The genuine history of the Britons asserted against Mr. Macpherson ...

54
THE GENUINE HISTORY OF
Celtce, as the appropriated name of the Ger-
mans •,
becaufe
it was borne equally by the
Gauls of Greece, the Gauls of Macedonia, and
the Gauls of Afia, and was the one comprehen-
iive title of all
This direftly accounts for the difcovery of the
fame name in Britain, without calling in the
extravagant and unwarranted fuppofition, that
the Celtse of North-Germany fettled in the ifland.
That this fuppofition is void of any fupport in
hiftory, is obvious from the management of Mr.
Macpherfon himfelf, who grounds it only on
the name. " The Welfli," he fays p. 12, " re-
*' tain in their name an undoubted mark of their
'^ Cimbric extraftion." " In Britain," he fays
p. 30, " their very name remains, with their
** blood, in the Cimbri of Wales." But I have
already Ihewn the name to have not been the
appropriated appellation of the German Celtae,
but the one univerfal title of the Gallic, the German,
the Graecian, and the Afiatic Gauls. The
fixed indigenous denomination of the Gauls at
home, it was carried with their colonies into the
Eaft, into Germany, and into Britain. And
the fixed indigenous appellation of the Gauls
abroad, it was retained by them, equally as the
general title of all and the particular defignation of
foine. Thus one third of the Gael on the con-
tinent was particularly denominated Galll, and one
third of the Celtas in Gaul was diftin^lively de-
'
nominated