one of those nations
was more interesting, or in many points involved in greater obscurity,
than that of the GAULS.

Nowhere amongst the ancient writers could any connected account of the
origin or progress of this nation be found; scattered notices of them
alone could be discovered interspersed incidentally amongst other
matter, and these notices were frequently inconsistent. This is
particularly the case as regards their early history: in later times,
when they came into more immediate contact with the Romans, a more
connected and minute account of them has been preserved. In the lively
pages of Livy, and in the more accurate narrative of Polybius, a
considerable mass of information on this subject maybe found; while a
clear light has been thrown on many parts of their latter history by the
narrative of Appian, the Lives of Plutarch, and, above all, by the
Commentaries of Caesar. But all this information, scattered over a
multiplicity of authors, could give us no conception of their history as
a people. An author was still wanting to collect all these together, so
as to present us with something like a continuous history. But to do
this was no easy task: the materials were scanty and often
contradictory; they were all written in a spirit hostile to the Gauls; a
deep vein of prejudice and national partiality ran through and tarnished
them all; the motives of that people were misrepresented, their actions
falsified, the historians often understood little of their institutions
and their character. From such materials it required no common man to be
able to deduce a clear and impartial narrative; it required great talent
and deep research--the accuracy of the scholar and the spirit of the
philosopher, the acuteness of the critic joined to the eye of the
painter. Such a man has been found in Amadee Thierry. His _History of
the Gauls_ is a work of rare merit--a work which must ever be in the
hand of every one who would understand the history of antiquity. It is
little to the credit of the literature of this country, that his work
has not yet appeared in an English translation.

He has traced the progress of the Gauls, from their earliest appearance
on the stage of the world till their final subjection to the Roman
power, in a manner worthy of a scholar and a philosopher. His narrative
is clear, animated, and distinct; he possesses in an eminent degree the
power of giving breadth to his pictures; of drawing the attention o