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qui dixerit, omnia dixit. If a man wants this virtue where there are infinite obligations to excite and quicken it, he will be likely to want all others towards his fellow-creatures, whofe utmoft gifts are poor, compared to those he daily receives at the hands of his never-failing Almighty Friend. Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth, is big with the deepeft wifdom: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and, an upright heart, that is understanding. This is eternally true, whether the wits and rakes of Cambridge allow it or not: Nay, I must add of this religious wifdom, Her ways are ways of pleafantnefs, and all her paths are peace, whatever your young gentlemen of pleafure think of a whore and a bottle, a tainted health and battered conititution. Hold faft therefore by this fheet-anchor of happinefs, Religion; you will often want it in the times of moft danger-the ftorms and tempefts of life. Cherifh true religion as precious ly as you will fly with abhorrence and contempt fuperftition and enthufiafm. The firft is the perfection and glory of the human nature; the two laft the depravation and difgrace of it. Remember the effence of religion is, a heart void of offence towards God and man; not fubtle fpeculative opinions, but an active vital principle of faith. The words of a heathen were fo fine, that I muft give them to you: Compofitum Jus, Fafque Animi, Sanciofque Receffus Montis, et incolum generofo Pectus Honefto.

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Go on, my dear child, in the admirable difpofitions you have towards all that is right and good, and make yourself the love and adImiration of the world! I have neither paper nor words to tell you how tenderly I am yours. p. 24-28.

Such was the illuftrions Lord Chatham in his private life; and fo pure and lovely were the inmoft fentiments of that great fpirit which humbled France and fubdued America-which baffled the intrigues of the court, and overawed the turbulence of the fenate.

The publication of thefe precious remains is indeed highly im portant;-important as an object of laudable and dignified curiofity-doubly important as a practical leffon and example of emi

nent virtue.

ART. X. Celtic Refearches. on the Origin, Traditions and Language of the Ancient Britons; with fome Introductory Sketches on Primitive Society. By Edward Davies, Curate of Olveston, Gloucestershire. London, 1804. 8vo. pp. 561.

IT is amufing to obferve with what perfeverance and fuccefs the Celts are proceeding in their endeavours to deferve that character which has been fo liberally beftowed upon them by the most contemptuous of their opponents. Every one must rememher the emphatic epithets with which Pinkerton in particular has

branded

branded this ill-fated race. According to him, a Celtic underftanding is fui generis: it readily embraces and believes whatever is rejected or laughed at by the rest of mankind. If there be any truth in this defcription, we think there is great reason to presume that the Celtic writers of the prefent day, defpairing perhaps of deriving the general population of Europe from their own illuftrious stock, are anxious at leaft to fatisfy the world that they themfelves are the genuine defcendants of thofe mighty tribes: and certainly, if strong mental refemblance and ftriking affinity of difpofition may be admitted as prefumptive evidence of direct and pure defcent, they must be confidered as having made good their pretenfions. Let our readers only compare the character of the old Celts as given by the ancient writers, particularly by Diodorus Siculus, with that which the Gael and the Cymri of the prefent day exhibit in their writings. Diodorus defcribes them as fond of ænigmas; making general affertions, where they were not fupported by a fufficient number of facts; and hyperbolical both in praifing themfelves and in defpifing others. *

The Mile fian fables of the Irish have long convinced the world, more powerfully and completely than the most learned and pofitive authorities, that they are a legitimate branch of the Celts. The Welsh, though they have been much later in starting than the Irish, and are even yet lefs Celtic in their creed and character, appear to have lately recovered their generic and distinctive credulity in its utmoft purity, and, of course, along with their credulity, materials for authentic history, as far back as their prefent difpofitions would lead them to defire. The Irish, now that they have feen a Sketch of the early Hiftory of the Ancient Britons from the year 700 before Chrift,' + must allow the confanguinity of the Cymri; and attribute their own more venerable and more ample accounts entirely to their being_defcended from the Gael, who firft left the original feat of the Celts, and may therefore be fuppofed to have brought along with them more copious and accurate documents of the condition and exploits of their ancestors. The Welsh, however, need not despair of fpeedily obliterating all difference between the Irish and themfelves, in thefe refpects, if they continue their efforts to shake off Gothic fcepticifm with as much perfeverance and fuccefs as they have exhibited within these few years.

Though the Irish have great reafon to be proud of General Vallancey, the Welsh need not fhrink back from the competition, while they have to boat of Mr Davies, who feems to unite the Bb 2 inventive

Diodorus Siculus, lib. V. p. 213. edit. H. Stephan.
Lately publifhed by the Rev. P. Roberts, M. A.

inventive imagination of a poet with that rare talent of dif covering resemblance in objects the most diffimilar, which has been confidered as the characteristic of men of wit. Like a generous rival, Mr Davies indeed acknowledges that he is indebted to the General for many of his illuftrations and arguments: But he is by no means a fervile imitator; and, what will furprise those who have read the works of the General, he has even improved upon what he has borrowed. In the first part of his work, he prefents us with fketches of the state and attainments of primitive fociety.' On this subject he has contrived to make many furprising difcoveries. According to him, philofophers are utterly mistaken in fuppofing man, in his primitive ftate, to have been a favage: On the contrary, he was intimately acquainted, not only with moft branches of science, but also with thofe fimple but fublime truths, for which we ignorantly imagine ourselves indebted to the feeble and degenerated minds of a Bacon and a Smith. To Adam, or, at least, to his immediate antediluvian defcendants, the benefits of the divifion of labour, and the inductive philofophy, were intimately known: (p. 8. 9.) The fcale of harmonious founds, of which the Greeks were utterly ignorant, was understood by primitive man, and applied in the formation of the most intricate and powerful inftruments. But, what is ftill more extraordinary, these antediluvians did not purfue the modern tardy courfe of improvement, but invented at firft all that was most difficult and perfect, and left the eafier task of deterioration to their defcendants. Stringed inftruments were known to them, before wind inftruments; and they could make brass, before they could prepare iron. Mr Davies is content with tracing the Celts up to Gomer. We would advife him, in the next edition of his work, to carry them into the antediluvian ages, and to adduce thefe inftances of a retrograde understanding, as proofs that Celts exifted at that early period.

