the Germanic Races into Europe. 35 



does to this portion of its widely-diffused modern area; in nei- 

 ther is it the original language of any part of the countries to 

 which it now pertains, but in both cases it has spread itself 

 within well ascertained, though diverse periods, at the expense 

 of earlier and more aboriginal languages, which it has dis- 

 placed and superseded. 



Looking, however, upon the older ethnological stock of Bri- 

 tish and European population, to which the Keltic elements 

 of European languages and customs are traceable, it is import- 

 ant to consider whether the well-ascertained date of its first 

 appearance on the stage of history above referred to, in any de- 

 gree coincides with that of its earliest intrusion into Europe, 

 or with the appearance of that other hardy barbarian stock, 

 which, issuing at a later period from its fastnesses in the old 

 unexplored north, swept before it, in its young strength, the 

 decrepit vestiges of Rome's Imperial decline \ In other words, 

 I would inquire if the Keltic and Germanic races are coeval 

 In their origin, or in their occupation of the European areas 

 which they are found in possession of at the dawn of history? 



" We can trace," says Dr Arnold, " with great distinctness 

 the period at which the Kelts became familiarly known to the 

 Greeks. Herodotus only knew of them from the Phoenician 

 navigators ; Thucydides does not name them at all ; Xeno- 

 phon only notices them as forming part of the auxiliary force 

 sent by Dionysius to the aid of Lacedemon ; Isocrates makes 

 no mention of them : but immediately afterwards, their incur- 

 sions into Central and Southern Italy on the one hand, and 

 into the countries beyond the Danube and Macedonia on the 

 other, had made them objects of general interest and curiosity, 

 and Aristotle notices several points in their habits and cha- 

 racter in different parts of his philosophical works." Like 

 the first glimpses of the Kassiterides, or Tin Countries of 

 Southern Britain, we discern, only vaguely and by chance 

 incidental notices, the western Kelts, described by Herodotus 

 as a people who " dwell without the Pillars of Hercules, and 

 bordering on the Kynesians, who live the farthest to the west 

 of all the nations of Europe." * Few passages of ancient his- 



* This description Dr Latham would refer to the Kelts as Iberians, and not 

 to the Kelts in the general sense in which the designation is accepted, and as it 



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