( ii )
tempted him to give in an English dress a work in which it was displayed with so much advantage. As he happened also to have many of the original books from which the French Author had taken his materials, he flattered himself they would supply some Illustrations, which might give an additional value to the Version.
For this reason, as also to afford himself an agreeable amusement, the Translator some time ago undertook this work; but a series of unexpected avocations intervened, and it was thrown aside for several years. At length he was prevailed upon to resume it; and as many of his friends were so obliging as to share among them different parts of the Translation, he had little more to do but to compare their performances with the original, and to superadd such Remarks as occurred to him. These are generally distinguished from those of the Author by the letter T[1].
He was the rather invited to undertake this task, as he perceived the Author had been drawn in to adopt an opinion that has been a great source of mistake and confusion to many learned writers of the ancient history of Europe; viz. that of supposing the ancient Gauls and Germans, the Britons and Saxons, to have been all originally one and the fame people; thus confounding the antiquities of the Gothic and Celtic nations. This crude opinion, which perhaps was first taken up by Cluverius[2], and maintained by him with uncommon erudition, has been since
- ↑ When the present Translation was undertaken, only the first edition of the original had appeared; and from that several of the first chapters were translated: In that edition the first volume was not, as here, divided into XIII. Chapters, but into V. Books. Afterwards the Author revised his work, and published a new edition, in which he not only made the new division above-mentioned, but many considerable alterations both in the Text and Notes. It was necessary to accommodate the Version to this new Revisal, but the Translator could not help retaining in the margin many of the rejected Passages, which he thought too valuable. to be wholly discarded.
- ↑ Philippi CluverI Germaniæ Antiquæ Libri Tres, &c. Lugduni Batav. Apud Elzev, 1616. folio.
