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
"Coelum 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 AEneas, 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, AEneas, Hector, Achilles, Heliodorus, Theodorus, Ajax,
Evander, Uliex, Anianus, Elisa, Guendolena, and many others,
bearing marks of their antiquity.
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