaking about raw and silly scholars, for the same 
 insanity haunts all the learned, as well as the unlearned, as soon as they enter 
 upon this subject. They ridicule, castigate, and censure Herodotus and 
 Thucydides, while recording either what they themselves knew or might 
 have received from tradition. On the contrary, they accept with submissive 
 deference all that those later and vain writers relate about the remotest age, 
 equally unknown to them and to us. Finally, without blushing, they adduce 
 their own dreams as realities. I am ashamed, in truth, to see what immense 
 labour men of first-rate learning have bestowed foolishly on these subjects 
 without understanding in what way they ought to pursue such studies. In 
 fact, we have no history of Greek affairs extant, which goes back further than 
 the seventh century before Christ. I am aware that a few memorials of 
 earlier Greek history have, as it were, floated down the stream, and are still 
 extant ; but the light these throw upon the subject is insufficient, nor can 
 their chronology be ascertained. . 
 
 " We know from Scripture that the sons of Japhet inhabited the isles of 
 the Gentiles, nor is it doubtful that the Greeks must be regarded as his 
 descendants ; but neither Scripture teaches, nor can we know from any other 
 source, which of his descendants was the great-grandfather of the Greeks. 
 Without a critical study of ancient history, it will be a vain attempt to collect 
 that little light which undoubtedly can still be collected. But why do I 
 mention ancient histories? It is from Herodotus alone that all the light 
 which is to be collected is to be drawn." 
 
 Let, then, what Herodotus has said about the origin, use, 
 and description of letters be carefully examined. It is almost 
 all to be collected from the following passage, lib.v. cap. 56: 
 
 " Now, these Gephyraeans, who were the assassins of Hipparchus, derive 
 their origin, according to their own account, from Eretria ; but as I find by 
 my inquiries they were Phoenicians, a part of those Fhosninians who came
 
 AND THEIR LANGUAGE. 331 
 
 with Cadmus into the land now called Breotia, and having received as their 
 allotment in that country the Tanagraean territory, they long inhabited it. 
 From thence, when, before the Cadmeans had been driven out of Boeotia by 
 the Argives, these same Gephyraeans, being at a later period driven out by the 
 Boeotians, directed their course to Athens ; and the Athenians accepted them 
 as fellow-citizens upon certain conditions, having required them to abstain 
 from many rights not worth mentioning. But the Phoenicians who came 
 with Cadmus, a part of whom were these Gephyraeans, having settled in this 
 country, introduced among the Hellenes both many other scholastic arts, and 
 especially letters, which the Hellenes, as it seems to me, did not before pos- 
 sess, in the first place, those which all the Phoenicians use ; but in process 
 of time, together with the pronunciation, they changed also the ' rhythmus ' of 
 the letters. 
 
 "But during this period there dwelt round them in most places the 
 Hellenic lonians, who, having learned from the Phoenicians these letters, after 
 making slight changes in their ' rhythmus,' continued to use them ; and, thus 
 using them, they said, as was just, since the Phoenicians had introduced them 
 into Hellas, that they should be called Phoenician. And from old time the 
 lonians called the Byblus paper SiQOtpag, because formerly, when scantily 
 supplied with Biblus paper, they used instead tanned skins of goats and 
 sheep ; and still within my own memory many of the barbarians write upon 
 such prepared skins. I myself also saw Cadmean letters in the temple of the 
 Ismenian Apollo, in the Boeotian tribes, engraved upon certain tripods, most 
 of them similar to the Ionic characters. Now, one of the tripods had this 
 inscription : 
 
 " ' Amphitrion dedicated me on his return from the Teleboans.' 
 
 " This return would in time correspond with the age of Laius, the son of 
 Labdacus, the son of Polydorus, the son of Cadmus. The second tripod has 
 these hexameters : 
 
 " ' Scaeus in a boxing contest, me to the far-darting Apollo, 
 Having conquered, dedicated thy very beautiful ornament.' 
 
 " Scaeus would be the son of Hippocoon (that is, if he was the dedicator, 
 and not some one else having the same name as the son of Hippocoou), about 
 the time of (Edipus, the son of Laius. The third tripod is also inscribed 
 with hexameters : 
 
 " ' Laodamas, this tripod to the good archer Apollo, 
 
 While he was king, dedicated thy very beautiful ornament.' 
 
 " In the reign of this Laodamas, the son of Eteocles, the Cadmeans were 
 exterminated by the Argives, and went to Encheleis." 
 
 Now, if we could trust the honesty and judgment of Hero- 
 dotus, there would be at once an end of the inquiry ; for not
 
 332 THE ANCTENT PHCENICIANS 
 
 only were the Cadmean letters, with a slight change, similar 
 to the fully developed Ionic alphabet familiar to Herodotus, 
 but the language and metre of the Homeric poems, in full 
 perfection, were both known and written in that early age. In 
 other words, the Phoenician settlers inBceotia must have brought 
 with them the language of which the oldest specimens known 
 to us are to be found in the poems of Homer and Hesiod, and 
 not only this language, but letters similar, in most respects, to 
 that Ionic alphabet which the Athenians did not officially adopt 
 in their public inscriptions, until the archonship of Euclid, 
 B.C. 401. I postpone for the present the philological argu- 
 ment founded on the pure Hellenism of all the proper names 
 assigned to the Cadmeans, as handed down either by tradition 
 or poetry ; but, in the mean time, what is to become of the 
 truth and value of the testimony of Herodotus, from whom, 
 according to Mr. Rose, all the light derived from ancient his- 
 tory is to be collected ? According to the opinion of almost 
 all our most modern guides on this subject, it must be thrown 
 aside entirely as a mere dream, or a figment by which the 
 priests of the Ismenian Apollo, anxious for the antiquity and 
 honour of their temple, had imposed upon the credulity of 
 Herodotus, and displayed as ancient, false inscriptions fabri- 
 cated in days comparatively modern. Payne Knight, who, in 
 my younger days, was regarded as an oracle on such subjects, 
 wrote that the whole tale of Cadmus and his Phoenicians in 
 Bceotia was a mere myth, connected with certain mysterious 
 rites. Rose is satisfied with declaring the incompetency of 
 Herodotus to deal with such a question, owing to his igno- 
 rance of any other language than his own, and other numerous 
 deficiencies. 
 
 " The result of all this," says he, " is, that all things delivered by Hero- 
 dotus respecting ancient events which took place long before his time, must 
 be received with the greatest caution. Seeing, however, that almost every- 
 thing I have been saying respecting the times of Herodotus may also be 
 truly alleged respecting the age of Diodorus and Dionysius, what can be more 
 ridiculous than to expect from them information which you will in vain 
 attempt to gain from him ?"
 
 AND THEIR LANGUAGE. 333 
 
 Fynes Clinton, although he restores Cadmus and his family 
 to Greece, and although he quotes the passage in Herodotus 
 which ascribes the introduction of letters into Hellas to the 
 Phoenicians, neither notices, nor comments upon, the Ismenian 
 inscriptions, which is the more wonderful, as, while alluding 
 to the fact that Deioces, King of Media, committed his 
 judgments to writing, he thought proper to add the following 
 note : 
 
 " That the Medes, in the time of Deioces, should be familiar with writing 
 is nothing wonderful, but that a Greek historian should mention the use of 
 letters as an ordinary matter is worthy of remark." 
 
 Much more worthy of remark, surely, is the statement of 
 Herodotus respecting the Ismenian inscriptions, apparently 
 without the slightest suspicion of their genuine authenticity. 
 By way of explaining such anomalous conduct, I here intro- 
 duce a quotation from my Homerus, which bears upon this 
 subject. It was published fourteen years ago : 
 
 " Nothing is more calculated to puzzle the inquirer into the history of past 
 ages, than the recurrence, under certain circumstances, of a darkness and an 
 obscurity, for which nothing but the supposition that historic facts have on 
 such occasions been wilfully falsified can possibly account. Letters must have 
 been introduced into Greece eight or nine centuries before a chronicler of facts 
 in prose appeared. ' The wisdom and the learning ' of the Egyptians, together 
 with the records of their wonderful history, mock us with all the unreality of 
 a feverish dream, and present us with no materials whence we might recon- 
 struct a living and accurate representation of their singular civilization. When 
 the Hellenic conquerors of Egypt began to take an interest in the history of 
 the wonderful monuments by which they were surrounded, the sullen priests 
 refused to gratify their curiosity, either because the golden key of knowledge 
 had dropped from their hands during the repeated conquests of their country, 
 or because they too faithfully adhered to that system of secrecy which has too 
 often grudged to communicate intellectual light to the mass of mankind. The 
 highly civilized empires of Assyria, Media, Persia, and Lydia, fell, and left no 
 literary monument of their own, to preserve the memory of their name among 
 the nations of the earth. Rome, for the first five hundred years of her exist- 
 ence, had no authentic history ; nay, more, the guardians of her records have 
 been convicted of a gross falsification of facts, in order to slur over the disgrace 
 of her conquest by Porsena, and of her destruction by the Gauls. This last 
 nation, with all its great pretensions, and orders of literary classes in poetry
 
 334 THE ANCIENT PHCENICIANS 
 
 and moral philosophy, in physics and metaphysics, left on record no history 
 which an enlightened Greek or Roman judged worthy of being recorded. The 
 Druids, adhering to the easily corruptible system of viva voce instruction which 
 they had imported from the East, loaded the memories of their pupils with 
 twenty thousand lines and more ; nevertheless, the records treasured up in 
 this transient and unstable medium have all passed away, and ' left but a 
 wreck behind.' In the same manner, the ancient tribes of Southern Spain 
 possessed a large, and, one would imagine, valuable, literature of ancient 
 poetry. Some of the poems, as Strabo records, contained more than six 
 thousand lines ; yet not a fragment of their history and literature has been 
 either adduced in evidence by an ancient writer, or been conveyed to our 
 times by the voice of tradition. For this scantiness of authentic history, and 
 for the quantity, in the case of some nations, of perishable verse, there must 
 exist a cause equivalent to the effect. This cause, as far as may be deduced 
 from the history of the past, appears to be the existence, in any nation, of a 
 body of men, originally set apart for the instruction and guidance of the com- 
 munity in religious matters, but who have eventually abused this sacred trust, 
 and converted it into an engine for enslaving the human mind, and subjecting 
 it to the evils of superstition or fanaticism. The process by which this system 
 of tyranny can best be carried into execution is, in the first place, to misre- 
 present the history of the past ; and, in the second place, by claiming imme- 
 diate inspiration from the Divinity, to demand unconditional submission to 
 their human inventions, and thus prevent their victims from appealing either 
 to the experience of ages, or the deductions of reason, in opposition to their 
 despotical proceedings. When once the irresponsible voice of the priest is 
 received as the immediate voice of God, the community must submit to its 
 injunctions, not only in the performance of religious duties, but of all func- 
 tions, domestic, civil, and military. Such was the system according to which 
 the Magi of Media, the Chaldeans of Assyria, the priest caste in Egypt, the 
 Brachmani, or Brachmins, of India, and the Druids of the Western world, 
 swayed for ages the destinies of mighty nations, and yet left no record of their 
 real belief, no rational exposition of their laws, no authentic narrations of their 
 national transactions. Such was the system under which the Hellenic con- 
 federacy seems for years to have groaned, until some revolution, not detailed 
 in history, shattered the edifice to its foundation, and brought about that 
 astonishing contrast which is visible between the Acha3i, Danai, and Argivi of 
 Homer, and the Hellenes of history." 
 
 But, if we cannot trust to Herodotus respecting the origin 
 and antiquity of Hellenic letters, we in vain look for a con- 
 sistent explanation of their first number and forms, accom- 
 panied both with their multiplication and other changes, from 
 any of the subsequent writers. Good authors materially differ
 
 AND THEIR LANGUAGE. 335 
 
 in their accounts, and we are compelled to test their accuracy 
 by the numerous inscriptions on coins and medals, on various 
 vessels, utensils, and ornaments, whether made of metals or 
 of some description of pottery, and argue the question rather 
 on a better basis than the loose and contradictory testimony 
 of authors of various countries and various ages. Now, He- 
 rodotus, in the passage quoted above, alludes to three states 
 of the alphabet in Boeotia : First, The same which was 
 used by all the Phoenicians of his day, and he had visited 
 Phoenicia while Sidon, Tyre, Dora, and Aradus, were unde- 
 stroyed. Second, The same, with certain changes in form 
 and pronunciation, as seen by him at Thebes. Third, The 
 letters he calls Ionian, " like in most things " to the Phoeni- 
 cian, and which he ascribes to those lonians who, in early 
 times, were the neighbours of the ancient Cadmeans. We 
 have excellent authority for saying that either one of these 
 three varieties, or perhaps a fourth, was known at an early 
 period in Hellas, seeing that Demosthenes, in one of his 
 speeches, appeals to a very ancient Athenian law, which was 
 inscribed on a pillar, " which pillar even now stands, with its 
 inscription written in Attic letters, not very distinct." 
 
