Besides, if we receive the testimony of Gildas upon this point, we must either suppose that several walls have been drawn across the island, or we must reject the assertions of those classical writers who ascribe the works to Hadrian or Severus. The former supposition cannot be maintained, for we meet with no traces of more than one earthen vallum, and one stone wall, in the region in question; and with reference to the latter alternative, it is more likely that Gildas should err in his dates, than that Dion Cassius, and Herodian, and Spartian, should describe, as existing in their day, that which was not to be for centuries. [Sidenote: THE BRITONS SUPINE IN YIELDING TO THE PICTS.] Another question will arise in the mind of the thoughtful reader;—how was it that the Britons suffered themselves to become so easy a prey to the Picts and Scots? Roman civilization could not, greatly at least, have enervated them. The cultivation of the liberal arts removes from the minds and manners of men their unsightly asperities, but it brings out in bolder relief their more valuable qualities. The vices of the Romans, when grafted upon the previously polluted life of the Britons, would indeed have a tendency to unman them, but why should it have sunk them beneath the level of the Romans themselves? We do not find, moreover, that the Britons who fought in foreign parts were deficient in courage. [Sidenote: THE BRITONS HAD BREATHING-TIME.] An acquaintance with Roman discipline, a knowledge of the Roman art of war, ought to have given them great advantages over their less civilized neighbours on the north of the Wall, and enabled them easily to have retained that great structure as a boundary fence.[9] It is true that great numbers of their youth had from time to time been drafted off by successive emperors, to engage in foreign quarrels, and that thus the land was deprived of its natural defenders. This accounts for a part of their distress, but not all. In a rude state of society, every man is a soldier, and it was an essential part of the policy of Rome to inure every citizen to the practice of arms. There surely would be men enough left to defend their homes, their liberties, and lives! Besides, half a century elapsed between the time when the Romans began to leave Britain to its own resources, and their final refusal of all succour. There was thus time enough to have nurtured a whole generation of veterans; and there was time enough—if the energy had been in them—to have shaken off those feelings of dependence upon Rome, which the presence of their conquerors had fostered. The opportunity, however, was lost; they entreated, and wept, and groaned—and passed off the stage of this world’s history. How are we adequately to account for this circumstance? [Sidenote: THE GENEALOGY OF THE PICTS AND SCOTS.]This is not the place to discuss the genealogy of the Picts, but if we adopt the theory of