Blair Collection > Critical dissertations on the origin, antiquities, language, government, manners, and religion, of the antient Caledonians, their posterity the Picts, and the British and Irish Scots

156 A Parallel between the ancient
the Caledonians is the moft natural and the leafl
liable to objecflions. In the obfcurity which in-
volves fo early a period, probability mufl take
place of all arguments drawn from the fimilarity
of manners and cuftoms which invariably fubfifts
among all barbarous nations ; at the fame time, I
am adually of opinion, that the Caledonians and
Germans defcended originally from the fame Gaul-
ifh ftock.
The Gauls who firfl poffelTed themfelves of
Britain, might eafily, at the fame time, fend co-
lonies beyond the Rhine. In a courfe of ages the
inhabitants of Gaul, as they polTelTed a fine climate
and foil, naturally formed themfelves into regular
governments and communities, and made a more
rapid progrefs towards civilization than the Celto-
Germanic colonies they fent beyond the Rhme,
and which, from the nature of the country they
jpofieiTed, muft longer remain in a (late of barba-
rity. In procefs of time the Gauls, no doubt,
from an increafe of numbers, fent fucceflive co-
lonies to Britain. The firft colonifts, from the
prcilure of thofe new comers, gradually migrated
to the North, till at lalt they polTeffed themfelves
of the inaccefhble mountains of Caledonia. There
they not o"ly found fecurity to themfelves but to
their original cuftoms and language, which, from
the firr-.piicity of a life fpent in hunring, fuffered
very ^c\v innovations. The northern Germans,
certainly, from fimilar circumftances, gradually
had moved towards the Baltic, and had the fame
opportunities of prefervingthc ancient cuftoms and
laiiguage once com.mon to the great Celtic ftock.
Thus the refemblance between the old Germans
and Caledonians is better accounted for, than from