 Harpocration says that the ancient letters were called Attic, 
 and he is confirmed by the observing Pausanias. But to pass 
 over other notices of the Greek alphabet by other authors, I 
 quote here the well-known passage of the elder Pliny : 
 
 " I," writes he, " always hold that letters were Assyrian in their origin ; 
 but some, as Gellius, will have it that they were invented by Mercurius among 
 the Egyptians ; others, among the Syrians. It is specially said that Cadmus 
 brought them, being sixteen in number, into Greece from Phoenicia ; that, 
 during the Trojan war, Palamedes added four new letters, and Simonides, the 
 lyric poet, contributed the other four. Aristotle writes that the ancient letters 
 were eighteen in number, and that two were added by Epicharmus, not by 
 Palamedes. Anticlides records that one Menon, an Egyptian, invented them 
 fifteen years before the time of Phoroneus." 
 
 There existed formerly a belief that these different states of 
 the alphabet reigned during successive periods, and that, from
 
 336 THE ANCIENT PH(ENICIANS 
 
 their forms and peculiar characters, the time of every inscrip- 
 tion, if true and properly copied, might be adequately ascer- 
 tained. But it is now known that the alphabet to be gathered 
 from the most ancient inscriptions found in Hellas, differs 
 essentially from the alphabet in our Greek grammars, which 
 was concocted we know not how, nor by whom, and intro- 
 duced into common use, we know not where, nor by what 
 authority. We, however, know that the alphabet of the 
 ancient inscriptions consisted of twenty-seven letters, as may 
 be seen in Rose's Tables. Inscriptions in Italy give us an 
 alphabet which must have been carried westward by that 
 vigorous people, who afterwards called themselves Latini. 
 Mr. Rose gives the following letters, taken from genuine in- 
 scriptions, as the probable character of the alphabet introduced 
 at some unknown period into Italy : 
 
 ABCDEFHIKYMNOPQRSTVXZ. 
 
 I believe that the two last letters were importations of a very 
 late date, and that this alphabet, without the two last letters, 
 is a fair representation of the Greek letters which Julius Cassar 
 found in common use among the Gauls, and which may be still 
 seen on the Gaulish coins, minted before the Roman conquest. 
 
 Still further westward, among the Britons of our isle, was 
 an ancient alphabet, which, as I have proved in Gomer, Part II. , 
 contains only eighteen letters, namely, 
 
 ABCDEPGHILMNOPRSTUOrV, 
 
 which agree in number with Aristotle's description of the 
 alphabet of Cadmus. But respecting the origin, variation, 
 and dates of peculiar letters, we are profoundly ignorant, inso- 
 much that we must come to the same conclusion as Frederic 
 Thiersch, in my opinion the most sane of all German scholars, 
 who thus writes : 
 
 " In truth, all the inscriptions of an ancient age impressed on vases, coins, 
 bronze, and marble, which have come down to us. clearly prove that the written 
 character of the four-and-twenty letters gradually arose, and was as gradually 
 received, among (the European) nations, and that those are in error who
 
 AND THEIR LANGUAGE. 337 
 
 labour to fix the origin and progress of letters at specified periods, and to 
 connect these with distinguished names." 
 
 But the point which I have to press on the attention of all 
 serious inquirers into the truth on this subject is this, that 
 all the lettered remains of ancient times in the Western world 
 are all to be referred to one type the one which Herodotus 
 saw on the tripod inscriptions at Thebes, and believed to be 
 Phoenician. All these lettered monuments of ancient times dif- 
 fer essentially from the Aramaic inscriptions, of, comparatively 
 speaking, modern date, which have been generally acknow- 
 ledged as the genuine and authentic representatives of the 
 original Cadmean alphabet. I regard such an acknowledg- 
 ment as an error, a deep-seated error, which has prevented 
 men from seeing the truth, such as it is revealed in Scripture, 
 that all men are brothers, sprung from a common father and 
 mother, who once were one family, and had one common 
 speech, which, according to Scripture, was miraculously con- 
 founded ; that from this confusion arose the two highest 
 types of human language, the Semitic and Indo-Celtic dialects, 
 which, from their birth, had a course and a development 
 peculiar to themselves, so that a branch springing from one 
 of them can easily be distinguished from a branch sent forth 
 by the other. As is the case of the two languages, so also, 
 as I believe, was the case with the two alphabets : one did 
 not spring from the other, but both had a common parentage, 
 and the separation was probably cognate with the origin of 
 both languages. The two alphabets also took the same course 
 and development as the two languages, so that a child can 
 at once distinguish between a page printed in any Aramaic 
 dialect, and a page printed in any of our Western Indo- 
 European languages. In confirmation of this, my view of the 
 origin and course of the two languages, I quote the following 
 passage from a pamphlet, written by me thirteen years ago : 
 
 " I have from a very early period of my career held and taught, that it 
 must have been in consequence of some extraordinary delusion that so many 
 Christian scholars sought for the origin of Hellenic doctrines in the several 
 
 43
 
 338 THE ANCIENT PHOENICIANS 
 
 details of the Mosaic law, and the revelations subsequent to its establishment. 
 According to my belief, all the doctrines and practices common to the Hellenic 
 and Hebrew nations are to be traced up to a common source, patriarchal 
 tradition ; while the Mosaic dispensation, with its peculiar laws and customs, 
 was a close system, divinely provided to keep one people distinct from other 
 nations, by building a wall of separation between them, and all with whom 
 they were likely to come in contact ; and that the great difficulty in this 
 Theocratic system was to prevent the Israelites from adopting the corrupt 
 traditions and practices of their Gentile neighbours, who are never described 
 as inclined to derive any pure knowledge from the hateful, because godless, 
 as they deemed them, followers of Moses. 
 
 " My doctrine went still further, and tended to the conclusion that the 
 language in which Moses embodied his revelation was also (comparatively 
 speaking) a language of separation, and that the long-continued effort to 
 trace the various dialects of the Western world to a Hebrew source, is not 
 among the least striking proofs of the extent to which the errors of good and 
 wise men may be carried, should they commence their inquiries with an in- 
 veterate prejudice ; and of this character was the glossolatry with which the 
 language of Moses was long and extensively honoured. Should any language 
 have been rationally deemed as more worthy than another, it was assuredly 
 that dialect which the Holy Spirit adopted for the more perfect revelation in 
 Christ, when the wall of separation was thrown down, and when the glad 
 tidings of salvation were to be conveyed to the ends of the earth." 
 
 There was a time when pious men held, almost as a religious 
 tenet, that the first written letters were those inscribed on the 
 two tables of stone by God himself. But we may believe 
 Josephus, when testifying the use of writing, in the remotest 
 period of which he had any cognizance. His words are : 
 
 " The Greeks themselves acknowledge that the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and 
 Phoenicians, possess the most ancient and permanent mode of commemorating 
 events, for they all inhabit spots least subject to destructions from that which 
 encloses them, and exercised great foresight, so as not to omit to commemo- 
 rate their own transactions, but always consecrated them in public writings, 
 composed by their wisest men, so that there were abundance of writings before 
 the time of Moses" 
 
 Fynes Clinton, in general a very cautious writer, goes back 
 much further, and says, 
 
 " But the Babylonians, who had made astronomical calculations, B.C. 2233, 
 already possessed the art of writing many ages before the delivery of the law." 
 
 But, as this discussion has nothing to do with any other
 
 AND THEIR LANGUAGE. 339 
 
 ancient language of the Eastern world except the Phoenician, 
 I proceed now to examine those interesting documents which 
 are generally regarded as the true representation of the spoken 
 languages of the ancient Sidonians and Tyrians : these are 
 coins and inscriptions found in considerable numbers in ancient 
 Palestine, in Cyprus, on the northern shores of the Mediter- 
 ranean, and in south-western Spain, and in other localities. 
 The characters of these letters are undoubtedly Semitic in 
 form, and possess other peculiarities which distinguish them 
 from the Hebrew types used by the modern Jews. These 
 latter, as has been supposed, were remodelled after Chaldaic 
 forms, and introduced into Jerusalem after the return from 
 the captivity. On many of the lettered coins are to be found 
 dates ; but all such dates as I have had an opportunity of see- 
 ing do not mount to the era of the Seleucidas. Independent 
 Lydia struck coins at a very early period, but unstamped with 
 letters; and so did Darius Hystaspes, and perhaps his suc- 
 cessors, but after the model of the early coins of Greece and 
 Lydia. Consequently, as the Hellenes were the first to adopt 
 lettered inscriptions on their coins, those coins with Semitic 
 inscriptions must have been posterior in time to, and an 
 imitation of, their Hellenic models. But Carthage, who so long 
 survived the destruction of her mother city, is described by 
 the best authorities as having left no home specimens of money, 
 bearing Semitic inscriptions, coined before her own destruc- 
 tion. The alphabet on these Syrian, Cyprian, and Sicilian 
 coins, is very deficient in vowels, and without any points. 
 Some of them display so great a variety as to induce Geseriius 
 to suppose that they are Lybian characters, adapted to a 
 Lybian language. But all the Semitic writings, whether 
 called Samaritan, Syrian, Chaldaic, or common Hebrew, are 
 so distinct in type from those displayed in Hellenic, Latin, 
 Gallic, and British inscriptions, that the evidence in proof of 
 their original identity ought to be of the strongest and most 
 unquestionable kind ; on the contrary, the arguments that the 
 people who struck these coins, and made such inscriptions, in
 
 340 THE ANCIENT PHffiNICtANS 
 
 the course of the fourth century before Christ, or earlier, 
 were of the same blood, and the same tongue, and had the 
 same letters as those ancient Phoenicians who went with 
 Cadmus into Bceotia, rest on no sufficient grounds. The Sama- 
 ritans, whose letters are supposed to approach nearest in cha- 
 racter to those to be seen on these coins and inscriptions, were 
 Cuthites, transferred from some eastern locality to occupy 
 the grounds vacated by the abduction of the ten tribes by 
 the Assyrians. If we can trust to Josephus, these Samaritan 
 "Advense," when the Jews were prosperous, did not fail to 
 call themselves Hebrews, and of the race of Abraham ; but, 
 were the Jews in discredit, or under persecution, the Samari- 
 tans immediately disowned them, and acknowledged them- 
 selves to be Phoenicians ; this was their practice in the time 
 of Antiochus, B.C. 168. When this king would have com- 
 pelled the Jews to renounce their religion, they withstood him 
 with great resolution. But the Samaritans wrote in another 
 strain to Antiochus : 
 
 " That, being originally Sidonians, or Phoenicians, and being'now settled 
 in Shechem, they found themselves under the necessity, by reason of many 
 misfortunes, to conform to certain customs and usages of the Jews (as the 
 observation of the Sabbath), and they besought him not to confound them with 
 that people, as they were willing to consecrate their temple to the Grecian 
 Jupiter." Calmet, under the word " Samaritan" 
 
 If these Cuthites could so easily claim a descent from the an- 
 cient Sidonians, with much more semblance of the truth might 
 the inhabitants of Siclon itself, and other Phoenician cities, 
 claim their descent from the ancient founders of their com- 
 munities, although they might differ from them in everything 
 but name. We see that their alphabet was the same as the 
 Samaritan, and totally distinct from the Hellenic letters, which, 
 as well as their own, was used in their coins and inscriptions, 
 and principally in localities colonized, or frequented, by those 
 Tyrians who founded Carthage, and disclaimed any connec- 
 tion with Sidonians ; and, though we find them on coins 
 bearing the names of late Roman emperors, they never appear
 
 AND THEIR LANGUAGE. 341 
 
 on ancient coins of Northern Gaul and Southern Britain, which, 
 as will be proved hereafter, the earliest Phoenicians discovered 
 and colonized. It will also be shown that the Tyrians of 
 Carthage, who first entered Spain after the close of the first 
 Punic war, never had a regular settlement either in Gaul or 
 Britain. But I draw this paper to a close for the present, as 
 its main object is to prove that the Aramaic letters in dispute 
 cannot be proved to be the representatives of the Cadrnean 
 alphabet ; nor can the language in which they are written be 
 connected with the Cadmean language of early days. I pre- 
 sent the reader with a bi-lingual inscription found at Malta, 
 upon a candelabrum dedicated to Hercules : 
 
 TWI ~iDN~oy 
 
 D Vtf 
 
 AIONYSI02 KAI SAPAIUQN O ZAPAniQNOS TTPIOI HPAKAEI 
 APXHFETEI, 
 
 i.e. " Dionysius and Serapion, the sons of Serapion, Tyrians, have dedicated 
 these to Hercules, the Prince ; " 
 
 and would respectfully ask any man who is acquainted with 
 ancient inscriptions in the various Western languages, in 
 letters which may be referred to a common origin, if the 
 Greek letters here presented could have been derived from 
 these Aramaic characters ? With respect to the date, we can 
 only refer it to a period when the prevalence of the Greek 
 language was encroaching upon the Syrian dialects. Suppose 
 we ascribe it to the beginning of the second century before 
 Christ? This would give, according to the lowest date 
 assigned by Fynes Clinton to Cadmus, an interval of some 
 eleven hundred years between the hero and the inscription, 
 during which the metamorphosis of the Greek alphabet is 
 supposed to have taken place ; but the interval in which it 
 took place is much shorter. 
 
