marriage of its last Duchess Anne. The Bretons, he informs us, never ceased from attempts to recover their independence; their country was in consequence regarded with a jealous eye by the kings of France; and its flourishing state, its manufactures, commerce, and industry, very soon disappeared.

Our Cambrian countrymen, we have understood, maintain that their language is the primeval one; and therefore, we suspect, they will not be very well pleased with the moderate pretensions asserted by their present advocate, who only contends on behalf of their dialect that it is the parent of all those of Europe:

Let not,' he says, this claim be disregarded because the claimants now form an inconsiderable tribe, are poor, ill clothed, and illaccomodated; for it cannot be denied that Brittany constituted a large portion of the antient residence of the Celts; that it never was subjugated; that neither admixture nor emigration ever corrupted its language; and that the dialect of Brittany at this day is that of the antient Gauls. Is it then extraordinary that we should find Celtic etymologies, and those of other tongues, in the very language which the Celts themselves spoke?

All the Gallic words which are to be found in antient writers are at present current in the language of Brittany, and in that of the principality of Wales. The Romans, during their residence in Gaul, altered some Celtic words and gave them different terminations, but the basis of the language remained unchanged.

The conviction of the antiquity of the language now spoken in Brittany, Wales, and some districts of Ireland and Scotland, has determined some men, zealous for the glory of the Celts their ances tors, to institute inquiries into their language and history; to collect together the monuments which illustrate their country; and to found a Celtic academy. It is proposed by this body, 1. to make researches into the Celtic language, to give the etymology of all words which are derived from it, and especially of those which enter into the French; 2. to describe, elucidate, and engrave, all the remains of Gallic monuments which have reached our times. The society will regularly publish its memoirs.'

The writer highly extols M. JOHANNEAU for his researches and discoveries in etymology; who, he contends, has introduced into this science all the certainty of geometry. He was honored, we are told, with the friendship of Latour d'Au vergne, who bequeathed to him his Celtic library.

6

From the labours of this academy, the author promises the introduction of an improved geography, and of vast light into the antiquities of France; the thick veil which now conceals antient times is to be removed; and the monuments which belonged to them, with the customs which distinguished them, are about to re-appear.' We, however, do not expect from this field of inquiry, all the harvest which this sanguine writer

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anticipates; yet we rejoice that it is become an object of attention in France, and we hope that it will remain so till the ground is fully explored. That active and enterprizing people have investigated their Roman and Teutonic antiquities, with laudable diligence, and with eminent success. Let them also endeavour to signalize themselves in regard to their Gallic antiquities, since it is most fitting that all which can be discovered relating to them should be brought to light.

The ingenious and judicious Mallet, in the introduction to his history of Denmark, invited attention to the distinction between the Celts and the Goths; a distinction which it appears to us very important to bear in mind in every thing that relates to European antiquities. That grand distinction, which the accounts of Cæsar and Tacitus sanction, is here not once noticed. Indeed, if we are allowed to form a judgment from this volume, we should conclude that the subject of Celtic antiquities is altogether a new topic in France; and that the proficiency made in it falls very short of that which this country can boast.

If it be admitted that the district now called Brittany was never subdued by the Franks, it cannot be denied that it was completely reduced by the Romans; and what proofs can this writer bring that the language of Brittany, as well as that of other parts of Gaul, did not become wholly Latin? Or how does he prove that all who speak the Breton language are not the descendants of emigrants from this country? The testimony of tradition is strong on the subject, and the change of name which the country underwent strongly corroborates it. We think that the presumption that the modern Bretons are the descendants of British emigrants is much stronger than that which represents them as original Gauls; and the extraordinary resemblance of the two dialects very much supports the latter hypothesis. The Welsh and the Bretons are able to hold intercourse together, and in a very short period become conversant with their respective dialects: but we believe that this is by no means the case with regard to the Welsh and those who speak the Irish and Highland dialects; the two latter of which bear a very close affinity, while they have very little similarity to the Welsh and the Breton. We form our judgment, however, on a comparison of printed specimens of each; and we are aware that the rules of construction in these languages render this test far from satisfactory.

The most interesting specimen of the Celtic remains now. discoverable in France is unquestionably the grand Cromlech of Carnar, situated near the burgh of that name, about three leagues from the city of Auray, in the department of Morbi

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han. It stands near the sea, and the adjoining country is the most wild and barren that can be imagined. This singular monument, though presenting little of minute resemblance, exhibits all the general characteristics of Stone-henge; the stones are equally massive, but they are differently ranged; those of Carnac stand singly, and run in lines as well lengthwise as transversely; the distance between each stone in the one way being from twelve to fifteen feet, and in the other, from thirty to thirty-three. The author is of opinion that this marvellous assemblage of stones bore some relation to astronomy; and among the traditions respecting it, he deems that to be the most rational, which ascribes its formation to the annual addition of a stone at the time of the summer solstice: a practice which he compares with the Roman usage of inserting, every year, a nail in the door of the temple of Jupiter, The highest stones of Carnac measure in height from twenty to twenty-two feet; they vary considerably in breadth and thickness: but among them is one which is twenty-two feet high, twelve wide, and six in thickness, the weight of which is calculated at 250,000 pounds. The number of stones is made to amount to four thousand: but they are said to have been more numerous formerly, and to have covered upwards of three leagues coastwise.

