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A new edition of Toland's History of the druids: - Free History Ebooks

A new edition of Toland's History of the druids: - Free History Ebooks

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OF THE DRUIDS. 179bratcd modern writers, are as express as wordscan possibly make any tiling, that Britain waspeopled from Ganle. Nor is <strong>the</strong> epi<strong>the</strong>t <strong>of</strong> Great,added to our Britain, any more an objection tothis assertion, than <strong>the</strong> coast <strong>of</strong> Italy, formerlycaird Magna Graecia, cou'd be made <strong>the</strong> mo<strong>the</strong>rcountry <strong>of</strong> Greece, when <strong>the</strong> cities <strong>of</strong> that coastwere all colonies from <strong>the</strong>nce:besides that GreatBritain was anciently so calFd with respect toIreland, which (before <strong>the</strong> fable <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Welsh colonyin Ganle was invented) is call'd Little Britain,as you 11 see anon. These disquisitions come notinto <strong>the</strong> ITistGry <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Druids, but into <strong>the</strong> annextDissertation concerning <strong>the</strong> Celtic language andcolonies. There you'll see <strong>the</strong> folly <strong>of</strong> derivingBritain from <strong>the</strong> fabulous Irish hero Briotan, orfrom <strong>the</strong> no lessimaginary Brutus <strong>the</strong> Trojan;nor is <strong>the</strong> word originally Pridcain, Prytania, Bridania,or descended from ei<strong>the</strong>r Phenician, orScandinavian, or Dutch, or even any Brittishwords. The insular Britons, like o<strong>the</strong>r colonicvS,were long govern'd by those on <strong>the</strong> continent;and by <strong>the</strong> neigboring provinces, who join'd inmaking settlements here. It was so even as lowdown as a little before Julius Caisar's conquest;in whose Commentaries^' it is recorded, that "those<strong>of</strong> Soissons had within <strong>the</strong>ir memory (says <strong>the</strong> am-* Suessones esse suos fmitinios, latisslmos feracissimosque agrospossidere : apad eos fuisse Rfgem nostra etiam meraoria Dlvitiacu;i-:,t<strong>of</strong>ius Gailia? potentisslmum ;qui, cum magiise partis harum

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