their conquerors tremble; that hatred which is always mixed with fear, may have given birth to the charge of their being canibals and magicians. Excefs of fear fafcinates and dazzles the fight more certainly than the forceries of which they were accufed: and their enemies may have encouraged this opinion partly through fuperftition, and partly to fet off their own courage. The probity for which this people was fo famous, proves pretty plainly that the pic- ture was over-charged. In procefs of time, the fubject of thefe ancient wars was for- gotten; love performed the office of me- diator between both people, their mutual fhynefs infenfibly wore off, and as foon as they began to fee one another more near- ly, all thefe prodigies vanifhed away.
After all, I do not pretend to decide whether the first inhabitants of thefe coun- tries were all of them, without any mixture, of Germanic origin, Cimbri and Teuto- nes. For although to me this appears very probable with regard to Denmark, it can- not be denied that the Finns and Lap- landers anciently poffeffed a much more con- fiderable part of Scandinavia than they do at prefent. This was the opinion of Gro- tius and Leibnitz. According to them, thefe people were formerly spread over the fouthern parts of Norway and Sweden,
