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that he would show there that the Celts were anything but barbarians, in the same sense as the savage peoples of America, since they knew the excellence of man, his prerogatives, and his duties, since there was nothing wiser than their government, and even their religion, if one compares it with that of other pagan peoples. He added that what was most unreasonable, what one should regard as barbarian in their customs, was precisely what the French, the Germans, and the other peoples of the North have judged appropriate to preserve.

This announcement awakened the attention of the scholars: it was greatly appreciated by connoisseurs. One of them, or at least a critic who had found the means to make himself very formidable, the Abbé des Fontaines spoke of it in a favorable manner in his periodical sheets. In general, all those whom these matters could interest waited impatiently for the work to appear. Its publication was first delayed by the care the author wished to bring to it, by the resolution he had formed not to let it leave his study until he had put the final hand to it, and then by the unpleasantness he had of having a bookseller who supported him quite poorly.

The History of the Celts, of which the first volume saw the light of day in 1740, was not printed with that typographical elegance granted to far inferior productions, and which nevertheless influences the success of books to a certain point. Infinite delays caused the second volume to drag on until 1750. It is to be presumed that by discouraging Mr. Pelloutier, these delays contributed to depriving us of the rest of the work which he wished to push further. His design was to go until the time when the history of the Celts begins to divide into several branches, to then confine himself, if he had lived long enough, to the history of Germany, in which he was deeply versed. But the last years of his life were so thwarted by infirmities that he did not go beyond these two volumes; this work nevertheless forms a complete whole, far preferable to what had already appeared on these matters. In the extreme multitude and immense variety of things with which this history is filled, it is impossible that everything has the same degree of precision and accuracy. Thus some critics have noted various points, but their censure has done no harm to the work, which remains in possession of a character that today belongs

today only to a very small number of productions; it is that of being original, and full of deep discussions. Mr. Pelloutier responded to these censors with much politeness; he nobly admitted the mistakes that might have escaped him; he solidly justified himself against those wrongly imputed to him. A little before his death, he was at grips with the celebrated Mr. Schapflin; and his response will not be lost to the public: I will take care to insert it in the Bibliothèque Germanique.

Let us not finish what we have to say about the unique work of Mr. Pelloutier without honoring him for having worked only on that one, without recognizing that by limiting himself to it, by applying all his studies as a man of letters to it, he showed uncommon wisdom. How advantageous it would be to the sciences if each of those capable of applying themselves to them took this path! It would be the way to clear so many unknown lands, where one is ordinarily content to make light excursions; it would be the way to treat in depth so many subjects that are commonly only skimmed. One should expect nothing finished from those authors whose works form almost entire libraries, who pass from one subject to another as if they were equally suited to all. A writer, entirely filled with his subject, who never loses sight of it, becomes its master, and treats it as a master. There are, in truth, some inconveniences to occupying oneself too much with one object; it is to be feared that one might form some illusion about its real importance or its extent: it is to be feared that one might come even to regard it as preferable to all others because one has preferred it; it is dangerous that one becomes accustomed to seeing it everywhere, and consequently running the risks of seeing it often where it is not. But all that is nothing compared to a superficial lightness.

The mass of knowledge that Mr. Pelloutier had gathered on all the antiquities of nations put him in a position to treat with success a question that the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres had proposed, and to win the prize it awarded in 1742. It was a matter of determining:

Which were the Gallic nations that established themselves in Asia Minor under the name of Galatians:
At what time did they pass there:
What was the extent of the country they occupied there, their language, the form of their government; and at what time did these Galatians cease to have chiefs of their nation and formed a state