In another chapter we endeavored to show that the Gomeri of the Hebrew were the Kimmerioi of the Greek, and the Cimmerii of the Latin, that the Cimmerii of Asia were the Cimbri of Europe, and that the Cimbri of the continent were the Cymry of the Island.

The ancient Britons were these Cymry, Cimbri, Cimmerii, Kimmerioi, Gomeri, who, under their generic or specific names, once inhabited nearly the whole of western Asia, eastern, central, northern and western Europe, and who under different names and at different times crossed over into Britain. How early their vanguard crossed the channel we are not informed. History was not yet born to record the event. Peradventure it was fifteen or twenty centuries before Christ. The landing of the Pilgrims on the bleak shores of New England marked an era in the history of civilization; the landing of the Cymry on the rocky coast of Britain marked an era in the history of humanity. Were it not for the landing of the Cymry, the landing of the Pilgrims would have been impossible. Britain was to be the cradle of civil and religious liberty, and they were on their way to give

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it birth and rock its cradle. Savage men they were, but not a savage God that guided their course. designs were good and gracious. He looked beyond the centuries and saw in the event perfect freedom and civilization. You see them approach the water, embark their crude boats, cross the tempestuous channel, and land at length on the rocky coast, on which the foot of man had never stepped. You see them hoist their flag and take possession of the island in the name of the Cymry; and you see them penetrate the interior and build their wigwams, anticipating in the far distant future their cultivated fields and palatial mansions, their work of arts and sciences, their civil and religious. liberty.

Which of the Cymric nations first. entered the island, whether the one bearing the generic name, or one bearing a specific designation, like the Belgic, Celtic, or Aquitanic, men of letters are not so positive. Caesar, who had twice visited the island as a military commander, and who had often conversed with the islanders on the continent, states that the inhabitants of the interior were born of the soil, and that those on

the coast were immigrants from Belgia. Tacitus, the great Roman historian, who lived a century later, and who was son-in-law of Agricola, who was many years military governor of the island, states that "it appears probable that the Gauls originally took possession on the neignboring coast." The Triads which seem to embody the traditions of the island and the belief of the people, state that the Cymry, who bore the generic name, were the first to enter the island. But whether the Belgic, Celtic, Aquitanic, or the mother nation, is immaterial. They were Cymry, and they under one Cymric name or another were the first to enter, possess, and inhabit the island. Their proximity to the continent, whose central, northern and western portions were inhabited by the Cymry, both the parent stock and branch nations, looks in that direction. The pressure of the nations from the East, and the crowded condition of the nations in the West, look in tne same direction. The similarity of their language, their laws, and their custom indicates their identity. The nature of their mind, heart, and will, corroborates the fact. Between the Cimbri on the Chersonesus and the Cymry on the island, between the Bretons in Brittany and the Britons in Britain, between the Loirainians in the valley of the Loire and the Lloegrwys in the valley of the Thames, between the Celtiberians in Spain and Silurians in Wales, between the Belgae on the shores of the North Sea and the Belgae on the

shores of the British Channel, between the Gauls of the continent and the Gaels of Scotland and Ireland, and between the Pictones of the continent and the Picts of the island, you discover essential oneness, even through the modifications of centuries.

Western Europe is in the main, ethnically the same to-day as thirty centuries ago. Through all the modifications of time and mutations of war it has war it has wonderfully preserved its ethnical identity. The Franks, who conquered the country in the fifth century, have been long absorbed by the conquered inhabitants, and have entirely disappeared save in name. France is to-day as much Belgic, Celtic, Aquitanic, Cymric, as in the days of Caesar. And the British Islands are, in the main, ethnically the same to-day as thirty or forty centuries ago.

Ireland, Scotland and Wales are ethnically as much Belgic, Celtic, Aquitanic, Cymric, as in the days. of Caesar, and England is ethnically underlied and interpenetrated by Cymry blood, thought and inspiration. As the Celts, on account of their number, centrality and proximity to the Greeks and Romans, the historians of the age, have usurped the place of the mother nation, and imparted their name to the other Cymric nations, so that we often, if not generally, speak and write of the Cymry as descendants of the Celts, and not the Celts as descendants of the Cymry; so that the Bretons by giving their name to the name of the island have unwittingly usurped

the place of the mother nation, and imparted their name to the other Cymric nations, so that we often, if not generally, speak and write of the Cymry as descendants of the Britons, and not the Britons descendants of the Cymry. Ethnically the Cymry are not Britons, but the Britons Cymry, and Britain should have been called the Cymric Island instead of the British Island. But custom is stronger than logic, and the daughter sits on the throne of the mother.

Britain has been known by three prominent designations, "Honey Island," "Rocky Island," and "Great Britain." But whether known by the nature of the island, the ethnic name of its first inhabitants, or any other, Britain presents a remarkable appearance and remarkable attractions. There she "rocks in the cradle of the deep," surrounded by ocean, sea and channels, with the eyes of the world upon it-populous, rich, important, commanding; the mart of commerce, the seat of government, the queen of the ocean, and the admiration of the planet. It deserves and demands the study of its history.

