heb na lliw na llun, etc.", I cannot forbear smiling (I beg pardon for being so rude). If we have no better proof of our Trojan extraction than the bare veracity of our ancestors, I fear we may drop the argument; for I am afraid that if we say our forefathers neither could, nor would, fib upon occasions, we may be reckoned very great fibbers ourselves. Yet I cannot see what they could propose to themselves by inventing such a tale, unless it were to ingratiate themselves with the Romans by laying claim to the same common ancestors; and indeed that was temptation enough in all conscience. But admitting the story of Brutus to be true, and allowing Geoffrey of Monmouth all the authority and authenticity he can desire, and every other advantage, save infallibility, and I care not much if he had that too, yet it were absurd and even ridiculous to imagine the main bulk of our nation to be his descendants. What would you say were I to affirm that the good people of England were all descended from William the Conqueror, or that they are all Hanoverians, because his present Majesty is one? Brutus was here and was king, if you please, but still he and I are nothing akin.
