Review of the Causes and Consequences of the NORTHMAN THE HISTORY OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS. BOOK I. CHAP. I. The early Division of Mankind into the Civilized and Nomadic Nations. The most ancient Population of Britain proceeded from the Nomadic. I. No subject has been more disputed by antiqua- CHAP. rian writers than the origin of the population of Europe; and no discussions have been more fanciful, more ill-tempered, or more contradictory. As vehement and pertinacious have been the controversies on the peopling of Great Britain. Few topics would seem to be more remote from the usual currents of human passions, than the inquiry from what nations our primeval ancestors descended and yet the works of our historical polemics, on investigations so little connected with any present interest or feeling, have abounded with all the abusive anger which irritability could furnish; as well as with all the dogmatism, confusion, dreams, and contradictions, that egotism could generate, or wranglers and adversaries pursue. BOOK 1. IT is not intended in this work to renew disputations so interminable and so useless. But in order to present the reader with a complete view of the History of England, from the earliest period to the Norman Conquest, when the AngloSaxon dynasty ceased, the first division of this history will be devoted to collect, from an impartial consideration of the original and ancient writers, that series of facts and those reasoned inferences, which most deserve the attention and belief of an enlightened age. The authentic will be distinguished from the conjectural; and the nearest approach to unbiassed judgment and to historical truth, that can be effected on periods which are now so obscure, because so remote, will be dispassionately attempted. AFTER a succession of disputes, which had increased the labyrinths of controversial investigation, and made the doubtful more uncertain, Dr. Percy, in 1770, struck out a clear and certain path, by distinguishing the Keltic from the Gothic tribes; and by arranging the principal languages of Europe, under these two distinct genera, with specimens of the Lord's prayer in each.' |