THE HUMAN SPECIES. 433 



usual monuments of their presence, and left some por- 

 tion of their dogmas to the first conquering Getas ; 

 thence they edged down by the Cymbric Chersonesus, 

 along the west coast of Germany, and began to force 

 their way into Northern Gaul at least one century 

 before the Roman conquest. They dislodged the first 

 Belgae, who not finding space for habitation on the 

 Continent, formed the two well known irruptions into 

 Britain. They extended themselves along the southern 

 coast, reached the British Channel, and passed over to 

 Ireland, where they formed the Firbolg tribes, who, at 

 a later period, encountered the Finnic Celts in the 

 northern portion of the island. Taking the Irish Fir- 

 bolg to be descended from the first Belgic branch (that 

 which was expelled by the second BelgaB, who secured 

 for themselves the sea coast and the valley of the 

 Rhine), we may regard them as the purest CeltaB now 

 remaining. They still much resemble the Vaudois, the 

 Illyrian Lombards, and the Walloon population, even 

 more than that of Lower Brittany. The Irish are in 

 form athletic, rather spare and wiry ; the forehead is 

 narrow, and the head itself is elongated; the nose and 

 mouth large, and the cheek bones high. The features 

 are rather harsh ; and in character they are fiery, brave, 

 generous in their impulses, and very patient of fatigue. 

 Intellectually considered, they are acute, witty, inge- 

 nious, but beset with the sense of drollery more than 

 of the true and useful ; they are deficient in sobriety 

 of thought, and breadth of understanding; they conse- 

 quently want more excitement for action, and enduring 



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