The Druidical religion, which on no unequivocal evidence can be shewn to have been Irish, has the same prominence during the same time. The _Fir-Bolg_ and _Attecheith_ are also prominent at this time, _but not later_. Now the _Belgæ_ and _Attacotti_ might easily be got from British or Roman writers. The soil of Ireland, as soon as its records improve, ceases to supply them. This is as far as it is necessary to proceed in the criticism of our early authorities of British, Irish, and Saxon origin, since it is not the object of the present writer to throw any unnecessary discredit over them, but only to inquire how far they are entitled to the claim of deciding certain questions finally, and of precluding criticism. It is clear that they are only to be admitted when opposed by a very slight amount of conflicting improbabilities, when speaking to points capable of being known, and when freed from several elements of error and confusion. The practical application of this inference will find place in the eleventh chapter. FOOTNOTES: [12] This is the year in which Orosius concludes his history. It leaves, as near as may be, a century between the last of the Roman informants and the birth of the earliest British. [13] The origin of the Picts and Scots. [14] Vol. iii, pp. 140-147. CHAPTER VIII. THE ANGLES OF GERMANY: THEIR COMPARATIVE OBSCURITY.--NOTICE OF TACITUS.--EXTRACT FROM PTOLEMY.--CONDITIONS OF THE ANGLE AREA.--THE VARINI.--THE REUDIGNI AND OTHER POPULATIONS OF TACITUS.--THE SABALINGII, ETC., OF PTOLEMY.--THE SUEVI ANGILI.--ENGLE AND ONGLE.--ORIGINAL ANGLE AREA. There are several populations of whom, like quiet and retiring individuals, we know nothing until they move; for, in their original countries, they lead a kind of still life which escapes notice and description, and which, if it were not for a change of habits with a change of area, would place them in the position of the great men who lived before Agamemnon. They would pass from the development to the death of their separate existence unobserved, and no one know who they were, where they lived, and what were their relations. But they move to some new locality, and then, like those fruit-trees which, in order to be prolific, must be transplanted, the noiseless and unnoticed tenor of their original way is exchanged for an influential and prominent position. They take up a large place in the world's history. Sometimes this arises from an absolute change of character with the change of circumstances; but oftener it is due to a more intelligible cause. They move from a country beyond the reach of historical and geographical knowledge to one within it; and having done this they find writers who observe and describe them, simply because they have come within the field of observation and description.