 Undoubted specimens of coins, and also of inscriptions, 
 belonging to the seventh century B.C. are still existent, and
 
 342 ANCIENT PHOENICIANS AND THEIR LANGUAGE. 
 
 show no tendency to any such portentous changes. Were 
 the metamorphosis a fact, it must have been sudden and 
 miraculous ; but it was not so. From their first appearance 
 to their present state, the two alphabets were specifically 
 different, and had nothing in common but the name. The 
 elements from which the two sets of characters both sprang 
 might be similar in power, and arranged in the same order, 
 but there does not seem to be any further connection between 
 them ; but there was a radical difference between the mode in 
 which they were applied. The Semitic characters are crypto- 
 graphic, and required a viva voce instructor ; the Cadmean 
 have nothing secret about them, and their notes are patent to 
 every body without the aid of either masoretic points or a 
 living instructor. The work of Gesenius on these Semitic 
 inscriptions, which he calls Phoenician monuments, -is a proof 
 that the key by which their meaning can be discovered is not 
 within his grasp, nor of the other German or French scholars, 
 who either agree or differ with him in his interpretations. 
 The subject needs further inquiries. These investigations are 
 especially Christian, for, where Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle 
 saw only barbarians, we see brethren children of the same 
 father ; where the Greeks saw only a confused mass of tribes, 
 or of races, separated by seas and deserts, and severed by 
 national enmity, and having often a strong belief that they 
 were " Terrae Filii," the spontaneous produce of the soil 
 which they inhabited, we see our kinsmen, toiling and suf- 
 fering indeed, but advancing gradually, although with occa- 
 sional lapses and retrograde steps, to the fulfilment of the 
 purpose for which the world was created, and man, the image 
 of his Maker, was placed over it.
 
 THE 
 
 WRITTEN RECORDS OF THE CUMRI. 
 
 I HAVE elsewhere stated the grounds which led me to con- 
 clude, that the earliest migrations during which the dispersed 
 inhabitants of Central Asia moved to their Western settle- 
 ment, were principally conducted by sea, and not by land; 
 and that emigrants reached Southern Spain, the British 
 Islands, and continental shores immediately adjacent to them, 
 at a very early period of the postdiluvian world. The evidence 
 adduced in support of my conclusions is arranged under the 
 heads of historical records, direct or indirect, to be traced in 
 ancient writers ; of articles of commerce, such as tin and 
 amber, peculiar to this island and to the shores of the Northern 
 seas, and largely imported into regions bordering on the 
 eastern shores of the Mediterranean seas, long before Greece 
 began to write trustworthy histories ; of ancient monuments 
 of stone, found in all these islands and the adjacent maritime 
 coasts of Western Europe, and also in all countries which are 
 generally supposed to have been held by our ancestral or by 
 kindred races ; and, above all, of the existence of a common 
 language, which, though now separated and fractured into 
 minuter parts among the various branches of the same race, 
 still retains unmistakable marks of original identity. 
 
 More than one ancient philosopher, tempted by a specious 
 theory founded on the supposition that human progress was 
 liable to periodical decadence and renewal, thought that the 
 course of the human intellect might not be inaptly illustrated 
 by contemplating the effects produced on our earthly globe 
 by the apparent revolutions of the heavenly bodies. The least-
 
 344 WRITTEN RECORDS 
 
 observant watcher of the face of nature could not fail to dis- 
 cover, that the electrical action of the vernal sun stimulated 
 the genial properties inherent in the soil, and imparted life 
 and vigour to every body capable of being quickened. That, 
 next, the more powerful activity of the summer sun, borne, as 
 it were, in his solstitial car, shot downward his fiery and per- 
 pendicular rays, so as to ripen and harden those cereal seeds 
 of which the bread of man is principally composed, and caused 
 the well-tilled fields to assume the golden hues of harvest ; 
 but that the autumnal sun, although striking the earth at the 
 same angle and at the same distance as the vernal, exercised 
 rather a noxious than a genial influence, and caused the 
 vegetable world to fade away beneath his withering glance, 
 until it apparently perishes in the icy grasp of winter sure, 
 however, again to revive and respond to the electric shock 
 of returning spring. 
 
 But the comparison is better fitted to please the poetic, 
 than to satisfy the philosophic, mind. The revolutions of the 
 earth and the heavenly bodies are physical and regular, moving 
 unerringly according to the laws which inexorably confine 
 them within their several orbits. But the human intellect 
 labours under no such physical necessity. It neither suffers 
 periodical decay nor periodical revivals. In surveying the past 
 history of man, we find that the activity of the mind has only 
 continued for a brief period of the career of the early civilized 
 races, after which it seems to suffer a complete collapse, from 
 which many nations, once memorable, have never, as yet, 
 recovered. 
 
 The fixed form of oriental civilization should not be re- 
 garded as the slumber consequent upon too long continued 
 an activity, but as the necessary sequences of cunningly de- 
 vised systems excogitated by man, to enable the comparative 
 few to keep in dull subjection the debased multitude, by 
 fettering their minds with chains which, although secret and 
 invisible, can never, when once made fast, be rent asunder 
 by unaided human efforts.
 
 OF THE CUMRI. 345 
 
 In Europe, and especially among the Greek lapetidae, we 
 witness, in ancient times, two periods of great intellectual 
 activity : one long anterior to history, during which was 
 elaborated that Hellenic language which still lives in the 
 Homeric poems as the lasting monument of the great mental 
 powers of the race. 
 
 This first period of light closed in darkness, through which 
 nothing reached the historic Greeks except these same poems, 
 and the language and the literature of the wise forefathers of 
 not altogether degenerate descendants. Out of the broken 
 fragments and ruins of the ancient edifice arose, principally 
 in. Attica a very narrow corner of the Hellenic world a 
 new form of civilization, based principally on sensual, artisti- 
 cal, and scientific grounds. But these admirers of beauty 
 and art failed to realize the great truth, that the happiness of 
 man cannot be secured on any principles which either neglect 
 or deny his spiritual nature the only medium through which 
 he can become cognizant of his personal relations to his 
 Maker, and of his duties both to Him and his fellow-creatures. 
 
 I need not say, that a civilization, thus deficient, gradually 
 fell away from its culminating point, and finally ended in a 
 general disbelief first, of the popular creed ; secondly, in an 
 intellectual blindness, which prevented those visited by it from 
 perceiving that there was a God in the creation from being 
 conscious that an immortal spirit dwelt in their own perish- 
 able bodies. 
 
 The non-creed of the Greek philosopher naturally caused 
 him to shrink from those laborious duties necessarily con- 
 nected with the due discharge of man's high commission, as 
 the instrument appointed by God himself for subduing the 
 earth, and replenishing its whole reclaimable surface with 
 rational and responsible beings. 
 
 Degenerate Greece had, long before its downfall, ceased to 
 send colonies into distant lands ; and her footsteps in this 
 downward career had been faithfully followed by Imperial 
 Rome, who, under her military despots, withered from the 
 
 44
 
 346 WRITTEN RECORDS 
 
 roots all the hardihood, the stern energies, and laborious per- 
 severance of the primitive Sabino-Roman. 
 
 A far different spirit seems to have prevailed in the earlier 
 ages among those nations who rushed from their Eastern 
 homes to occupy the swamps, marshes, and forests of the 
 European world, and to prepare them to become fit habita- 
 tions of civilized man. For we learn from undoubted sources 
 of information, that the first recorders of events who visited 
 these our Western Isles, found the inhabitants completely 
 furnished with all the animals, vegetables, minerals, and im- 
 plements, necessary for the maintenance of civilization, and 
 which failed to move further west for more than three thou- 
 sand years. 
 
 Old Homer, ages before the philosophers of Greece sug- 
 gested infanticide and libertinage as wise checks upon a sur- 
 plus population, had sung of lands untilled by the hand and 
 untrodden by the foot of man, which required nothing but 
 human labour to change them from howling wildernesses into 
 smiling gardens. 
 
 Such a land was thus described by him : 
 
 " In front was a low island. It was woody and furnished food to goats 
 untamed by man. These are not disturbed by him, nor are they visited by 
 hunters, wllo undergo great hardships while making tlieir way through deep 
 forests or laboriously climbing over mountain ranges. Nor do sheep and kine 
 frequent it, nor has it been ploughed, but has always remained untilled and 
 unsown : unvisited by man, it furnishes food only to bleating goats. For 
 the Kuklopes, who inhabit the nearest land, have no ships nor shipwrights 
 able to construct serviceable vessels, fit to convey the produce of their land 
 to the cities of the world : produce of various kinds, which men by means 
 of sea-traversing ships mutually exchange with each other. Were men of 
 this character to discover the island, they would soon colonize it and cultivate 
 the ground. For the soil is fruitful, and would bear all fruits in their seasons. 
 For along the shores of the foaming sea lie strips of land, flat and well 
 watered. And here the vine would flourish ; and here is arable ground from 
 which, in due season, heavy crops might be raised, because the mould is 
 deep. There is, also, a safe harbour, where a ship might ride securely with- 
 out casting anchor or fastening a cable to the shore. There, sailors, having 
 touched, might wait their own leisure, or until a favourable breeze invited 
 them to set sail. At the upper end of the harbour flows a stream of pure 
 water, springing in a rocky cavern overgrown by trees." 

 
 OF THE CUMRI. 347 
 
 This description of a fruitful island, not inhabited by man, 
 shows that Homer believed that in the time of the Trojan 
 war there may have been many such spots in the far-west 
 unoccupied by man. 
 
 One of the islands in the Atlantic, visited by the Cartha- 
 ginians about the middle of the fifth century before Christ, is 
 described by Avienus, in his account of their voyage, as being 
 tenanted by goats alone ; while the beautiful Madeira lay un- 
 discovered, or at least uninhabited, by man until the period of 
 the Portuguese voyages in rather recent times. 
 
 But our islands, even long before the Trojan war, had been 
 visited and colonized by men who had reached them in sea- 
 traversing ships, had colonized them, and imported from the 
 East the sheep, the kine, the horse, the plough with its ac- 
 companiments, and all the material aids which the emigrants 
 had inherited from their Caucasian forefathers, and also, as 
 I firmly believe, the Cad mean alphabet, consisting of only 
 eighteen letters, being the very same as the ancient British 
 and Irish elementary characters. 
 
 But the Druids, unlike the hereditary priest castes of the 
 Eastern world, owed their sacro-sanct character, not to blood 
 and race, but to a long-continued course of instruction, from 
 which they were supposed to emerge a wiser, more sober, a 
 better informed, and a more learned class, than any other 
 portion of the community. 
 
 A course of studies similar to those described by me in a 
 preceding paper, must have been based on documents acces- 
 sible, perhaps, only to a few, but written either in cryptic 
 characters, or in those which were commonly used for com- 
 mercial purposes, and carrying on the ordinary business of 
 human life. 
 
 We are expressly told by Julius Caesar, that the Gallic 
 disciples, who wished to finish their studies in Druidic lore, 
 resorted for that purpose to Great Britain, where, as he was 
 informed, this hierarchal institute originated. Traditions con- 
 cerning the origin of the nation, and of their forefathers,
 
 348 WRITTEN RECORDS 
 
 whether true or false, as in all other similar cases, must 
 necessarily have formed one of the main branches of instruc- 
 tion, both in Gaul and Great Britain. And, as the Druids 
 of this island survived all the Roman attempts to extirpate 
 them, the stream of tradition is likely to have continued un- 
 broken down to the revival of the Cumric supremacy, imme- 
 diately following the expulsion of the Romans at the com- 
 mencement of the fifth century before Christ. 
 
 When a Druid instructor was persuaded of the general 
 truth of Christianity, he had fewer prejudices to surmount 
 than any other civilized heathen of the ancient world, and 
 would wiUingly, while avowing his new faith, submit, not only 
 to be baptized, but also to receive from his new superiors a 
 commission to resume his functions as an authorized teacher 
 and instructor in the doctrines of his new faith. 
 
 But old habits cannot easily be shaken off; and the con- 
 verted Druid would naturally feel reluctant to consign to 
 letters, and thus eventually to make patent to all, the in- 
 formation which had previously been impressed upon the 
 memory of the disciples by viva voce instruction. 
 
 I have, in another paper on Gallic Coins, shown how slowly 
 and unwillingly both Gauls and Britons adopted the Greek 
 and Roman practice of inscribing letters on their coins, and 
 the probability that those Britons who refused to Romanize, 
 renounced altogether the art of coining money, as an innova- 
 tion introduced by foreigners, and not consistent with the 
 principles of the Druidical religion. 
 
