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PUTNAM’S MAGAZINE
OF
LITERATURE, SCIENCE, ART,
AND
NATIONAL INTERESTS.
Vol. AL—MAY—1870.—No. XXIX.
OUR CELTIC INHERITANCE.
One of the oldest specimens of Gaelic
poetry tells how Oisin was once enticed
by fairies into a cavern, where, by some
of their magical arts, he was for a long
time imprisoned. To amuse himself
during his confinement, he was accus
tomed to whittle the handle of his spear,
and cast the shavings into a stream
which flowed at his feet. His father,
Finn, after many vain attempts to find
him, came one day to the stream, and,
recognizing the shavings floating on its
surface as portions of Oisin’s spear, fol
lowed the stream to its source and dis
covered his son.
The legend may illustrate the fate of
the people to whose literature it belongs.
It has been a perplexing question, what
became of that old Titan, who led the
van in the migrations of races west
ward, and whom Aristotle describes “ as
dreading neither earthquakes nor inun
dations ; as rushing armed into the
waves; as plunging their new-born in
fants into cold water ”—a custom still
common among the Irish—“ or clothing
them in scanty garments.”
Two thousand years ago, we know
from Ephorus and other classic geogra
phers, the Celts occupied more territory
than Teuton, Greek, and Latin com
bined. They were yronderful explor
ers; brave, enterprising, delighting in
the unknown and marvellous, they
pushed eagerly forward, over mountain
and river, through forest and morass,
until their dominion extended from the
western coasts of Ireland, France, and
Spain, to the marshes around St. Peters
burg and the frontiers of Cappadocia:
in fact, they were masters of all Europe,
except the little promontories of Italy
and Greece; and these were not safe
from their incursions. Six centuries
before Christ, we find them invading
Northern Italy, founding Milan, Verona,
Brixia, and inspiring them with a spirit
of independence which Roman tyranny
could never entirely subdue. Two cen
turies later, they descend from their
northern homes as far as Rome, become
masters of the city, kill the Senate, and
would have taken the capitol, had not
Camillus finally repulsed them. A cen
tury later, they pour into Greece in a
similar way, and would surely have
overrun that country, had not their pro
found reverence for the supernatural—
a characteristic not yet lost—led them
to turn back awed by the sacred rites
of Delphos. Their last and most formi
dable appearance among the classics
was in that famous campaign—a cen
tury before Caesar—when the skill and
bravery of Marius saved the Roman re
public.
Entered, in the year 1870. by G. P. PUTNAM & SON, in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the U. S. for the Southern District of
VOL. V.—34
N. T.
�514
Putnam’s Magazine.
[May,
Then the scales turn : the Romans be in the Anglo-Saxon the wonderful dis
come the invaders, and the Celts suffer coveries of modem science have made
I ruinous defeats. In that great battle so manifest, that men are beginning at
with Quintus Fabius Maximus, Csesar last to recognize them; and, during the
tells the Gauls two hundred thousand of past century, some of our most noted
their countrymen were slain. Through scholars have been patiently endeavor
nearly all the vast territory they once ing to trace them to their original
inhabited, the Roman empire became source.
supreme; and where Rome failed to
Philology, although one of the young
gain the supremacy, the persistent Teu est of our sciences, has been of the
tons, pressing closely on their rear, gen greatest service in putting us on the
erally completed the conquest. Every right track in our search after this pio
where, at the commencement of the neer of nations. By its subtle art of
Christian era,—except in the compara drawing from words—those oldest patively insignificant provinces of Ireland, limpsestic monuments of men, their
Scotland, Wales, and Armorica,—this original inscriptions—it has cleared up
great Celtic people vanish so suddenly many a mystery in which the old Celt
and so completely from history, that their seemed hopelessly enveloped. Those ad
former existence soon seems like one of venturous tribes who first forced their
the myths of a pre-historic age. In those way through the western European wil
regions where the Celts retained their derness, left memorials of their presence
identity, prolonged political and re which no succeeding invaders have been
ligious animosities have tended to throw able to efface, in the names they gave
into still greater oblivion all mementoes to prominent landmarks; so that “ the
of their early greatness. Their English mountains and rivers,”—to use a meta
rulers have treated them as members of phor of Palgrave’s,—“still murmur
an inferior race. Glorying in his popu voices ” of this denationalized people.