How long had it been separated from the continent, and had existed as an island? Whence came and how long had it been covered with soil, tree, and plant? Whence came and how long had it been inhabited by bird, beast, and fish? Whence came and how long had it been inhabited by man ere its hidden wealth had been discovered? The Phoenicians are said to have visited the

island six or ten centuries prior to the Christian era. Aristotle, the famous philosopher, who lived in the fourth century before Christ, speaks of it by name in one of his great works. When Julius Caesar attempted to invade and conquer the island in the 55th and 54th year before Christ, he found it swarming with inhabitants, whose skill and bravery staggered his conception. He had met some of the Britons in Gaul, and had known of assistance brought from the island to their kindred in the Gallic war, and had for that reason, nominally, determined to punish their temerity by an invasion of their island, and its subjugation to Rome. Late in the summer of B. C. 55, Caesar embarked for the island with eighty ships and two legions of soldiers, and with eighteen ships of burden. He cut across the narrow channel, touched the shores of Britain, selected a place to land, cast anchor, prepared to disembark; the soldiers hesitated, the scenes were strange, the shores were unknown, the water was deep, the Britons hurled their darts, crowded the shore, rushed into the waves, brandished their weapons, and threatened destruction, when the standard bearer of the tenth legion exclaimed, "Leap, fellow soldiers, leap, unless you wish to betray your cagle to the enemy. I, for my part, will perform my duty to the commonwealth and my commander." When he had said this with a loud voice he leaped from the ship, and proceeded to bear the eagle toward the

enemy. Then the others followed, and faced their foes in the waves and up the steep. Hand to hand and foot to foot they struggled. Briton with Roman and Roman with Briton clinched, till at length Roman skill and discipline overcame British strength and valor. On the land as in the water the contest went on, at intervals, four days, when Caesar thought it prudent to leave the island and embark at midnight for the continent, taking with him a few hostages and a few pledges as the reward of his labor.

The next year he made another attempt to conquer the island, and embarked with eight hundred ships, five legions of soldiers, and two thousand horse. This time he penetrated farther into the country, and met as before determined resistance. His march in the direction of the Thames, through the territory and toward the capital of Cassivellaunus, the brave and skillful commander of the British forces, who opposed and annoyed him from the sea to the river, and who once and again gave him battle. But Caesar's fame and Roman discipline had the advantage now as before. Yet all that Caesar gained even this time, were a few more hostages and a few more pledges to be broken as soon as he turned his back-tribute imposed never to be paid. After an expedition of a hundred miles, and a sojourn of a few weeks, he returned toward the coast and embarked for the continent, flushed with fame if not with trophies. He had attracted

the eyes of the world toward the island, and had driven an entering wedge for Roman sway. We agree with Tacitus that "Caesar's invasion of Britain" was more a survey of the country than a conquest of the island.

The Britons in their resistance to Caesar, like their ancestors in their invasion of Asia, in their march into Greece, in their attack on Rome, and in their other and greater exploits, were a brave people. Bravery was one of their cardinal virtues. This Caesar tacitly acknowledges in taking into the island on his second visit eight hundred ships instead of eighty, five legions of soldiers instead of two, and two thousand horse instead of three hundred, and this he publicly and repeatedly affirms in his account of his encounter with them, both on the continent and on the island. No people can have stronger recommendation. for bravery than the Cymry have received from the pen of Caesar and the Latin writers, and from the pen of Plutarch and the Greek historians. According to them they were brave to a fault, and reckless to a crime. Fear they knew not, and danger they coveted. With them as with the Spartans bravery was rewarded with immortality, and cowardice punished with death. Had they been as united as they were brave, Caesar would never have landed on their coast, and the Romans would never have conquered the island. They fought over the dead bodies of their fallen comrades four deep, and when their

weapons had failed them fought their enemies with their naked bodies. Their women were equally brave with their men, and at times of great danger even surpass them in valor and inspired their courage.

But the Britons in the time of Caesar were divided into petty kingdoms, which spent their summers in fighting each other, and found it difficult to unite their forces against the common enemy. Had they been bound together, like the bundles of sticks in the fable, by the love of country and the practice of wisdom, Caesar would never have broken them, but they would have broken the arms of Caesar and the power of Rome. As they were unbound and spread apart, stick from stick, kingdom from kingdom, with envy, jealousy and hatred between them, it was compartively easy for a power like Rome, and for a general like Caesar to break them one by one till all were broken. And were it not for the civil wars at Rome, and the termination of his life by the dagger of Brutus, he would have doubtless done it. As it was he broke a few of the sticks, damaged a few of the kingdoms, so that it took them a long time to recover their former strength and magnitude.

As a people they were quick, impetuous and independent. Their quickness, impetuosity and independence were in the extreme. The chase, the battle, and the forest gave them abnormal development and unwarrantable license. What nature designed to be their joy and glory

they made their sorrow and shame. They became a country split into fragments, a people alienated apart, "a house divided against itself." The disintegration, separation, and hostility invited their common enemy to take the inheritance of both. Quickness, jealousy, impetuosity, fire, force, independence, steadfastness, persistency, and kindred traits are in their nature good, grand and glorious; but out of their place, without the adhesive element of reason, prudence and patriotism to unify their government, and unite, their forces are bad, low and ruinous. Yet the Britons in the time of Caesar were pre-eminently religious. Their quickness, impetuosity, and independence, combined with dash and bravery, gave force and unction to their worship. Their temple was the forest, their sacrifice the brute creation and human life, and their object of worship the God of heaven. in the works of his hands. They believed in the principles of nature, the laws of righteousness, the immortality of the soul, and the reward of good and evil. Their system of worship was Druidism, brought from the East, developed in Europe, and reflected from Britain. At the time of which we speak its seat and its throne was the Isle Mona, whence priests, and teachers and bards were sent to the continent to sacrifice, to teach, and to sing. These were the three distinct officers of the Druidic. system or Druidic religion.

The civil and religious condition. of the Britons in the time of Caesar