 It is a memorable fact, that the inscribed stones found 
 principally in Cornwall and Wales, and which are referred to 
 Christianized Britons, while yet independent of Rome and of 
 the Saxons, were drawn up in the Latin language, and in 
 Latin characters Nor am I aware that, with the exception of 
 proper names, there exists a single sentence of the Cumraeg 
 inscribed on any material at an earlier period than the sixth 
 century. Up to that period the rich, copious, and venerable
 
 OF THE CUMRI. 349 
 
 language, which has been transmitted safely to our times, 
 must principally have lived on the lips of men, and have been 
 stored in the treasury of memory. 
 
 Even after the Christianized Druids had ceased to preserve 
 their literary monopoly, the habit which had so long prevailed, 
 of condensing knowledge into the shortest compass, survived 
 the policy which had originated it ; and we have still extant 
 many poems which bear unmistakable traces of having been 
 fashioned after Druidical models. These contain great stores 
 of the materials of their knowledge, thrown together in a very 
 loose and unmethodical style, scarcely intelligible without the 
 aid of a living instructor. 
 
 But I leave them for future consideration, and now proceed 
 to examine certain prose fragments, which, under the names 
 of Triads, have reached our times, and were printed in the 
 Myfyrian Archaology in the year 1801. They were once 
 three hundred in number, as we are informed by Thomas 
 Jones, of Tregaron, a learned bard, herald, and antiquarian, 
 who flourished about two hundred and fifty years ago, and 
 from whose copy the printed fragments of the Triads were 
 taken. 
 
 " These Triads," wrote Thomas Jones, " were copied by me, Thomas Jones, 
 of Tregaron, from the Book of Caradog of Nantgarvan, and from the Book of 
 Jeuan Brechfa. And these were all that I could procure out of the three 
 hundred, 1601. N.B. The death of Caradog of Nantgarvan (Langarvan) is 
 said to have occurred A.D. 1156." 
 
 As the two authors from whom Mr. Jones, as he states him- 
 self, copied the 126 which alone he could recover, lived long 
 before the conquest of Wales by the first Edward, and before 
 Cambrian literature and scholarship were, by the united craft 
 and violence of pope-ridden England, persecuted and all but 
 crushed, the testimony of Jones will, if believed (and I see 
 no reason to doubt his veracity), carry the existence of these 
 fragments in a written form to the middle of the twelfth and 
 thirteenth century ; and it is by transcribers of that age that
 
 350 WRITTEN RECORDS 
 
 the greater part of the most ancient Cumric documents were 
 transmitted to posterity. 
 
 But the inhabitants of Great Britain, who wish to see the 
 records of their own history as preserved by the most ancient 
 occupiers of the soil, were they to reject them, would act as 
 foolishly as if the historic Hellenes had refused to receive the 
 Homeric poems, merely because they could not be satisfactorily 
 traced to their first composer and first transcriber. 
 
 The value of such documents must depend on internal 
 evidence alone ; and if the accounts contained in them respect- 
 ing the first inhabitants of our island have a greater resem- 
 blance to truth than the early narratives of all the great 
 nations of the world, with the exception of the Israelites, this 
 fact alone will entitle them to receive the careful examination 
 of all inquirers into the origines of the human races, and im- 
 press upon them a higher character than is due to the myths, 
 dreams, and fables of other ancient nations. 
 
 We are told in the first Triad, that before this island was 
 inhabited it was called Clas Mer-din, that is, Sea-Ton-close. 
 Second, i Vel Inis, either the "honey island," if we take the V 
 to be the servile form of .Mel ; or "Bel's Island," if we take 
 the Vel to be the representative of Bel the sun-god, after 
 whom the Breton priests are to this day called Beleks : and 
 that it was named Prudain after one of its kings. This was 
 undoubtedly the name it bore when it first became known to 
 the historic Greeks, who called it Pretan-is, corrupted by the 
 Romans into Britan-nia. " And no one has a rightful claim 
 to the island except the race of the Cumri, because they were 
 the first to land on it ; and before that, no human beings lived 
 in it, but it was full of bears, wolves, beavers, and mountain 
 oxen." 
 
 In the fourth Triad we are told, that one of the pillars of 
 the race of the Cumri was Hu Cadarn, who first conducted 
 them into Prudain. And they came from the summer-land 
 called Defrobani, and across a hazy sea they came, both to 
 the island Prudain and Litau (Arinorica), where they settled.
 
 OF THE CUMRI. 351 
 
 In the fifth Triad we read that the Cumri were the first 
 peaceful colonizers of the island, because their first leader was 
 not willing to gain lands by battles and extermination, but to 
 acquire them justly and peaceably. That they gave peaceful 
 admittance to a kindred tribe named Ligures, who came over 
 from Guasguin (Gascony) ; that these two colonies were sub- 
 sequently joined by the Brithon, another kindred race who 
 came from Litau ; and that the three tribes were cognate, and 
 spoke a common language. 
 
 In the sixth Triad is recorded " the arrival of two tribes, 
 not of the race of the Cumri, but admitted to dwell in the 
 island by the permission and under the protection of the do- 
 minant race. The first was the ' Civitas Caledonum,' Ciudad 
 Celidon, in the North. The second was the Gwithel Race, ' Al 
 Withel, 5 and in the Alban they are. They were allowed land 
 within certain boundaries, but could not be admitted to equal 
 rights and privileges until the ninth generation." 
 
 Now, it is as clear as day that Geoffrey of Monmouth, the 
 contemporary of Caradoc, of Nantgarvan, to whom he recom- 
 mended the continuation of the History of Wales under its 
 Princes, and those of his council, were aware of the existence 
 of these fragments when they sat down to forge their lying 
 fables, and invented the myths, on which they founded their 
 systems. 
 
 In their days the Britons a name derived from the Brithon 
 of the Triads had become the general name of all the inha- 
 bitants of the island. Hence, Britis or Brutus was made to 
 replace the oriental chief who had conducted the Cumri from 
 the summer shores of Defro-bani, first to Armorica, and 
 eventually to the Wen Inis the white island probably a 
 haphazard allusion to the ancient word, " Albion." And as 
 all the Ligures, Loigerais, had become Saxons, with the excep- 
 tion of those in Cernui (Cornwall), and in the commot of 
 Carnoban, in Deira and Bernicia, they were regarded as the 
 most powerful British race. Locrinus, their mythical repre- 
 sentative, was therefore made the eldest son of Britis, and
 
 352 WRITTEN RECORDS 
 
 declared King of England to the east of the Severn and south 
 of the Hurnber, and the lord paramount of all the island ; 
 while the Cumrian race, reduced in power, and occupying, 
 with certain differences, the present Wales, was represented 
 by the mythical Camber, the second son of Britis, and deprived 
 of his long-asserted supremacy as the rightful heir of the 
 monarchy of the island, "unbeneth Inis Prudan." The 
 island north of the Humber, of which the forgers apparently 
 did not know much more than that the name Alban, described 
 in the Triad as the habitation of the Guithelian and Caledo- 
 nian races, with some remnants of the original people, probably 
 the inhabitants of Cumbria and Strath Clyde, who had refused 
 to become Saxons, was represented by a third son of Britis, 
 named Albanactus. 
 
 To represent the people in the south-western corner of the 
 island called Cerne or Cornubia, and which had long main- 
 tained its own independence, language, rights, and dignities, 
 a mythical chief was invented, called Corineus the giant-killer, 
 and reputed father-in-law of Locrinus. 
 
 In the fifty-sixth Triad, we read that Hu Gadarn was the 
 first of three benefactors of the race of the Cumri, as he taught 
 them " i ari tir " (arare terrain}, to " ear the ground," when 
 they were as yet in summer-land, before they removed to the 
 island Prudain. 
 
 These are very remarkable ethnological traditions, in full 
 conformity with the ascertained history of the first Eastern 
 emigrants to the shores of Britain and the adjoining coast of 
 central Gaul, and with still existing facts, and can in no degree 
 be supposed to have been excogitated by Jones of Tregaron, 
 in the year A. D. 1601, when the splendid romances of Geoffrey 
 of Monmouth were still believed to be veracious chronicles by 
 the great body of his countrymen. 
 
 They are utterly free from the myths, figments, and bare- 
 faced falsehood to which the Hellenic Greeks, Egyptians, 
 Assyrians, Phoenicians, Persians, Indians, &c., refer as consti- 
 tuting the only records of their national origin.
 
 OF THE CUMRI. 353 
 
 True it is, that in the course of time we gather intimations 
 that the great patriarch of the Cumri, who conducted them 
 from summer-land to the island Prudain, was the sun-god 
 known also by the derivative Huan, as both the visible sun 
 and the god of harmony. 
 
 For particulars respecting his identification with the patriarch 
 Noah, and with his supposed residence in the ark, and with 
 the descriptions of him by medieval poets as the supreme god 
 of this world, the inquiring reader is referred to my work, 
 Gomer, Part II. Nor is it to be supposed that the Druids, 
 after their conversion to Christianity, falsified their own tradi- 
 tions, in order to bring them into harmony with the Hebrew 
 Scriptures. So far was this from being the case, that they 
 preserved, with respect to the deluge itself, their own peculiar 
 form of the tradition in which, as in similar claims of most 
 ancient nations, the world at large is symbolized by their own 
 land and people. 
 
 Thus, in the thirteenth Triad, we read of three perilous 
 mishaps of the island Prudain. The first was the outburst of 
 the ocean, Torriad Lin Lion, " when a deluge spread over the 
 face of all lands, so that all mankind were drowned, with the 
 exception of Duiv-van and Duiv-ach, the divine man and the 
 divine woman, who escaped in a decked ship without sails; and 
 from this pair the island Prudain was completely repeopled." 
 
 This tradition was common to them and all the civilized 
 races, as was also another, that a destruction by fire was to 
 be the fatal end of this globe. But they had, in addition, a 
 distinct tradition, that previous destructions of the earth had 
 taken place, with the animals and vegetables then existing, cf 
 which whole races were thus irrevocably lost. This tradition, 
 which is in complete harmony with the discoveries of modern 
 geology, is thus embodied in the same thirteenth Triad: "The 
 second perilous mishap was the terror of the torrent-fire, when 
 the earth was cloven down to the abyss, and the majority of 
 the living things were destroyed. The third was the ardent 
 summer, when the wood and herbs, from the discord (an-cerd) 
 
 45
 
 354 WRITTEN RECORDS 
 
 and heat of the sun, and many men with their flocks and herds 
 perished, and whole races of birds and beasts and of trees and 
 herbs were irrevocably lost." I cannot refer to any tradition 
 of lost races of animals and vegetables in any other system of 
 physiology other than the Druidical. 
 
 The knowledge of the mechanical powers possessed by the 
 first inhabitants of this island is patent, from the megalithic 
 structures raised, both in these islands and all other countries 
 occupied by kindred races, which still remain imperishable 
 monuments of mechanical skill and motive power. 
 
 Some of these ancient works are commemorated in the 
 Triads as trophies of the skill and strength of the ancient races 
 of the island. Thus, in Triad Eighty-eight are described " the 
 three lasting works of Inis Prudain : the erection of the 
 Maen Cetti, the building of the work of Ernris, and the heap- 
 ing up the pile of Cuvrancon." 
 
 Most probably "cetti," not a dictionary word, is a cor- 
 rupted form of " cedti," a treasury-house, and the proper 
 translation of the words of the Triad is, " one of the lasting 
 works of Inis Prudain is the creation of the stone treasury- 
 house;" and most permanent and lasting it has proved, if it be 
 that remarkable British monument in Kent which is vulgarly 
 called Kit's Coiti House. 
 
 I have elsewhere said, that both this monument, and also 
 others in Wales and France, suit the description given by Pau- 
 sanias of the aduton^fX sanctuary in the Temple at Delphi, which 
 was a megalithic chamber, well calculated to become a place 
 of security in time of danger for the valuables of the priests. 
 
 In the magnificent ode to be sung while approaching the 
 mystic temple, which was partially translated by me in Gomer, 
 Part II., occurs the following line : 
 
 Adwin e caer ai cuvriu ced-au, 
 Pleasant the city with its various treasures. 
 
 So that we have every reason to believe that in all such sacred 
 buildings there were treasure-chambers. The word Coi-ti,
 
 OF THE CUM HI. 355 
 
 which has not been changed by Saxon lips, is pure Curaric, 
 and means a hollow house, "cav um teg-turn." 
 
 The second lasting monument of Inis Prudain, Gwaith 
 Emris, is unmistakably Stonehenge, the work attributed by 
 Geoffrey of Monmouth and his followers to Aurelius Ainbrosius 
 and his magician friend Merlin. 
 
