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the facred and civil inftitutes of Brahma, had travelled thus far, it cannot be thought improbable that, with the colonies which emigrated from northern Afia into the west, many of these priests might have mingled, and thus wafted into Europe, much of the theology, jurifprudence, and manners, of the Indian nation. But the hypothefis for which I contend in reality refts upon a firmer bafis than probable conjecture; and the series of hiftorical evidence by which it is fupported fhall be progreffively detailed.

Before we proceed farther, however, in this inveftigation, it is neceffary that we fhould attend to the hiftory and fituation of their Celtic brethren, for they were equally défcendants of Gomer, the great progenitor of this northern race; and as, in a Differtation like the prefent, nice difquifitions concerning the fubordinate divifions of that primæval tribe are out of the question, or, at leaft, are of no immediate importance in the survey of the very early periods to which I allude, I fhall confider them all as one great family; and, with Strabo, apply the general name of Scythians and Celto-Scythians to the firft colonies who emigrated from Afia into Europe.

It is fufficient for me to admit, in this place, that the Celts were the elder branch of that family. The difference contended for feems principally to arise from their situation, which was more remote from the central spot whence the whole renovated race of man diverged in various directions.

That central spot was, doubtless, the great Tauric range round whofe ftupendous emi- ́ nencies it was natural for a race, recently escaped from the horrors of a general inundation, to plant themselves. While the progeny of Shem gradually diffused themselves thence over the warm fouthern regions of Afia, and one mighty branch of the family of Ham emigrated to Africa, the defcendants of Japhet directed their course northwards, branching out widely, at the fame time, towards the East and Weft quarters of that northern diftrict. The promise made to Japhet was, that his borders fhould be enlarged, and the ifles of the Gentiles, by which the commentators generally understand Europe, be divided among his pofterity. In confequence, it may be fuppofed, and hiftory afferts, that their numbers multiplied in a far greater proportion than their brethren. In the courfe of their national increase, ftraitened for room and diftreffed

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diftreffed by want of pafturage for the immenfe flocks neceffary for their fupport, this elder and nobler branch of the Japhetic tribe moved ftill farther and farther off from the neighbourhood of the Caucafus, and gradually peopled, firft the whole north of Asia, and then Europe, where they gradually established themselves from the banks of the Danube to the pillars of Hercules; that is, of their first conductor, whofoever he was, to the celebrated Straits, thus denominated. The exact period in which the Scythian Nomades began thus to move forward from the mountains to the north of Perfia and India, it is scarcely poffible to afcertain with precision, but we may, without any violation of probability, allow it to have taken place a century after the dispersion from Babel; by which time, it may be fuppofed, the pure patriarchal worship became deeply polluted by the introduction of multifold idolatry, and that aftronomy, which, we learn from Califthenes, began to be formed into a fyftem at Babylon 1903 years before its capture by Alexander, had extenfively introduced into the theological rites of Afia the fplendid Sabian fuperftition, or worship of the hoft of Heaven.

That the Britifh ifles were in reality first peopled by thofe Gomerian, or Celtic, tribes,

very

which, in the very early ages after the difperfion, fpread themfelves through Europe, is not only evident from the most authentic hiftory of those tribes extant, but from the ftrong affinity in manners, language, and religious rites, existing between that northern nation and the ancient inhabitants of this country. The fubject of the ftriking fimilitude apparent in their ancient customs and religious ceremonies fhall hereafter be difcuffed at large. In regard to fimilarity of language, I must observe, that the very name of their great ancestor, varioufly changed into Comarian, Cimmerian, Cymbrian, or Cumbrian, is to be traced wherefoever that colony paffed, along the whole line of their descent from the regions of the Northern Afia; even from the Cymbrian Cherfonese to the loftiest of our Cumbrian mountains. The towering pens, or heads, of the Welch mountains, not less than the mighty Appenines of the continent, proclaim this truth; and the Alps and Albion alike prove themselves to be thus denominated from the Celtic Alp, or Alb, fignifying white, in allufion to the eternal fnows on the fummit of the former, and the white cliffs that encompass the latter. Indeed, as we advance in this Differtation, no inconfiderable teftimo

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will be found to arife, from the survey, of the derivation of all languages from one primæval tongue, as well as of all nations from one great family. The monumental remains connected with the most ancient fyftem of Afiatic mythology, yet exifting in the two countries under confideration, and the intimate mixture in both languages of terms radically Hebrew, added to the circumftance of traditions in both countries uniformly pointing to one great founder, who flourished between four and five thousand years ago, will, of themselves, go far towards proving these afsertions concerning their identity, and their having originated from one common stock.

A celebrated grammarian has remarked, Nec modo Indicam, Perficam, Syram, Arabicam, Hebræ junctiffimas linguas; fed et Gothicam, feu Celticam, linguam;* and Rowland, in his Mona, afferts, that no less than three hundred Hebrew radices are to be found in the British tongue alone. From his lift I fhall felect a few only which muft carry conviction. of their primæval derivation. For inftance, who can doubt of the British word BooтH, а cottage, being derived from the Hebrew BETH,

Francifcus Junius Præfat. Grammat. p. 19.

+See Rowland's Mona Antiqua, p. 278.

a house;