lar misnomer, the Anglo-Saxon has The Alps, Apennines, Pyrenees, the
generally ignored all kinship with those Rhine, Oder, and Avon,—all bear wit
Britons whom his ancestors subdued.
ness to the extensive dominion of the
“ Little superior to the natives of the race by whom these epithets were first
Sandwich Islands; ”—says Lord Macau bestowed. By means of these epithets,
lay in his positive way, and dismisses the the Celts have been traced from their
subject as unworthy farther notice. original home in Central Asia in two
“ When the Saxons arrived, the ancient diverging lines of migrations. Certain
Britons were all slain, or driven into tribes, forcing their way through north
the mountains of Walessay our com ern Europe, seem to have passed from
mon school histories. “ Aliens in the Cimbric Chersonese—or Denmark—
speech, in religion, in blood; ”—says into the north of Ireland and Scotland;
Lord Lyndhurst, with traditional viru others, taking a southerly route, finally
lence, in that speech which Sheil so ably entered the south of Great Britain from
answered.
the northern coasts of France and Spain.
Still, scraps from Oisin’s spear have The British Isles became thus the termi
been floating down the current of An nus of two widely-diverging Celtic mi
glo-Saxon life. In language, words grations.
have arisen; in politics, literature, and
Naturally, the different climatic influ
religion, ideas and sentiments have been ences to which they were subject dur
expressed, bearing unmistakably the ing their separate wanderings, tended
' impress of the old Titan, and showing to produce a variety of dialects and
conclusively that his spirit, although so popular characteristics. Those old Brit
long concealed, was still influencing and ons, however, whom Csesar first intro
inspiring even the descendants of Heng- duces to history, all belonged substan
ist and Horsa.
tially to one people. Zeuss, after a
These evidences of a Celtic presence patient drudgery of thirteen years in
�1870.]
Oue Celtic Inheritance.
515
investigating the oldest Celtic manu- names you find like Lewis, Morgan,
scripts, has proved beyond question, in Jenkins, Davis, Owen, Evans, Hughes,
his Grammatica Celtica, not only that Bowen, Griffiths, Powel, and Williams.
the Cymry, or modern Welsh, are of the Scarcely less numerous are the Gaelic
same family with the Gael or modem Camerons, Campbells, Craigs, Cunning
Irish and Scotch, but that all the Celtic hams, Dixons, Douglasses, Duffs, Dun
people are only another division of cans, Grahams, Grants, Gordons, Mac
that great Indo-European family out of donalds, Macleans, Munros, Murrays,
which the nations of Europe originally Reids, Robertsons, and Scotts.
sprang. More extensive philological in
Although the application of these
vestigations have indicated a still near surnames has been a custom only dur
er relationship between the Celt and ing the past four hundred years, still
the Anglo-Saxon. In Great Britain, they show that, at some period, we
Celtic names linger not only upon all must have received a large infusion of
the mountains and rivers, with scarcely Celtic blood.
an exception, but upon hundreds and
Physiology has also something to say
hundreds of the towns and villages, on this subject. A careful comparison
valleys and brooks, and the more insig of the different physical types has
nificant localities of the country.
