been a great source of confusion and mistake, 'for it has confounded the antiquities of the Gothic with those of the Celtic nations. This crude opinion, which was first taken up by Cluverius, and maintained by him with uncommon erudition, was afterwards incautiously adopted by Keysler and Pellontier. So much learning and ingenuity have scarcely ever been more perversely and erroneously applied, or brought to adorn and support a more groundless hypothesis. According to these writers, two distinct races of men, the Celts and the Sarmatians, were the only ancient and original inhabitants of Europe; and from one or other of these, but chiefly from the former, all the ancient nations of Europe have descended. The Sarmatians, or Sauromati, it is said, were the ancestors of all the Sclavonian tribes; namely, the Poles, Russians, Bohemians, Walachians, &c. who continue to this day a distinct and separate people, extremely different in their character, manners, laws, and language, from the race of the Celts, from whom were uniformly descended the old inhabitants of Gaul, Germany, Scandinavia, Britain, and Spain, who were all included under the general name of Hyperboreans, Scythians, and Celts, being all origi-, nally of one race and nation, and having all the same language, religion, laws, customs, and man

ners.

Not

Not one of the well informed ancients, however, confounds the Scythe with the Celts, Strabo's Celto-Scythæ, were those Scythe who bordered on the Celts; as the Indo-Scythæ, were those who bordered on the Indi. We have already had it in proof before us, that the Scythæ, Getæ, and Gothæ, were but different names for one and the same people; as we call those Spaniards, whom the French call Espagnols; the Italians Spagnoli; or, as the French call the English, Anglois; the Italians, Inglesi. The name, however, of Goths is not near so old, as that of Scythians; the very first mention of it being in the time of the Emperor Decius, in the year of Christ two hundred and fifty. * After this, indeed, both names were used indiscriminately; and as it is observed, all the Greek writers, from that period, uniformly call those Scytha, whom the Latin authors denominate Gothi.

Jornandes, who wrote about the year five hundred and thirty, gives Scandinavia for the ancient Scythia, and thence deduces the Goths. From Scandinavia he hurries them away to the Euxine; thence into Asia, &c. "Ex hac igitur Scandia insula, quasi officina gentium, aut certe velut vagina nationum, cum rege suo nomine

• Gibbon.

mine Berig Gothi quondam memorantur egressi:" whereas, the only colonies that can be traced from Scandinavia, were, as we shall see présently, the Picts into Scotland. * The Goths, therefore, or the Scythians, came from the present Persia into Europe, by a north west progress; and consequently Scandinavia, instead of being the country whence they sprang, may, with greater probability be supposed to have been al most one of the last that received them. The great Scythian empire must be resorted to as the original nursery for the rest of the world; which extended from Egypt far beyond the Ganges; and from the Persian Gulph and Indian Sea, far beyond the Caspian: which was in splendour, says Epiphanius, when the tower of Babel was raised; and whose inhabitants, says Eusebius, were the immediate descendants of Noah; from whose death, to the building of the tower, Scythism prevailed. Exvbioμos aña του κατακλυσμού άχρι του πύργου.

The Celtic and Teutonic nations were radically distinct. At the same time it is to be acknowledged, that in such very remote ages, ages prior to history, it is not to be discovered, what were accurately the limits of each people. Rov

* Pinkerton.

ing

ing and unsettled, and often varying their situation; being sometimes spread over a country, and at other times driven out of it, not even traces of language, etymologies, or even proper names, can always bear one out in the research. For instance, Cæsar informs us, that some of the Gallic tribes forced their way into Germany, and there established themselves. It is equally probable, that before his time, bands of Germans might, at different times, have penetrated into Gaul; where, although their num bers might be too small to preserve them a distinct nation, yet these emigrants might impart many names of persons and places, that would out-live the remembrance of their foun, ders. *

These two races of men, it may readily be be lieved, became, in process of time, in many things alike; living in the same climate, and pressed upon by the same wants, they would necessarily be led to the same ideas, and to the same pursuits. But because the ancient Britons, in the time of Cæsar, painted their bodies, as do the present Cherokees of North America, is it to be contended, that the Cherokees are descended from the ancient Britons? Not unnecessarily to

* Dr. Percy.

mul

multiply instances, however; the difference in their religion and languages evince them to have been distinct and different people. The Goths had nothing that resembled that peculiar hierarchy, or sacred college, among the Celts, which had the entire conduct of all their religious and even civil affairs, and served them both for magistrates and priests, namely, that of the Druids. This difference appeared so striking to Cæsar, that he sets out with it, at his entrance on his description of the Germans, as a fundamental and primary distinction. "Germani multum ab hâc consuetudine differunt: nam neque Druides habent, qui rebus divinis præsint neque sacrificiis student." The Teutonic nations undoubtedly had priests; but they bore no more resemblance to the Druids than to the Pontiffs of the Greeks and Romans; nor did they teach what the Druids taught, and the Celtic nations believed, the metempsychosis; on the contrary, they had their elysium and hell. This Cæsar, also, positively asserts,

It possibly may be true, that the Gothic na tions borrowed some opinions and practices from the Celts. Several observances might be caught up and imitated. But the difference of language is an argument of fact, which amounts,

in