 But this lasting work had been erected on the centre spot 
 of consecrated ground in which the bodies of the kings and 
 chiefs of the island had been buried for more than a thousand 
 years before the days of Aurelius Ambrosius ; and it had evi- 
 dently been presented, like many other similar Ts^ewi, to the 
 British Church by some of the Christianized kings of the island. 
 And one of the great Bangors, " high choirs," of the British 
 Church had been erected somewhere on the sacred domain. 
 The words of Triad Eighty-four run thus : " The three chief 
 Cuv-van-cor of Inis Prudain are these : the Bangor of warrior 
 Iltid, in Caer Worgorn ; the Cor of Emris, in Caer Caradoc ; 
 and the Gwidrin Bangor, in the Inis Avalen." 
 
 Caer Caradog is undoubtedly the stupendous British work 
 which still crowns the height on which old Saron, the city of 
 the Saronidae, once stood, and within which was erected the 
 Cor Emris, representing the name alone of the Druidical 
 temple ; Ambres-bury, the Bury of Ambres, also preserves the 
 sacred name, and, with its convent of nuns, was built on the 
 widely extending domains of the Druids. 
 
 The connection of the word Amber with Druidical stones, 
 and with numerous places all over the island, has yet to be 
 explained ; although I have little doubt that it may be traced 
 to the "Petra3 Ambrosise" inscribed on a medal, said to be 
 struck by the Tyrians, and which are written beneath two 
 pyramidical stones. It was not certainly from the Latin lan- 
 guage that the French borrowed their common name "Pierre," 
 by which almost all the "Hir-mein" in various parts of France 
 are known. 
 
 The third lasting work of Inis Prudain, "Turn Cludair 
 Cuvrancon," in bad Latin, " Turrire acervum co-ordinatorum
 
 356 WRITTEN RECORDS 
 
 (Lapidum)," paraphrased in English, " to build up tower-like 
 a heap of stones ranked or arranged in order." The descrip- 
 tion cannot be applied to any other structure in this island 
 than the famous Cornish monument, commonly called the 
 Cheese Wring. 
 
 I will not enter into the question whether this singular 
 accumulation of apparently detached stones be a natural phe- 
 nomenon or the work of man, or the result of both combined : 
 but, from the remains of other Druidical monuments in the 
 immediate vicinity, I have not the slightest doubt that it had 
 attracted the attention of the Druids, and been made subser- 
 vient to some superstitious rites. 
 
 It says much for their judgment that they could foretell the 
 lasting duration of a structure, whether natural or artificial, 
 which one would expect to see overthrown in the course of 
 every ensuing winter, either by the violence of weather or the 
 tendency which such toppling crags must have to overstep the 
 centre of gravity and tumble to the ground. 
 
 Among " the strong men" of Inis Prudain recorded in the 
 sixteenth Triad, is enumerated " Googan Lawgadarn," Anglice, 
 " stern look of the strong hand," " who rolled from the valley 
 to the summit of the hill, ' Maen Maenarch,' which no fewer 
 than sixty oxen could draw." The word Maenarch is made 
 up of " Maen" and " arch," an ambiguous word, not only re- 
 presenting the Latin " area," an ark, but also meaning a prayer 
 or petition. " Maenarch" may, therefore, either mean " lapis 
 precis" or " lapis arcse." 
 
 That it was a " maen chwiv," or quivering stone, may safely 
 be conjectured from its position when compared with other 
 Logan or rocking stones in other parts of the world, as 
 described by me in preceding papers. And the name 
 " Googan," plural " Gigon," must remind an observing stu- 
 dent both of the " Horrenda rupes" of Pliny, and of the 
 " Gigonian rock" of Ptolemy Hephaestio, placed by him on 
 the shores of the ocean, both of which were highly sensitive 
 rocking-stoues.
 
 OF THE CTJMRI. 357 
 
 The Cumri, like the Greeks, claimed the discovery of all the 
 arts and sciences for some members of their own country, in 
 times generally anterior to history, as can be seen in the fol- 
 lowing passage taken from the Triads 91 and 97 : 
 
 " Among the beneficent mechanics of Inis Prudain are commemorated Cor- 
 vinor, the Bard of Ceri-hir, of Lingwin, who first made for the race of the 
 Cumri a ship, a sail, and a rudder ; and Mordal, a man of the sea, the mason 
 of Ceraint, son of Greidiol, who first taught the race of the Cumri to build 
 with stone and lime, at the time when the Emperor Alexander was subduing 
 the world." 
 
 From this observation we may safely infer, that the authors 
 of this Triad must have known that all the more ancient con- 
 structions in the island were not cemented with lime mortar. 
 
 Two of the three great works of the Inis Prudain were, the 
 ship "of Nevid Nav Neivion, which received a male and female 
 of every living thing when the Lin Lion burst ; and the stone 
 tables of Gwidon Canhebon, " the guide with the bright 
 words," on which might be read " all the arts and sciences of 
 the world." 
 
 Many other notices in the Triads illustrative of facts, laws, 
 and customs, known to be real, might be adduced ; but the 
 present lecture must draw to a conclusion. I must, however, 
 first call your attention to this, that many Triads state as facts 
 generally true, which were only true at particular times and 
 under particular circumstances. 
 
 Nor let any one be moved by the thought, that tradition 
 could not retain any trustworthy remembrances respecting any 
 such remote ages. All general truths have their particular 
 exception, and our long-cherished memorials of the past form 
 one of those exceptions. Our people, from the remotest times, 
 dwelt in this island, to which they had emigrated with all the 
 means of civilization inherited from the patriarchal age. 
 
 In their isolated position, apart from the rest of the world, 
 and long unassailed by foreign invaders, they cherished their 
 laws and religion, embodied in one of the most expressive and 
 best developed languages that was ever spoken upon the face of
 
 358 WRITTEN RECORDS 
 
 our globe. And, as that language still remains in all its lingual, 
 although not orthographical, purity, it is not likely that any 
 great truth connected with our name and race has altogether 
 disappeared. Hostile masters, with a hostile religion, could 
 alone have succeeded in producing such a lamentable and 
 melancholy result. But we, the primitive inhabitants, were 
 not subjected to any foreign invader before the written record 
 had replaced the less durable traditionary memorials ; for the 
 coins of Cunobelinus prove, that the public use of letters was 
 adopted by the Britons long before the Claudian invasion. 
 
 Listen, therefore, to the words of the sixty-seventh Triad, 
 which records in written language the memory of ancient days 
 with respect to the physical disturbances which have varied 
 the form and figure of our island : 
 
 " The three original pre-eminent islands of Inis Prudain are, Ore, Manau, 
 and Gwith Anglice, Orkney, Man, and Wight ; and in process of time the sea 
 made inroads upon the land, so that Mon became an island. In the same 
 manner the island Ore was broken up, so that it became a multitude of islands; 
 and other portions of Alban and of the land of the Cumri became islands." 
 
 We now know from geological proofs what wild work 
 the Atlantic Ocean has done on our western shores, from the 
 Land's End to the storm-swept Orcades ; and the tradition 
 with respect to the fact, that the waves of Cardigan Bay now 
 roll over what was once a well-watered plain covered with 
 flourishing cities, is as familiar on the lips of all the dwellers 
 on this coast as it was in the third and fourth generation after 
 the event occurred, although the time assigned for it is far 
 less remote than the actual occurrence, as the work of the 
 geographer Ptolemy plainly shows that our shores, when he 
 described them, did not much vary from their present form. 
 Tradition tells the same tale of the western shores of Cernui, 
 and in the vicinity of the Menai Straits, although with a con- 
 siderable variation with respect to dates. Similar tales are 
 told by the present occupiers of the Hebrides and Orcades. 
 And, although the latter group has passed into the hands of 
 an alien and hostile race, they still abound with megalithic
 
 OF THE CUMRI. 359 
 
 monuments ; and we probably owe this venerable record re- 
 specting the once continuous island of Ore to those Druids 
 who worshipped in the great monolithic temple in Pomona, 
 which is inferior in magnitude alone to the great sanctuaries 
 of Abury and Stonehenge. 
 
 This temple was long ascribed to the Scandinavian con- 
 querors of the Orcades, by men who were determined to re- 
 cognize in the ancient Briton nothing but a helpless savage ; 
 but it is now unanimously restored to its true founders, seeing, 
 as has been well observed, " that its stones were grey with 
 the moss of centuries long before the first Norwegian prow 
 touched the shores of Pomona." 
 
 I here repeat, what I have often said before, and what I 
 wish deeply to impress upon the memories of my young and 
 thoughtful hearers, that the stone monuments generally sup- 
 posed to be Druidical, were the works of a race of men who 
 had Druids for their priests and instructors, and who occupied 
 this island from east to west, from north to south, in times 
 far anterior to the commencement of profane history, whose 
 fathers were immigrants descended from the postdiluvian 
 civilizers of the earth, who, after their settlement here, supplied 
 Europe, Asia, and Africa with the tin of their mines, which 
 entered into the composition of bronze, the metal most in use 
 in early ages, and that their language was the Cumraeg, and 
 that the knowledge of that language and its literary treasures, 
 seems to present to the learned world the sole chance of 
 recovering the prehistoric annals of the profane world. 
 
 The learned have long refused to acknowledge this great 
 and valuable truth ; but, in spite of all obstruction, it will 
 eventually force itself upon the public notice, and be hailed as 
 the one great light in a field of observation which is now 
 covered with a thick darkness.
 
 ON THE 
 
 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE CUMRAEG 
 AND THE GAELEG. 
 
 BEFORE this investigation be further carried out, it is neces- 
 sary to affirm, positively and firmly, that long anterior to the 
 arrival of Julius Ca3sar on these shores, Great Britain and 
 Ireland were occupied by two races who spoke languages 
 mutually unintelligible to each other, and who could not have 
 held any intercourse, social or commercial, without the aid of 
 an interpreter, and that the difference between them is cer- 
 tainly as great as that between the Greek and Latin, with this 
 unmistakable character that the Gaelic or Irish tongue is in 
 closer connection with the Latin, the Cumric with the Greek; 
 and this is shown in the altered form of the numerals, which 
 both Greeks, Latins, Gaels, and Cumri, must have brought 
 with them from their Eastern home. 
 
 The first three numerals, one, two, three, present no great 
 change of form, with this exception, that the Cumric has 
 " Dwy " and " Tair " for feminine nouns, instead of " Dau or 
 Doi" and Tri, the masculines. Proofs of the existence of 
 these forms in older times, and in remote regions, are to be 
 seen in the Homeric Sow and the Indian " Dooab," in Cumric 
 Dwyav (two rivers), and in the Latin " Ter," which must have 
 sprung from " Tair," three times. 
 
 46
 
 362 ON THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 
 
 But in the numerals four and five, an organic change is 
 visible, which, when once established, must always have 
 remained a monument of permanent separation. 
 
 The numeral four is written in the Homeric language 
 Tewapes and mwpes in Cumric Peduar masculine, Pedeir 
 feminine ; in Latin Quatvor ; in Gaelic Cethir, corrupted 
 among the Scottish Gaels into Chur and Char, which forms 
 are also found in the Indian languages. 
 
 The numeral Jive is in the Homeric form wre and -rf/x^f, 
 probably the older ; in the Cumric " Pimp," " Pump," and 
 "Pemp"; in Latin Quinque or Cinque; in Gaelic Co-eg and 
 Co-iff. This radical confusion between the labials B and P, 
 with the gutturals G and C, pervades the four languages, and 
 divides the Cumric and the Greek into one class, the Gaelic 
 and the Latin into another. 
 
 It also serves another purpose. It enables us to discover 
 to which of these two classes belonged the language of the 
 people who inhabited Central Gaul and passed over into Italy, 
 conquered Rome, and settled in Cisalpine Gaul : hence many 
 of their words passed into Roman use ; and two words of 
 Gallic origin, but adopted by the Romans, Petor-rit~um t a 
 four-wheeled chariot, compound ofPedair, and Rhid, Rhod, or 
 Rheda, a wheel, and Pempedula, compounded of Pempe and 
 Dail, " leaves," prove clearly that the people who used them 
 were of the Cumric race. 
 
 It is deeply to be deplored that these two ancient languages, 
 coexistent with the known inhabitants of these islands, and 
 both abounding in the most valuable materials for illustrating 
 not only the history of the component parts of this great em- 
 pire, but of mankind in general, and the progress of knowledge 
 and civilization, should have remained so long an unknown 
 subject to the literary world of Europe : prejudices long fos- 
 tered, political maxims founded on the ancient principle " Va3 
 Victis," and the prevalent desire among dominant nations first 
 to keep down, and then to absorb into their own body, van-
 
 THE CUMRAEG AND THE GAELEG. 363 
 
 quished populations, all concurred in producing that state of 
 things in one island which, for want of a worse name, may 
 well be called the Irish difficulties of England. 
 
