[i 4Bh | 
fufceptibility of tender impreffions, and feminine expreflions of 
forrow. Grief quickly melted them into tears, and their 
opprefled hearts found relief in fhrieks and groans; and hence 
it has been * affirmed of the Irifh, that to cry was more 
natural to them than to any other nation, and at length the 
Irifh cry became proverbial. 
Tue Belgic colonies, who fucceeded the Celtes, were a very 
different race: of Scythic defcent, they indulged in all the 
excefles of favage nature. Warfare was their paftime, and blood 
was the cement of their folemn covenants. The day of inter- 
ment, among them, was occupied with feafting and finging: 
it was then they chaunted their rude fongs, the joys of 
Valhalla, and the happy lot of the brave. 
Tue foregoing diftin@ions are founded in fact, and anti-- 
quity gives decifive evidence of their authenticity. Czefar in 
+ many places pointedly marks the levity and ficklenefs of 
the Gallic Celtes: that they had a { foftnefs which difquali- 
fied them from refifting calamities, and Tacitus § informs. us, 
the Treveri and Nervii affected to be thought of Germanic 
origin, hoping thereby to avoid the difreputation attached to 
the Celtic character, z 
It 
* Williamfon. orat.. in fufcep. diad.. Car. 2. 
+ Comment, lib. 2, 3, 4. 
+ Molles ac minime refiftens ad calamitates perferendas, mens Gallorum eft. Cef. libs 3. 
§ De mor. Germ. 
A 
