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368 NOTES.write a foreign language, without being able, in some measure^ toread and write their own. At any rate this passage is a clearproof that the Celts could read, write, and calculate, for theseregisters reached as far as 368,000, If Pinkarton will not allowthe Celts an alphabet of their own, he cannot, at least denythat 1850 years ago, they used the Greek one.The same author, (lib. 6. cap. 14.) gives us a passage stillmore explicit, and more to the point in question. Neque fasesse existimant ca Uteris mandare, quum in reliquis fere rebus^yublicis^ privatisque raiionibus, (Graecis) Uteris, utantur. i. e.'' Neither do they think it lawful to commit these things towriting, (letters) when commonly in their other affairs, and intheir public and private accounts, they make use of {Greek) letters."It is easy here to see that the word Graecis is the interpolation'ofsome ignorant transcriber, who, finding it insertedby Caesar, (lib. 1. cap. 29.) imagined it had been here omittedby mistake. He has, however, inserted it within a parenthesis,so that we are at liberty to retain or reject it. In the formerpassage, Caesar merely relates a detached action of the Helvetiion a great and critical emergency, whereas in the present caselie is detailing the ordinary conduct, and wary policy of theDruids. Though it is as clear as the sun that Graecis must beeiploded, still I have no objection to take the passage as it is.It is not for this or that particular alphabet that I am contending,bat only for the antiquity of the use of letters among iheCelts. This passage is another incontrovertible proof, that theDruids committed to writing ordinary occurrences, as wellas their public and private accounts. It was only to iheirmys.ieries that the prohibitory law extended. Indeed, were all otherevidence wanting, tlve very words fas non hubcbant (they had alaw against it) would clearly establish the fact; for there canbe neither law, restriction, nor prohibition against a thing totallyunknown. Can any man, in the face of such irresistibleevidence, deny, that the Celts had manuscripts at least as earlyas the time of Caesar ?The next instance I adduce is from Toland, (p, 1G8) where