 The Irish nation, deemed sacred from the most ancient 
 times, kept apart from the Roman world, and which had never 
 passed through the crucible of Roman conquest, became will- 
 ing converts to the faith of Christ, and, with the religion, re- 
 ceived the civilization of the Roman world. This they culti- 
 vated with such success, that, without neglecting their own, 
 they were, during the sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries, re- 
 garded as the great luminaries of the Western world. Peace, 
 prosperity, and consequent luxury, produced the usual conse- 
 quences, and they had to undergo from invading Danes or 
 Scandinavians, whom they called Ostinen, a systematic series 
 of devastations, massacres, and extermination, which nearly 
 erased the vestiges of their civilization. Inured to war by 
 long-continued hardships, they first vanquished, and then 
 drove out, the Danes, and recovered something of their former 
 splendour, but much obscured. 
 
 Soon after came the Pope and the Norman King, who claimed 
 Ireland as a joint possession, as a divine inheritance; and 
 under this flagitious claim destroyed the chiefs and reduced 
 the people to serfdom, under which they groaned for centuries. 
 To cultivate a literature which was ignored, and a language 
 which was proscribed, was impossible : hence a long-continued 
 and deep slumber. The two Churches of England and Rome 
 have, both of them, equally sinned against the nationality of 
 Ireland, with this exception, that in the case of two English- 
 men, bishops the learned Usher and the pious Bedell 
 attempts were made to illustrate their ancient and venerable 
 antiquities, and to preach the Gospel in words "understanded 
 by the people." 
 
 Wales received far different treatment, and for the last four 
 hundred and fifty years gave no trouble to dominant England. 
 She neither disturbed her by rebellions, nor annoyed her by
 
 364 THE CUMRAEG AND THE GAELEG. 
 
 claims for pecuniary help when weighed down by poverty. 
 Nay, more than this, she never, during the whole of that 
 period, ceased to devote herself to literary pursuits, and to 
 cultivate her own language, but she took care that none should 
 know what she was doing ; for at that period she adopted a 
 system of orthography the most uncouth and barbarous the 
 world ever saw, and suited to an orthoepy which was patronized 
 in that day.
 
 ON THE 
 
 GREAT ETHNOLOGICAL THEORY. 
 
 THE theory which has been adopted as the favourite principle 
 of the leading ethnological writers in modern times, rests on 
 the supposition that the fact, that there once existed a primary 
 language, is true ; but the inferences which they draw from 
 it seem to me not only illogical, but in a great degree 
 gratuitous. 
 
 They suppose that when the confusion of tongues took 
 place, there remained at the central point a people, who, in 
 possession of the primitive language in its original purity and 
 simplicity, advanced gradually in the knowledge of other arts 
 and sciences, and especially in the complete development of 
 language as a fit instrument to express the thoughts of man. 
 
 They next supposed that the sacred language of the Bramin 
 conquerors of Hindostan, which is called Sanscrit, might be 
 taken as a specimen of the comparative perfection at which the 
 original language had gradually attained, and might be safely 
 used as a standard, by the proper application of which might 
 be calculated the periods of time at which certain migratory 
 hordes, destined afterwards to become great nations, had 
 swarmed from the parent hive. 
 
 Another supposition was necessary before any use could be 
 made of this standard, and this was to the following effect : 
 that while the gradual growth of the parent stock was freely
 
 366 ON THE GREAT ETHNOLOGICAL THEORY. 
 
 assumed, the like privilege was denied to the offshoot, which 
 necessarily through ages kept in a stereotyped form in their 
 new seats that language which they had acquired before they 
 left their central home. 
 
 The principle on which this theory rests may be plainly 
 shown in this way : suppose that the knowledge of numbers 
 was a gradual acquisition, and that a tribe in Central Africa 
 was found capable of counting a thousand, and other tribes 
 could not go beyond five, ten, or a hundred, jump to the con- 
 clusion at once that those three tribes broke away at three 
 successive periods, when the numeration table of the parent 
 stock was severally represented by five, ten, and a hundred. 
 
 But the argument founded on analogy was pressed further 
 into the service. As all beings endowed with life gradually 
 attain to their perfection, so it was assumed that language, 
 having once attained that point of perfection, was, like vege- 
 tables and animals, subject to the same course of gradual decay 
 and final decomposition. And of this process there was his- 
 torical proof of the most satisfactory kind furnished by the 
 changes which the stately Latin had to undergo before the 
 modern languages of Southern Europe were gradually formed 
 from its decomposed elements, and this in defiance of the 
 sacred character which the Latin language had acquired by 
 its general adoption in the worship of God, in the schools of 
 instruction, and in the business of the state. 
 
 The inference was not to be resisted, that a similar process 
 had taken place in Central Asia, and that all the popular lan- 
 guages in those regions, especially in Hindostan, would on 
 examination be found to bear the same relation to the Sanscrit 
 which the Italian and its sister tongues bear to the Latin. 
 Before sufficient proof could be obtained, the inference was 
 accepted as a doctrine, and I, among others, was taught to 
 believe that most of the popular languages of Hindostan were 
 immediate and legitimate descendants from the venerable 
 Sanscrit. But such is not the case. Language, to be intel- 
 ligible, must have two necessary constituents : parts of speech
 
 ON THE GREAT ETHNOLOGICAL THEORY. 367 
 
 and certain rules for their mutual connection ; in other words, 
 it must have nouns, verbs, &c., as materials, and a grammar 
 for their regular construction. Now, though I believe that 
 the Noachidae received both as a common inheritance, yet I 
 also believe that their descendants had greater power to alter 
 the rules of construction than to change the materials, just as 
 the styles of architecture may be varied, although the mate- 
 rials, whether earth, wood, or stone, cannot be indefinitely 
 multiplied. 
 
 Hence, nations which differ in the structure of their gram- 
 mar, do agree to a great extent in the sameness of their 
 vocabularies, without enabling us to prove that one was im- 
 mediately descended from the other. But those languages, 
 of which the grammars are only evolutions from principles 
 embodied in older types, must be classed as immediate de- 
 scendants from those which used the older form : now, this is 
 the relationship which the Italian and its cognate dialects bear 
 to the Latin. But the Sanscrit has no such legitimate and 
 immediate descendant among the spoken languages of the 
 East. Dr. Latham, whose authority is deservedly high on 
 this subject, after briefly noticing the Sanscrit question, and 
 sweeping off various mistakes upon the subject, comes to the 
 following conclusion : 
 
 " I abstain from any positive expression of opinion as to the 
 quarter from which the Sanscrit language originated. That the 
 language which stands in the same relation to it as the Italian 
 does to the Latin has yet to be discovered, I firmly believe; to 
 which I may add, that, except in Asia Minor or Europe, I do 
 not know where to look for it." 
 
 Now, to make such a language as this, of which the stages 
 of its gradual improvement are as utterly unknown as those 
 of its decay and decomposition, a standard for measuring still 
 living tongues, is one of those absurdities which men of learn- 
 ing and genius sometimes persuade the world to believe for a 
 time.
 
 ON THE ANTIQUITY 
 
 OP CEBTAIX 
 
 WELSH MANUSCRIPTS, 
 
 ON this interesting subject, without drawing at present on my 
 own resources, I shall content myself with briefly and dis- 
 tinctly giving the substance of a paper written by P. H. Her- 
 sart de la Villemarque, the well-known and celebrated Breton 
 scholar. It is entitled "Notices of the Principal Manuscripts 
 of the Ancient Britons, with Facsimiles," and was read to the 
 Institute of France, November, 1855, and printed last year. 
 The author thus commences his work : 
 
 " After the researches into the origin of our national language, it is not 
 without interest to collect the memorials of dialects, which are supposed to 
 be the best representatives of our ancient indigenous speech, the Celtic or 
 Gallic. 
 
 " To make known such of these monuments as are still to be found in Eng- 
 land, and which are the legitimate inheritance of some of our countrymen, as 
 was remarked by M. Ampere, to range them according to their dates, to show 
 where the manuscripts are to be found, to give some facsimiles, and on proper 
 occasion to criticize the labours of editors, were the objects proposed to 
 myself. 
 
 " If I am not mistaken, the documents examined by me form not only the 
 base of Celto-British philology in its three branches the Breton, the Cumric, 
 and the Cornish, but are also necessary for the study of the whole Celtic group 
 of dialects, and furnish indisputable elements for comparing them with the 
 other Indo-European languages, and especially with the French. 
 
 " I range them under two heads. 
 
 " First, those which refer either to the time of the emigration and the esta- 
 blishment of the insular Britons in Armorican Gaul, or to the succeeding ages, 
 from the sixth to the twelfth century, a period during which trustworthy 
 writers and witnesses of facts represent the colony and the mother-country as 
 
 47
 
 370 ANTIQUITY OF CERTAIN WELSH MSS. 
 
 forming one people and speaking but one language, which was called in Latin 
 ' Lingua Britannica.' 
 
 " Second, those which refer to medieval times the twelfth, thirteenth, 
 fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, when the communications between the con- 
 tinental and insular Britons became more and more rare, and was at last com- 
 pletely interrupted, so that the once one language split itself into three dialects: 
 one which preserved the generic name, and is still spoken in our departments 
 of Finisterre and the Cotes du Nord; another, which, under the name of Cum- 
 raeg, is still spoken in the Principality of Wales ; and the third, which, up to 
 the close of the eighteenth century, was spoken in Cornwall, but now exists 
 only in written documents. 
 
 " To the first head belong 
 " 1. Two written specimens preserved in the University Library, Cambridge, 
 
 in a copy of the Poems of Juvencus. 
 
 "2. A manuscript of the Bodleian Library, numbered xxxi., and named 
 'Codex Distinctus,' containing a portion of the Grammar of Eutychius 
 and of Ovid's Art of Love, each with British glosses. 
 "3. The Lichfield manuscripts in the Cathedral Library, known as the 
 ' Book of St. Chad,' which contains the acts of donations to the church 
 of Llandaff, partly drawn up in the Old British tongue. 
 "4. A vocabulary, Latin-Breton, in the Bodleian Library, No. 572. 
 
 " Under the second head we have, among other important documents, 
 " 1. A manuscript in the British Museum Cottonian Library, containing a 
 
 Vocabularium Cambricum, or Vocabula Cambrica. 
 
 " 2. The Black Book of Chirk, in the library of Sir Robert Vaughan, of 
 Rhug, Bart., which contains a copy of the Welsh Laws of Howel the 
 Good, a British prince of the tenth century. 
 
 " 3. The ' Black Book of Caermarthen,' in the same library. A collection 
 of poems by British bards who flourished in the sixth, and up to the 
 close of the twelfth, century. 
 "4. A collection of chronicles, historical or fabulous, belonging to the 
 
 Cottonian Library, and named the Book of Bruts. 
 
 "5. The ' Red Book of Jesus College, Oxford,' in which are found a series 
 of the same chronicles ; a collection of poems by Welsh bards during 
 the middle ages and in older times ; and of popular tales of chivalry, 
 of romances, a grammar, &c. 
 
 " 6. The manuscript in the same library called the ' Book of Landevi 
 Brevi,' of which the most important document is a translation of Eluci- 
 ddrius, a religious work ascribed to St. Anselm. 
 " 7. Different mysteries in the Cornish language, in the Bodleian. 
 
 " In ranking among the monuments of the second age of the language of 
 the Ancient Britons, works which belong to the first by the date of their com- 
 position, such as a large number of poems contained in the c Book of Caer-
 
 ANTIQUITY OF CERTAIN WELSH MSS. 371 
 
 marthen,' and in the ' Red Book of Hergest,' the ' Vocabula Brittanica,' the 
 ' Laws of Howel the Good,' &c.,I have departed from the practice hitherto 
 adopted on the subject ; but I am justified in so doing by the rules of sound 
 criticism. These works have not reached us as they were written by the authors, 
 but they exhibit an orthography totally different from that used in primitive 
 times. The new and corrupted orthography was introduced into the Princi- 
 pality of Wales somewhere about the twelfth century. They bear something 
 like a similar relation to their originals which our modern editions of ancient 
 French classics bear to the copies first put into circulation by their authors. 
 The difference, however, is much greater ; for the process pursued with our 
 classics have only disguised certain roots, while the new system of Welsh 
 orthography, with its numberless suppressions, changes, and reduplication of 
 letters, has utterly disfigured the words. When the texts shall have been re- 
 established in their original form, whether scientifically after the models still 
 remaining, or, which would be still better, after the primitive manuscripts, 
 which we may still hope to recover, their proper rank in the first age may 
 safely be restored to them. 
 
 I. 
 
 " While waiting for this restoration, let us examine those remains which, 
 by the mode of writing, their orthography and style are known to be anterior 
 to the twelfth century ; and let us commence with poetry, as the most skilful 
 critics recommend the remains in verse as the most important objects of study, 
 seeing versification is better calculated than prose to preserve the pronuncia- 
 tion, the orthography, and construction." 
 