shown that the Celtic is found almost
How frequently Aber and Inver, Bod as frequently among the English as the
and Caer or Car, Strath and Ard, ap Saxon. The typical Saxon of olden
pear in combination as the eye glances times had the broad, short oval skull,
over a map of England. Is not this fact with yellowish or tawny red hair. The
most naturally explained by the suppo old Celt had the long oval skull, with
sition that Briton and Saxon grew up black hair. Climate undoubtedly modi
together in the same localities so inti fied to some extent these types, the
mately, that the latter found it most northern tribes of the Celts possessing
convenient to adopt the names of places lighter hair than the southern; still,
which the former had already bestowed ? these were generally the distinguishing
The Celtic root with Saxon suffix or physical characteristics of the two
prefix, so often greeting us in any de races.
scription of English topography, cer
How, then, have these characteristics
tainly hints at a closer amalgamation been perpetuated ? Retzius, one of the
of the two races than school histories best Swedish ethnologists, after making
are wont to admit. So the language extensive observations and comparisons,
we daily speak, frequently as it has gives it as his opinion that the prevail
been denied, is found strongly impreg ing form of the skull found throughout
nated with Celtic words, and many of England is the long oval, or the same
these our most idiomatic and expres which is found still in Scotland, Ire
sive. Balderdash, banner, barley, bas land, and Wales. His statements are
ket, bicker, bother, bully, carol, cudgel, confirmed by many other ethnologists.
dastard, fudge, grudge, grumble, har Somehow, after crossing the German
lot, hawker, hoyden, loafer, lubber, Ocean, the broad, roundish-headed Sax
nudge, trudge,—may serve as speci on became “ long-headed.” And his hair
mens. The unwritten dialects which changed. Yellow, or tawny red, is by
prevail in so many parts of England, no means now the prevailing colof
give still more numerous examples of among the Anglo-Saxons. Any English
this Celtic element.
assembly will show a much greater pro
If we turn now to our family sur portion of dark-haired than light-haired
names, we shall also find indications people. Different habits and occupa
of a similar race amalgamation. The tions have undoubtedly contributed
Cymric Joneses are only equalled by the somewhat to effect this change. Ger
Saxon Smiths. Take any of our ordi mans and English have alike grown
nary directories, and how many Cymric darker during the past one thousand
�516
Putnam’s Magazine.
years; still, the marked difference which
to-day exists between the Anglo-Saxon
and his brethren on the continent is
too great to be accounted for,—except
through some decided modification of
the race relation. The Celts are the
only race to whom such modifications
can with any propriety be attributed.
Whence came, then, this popular opin
ion that the old Britons were either de
stroyed or expelled from the country by
their Saxon conquerors ? Are the state
ments of history and the conclusions
of modem science so contradictory in
this matter ? Let us see. At the Ro
man invasion, 55 b. c., Great Britain
seems to have been thickly settled.
Csesar says: “ The population is infi
nite, and the houses very numerous.”
Eh one battle, 80,000 Britons were left
dead on the field; and in one campaign
the Romans lost 50,000 soldiers. It
took the Roman legions nearly three
hundred years to bring the southern
portion of the island under subjection;
—and then that great wall of Severus—
seventy-four miles long, eight feet thick,
twelve feet high, with eighty-one cas
tles and three hundred and thirty tur
rets,—was erected to secure the conquest
from the warlike tribes of the north—a
stupendous undertaking, surely, to pro
tect a province so worthless as Macau
lay asserts!
Ptolemy enumerates no less than
twenty British confederacies—with great
resources—south of this wall, and eigh
teen upon the north. During the five
centuries of Roman dominion, they
steadily increased. There was not suffi
cient admixture of Latin blood to
change essentially the Celtic character
of the race. The Latins came to con
trol, not to colonize. When Rome, for
Her own protection, was obliged to recall
her legions, thus relinquishing the prov
ince which had cost so much time and
treasure to secure, we are distinctly told
most of the Latins returned, taking
their treasures with them.
