tor humani generis,
agit atque habet cuncta, neque ipse habetur."

The more remote and historical honors of Rouen would present ample
materials. Prior to the Roman invasion, it appears to have been of less
note than as the capital of Neustria.

Julius Caesar, copious as he is in all that relates to Gaul, makes no
mention of Rouen in his Commentaries. Ptolemy first speaks of it as the
capital of the Velocasses, or Bellocasses, the people of the present
Vexin; but he does not allow his readers to entertain an elevated idea
of its consequence; for he immediately adds, that the inhabitants of the
Pays de Caux were, singly, equal to the Velocasses and Veromandui
together; and that the united forces of the two latter tribes did not
amount to one-tenth part of those which were kept on foot by the
Bellovaci.--Not long after, however, when the Romans became undisputed
masters of Gaul, we find Rouen the capital of the province, called the
_Secunda Lugdunensis_; and from that tine forward, it continued to
increase in importance. Etymologists have been amused and puzzled by
"Rothomagus," its classical name. In an uncritical age, it was contended
that the name afforded good proof of the city having been founded by
Magus, son of Samothes, contemporary of Nimrod. Others, with equal
diligence, sought the root of Rothomagus in the name of Roth, who is
said to have been its tutelary god; and the ancient clergy adopted the
tradition, in the hymn, which forms a part of the service appointed for
the feast of St. Mellonus,--

"Extirpate Roth idolo,
Fides est in lumine;
Ferro cinctus, pane solo
Pascitur et flumine,
Post haec junctus est in polo
Cum sanctorum agmine."

The partizans of _Roth_ are therefore supported by the authority of the
church; the favorers of _Magus_ must defend themselves by more worldly
erudition; and we must leave the task of deciding between the claims of
the two sections of the word, divided as they are by the neutral _o_, to
wiser heads than ours.

Footnotes:

[119] Precis Analytique des travaux de l'Academie de Rouen, pendant
l'annee 1812, p. 164.

[120] At the sale of Mr. Edwards' library, in April 1815, it was bought
by the present Duke of Marlborough for six hundred and eighty-seven
pounds fifteen shillings.--The following anecdote, connected with it,
was communicated to me by a literary friend, who had it from one of the
parties interested; and I take this opportunity of