 M. Villemarque then proceeds to give an account of the 
 three stanzas which Edward Llwyd found written in a page of 
 a manuscript copy of the religious poem of Juvencus, and 
 which Llwyd himself thus describes, Arch. Britt. p. 221 : 
 
 " The British words which follow belong to the dialect of the Britons of the 
 northern parts of the island, now the kingdom of Scotland. I found them 
 on the leaf of an old Latin manuscript, copied on vellum by an Irish hand, 
 about a thousand years ago; and from the handwriting, and a few more 
 words in the same dialect, I am convinced that the book was brought from 
 the Alban, now Scotland, and can make a fair conjecture about the time when 
 it was copied. I know not whether it is the dialect of the Britons of Strath- 
 clyde, or of the Gwithel Picti, for so the ancient Cumri named the northern 
 race, who, by their daring courage and the strength of their country, saved 
 themselves from the arms of Rome." 
 
 He then observes, that in Wales there were compositions
 
 37:2 ANTIQUITY OF CERTAIN WELSH MSS. 
 
 (not very dissimilar in style) of the Northern Britons, of 
 Lomarch the aged, and of Merdin the Caledonian. 
 
 " So it is likely that it is Albaneg, or the language of the Picti, the ancient 
 inhabitants of the Alban, respecting which language the learned historians of 
 Scotland say that there remains not a single written word ; and owing to 
 this complete ignorance respecting their language, some have rather doubted 
 whether they were of British descent or from the shores of the Baltic, or from 
 the country of the ' High Elmen,' now called Germans. If the dialect in which 
 these verses are written was spoken by the Picti, they were undoubtedly 
 Britons. But, however that may be, as the words are but few, and constitute 
 the oldest and strangest written British I ever saw, I thought it right 
 (although as yet I do not understand them) to print them for the gratification 
 of those who are learned in the ancient Cumraeg. And, as there are no Irish 
 types either at Oxford or anywhere else, I print them in the ancient Cumric 
 characters, which only slightly differ from the Irish." 
 
 M. Villemarque visited Cambridge on purpose to examine 
 the original document, and has given a facsimile of the manu- 
 script, which slightly differs from Llwyd's edition, but is in 
 one point certainly erroneous, as he has introduced the letter 
 Z, equally unknown both to the Irish and British writers 
 of ancient times. I have already given my own opinion in 
 Gomer, Part II., and have to confess my mistake in trusting 
 too much to the version and text of Edward Davies. In a 
 second edition of Gomer, now preparing for the press, I shall 
 again re-examine the question by the new light thrown upon 
 it by the comments of M. Villemarque, who found another 
 fragment, written by the same hand and in the same dialect, 
 in the same manuscript. This he pronounces very important, 
 but has not yet made it public. He thus concludes his 
 observations : 
 
 " Before leaving Juvencus, I ought to indicate its provenance. The name 
 'Price,' written in large characters on the first leaf, informs us that it 
 belonged to the family of a celebrated Welsh antiquary. We know that Sir 
 John Price, one of King Henry the Eighth's council in the Coui-t of the 
 Marches, was one of the commissioners appointed by that prince to visit the 
 monasteries at the time of their dissolution. He collected a great number of 
 manuscripts concerning the antiquities of his own country, and made use of 
 some of them in his Defence of the History of the Britons against Polydore
 
 ANTIQUITY OF CERTAIN WELSH MSS. 373 
 
 Virgil, which was published after his death in 1553. Among his books this 
 Juvencus was found. There is some reason to believe that he found it in 
 some abbey on the borders of Scotland, where the Ancient Britons maintained 
 their independence and language up to the tenth century." 
 
 2. M. Villemarque next examines the British glosses of 
 Latin words found in manuscript copies of Eutychius and 
 Ovid's Art of Love, in the Bodleian, of which I have given a 
 sufficient account in Gomer. 
 
 3. He describes the Book of St. Chad, preserved at present 
 in the Cathedral Church of Lichfield, and known also by the 
 name of " Codex Ecclesise Lichfieldensis." This celebrated 
 volume originally belonged to the church of Llandaff, whence 
 it seems to have been stolen. Dr. Davies often quotes it in 
 his Dictionary. Wanley described and quoted some parts, 
 which was fortunate, as the book has suffered mutilations from 
 a careless binder. Llwyd translated these into modern Welsh, 
 as may be seen in his Arcliteologia Britannica, page 226. 
 
 The Rev. William Rees, in the year 1840, took from this 
 volume seven passages, which he added, with facsimiles, to his 
 edition of the Liber Landavetisis. 
 
 It is much to be regretted that no attempts, beyond the 
 highly laudable exertions of the ingenious publisher himself, 
 have ever been made to illustrate the charters contained in 
 this precious monument of British history. 
 
 I have every reason to believe, that, although rewritten and 
 copied into one volume in the twelfth century, many of the 
 charters contain specimens of Cumraeg as it was written in 
 the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries, and that these 
 fragments alone can furnish the means of restoring to their 
 primitive forms all the works ascribed to the authors of that 
 period which have reached our eyes only in their disguised 
 forms. The Cumraeg inserted in the charters is so clear and 
 intelligible that it is difficult to account for Edward Llwyd's 
 observation that it was " Brittanica lingua, propter vetusta- 
 tem jam paucis intellecta," except we suppose that ordinary 
 readers could not recognize their own language except in a
 
 374 ANTIQUITY OF CERTAIN WELSH MSS. 
 
 phonetic form. Some aid may also be derived from a Latin- 
 British vocabulary, probably written by an Armorican teacher, 
 who undertook to teach his pupil how he was to acquire the 
 knowledge of the Latin language. 
 
 It is to be found in the Bodleian, and was drawn up pro- 
 bably about the commencement of the seventh century. 
 
 And some help may be derived from a Cornish vocabulary 
 of the ninth century, transcribed and partly changed by some 
 writer in the twelfth century. 
 
 II. 
 
 The first document to be ranged under this head is the 
 copy r ' of the Laws of Howel the Good, now in the library 
 of Rhug, of which M. Villemarque gives the following 
 account : 
 
 " THE BLACK BOOK or CHIRK. The late Aneurin Owen, who was em- 
 ployed by the government to give a new edition of the Welsh Laws, and to 
 translate the same into the English language, was, as I believe, the first who 
 mentioned the Black Book of Chirk. He says it was the oldest manuscript 
 of the Laws of Howel, who died A.D. 954, and took it as the basis of his 
 text. 
 
 " ' The copier,' writes Mr. Owen, ' might have been a monk, and seems to 
 have been more conversant with other languages than with the Cumraeg, and 
 to this cause may be referred the innumerable mistakes committed by him. 
 It must also be allowed, that at the time the copy was made the orthography 
 of the Cumraeg was far from being fixed. Almost from the commencement 
 we see the hand changed, and articles of the law transcribed with an ortho- 
 graphy differing materially from that of the regular copier ; from which cir- 
 cumstance it is evident that neither of them accurately copied the original 
 placed before them, but wrote the words according to their own fancy. It is 
 difficult to fix precisely the date of the manuscript, but it may be safely re- 
 ferred to the commencement of the twelfth century. It formed a part of the 
 Hengwrt collection, and was inscribed by Sir Robert Vaughan Y Llyfr du 
 o JTaen.'" 
 
 M. Villemarque, after praising the accuracy of Mr. Owen's 
 translation, adds : 
 
 " I am sorry Mr. Owen did not publish a facsimile, in order to convince 
 strangers that he was justified in fixing the age of the manuscript. Accord- 
 ing to my own opinion, he might have referred it to the end of the eleventh
 
 ANTIQUITY OF CERTAIN WELSH MSS. 375 
 
 century; not only the handwriting, but the language of the text, which 
 describes the privileges of the men of Arvon, seems to me to belong to that 
 period." 
 
 Unfortunately no portion of the Laws as written originally 
 in the age of Howel the Good is to be found at present in 
 Great Britain. A search made at Rome, whither they were 
 sent to procure the Pope's sanction, might perhaps have a 
 better result. 
 
 THE BLACK BOOK OF CAEKMAETHEN. 
 
 This is the most celebrated of all the Welsh manuscripts. 
 It is commonly supposed to have been written by the monks 
 of the priory of Carmarthen. After becoming the property 
 of the cathedral of St. David's, to which on the dissolution of 
 the priory it was transferred, it passed into the hands of Sir 
 John Price, a great collector of similar documents, and finally, 
 in the course of the seventeenth century, formed part of the 
 library of the Vaughans, then residing at their mansion of 
 Hengwrt. 
 
 It is a collection of poems written on vellum. It is a small 
 quarto, and contains fifty-five pages. It was preserved with 
 almost superstitious reverence. The owner made it accessible 
 to no one, and even his friends were not allowed to examine 
 it. One of them, the antiquary Edward Llwyd, was not more 
 favoured than others. 
 
 He says : 
 
 " I have been admitted to a transient view for a few hours of the Hengwrt 
 collections, and the oldest Welsh manuscript I saw there was the Black Book 
 of Caermarthen. It is a quarto of fifty-four leaves, containing poems of the 
 sixth century by Merdin, Taliessin, &c. The former part of this book is in a 
 large fair character, and seems considerably older than the latter ; and the 
 latter part might possibly have been transcribed by that noted bard Cynddelw 
 Prydydd Mawr, or at least in his time, which was about the year 1150. I am 
 aware that Dr. Davies places this poet ninety years later. But in MS. page 52, 
 I find that he wrote an elegy on the death of Madoc, son of Meredith Prince 
 of Powys, which happened in the year 1158. Arch, page 225."
 
 376 ANTIQUITY OF CERTAIN WELSH MSS. 
 
 In another place, page 261, Llwyd says in Latin, while 
 describing his own MS. copy of Llywarch Hen's work, 
 
 " Whether the works of the poet, which are copied in the Black Book of 
 Caermarthen, now to be found in the Hengwrt Library, are the same as mine, 
 or whether they are partly the same or altogether different, is unknown to me, 
 since I have never had an opportunity of examining the books in that col- 
 lection. The present owner, Sir H. Vaughan, both a learned and courteous 
 gentleman, and also most friendly to me, repeatedly promised to grant me 
 permission; but afterwards, being, as I suppose, advised not to do so by 
 some people who were rather bad politicians than men of learning, he with- 
 drew his promise." 
 
 "These politicians," proceeds M. Villemarque, "were, of course, afraid 
 that the Cambrians might find in the Black Book, songs full of regrets and 
 hopes calculated to interfere with the regular course of established order in 
 the country. And perhaps their fears were not completely without some 
 foundation. A considerable portion of the collection consists of enthusiastic 
 aspirations for national independence; besides that, they breathe a spirit 
 of religious mystery, and are ascribed to the principal poets of the British 
 race to Taliessin, to Merdin or Merlin, and Llywarch the Aged. Of these 
 the first two were regarded by the popular feeling as bearing a sacred cha- 
 racter, and were esteemed the prophets and seers of the nation. In opening 
 the book, at the very first page I find them treating of the destinies of their 
 country, and expressing their patriotic wishes and hopes with tones and 
 accents worthy of the priests of Belen, the worshippers of fire and of the god 
 of war." 
 
 Here M. Villemarque gives several specimens, and then 
 adds 
 
 " We can easily conceive that this imperturbable confidence, expressed in 
 verses full of energy, which are found plentifully in other poems in the same 
 collection, where the bards never cease to predict a great political revolution 
 to the Britons, was calculated to make due impression, even in the seventeenth 
 century, on those who were acquainted with the contents of the Black Book, 
 and rendered them reluctant to publish them. 
 
 " At preseut all motives for such reserve have passed away, and both po- 
 litics and literature can cordially join in calling for full publicity." 
 
 After explaining in detail the subject of the principal poems, 
 M. Villemarque adds, 
 
 " I must not forget to add two pieces, very important for fixing the date of 
 the manuscript. The first was written in the year 1104, and contains an elegy
 
 ANTIQUITY OP CERTAIN WELSH MSS. 773 
 
 on the death of Howel, the son of Goronwy, slain that year by the Normans, 
 in the Vale of Towy. The second, in the year 1159, and is also an elegy on 
 a Welsh chieftain, Madoc, son of Meredith, Prince of Powys, who reigned 
 from 1133 to 1159. 
 
