the accessory into the principal, by making it appear to abound in quantity.  Many similar sayings of great men and philosophers are recorded in the Saturnalia of Macrobius.  When Cicero saw his son-in-law, Lentulus, a man of small stature, with a long sword by his side: “Who,” says he, “has girded my son-in-law to that sword?” thus changing the accessary into the principal.  The same person, on seeing the half-length portrait of his brother Quintus Cicero, drawn with very large features and an immense shield, exclaimed, “Half of my brother is greater than the whole!”  When the sister of Faustus had an intrigue with a fuller, “Is it strange,” says he, “that my sister has a spot, when she is connected with a fuller?”  When Antiochus showed Hannibal his army, and the great warlike preparations he had made against the Romans, and asked him, “Thinkest thou, O Hannibal, that these are sufficient for the Romans?”  Hannibal, ridiculing the unmilitary appearance of the soldiers, wittily and severely replied, “I certainly think them sufficient for the Romans, however greedy;” Antiochus asking his opinion about the military preparations, and Hannibal alluding to them as becoming a prey to the Romans.

CHAPTER XV
THEIR BOLDNESS AND CONFIDENCE IN SPEAKING

Nature hath given not only to the highest, but also to the inferior, classes of the people of this nation, a boldness and confidence in speaking and answering, even in the presence of their princes and chieftains.  The Romans and Franks had the same faculty; but neither the English, nor the Saxons and Germans, from whom they are descended, had it.  It is in vain urged, that this defect may arise from the state of servitude which the English endured; for the Saxons and Germans, who enjoy their liberty, have the same failing, and derive this natural coldness of disposition from the frozen region they inhabit; the English also, although placed in a distant climate, still retain the exterior fairness of complexion and inward coldness of disposition, as inseparable from their original and natural character.  The Britons, on the contrary, transplanted from the hot and parched regions of Dardania into these more temperate districts, as

“Cœlum non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt,”

still retain their brown complexion and that natural warmth of temper from which their confidence is derived.  For three nations, remnants of the Greeks after the destruction of Troy, fled from Asia into different parts of Europe, the Romans under Æneas, the Franks under Antenor, and the Britons under Brutus; and from thence arose that courage, that nobleness of mind, that ancient dignity, that acuteness of understanding, and confidence of speech, for which these three nations are so highly distinguished.  But the Britons, from having been detained longer in Greece than the other two nations, after the destruction of their country, and having migrated at a later period into the western parts of Europe, retained in a greater degree the primitive words and phrases of their native language.  You will find amongst them the names Oenus, Resus, Æneas, Hector, Achilles, Heliodorus, Theodorus, Ajax, Evander, Uliex, Anianus, Elisa, Guendolena, and many others, bearing marks of their antiquity.  It is also to be observed, that almost all words in the British language correspond either with the Greek or Latin, as ὑδωζ, water, is called in British, dwr; ἁλς, salt, in British, halen; ονομα, eno, a name; πεντε, pump, five; δεκα, deg, ten.  The Latins also use the words frænum, tripos, gladius, lorica; the Britons, froyn (ffrwyn), trepet (tribedd), cleddyf, and lluric (llurig); unicus is made unic (unig); canis, can (cwn); and belua, beleu.

CHAPTER XVI
CONCERNING THE SOOTHSAYERS OF THIS NATION, AND PERSONS AS IT WERE POSSESSED

There are certain persons in Cambria, whom you will find nowhere else, called Awenddyon, [179] or people inspired; when consulted upon any doubtful event, they roar out violently, are rendered beside themselves, and become, as it were, possessed by a spirit.  They do not deliver the answer to what is required in a connected manner; but the person who skilfully observes them, will find, after many preambles, and many nugatory and incoherent, though ornamented speeches, the desired explanation conveyed in some turn of a word: they are then roused from their ecstasy, as from a deep sleep, and, as it were, by violence compelled to return to their proper senses.  After having answered the questions, they do not recover till violently shaken by other people; nor can they remember the replies they have given.  If consulted a second or third time upon the same point, they will make use of expressions totally different; perhaps they speak by the means of fanatic and ignorant spirits.  These gifts are usually conferred upon them in dreams: some seem to have sweet milk or honey poured on their lips; others fancy that a written schedule is applied to their mouths and on awaking they publicly declare that they have received this gift.  Such is the saying of Esdras, “The Lord said unto me, open thy mouth, and I opened my mouth, and behold a cup full of water, whose colour was like fire; and when I had drank it, my heart brought forth understanding, and wisdom entered into my breast.”  They invoke, during their prophecies, the true and living God, and the Holy Trinity, and pray that they may not by their sins be prevented from finding the truth.  These prophets are only found among the Britons descended from the Trojans.  For Calchas and Cassandra, endowed with the spirit of prophecy, openly foretold, during the siege of Troy, the destruction of that fine city; on which account the high priest, Helenus, influenced by the prophetic books of Calchas, and of others who had long before predicted the ruin of their country, in the first year went over to the Greeks with the sons of Priam (to whom he was high priest), and was afterwards rewarded in Greece.  Cassandra, daughter of king Priam, every day foretold the overthrow of the city; but the pride and presumption of the Trojans prevented them from believing her word.  Even on the very night that the city was betrayed, she clearly described the treachery and the method of it:

“— tales casus Cassandra canebat,”

as in the same manner, during the existence of the kingdom of the Britons, both Merlin Caledonius and Ambrosius are said to have foretold the destruction of their nation, as well as the coming of the Saxons, and afterwards that of the Normans; and I think a circumstance related by Aulus Gellius worth inserting in this place.  On the day that Caius Cæsar and Cneius Pompey, during the civil war, fought a pitched battle in Thessalia, a memorable event occurred in that part of Italy situated beyond the river Po.  A priest named Cornelius, honourable from his rank, venerable for his religion, and holy in his manners, in an inspired moment proclaimed, “Cæsar has conquered,” and named the day, the events, the mutual attack, and the conflicts of the two armies.  Whether such things are exhibited by the spirit, let the reader more particularly inquire; I do not assert they are the acts of a Pythonic or a diabolic spirit; for as foreknowledge is the property of God alone, so