Page:Essays ethnological and linguistic.djvu/65

Rh for. But with all deference to them, I contend that there is another question to be answered — and that is where did the Anglo-Saxons obtain it? If as in the case of the word tun or ton we find that they did not obtain such words from any German source, but that they are found with the same meaning in the Celtic languages, then the presumption seems to me conclusive that they were obtained from those Celtic languages, involving at the same time the knowledge they import of the arts of civilized life, which the Celts communicated to the Saxons.

Whatever superior claims the Romans might have had to be termed a civilized people, the Saxons certainly could not advance any thing like the same claims. They were on the contrary only bands of barbarous rovers, swarming over the sea to seize the lands and possessions of the people they found here. In so doing they adopted many of their customs, and much of their knowledge of the arts of civilized life, they incorporated into their own language many words used by the former inhabitants and perpetuated the names of many of the places they conquered. Let us however do a tardy justice in restoring to their predecessors the credit of what is due to them, and acknowledge that to the ancient Celtic inhabitants of these islands from the impress left upon them of their former institutions, the English people as at present constituted owe so much not only of their population, but also of their language, their character and their civilization.