The aspect of these shapeless masses is stated to be most singular; the assemblage stands alone in a large plain, without trees or shrubs of any kind; they rest on a basis of sand, which presents not a fragment of a stone nor even a pebble; they are in equilibrium, without any thing like a foundation; and many of them are moveable. Engravings of the whole, under different points of view, accompany this volume; and, aided by the descriptions which it contains, they are here said to furnish an accurate representation, though they must necessarily fail in exciting the impression communicated by the original.

M. CAMBRY observes of these rude monuments, the dolmins, the cromlechs, the erect stones, the high places shaded by venerable oaks, sanctified by the presence of a god which was adored in the silence of the night,-that they were the forerunners of the altars of marble, the elegance of which we admire; of the statues of Phidias, the temples of Pestum and of Sicily, of the Pantheon, of the temple of Theseus, the tomb of Mausolus, the pyramids of Egypt, and the temples of Abyssinia, and of Jupiter Ammon.

In a work dedicated to Bonaparte, it was to be expected that our country and its inhabitants would be made subjects of abuse and inyective: but nothing can be more wretched of

that

that kind than the attempts of this writer. He envies us the fame which our island enjoyed in Pagan times as a druidical school, and as the channel through which that discipline passed into Gaul; and he strips it of that distinction, by referring the Britannia mentioned by Cæsar to the modern Brittany, though it is well known that the latter country was never so designated till long after the time of that conqueror. The reasonings are too flimsy, and the authorities too slight, by which he endeavours to support this paradox, to render it necessary to apply criticism to them.

The zeal of the author leads him to undertake a collection of the passages in antient writers which speak of the Druids; but it is by no means complete. Next follows an account of the Celtic monuments which still remain in those countries that were either temporarily or more permanently occupied by that vast population; and he then notices the resemblance between them and those of other rude nations. For the scanty Gallic remains which are to be found in his own country, he accounts by referring to the severe edicts which the kings of the first race issued against idols and their worshippers.

M. CAMBRY's extravagance of hypothesis, and his profound malignity, are strongly exemplified in the following conjecture, which he gravely hazards. Having stated that the Dolmins, which are two stones, each standing endways, supporting a transverse one, were emblematical of treaties between different tribes, he observes; Stone-henge is perhaps the theatre of oaths of fidelity taken in antient times by each tribe of Albion to the antient Bretons of the continent. Each tribe erected its respective Dolmin as a testimony of the stability and eternity of the engagements into which it entered. with its lords. Has his august imperial majesty a mind sufficiently little to receive any delight from these puerile extravagancies?

In a part of this volume composed by M. JOHANNEAU, he promises to point out in the early numcers of the memoirs of the Celtic Academy, the books which must be studied in order to attain skill in Celtic antiquities. He states that he is anxious to gain proselytes to this pursuit; his devotion to which, he tells us, he acquired from Latour d'Auvergne. It was from the conversations of the latter, which were particu Jarly animated, on the importance of this language, which he had learned from his birth, that M.JOHANNEAU was taught its value and utility; as also from his excellent work styled Ori. gines Gauloises, and above all from his Glossaire Breton Polyglotte, printed at Bayonne in 1792, a production supetior even to the Origines:

The Swedes and Danes,' says the same person, study the lan guage of the Edda, in order the better to know their own and their national history. With the same views, the Germans study the Teutonic, and the English, the Welsh and Anglo Saxon; but we, more frivolous and less zealous for national glory, despise what we neither know nor desire to know. Le Pelletier, Pezron, Gebelin, Latour d'Auvergne, have in vain laboured successfully in this field; their useful and curious writings are little sought or known; our academies make dictionaries without ever consulting the labours of these eminent persons; and much less do they think of studying, like them, the original language of Gaul, whence those meritorious literati have drawn their valuable discoveries.'

If the Latin was the prevailing dialect at the period of the invasion of the Franks, it follows that the modern French is, for the most part, a mixture of that language and the Teutonic; and that the study of the Celtic can only be of limited use in illustrating it. We by no means, however, desire to damp the zeal of the two persons to whom we are indebted for this volume. The pursuit is liberal, and may be in various ways beneficial; and we shall be glad to see them discard their present errors, and attain a degree of proficiency which, without an academy, has been reached in the country which they are so studious to degrade.

ART. XI. Nova Acta Societatis Latina Jenen is. Edidit D. HENR. CAROL. ABR. EICHSTÄDT. Volumen Primum. 8vo. Lipsia. 1806. Imported by De Boffe. Price 6s.

THIS first volume of a new Jena Society resembles in point

of merit many which, in the course of our long literary life, we have observed endeavouring to attract public notice, and general patronage: but which, from a want of judgment in the conductors, or of learning in the writers, have soon felt their career checked, and have never reached the goal at which their aspiring hopes led them to suppose that they should certainly arrive. Of such failure, the real cause seems to be that the authors are most commonly fonder of writing than of reading; and that they are more ambitious of teaching the world; than of acquiring the stock of knowlege which is necessary for so arduous a duty. In the present instance, therefore, we shall content ourselves with little more than enumerating the articles which the volume contains; since minute criticisms on each would occupy more space than we can allot to these compositions.

De Archyta Tarent essay on the antic

Disquisitio, à C. G. BARDILI.-A jejune philosopher of Tarentum; respecting

Jo.

whose