evolution may profitably be noticed. They may
serve to indicate with reasonable certitude the in-
dividuality of these provinces, which was the prod-
uct of manifold forces, operating, sometimes ob-
scurely, sometimes clearly, through the course of
many centuries. For, that Alsace and Lorraine
had personalities of their own is obvious to any
frank and serious student, and even a brief analysis
of the various strains of experience that entered into
the formation of them ought to prove instructive.

Who the first inhabitants were of these regions
between the river Meuse, the Vosges mountains,
and the Rhine, it is idle to inquire. In the dim back-
ground of European history groups of human beings
flit obscurely, appearing and then disappearing,
leaving only a few tantalizing and dubious traces
of their passage. Ethnology gives us only an elusive
guidance through those remote mazes of time. But
with the coming of the Romans, we find ourselves
on fairly solid ground. Thanks to Julius Cæsar, to
his victories and his writings, these regions of Europe
pass out of the penumbra into the light of authentic
history. And Cæesar lived in the first century before
Christ.

He found there a population that was Celtic, which
had, however, even before he appeared upon the

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