Mr Davies, in his preface, expreffes the deep and permanent obligation' which he owes to the Bench of Bishops collectively. In our opinion, he has amply repaid them, by having proved, as fatisfactorily at leaft as he has proved any other of his pofitions, that the confecration of tithes did not originate in the Levitical law,' (p. 17.); but that the right to them is much more ancient, and confequently much more indifputable and facred. He even infinuates, that the charge alleged against Cain of not rightly dividing, as it is rendered by the Seventy,' is beft explained, by fuppofing that it alludes to fome unfair practices of his in the payment of his tithes.

There is nothing new, we are told, under the fun; and fome

perfons

perfons have extended this doctrine fo far, as to affert, that minds very fimilar to thofe of the greatest modern philofophers, muft have exifted in the ancient world. Mr Davies is evidently of this opinion; the primitive ages, according to him, had their 'Linnæi and their Buffons,' (p. 19.); and, in the eleventh chapter of Leviticus, he finds a complete fyftematic arrangement of quadrupeds and fishes.

In page 33. the geographical knowledge of Noah is detailed:

The very idea of Noah's dividing the land amongft his defcendants, neceffarily prefuppofes his knowledge of the land that was to be fo divided. He must have defcribed the feveral ftates, their extent and boundaries, by certain names. And these, in general, could have been no other than the names by which the fame regions, rivers and mountains had been already known to him, and confequently, which they had borne before the flood. Thus may we account for the identity of the names of several streams and mountains in ancient geography, from India to Britain, and from the Northern Ocean to the Middle of Africa. '

We are furprised that Mr Davies has not drawn the natural inferences from this difcovery; and that he has not attributed the invention of maps to the antediluvians; fince, without thefe, Noah could not have made his defcriptions fo convenient and luminous as he might have done with their afliftance. Several other inferences might be drawn, all of which are fo congenial to a Celtic understanding, that we wonder how they could have efcaped Mr Davies.

As our author has made it fo very probable that Noah kept a regular and full journal or log-book of the occurrences that took place in the ark (p. 43-45.), we would ftrongly advife him, or his fellow-labourer General Vallancey, who has already been fo fuccefsful in recovering Irish tree-alphabets, to make diligent fearch for this valuable relic, which will be very acceptable to all genuine antiquarians, and particularly ferviceable to Mr Clarke in the compilation of his Progrefs of Maritime Difcovery.'

We shall conclude the confideration of the first part of Mr Davies's work, with laying before our readers one of the most notable and curious difcoveries which it contains.

Babel, it feems, is not the proper or original name of that tower, during the building of which the confufion of tongues (an event which has afforded fo much delight to etymologifts, that they have made great exertions to bring it about a fecond time) is recorded to have taken place. Mr Davies deferves great credit, both for having proved that Babel is not a play on the original name, or at all fimilar to it,' (p. 58.); and for having . difcovered, after the lapfe of 5000 years, not merely what the tower was actually called, but what the builders meant to have called it, provided they had completed it.

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The children of men faid, Let us build a city, and a tower, and let us make a name or renown. This was the order by which they afcended the climax of their ambition: but, when they had attained the higheft top, they muft, from thence, have named their city. They. muft have called it Shem, the name, or renown. The other degrees would naturally be fubjoined, to make out its defcription. Thus it became "RENOWN, the City of the Tower." p. 52.

Notwithstanding the originality of thefe fpeculations, we must confefs that we turn away, with feelings of wearinefs, from the first part of our author's performance. The objects on which his credulity delights to dwell, are fo little varied, and fo uninterefting; and his conjectures fo little fupported by argument, or adorned by learning, that we are more difpofed to lament the weakness of the human understanding, than to be amufed with its eccentricities.

In the fecond part, he treats of the origin of the Celta; their inftitution of Druidifm; and their pretenfion to the knowledge of letters.' (p. 117.) Of our author's ability to difcufs points fo remote and obfcure, and on which men of real learning have either been filent, or delivered their opinions with diffidence, our readers may judge, by one fpecimen, taken from his account of times better known, and of a people with whofe progrefs we are comparatively well acquainted.

The Sarmata held thefe territories (Germany) before the aggrandifement of Gothic power!' It is not pretended that, at any time, this handful of men (the Venedi or Wendi) penetrated into the poffeffions of the Goths, or acquired an establishment by victories.. • The Sarmatæ then, or Sclavone, were those whom the Goths found in the land of Riphath, or the eastern divifion of ancient Germany. * P. 125. 126.

How fuch affertions could have been made, in direct oppofition to every authority on the fubject, we are altogether unable to comprehend

In page 143. Mr Davies prefents us with a very delectable fpecimen of a Celtic commentary on Virgil.

This great bard was borne in Cifalpine Gaul, and feems, in his youth, to have courted the Gaulish mufe, till he found that the would not advance his fortune-a very unpoetical ground of defertion—

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Galatea reliquit :

Namque ;-fatebor enim-dum ine Galatxa tenebat,

Nec fpes libertatis erat, nec cura peculi.

Galatea was the mother of the Celta. APPIAN. Bell. Illyr.? No mere Gothic reader, we will venture to affert, ever suspected the poet to be speaking of a perfonage fo dignified; nor is it very cafy to perceive how the mother of the Celts' and the Gaulith mufe' fhould be one and the fame perfon.

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