What, then, became of the numerous
Britons who remained? Their condi
tion was deplorable. Accustomed to
rely upon Roman arms for defense and
[May,
Roman magistrates for the administra
tion of law, they were suddenly deprived
of both defenders and rulers. While
Latin civilization had developed their
resources enough to make them a more
tempting prize to their warlike neigh
bors, it had rendered them almost inca
pable of guarding the treasures they
had gained. They had grown unwar
like—had lost both weapons and their
use.
Moreover, a crowd of rival aspirants
at once began a contest for the vacant
throne. It is not difficult to believe
the statements of our earliest historians,
that many, thus threatened by external
foes and internal dissensions, were ready
to welcome as allies the Saxon maraud
ers, preferring to receive them as friends
than to resist them as foes. The Saxons
evidently were determined to come; and
the Briton,—with characteristic craft,—
concluded to array Pict and Saxon
against each other, hoping, doubtless,
both would thus become less formi
dable.
Those Saxons also came in detach
ments, and at different intervals. They
were generally warriors, the picked men
of their tribes. Finding a better coun
try, and a people without rulers, they
quietly determined to take possession
of both. Their final ascendency was
gained, not by superiority of numbers,
but by superiority of will and of arms.
It seems utterly incredible to suppose,
that, in their little open boats, they
could have transported across the Ger
man Ocean a multitude great enough to
outnumber the original British inhabi
tants. All accounts indicate that they
were numerically inferior. Nearly one
hundred and fifty years of hard fight
ing were necessary before Saxon author
ity could take the place of the Roman.
The Welsh historical Triads tells us
that whole bodies of the Britons entered
into “ confederacy with their con
querors”—became Saxons. The Saxon
Chronicle, which, meagre and dry as it
is, still gives the truest account we have
of those dark periods, states that whole
counties, and numerous towns within
the limits of the Heptarchy,—nearly five
�1870.]
Our Celtic Inheritance.
hundred years after the first Saxon in
vasion,—were occupied almost entirely
by Britons; and that there were many
■hsurrections of semi- Saxonized subjects
in the different kingdoms. Bede, speak
ing of Ethelfred as the most cruel of
the Saxon chieftains, says he compelled
the Britons to be “tributary,” or to
leave the country. The great mass of
the people seem to have chosen the for
mer condition, and to have accepted
their new rulers as they had done the
old. There is not the slightest evidence
of any wholesale extermination by the
Saxons, or of any extensive Celtic emi
gration, except two passages found in
Gildas, our earliest historian. In one
of these, he speaks of the Britons as
having been slain like wolves, or driv
en into mountains; and in the other, of
a company of British monks guiding
an entire tribe of men and women to
Armorica, singing,—as they crossed the
channel in their vessels of skin,—“ Thou
hast given us as sheep to the slaughter.”
Gildas’ statements are so contradic
tory and erroneous, as every historical
student knows, that they must be re
ceived with great allowance. He evi
dently hated the Saxons, and shows a
disposition, in all his descriptions, to
exaggerate the injuries his countrymen
had received. Undoubtedly the Saxons
often exhibited the savage ferocity com
mon in those days, killing and enslav
ing their enemies without much com
punction ; undoubtedly many of the
British, who had been Christianized,
fled from the pagan violence of their
conquerors to the more congenial coun
tries of Armorica and Wales; but that
most of them were obliged thus to
choose between a violent death or ex
ile, is sufficiently disproved, I think, by
the evidence already given.
The adoption of the Saxon language
is also sometimes cited as evidence of
the destruction of the old Britons;
but conquerors have very often given
language to their subjects, even when
the subjects were more numerous than
themselves.
Thus the Latin was
adopted in Gaul; thus the Arabic
followed the conquests pf the Mussul
517
mans. Yet there is nothing but this
argument from language and the state
ments of Gildas—which later histo
rians have so blindly copied—to give
any foundation to the common opin
ion of an unmixed Saxon population.
AU other historical records and infer
ences indicate that the Anglo-Saxon
—when that name was first applied, in
the ninth century—represented as large
a proportion of Celtic as of Teutonic
blood.
