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182 THE HISTORYwheras Albion was the distinguishing name of theBritain now peculiarly so call'd, and so famousin the Greec and Roman writings *."These particulars(I repeat it) much below the dignity of ourhistory, will be found in the^before-mention'd dissertation;which, tho' infinitely less useful, I dareprophesy will be full as much read, if not muchThe greatest men, however, havemore relish'd.not thought it unbecoming them, to search at theirleisure into such originals: and I, for my part,found it almost a necessary imployment, consideringthe light it adds to my principal work.IV. To return thither therefore, there are diversepassages, some longer, some shorter, in themost ancient Greec authors we have, or copy'd bythese from such as are quite lost; which, tho' generallyneglected and unobserv'd, will be no smallornament to the history I have taken in hand.And, to say it here by the way, 'tis certain thatthe more antient Greec writers, such as Hecateus,Eudoxus, Hipparchus, Eratosthenes, Polybius,Posidonius (not to speak of Dicearchus andothers) knew a great deal of truth concerning theBrittish ilands: by reason of the frequent navigationsof the Greecs into these parts, after the waywas shown them by the Phenicians; so antientan author as Herodotus affirming, that his coun-* Britannia clara Graecis nostrisque scriptoribus Albionipsi nomen fuit, cum Britanniae vocarentur omncs, [tnsulacnempe Britannicae.] Nat, Hut. lib. 4. cap. 10.