Blair Collection > Celtic researches, on the origin, traditions & language, of the ancient Britons

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tlioiitv amongst the nations devolved to that family, vhieh
was prophetically doomed to be the servant of servants to their
brethren ?
Has it ever been the peculiar province of the same people
to innovate and to preserve? If not, how shall we ascribe all
traces of primitive tradition to those apostates, who rejected
the wisdom of their fathers and bewildered themselves with
new inventions — all arts and sciences to those men whose
plans and designs were uttei-ly overthrown — all the remains of
one universal language to those, whose language was so con-
founded that they could not understand one another's speech;
or all established and well-regulated society to those who,
first of all, tumultuous!}^ assembled under the banner of an
impious rebel, and afterwards were scattered abroad over thç
face of the earth ?
Or if we turn our y'\c\y to profane histor}% can «it be ima-
gined that the Gods and the sons of the Gods who vanquished
and dispersed the rebellious giants, and those giants themselves;,
were not only one and the same people, but frequently the
same individuals; and that, by being thus self-vanquished
and self-destroyed, the same giants became Lords of the
world?