Future invasions effected little change
in this proportion. The Danes, indeed,
increased somewhat the Teutonic ele
ment, although they made fearful havoc
among the old Saxons; but the Nor
mans brought with them fully as many
Gauls as Norsemen; and since the Nor
man conquest, the Celtic element has
rather increased than diminished.
It is fitting that the Lia Fail, or stone
of destiny, which Edward I. brought
from Scotland, and upon which the
Celtic kings for many generations had
been crowned, should still form the
seat of the English throne, and thus
become a symbol—although undesigned
—of that Celtic basis which really un
derlies the whole structure of Anglo?
Saxon dominion.
If it be admitted, then, that the Celt
formed so large a proportion of those
races out of which the English people
were finally composed, it becomes an.
interesting question whether any ot
their spiritual characteristics became
also the property of their conquerors.
What were these old Celts ? Did their
blood enrich, or impoverish, the Saxon ?
Did they leave us any inheritance be
yond certain modifications of speech
and form ? ^An answer to these ques
tions may also serve to confirm the con
clusions already stated.
We do not get much satisfaction to
such inquiries from contemporary his
torians in other lands. The self-com
placent classic troubled himself little
about neighboring barbarians, provid
ed they did not endanger his safety
or tempt his cupidity. That they
traded in tin with the seafaring Phoe
nicians, three hundred years before
�518
Putnam’s Magazine.
Christ; that, in. the time of Csesar and
Augustus, they had many barbarous
customs, but had also their chariots,
fleets, currency, commerce, poets, and
an order of priests who were supreme
in all matters pertaining to religion,
education, and government;—these, in
brief, are the principal facts gleaned
from the meagre accounts of Greek and
Roman writers concerning the inhabi
tants of the Ultima Thule of the ancient
world. Saxon historians add little to
this information. From the time of
Gildas to Macaulay, they have generally
viewed the Celt through the distorted
medium of their popular prejudices.
The Celt, then, must be his own in
terpreter ; yet the Celt of to-day, after
suffering for so many centuries a treat
ment which has tended to blunt and
destroy his best talent, and after long
association with foreign thoughts and
customs, is by no means the best repre
sentative of his pagan ancestors.
In some way—through their own pro
ductions, if possible—we must get at
the old Celts themselves before we can
determine with any certainty how many
of our popular characteristics can be
attributed with any propriety to such a
source. Aside from their language,
which we have already alluded to, their
oldest works are those weird megalithic
ruins—scattered all over western Eu
rope, and most numerous in Brittany
and Great Britain. That these were of
Celtic origin, seems indicated both by
their greater number and perfection in
those countries where the Celt retained
longest his identity, and by certain cor
respondences in form and masonry with
the earliest known Celtic structures,—
the cells of Irish monks,4-and the fa
mous round towers of Ireland.
Those round towers,—after being vari
ously explained as fire-towers, astro
nomical observatories, phallic emblems,
stylite columns, &c.,—Dr. Petrie has very
clearly proved were of ecclesiastical ori
gin, built between the fifth and thir
teenth centuries, and designed for bel
fries, strongholds, and watch-towers.
Yet these cellsand towers alike exhibit
the same circular form and dome roof,
[May,
the same ignorance of the arch and ce
ment, which are revealed in many of the
older and more mysterious ruins.
If we suppose a mythical people of
the stone age preceded the Indo-Euro
peans in their wanderings,—and there
seems no need of such a supposition,
since it has been so clearly shown by
some of our best pre-historic archaeolo
gists, that the transition from imple
ments of stone to iron has frequently
taken place among the same people,—it
may still be said these ruins are entirely
dissimilar to the productions of such a
people in other lands: they mark a
higher degree of civilization, and show
clearly, in certain cases, the use of me
tallic instruments. Some of them re
veal also great mechanical skill, fore
thought, and extraordinary command
of labor. Most of these ruins are at
least two thousand years old. They
have been exposed constantly to the
destructive influences of a northern cli
mate ;—and any one who has noticed the
ravages which merely six centuries have
wrought upon even the protected stone
work of English cathedrals, can appre
ciate the power of these, atmospheric
vandals;—they have suffered even great
er injury from successive invaders; and
still few can gaze upon them to-day
without being impressed with their
massive grandeur.
