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

so THE GENUINE HISTORY OF
P. 35— 36.— " The three great BritifliNationSj
" whofe origin we have endeavoured to in-
" velligate, mufl have differed confiderably from
" one another in language, manners, and cha-
** racier. Though defcended from the Hime
*' fource, their feparation into different channels
*' was very remote. The Gael— , having paffed
'' from the continent before the arts of civil
** life had made any confiderable progrefs among
" them, retained the pure but unimproved lan-
" guage of their anceftors together with their
" rude fimplicity of manners. The Britifti
" Cirabri derived their origin from the Galic
*' colonies who, in remote antiquity, had fettled
" beyond the Rhine. Thefe, with a fmall mix-
'^ ture of the Sarmatse, returned, in all their
" original barbarifm. Into the regions of the
*' South. During their feparation from their
" mother nation, their language and manners
'' muft have fuffered fuch a confiderable change,
•* that it is extremely doubtful whether their
*' dialed of the Celtic and that of the old Britifli
" Gael were, at the arrival of the former in
*^ this ifland, reciprocally underflood by both
" nations. The third colony differed in every
" thing from the Gael and Cimbri. Their
" manners were more humanized -,
and their
** tongue, though perhaps corrupted, was more
" copious. They had left the continent at a
*' period of advanuced civility.—But—the ra-
"dical