STATE OF BRITAIN AT THE CONQUEST. 87 



But some disadvantage has also attended this 

 course. The Greeks, and after them the Romans, 

 were accustomed to treat all other nations as 

 barbarians, and in the study of Grecian and 

 Roman literature, the unjust prejudices of those 

 people against other nations seem to have been 

 imbibed by the student. Hence, the neglect of, 

 and contempt for, other ancient writings and 

 systems, until a comparatively recent period, 

 when our possession of an extensive territory 

 in the eastern part of the world made it neces- 

 sary that the languages of that part should be 

 studied. Attention is, therefore, now no longer 

 exclusively directed to Greece and Italy; nor 

 would the contemptuous style in which their 

 writers indulged, when speaking of other ancient 

 countries, be imitated by a modern author. 

 Yet, on some points, our common forms of 

 speaking and writing indicate that we retain the 

 associations of ideas given to us by the classical 

 writers of antiquity : insensibly imbibed perhaps, 

 and retained only because they have not been 

 put to the test of an impartial examination. 



The ancient Britons are, by Tacitus, called 

 Barbarians^ and they forthwith are assigned a 

 place in our memories with the North American 

 Indians, or the savages of New Zealand. Adam 

 Smith, speaking of ancient Britain, says * its 