Of the vast ruins of Carnac, in Brit
tany, four thousand great triliths still
remain; some of these are twentv-two
feet high, twelve feet broad, and six
feet thick, and are estimated to weigh
singly 256,800 pounds. Says M. Cam
bray : “ These stones have a most ex
traordinary appearance. They are iso
lated in a great plain without trees or
bushes ; not a flint or fragment of stone
is to be seen on the sand which supports
them; they are poised without founda
tion, several of them being movable.”
In Abury and Stonehenge there are
similar structures, not as extensive, in
deed, but giving evidence of much
greater architectural and mechanical
skill. They are found also in different
parts of Great Britain and the Orkney
Islands and the Hebrides.
�T870/]
Oub Celtic Inhebitanoe.
How were these immense stones transported—for there are no quarries within
seveml miles—and by what machinery
could the great lintels of Stonehenge,
for instance, have been raised to their
present position ?
We may smile incredulously at the
learned systems of Oriental mythology
which enthusiastic antiquaries have dis
covered in these voiceless sentinels of
forgotten builders, but can we question
the evidence they give of scientific pro
ficiency—superior to any ever attained
by a “ race of savages ” ?
' Their cromlechs, or tombs, exhibit
clearly the same massiveness. The Irish
people still call them f£ giant beds,” but
they give us no additional information
concerning the people whose skeletons
they contain ;—unless there be a sugges
tion in the kneeling posture in which
their dead were generally buried, of
that religious reverence which charac
terized them when alive.
In the Barrows—or great mounds of
earth—which they seem to have used at
a later period as sepulchres, we do get
a few more interesting hints concerning
their early condition. In these, large
numbers of necklaces, swords, and va
rious ornaments and weapons in gold
and bronze,—some of exquisite work
manship and original design,—have been
found, showing at least that they had
the art of working metals, and many
of the customs of a comparatively civil
ized life. All these relics, however,
although interesting in themselves, and
confirming the few statements of classic
historians, only serve to correct the pop
ular notion concerning the savage con
dition of the old Britons. They leave
us still in ignorance of those mental and
spiritual characteristics which we are
most anxious to discover.
By far the most extensive and valu
able material for determining the char
acter of the ancient Celt, although the
most neglected, is presented in their lit
erature. Few persons I imagine who have
given the subject no special investiga
tion, are aware how extensive this litera
ture is, as found in the Gaelic and Cym
ric tongues. In the library of Trinity
519
College, Dublin, there are one hundred
ajid forty manuscript volumes. A still
more extensive collection is in the Royal
Irish Academy. There are also large coll
lections in the British Museum, and in
the Bodleian Library and Imperial libra
ries of France and Belgium, and in the
Vatican;—besides numerous private col
lections in the possession of the nobility
of Ireland, Great Britain, and on the
continent.
To give an idea of these old manu
scripts, O’Curry has taken as a standard
of comparison the Annals of the Four
Masters, which was published in 1851,
in seven large quarto volumes contain
ing 4,215 closely-printed pages. There
are, in the same library, sixteen other
vellum volumes, which, if similarly
published, would make 17,400 pages;
and six hundred paper manuscripts,
comprising 30,000 pages. Mac Firbis’
great book of genealogies would alone
fill 1,300 similar pages; and the old
Brehon laws, it is calculated, when pub
lished, will contain 8,000 pages.
The Cymric collection, although less
extensive, still comprises more than one
thousand volumes. Some of these, in
deed, are only transcripts of the same
productions, yet many of them are
original works.