 " If I am not mistaken, the handwriting of the more recent portion of the 
 Black Book may be ascribed to the latter epoch, and the more ancient part to 
 either the end of the eleventh or commencement of the twelfth century. An 
 examination of the facsimiles v., vi., and vii., will enable every one to form 
 his own opinion. I am surprised that they were never made public before : 
 the collection is well worth the trouble. The pieces which it contains were 
 published in the year 1801, in the first volume of the Myfyrian Archaeology, 
 by the patriotic tradesman, Owen Jones of Myfyr, aided by two friends ; and 
 some of them have been translated by various authors into English, and by 
 myself into French ; but I have acquired the certainty that they were printed 
 from transcripts which were not taken immediately from the original text in 
 the Black Book, and that there is great need to correct them according to it, 
 and to reprint them with all the various readings. A new edition of the 
 whole Myfyrian works, in a more critical spirit, is highly desirable, and would 
 completely justify the commendations bestowed on that collection by Sharon 
 Turner, in the excellent work by which he proved the authenticity of the 
 Ancient British poems, and by M. Fauriel in his Literary and Philosophical 
 Annals. Until this republication takes place, the Archeology of Wales ought 
 not to be consulted, except with due discretion. It has been thought of : the 
 venerable and learned Archdeacon of Cardigan has promised such an edition ; 
 and the noble proprietors of Ehug will, by throwing their library open to him, 
 acquire fresh titles to the gratitude of the scientific world." 
 
 M. Villemarque then proceeds to examine the state of the 
 manuscripts of the Welsh translations of Geoffrey of Mon- 
 mouth's fabulous work, and of the chronicles in which the 
 various events, more or less immediately connected with the 
 history of the British race, are recorded, from the first supre- 
 macy of the Saxons to the extinction of the royal race by 
 the death of Lly welly n. A series of these, both in the Latin 
 and Welsh language, exist in the Hengwrt, Bodleian, and 
 Cottonian libraries, from which might be selected, valuable 
 materials for illustrating the character, the history, the laws, 
 religion, the language, and literature, of not only the Britons, 
 but also of other races, from the expulsion of the Romans to 
 the close of Queen Elizabeth's reign. 
 
 The editors of the Myfyrian Archaeology were not in a posi- 
 
 48
 
 378 ANTIQUITY OF CERTAIN WELSH MSS. 
 
 tion to give a correct representation of the written records of 
 the Cuniri, as by far the most important and valuable collection 
 of Cumric manuscripts, locked up in the Hengwrt library, 
 were unknown to them. Now that access has been given to a 
 distinguished foreigner, it is to be hoped that a native scholar, 
 well qualified to examine critically the contents of the 168 
 manuscripts still to be found at Rhug, will not be refused the 
 the same permission. 
 
 M. Villemarque finally embodies, in the conclusion of his 
 invaluable notices, the following summary : 
 
 " This notice of the manuscripts preserved in Great Britain, where the lan- 
 guage of the Ancient Britons can best be studied, ought naturally to end with 
 the discovery of printing. If the Press has hitherto been tardy in multiplying 
 copies of them, and not always faithful, as has been found by me, it will have 
 to amend its t-irdiness and want of accuracy. 
 
 " An intelligent selection of the texts in verse and prose, which I have re- 
 viewed as they are to be found in the valuable manuscripts described by me 
 and arranged according to their date, will mark a new era in the study of 
 Celticjphilology. 
 
 " There will be there found, for the sixth and seventh century, the poems, 
 in an old British language, preserved in the Cambridge Juvencus. 
 
 " For the eighth and first half of the ninth century, the texts of Eutychius 
 and Ovid, with their accompanying glosses. 
 
 " For the second half of the ninth century, the words inserted in Cumraeg, 
 in the charters contained in the Lichfield Gospel of St. Chad, and in the Liber 
 Landavenns. 
 
 " For the tenth and eleventh century, the vocabularies of that period. 
 
 " For^the twelfth, the Cornish Vocabulary, the Laws of Howel the Good, 
 and a complete collection of poems. 
 
 " For the thirteenth, the Ancient British chronicles, both fabulous and his- 
 torical, which the corresponding Latin texts render so valuable. 
 
 " For the fourteenth century, the Mabinogi and Arthurian romances, and 
 the translations of religious or moral treatises popular in that age, of great 
 use as vocabularies. 
 
 " Finally, for the fifteenth century, a literal translation into metrical Cum- 
 raeg of the psalms and hymns contained in the Officitim Beatee Virginu, with- 
 out speaking of other poems of the middle ages having fixed dates, and taken 
 as much as possible from copies coeval with their authors ; and the whole 
 to be accompanied with facsimiles calculated to justify, by the science of 
 palaeography, the conclusions of philology. 
 
 " In such a publication, the words and phrases of the language, at eras
 
 ANTIQUITY OF CERTAIN WELSH MSS. 379 
 
 well defined, will be seen in their proper light, confined, for the most part, 
 within the framework of fixed metre and rhyme. They will illustrate each 
 other, and, often translated by authors of respectable antiquity, will allow no 
 room for arbitrary interpretations. Lexicographers and grammarians would 
 thus have a considerable mass of various and choice samples more within 
 the reach of true criticism than the loose materials, adulterated and falsified, 
 which have been too hastily used in these later times, and may thus at last 
 establish on sure foundations the philology of the Celtic languages." 
 
 I cannot better end the present paper than by translating 
 from the Welsh Preface to his Archaologia Brittanica, which 
 Edward Llwyd addressed to his countrymen the Cumri, his 
 opinions respecting the alphabet used by the Cumri of the 
 sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries, and which he asserts 
 was identical with the Irish and early Saxon alphabets : 
 
 " But because we have not used these letters for the last seven or eight 
 hundred years, and because the people of Loiger have lately used them in 
 printing a few books in the old Saxon language, they claim them as their own, 
 and call them Saxon letters. On the other side, the Irish, because they have 
 used them in every age up to this day, assert that from the first they were 
 Irish letters ; and, as their nation sent many religious missionaries to preach 
 the Gospel to the old Saxons, they at the same time taught them to write. 
 No one of these two people considered that the old Britons, up to a, com- 
 paratively speaking, late period, also used these letters. The author of the 
 Catalogue of Northern Books (Wanley), in the Latin preface to his book after 
 exchanging a few letters with me, because he had heard that I had said, that 
 we had a better claim to the letters than either the Irishman or the Saxon 
 has onlv said in that preface, that the Saxons had not received these letters 
 either from the Irish or from the Britons, but from the monk Augustine, 
 which is equivalent to an assertion that both the Britons and the Irish were 
 taught the use of these letters by the Saxons. This, the gentleman (as if his 
 word was sufficient warrant for the fact) declares, without condescending to 
 prove this assertion by ancient authorities, or attempting himself to discuss 
 the question even without noticing that I had written to him, to say that these 
 letters were clearly to be seen in the church of Cadwalader in Mona, on the 
 inscribed tombstone of Cadvan King of Gwenet, and that Cadvan had fought 
 the battle of Bangor Iscoed against the Saxons and the monk Augustine. A 
 similar proof of ungentlemanly conduct and impartiality was shown by the 
 author of the Thesaurus Linguarum Septentrionalium (Hicks), who obstinately 
 asserted that the British words found by me in ancient manuscripts, both in 
 the Bodleian and elsewhere, were old Saxon. It was impossible for him not to 
 know that the words adduced were British ; for, although he does not under-
 
 380 ANTIQUITY O CERTAIN WELSH MSS. 
 
 stand either the Cumraeg or the Gaeleg, he well knew that they were not 
 Saxon, Scandinavian, or Norman ; and he even confesses, in another part of 
 the same book, that one of the books mentioned by me once belonged to the 
 church of Llandaff. 
 
 " I did not mention these facts in my English preface, that I might not stir 
 up more indignation and anger than such a roguish attempt to steal our pro- 
 perty is worth ; but I have made it manifest to all by showing the mark, to 
 whom the goods belong." 
 
 It may prove useful to some to read Edward Llwyd's ob- 
 servations upon the absence from the Celtic alphabets, of the 
 Irish and Welsh, of the six letters, K, J, Q, W, Y, Z. 
 
 1. The letter K never occurs in our oldest British manu- 
 
 scripts ; but being afterwards introduced by the Nor- 
 mans, who made frequent use of it in their old French, 
 I find that about the year 1200, K was almost con- 
 stantly used in the initial syllables, and C in the 
 termination. 
 
 2. J consonantal, was never used by the Cumric, although 
 
 it was frequently so pronounced in Cornish words. 
 
 3. Q, though never used by the Welsh and Irish, was yet 
 
 received by the Cornish, although nothing so much 
 used by them as by the Britons of France. It seems, 
 however, to have been very anciently used in Cornwall 
 in the same manner as in the French language and the 
 Armoric, viz., Qu as K ; for I have seen the Ancient 
 British cunetam (cuneddaf) inscribed on a stone at 
 Golval, near Pensans, Quenetav. 
 
 4. W occurs nowhere in the ancientest Welsh manuscripts ; 
 
 but about the year 1200, 1 find it sometimes used as a 
 V consonant ; but the most common pronunciation of 
 it then was that which is still retained by the Welsh 
 and Cornish, namely, both as the English W and OO. 
 
 5. X, though used by the Roman writers to express British 
 
 and Gallic names, we cannot find, by any British or 
 Scottish writings now extant, that we had any use of 
 that letter in our own languages. 
 
 N.B. The X at the end of proper names, as Durn-
 
 ANTIQUITY OF CERTAIN WELSH MSS. 381 
 
 norix, was probably used to make a nominative case 
 for Duvnorig, as lex pax for the roots, pac, leg. 
 6. Y, from what I have hitherto observed, was not at all 
 used before the Norman Conquest, if so early, although 
 found with various powers in old Cornish words. 
 N.B. I must not here omit that the ancients seldom or 
 never altered, as is done in these later centuries, the initial 
 letters in writing. They left that wholly to the experienced 
 reader's pronunciation. 
 
 To conclude, it is but right to quote M.Villemarque's opi- 
 nion about the existence of the Bretonne manuscript, which, as 
 Geoffrey of Monmouth asserted, served to enable him to com- 
 pose a more authentic history of the kings of the Britons than 
 it was possible for another writer to draw up. 
 
 Before all the advantages derivable from a critical compa- 
 rison of the original Latin with various Celtic translations of 
 the Historia Britonum could be fully secured, " it would be 
 necessary," says M. Villemarque, " to recover the text in the 
 old Breton language of that book which Geoffrey of Monmouth 
 assures us that he took for his model, or, at least, an authentic 
 copy of the same document as reproduced and dressed up by 
 Walter Calenius, Archdeacon of Oxford, who is supposed to 
 have brought the original from Brittany into England. The 
 existence both of the one and of the other seems so well 
 attested by medieval records, that it is not possible to doubt 
 the fact. I found one more proof to be added to the very 
 impartial testimony of Gaiman the Norman, contemporary with 
 Geoffrey, and that is in the Red Book of Hergest. It is the 
 Welsh translator of the Historia Britonum who furnished me 
 with it." 
 
 "The Latin writer, after stating, no doubt most wrongfully, that the 
 Cumri of his time were degenerate Britons, ' degeneratia Brittanica nobili- 
 tate,' who called themselves no longer ' Britones sed Gualenses,' thus con- 
 cludes : ' As to the history of those princes who have since ruled in the 
 Principality of Wales, I leave Caradoc of Llancarvan, my coeval, to write it 
 and the history of the Saxon kings, to William of Malmesbury and Henry of 
 Huntingdon ; but I charge them not to speak of the British kings, as they
 
 382 ANTIQUITY OF CERTAIN WELSH MSS. 
 
 have not in their possession that book in the British language which Walter, 
 Archdeacon of Oxford, brought from Brittany, and which I have translated 
 into Latin. 
 
 " The truth is brought out without ambiguity in the Welsh version, where 
 the Archdeacon of Oxford is said to have translated the book brought from 
 Brittany from the ' Brytanec' into the c Kymraec,' whence Geoffrey undertook 
 to translate the same into Latin." 
 
 Translate it he certainly did not ; but upon the traditions 
 of the Britons of Damnonium and of Armorica, respecting the 
 long-continued struggle between the Celts and Saxons in 
 Britain, which had probably been worked up into something 
 like a laudatory narrative of the deeds achieved by the chiefs 
 of the Loigerais, to whom both the insular and continental 
 Britons belonged, he built up his mendacious work with the 
 scarcely concealed purpose of disparaging the Cuinri and of 
 exalting the Loigerais, whom the race then dominant in Eng- 
 land was supposed to represent, but, above all, to represent the 
 Church of Rome, and especially the Pope, as the sole authors 
 and guardians of British Christianity. 
 
 These objects are all, however, held subordinate to one 
 Cuinric feeling, which Geoffrey had inherited from his fore- 
 fathers. This was, that the whole island ought to be governed 
 by one monarch, from whatever tribe or race he was to be 
 selected. 
 
 The Cumri, after they had lost the 'Hye^ovtu, retained their 
 political maxim, "Unbennaeth ir Inis," " the sole sovereignty 
 of the island," and held that the monarch of the whole island 
 was predestined to extend his authority over distant lands. 
 
 This was also the doctrine of the Britons in Alban until a 
 history was invented for Scotland, as wild a travesty as the 
 Historia Britonum itself worse, however, in one respect, that 
 it was invented for the express purpose of justifying subjects 
 for violently putting their sovereigns to death. 
 
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