FRAGMENT. 28l 



in Cefar's Commentaries, in Plutarch, in Tacitus 

 on the Manners of the Germans, and in feveral 

 modern Treatifes on the Mythology of the Nations 

 of the North. 



I have taken up the ftate of the Gauls feveral 

 ages prior to the time of yiilius Cejar, in order to 

 have an opportunity of painting a more marked 

 charaéler of barbarifm, and approaching to that 

 which we have found among the favage tribes of 

 North- America. I fixed the commencement of 

 the civilization of our Anceflors, -at the deftruc- 

 tion of Troy ; which was l-ikewife the epocha, and, 

 undoubtedly, the caufe of feveral important revo- 

 lutions, all over the Globe. The Nations of 

 which the Human Race is compofed, however di- 

 vided they may appear to be, in refpeâ: of lan- 

 guage, of religions, of cuftoms, and of climate, 

 are in equilibrium among themfelves, as the diffe- 

 rent Seas which compofe the Ocean under diffe- 

 rent Latitudes. No extraordinary movement can 

 be excited in any one of thofe Seas, but uhat mufb 

 communicate itfelf, more or lefs, to each of the 

 others. They have all a tendency to find their 

 level. A Nation is, farther, with refped: to the 

 Human Race, what a man is with refped to his 

 own Nation. If that man dies in it, another is 

 born there within the fame compafs of time. In 

 Jike manner, if one State on the Globe is deltroyed, 



another 