A private collection at Peniath num
bers upward of four hundred manu
scripts ; and a large number are in the
British Museum, in Jesus College, and
in the libraries of various noblemen of
England and Wales.
The Myvyrian manuscripts, collected
by Owen Jones, and now deposited in
the British Museum, alone amount to
forty-seven volumes of poetry, in 16,000
pages, and fifty-three volumes of prose,
in about 15,300 pages; and these com
prise only a small portion of the manu
scripts now existing. Extensive as are
these collections, we know, from trust
worthy accounts, the Danish invaders
of Ireland, in the ninth and tenth cen-d
turies, made it a special business to tear,
burn, and drown—to quote the exact
word—all books and records which
were found in any of the churches,
dwellings, or monasteries of the island.
�520
Putnam’s Magazine.
The great wars of the seventeenth cen
tury proved still more destructive to
the Irish manuscripts. The jealous
Protestant conquerors burnt all they
could find among the Catholics. A
great number of undiscovered manu
scripts are referred to and quoted in
those which now exist. From their
titles, we judge more have been lost
than preserved. So late as the sixteenth
century, many were referred to as then
in existence, of which no trace can now
be found. Some of them may still be
hidden in the old monasteries and cas
tles. The finding of the book of Lis
more is an illustration of what may
have been the fate of many. In 1814,
while the Duke of Devonshire was re
pairing his ancient castle of Lismore,
the workmen had occasion to reopen a
doorway which had been long closed, in
the interior of the castle. They found
concealed within it a box containing an
old manuscript and a superb old crozier. The manuscript had been some
what injured by the dampness, and por
tions of it had been gnawed by rat3.
Moreover, when it was discovered, the
workmen carried off several leaves as
mementoes. Some of these were after
ward recovered, and enough now re
mains to give us valuable additions to
our knowledge of Irish customs and tra
ditions. It is by no means improbable
that others, similarly secreted in monas
teries and private dwellings, may still
be discovered.
In O’Clery’s preface to the “ Succes
sion of Kings ’’—one of the most valu
able of the Irish annals—he says:
“ Strangers have taken the principal
books of Erin into strange countries
and among unknown people.” And
again, in the preface to the “ Book of
Invasions ”: “ Sad evil! Short was the
time until dispersion and decay over
took the churches of the saints, their
relics, and their books; for there is not
to be found of them now that has not
been carried away into distant coun
tries and foreign nations; carried away,
so that their fate is not known from
that time hither.”
When we consider, thus, the number
[May,
of literary productions which have been
either lost or destroyed, and the num
ber still remaining, we must admit that
there has been, at some period, great
intellectual activity among the Celtic
people. How far back these produc
tions may be traced, is a question which
cannot now be discussed properly, with
out transgressing the limits assigned to
this article. We can do little more, at
present, than call attention to the ex
tent of these writings, and their impor
tance. Many of them are unquestion
ably older than the Canterbury Tales;
they give us the clearest insight into the
character of a people once great and
famous, but now almost lost in oblivion;
and, although containing a large amount
of literary rubbish, they still comprise
numerous poems, voluminous codes of
ancient laws, extensive annals—older
than any existing European nation can ex
hibit in its own tongue, and a body of
romance which no ancient literature has
ever excelled, and from which modern
fiction drew its first inspiration.
Had this literature no special relation
to our own history, we might naturally
suppose it would repay investigation
for the curious information it contains
of a bygone age, and the intellectual
stimulus it might impart. The condi
tion of Ireland, to-day, is also of such
importance to England and America—
the Irish Celt, in this nineteenth cen
tury, enters so prominently into our
politics and questions of reform, that
every thing is worth investigating which
can reveal to us more clearly his charac
ter and capacity.
But these productions of his ances
tors have for us a still deeper signifi
cance. They are peculiarly our inheri
tance. Celt or Teuton, or both, we
must mainly be ; our ancestry can natu
rally be assigned to no other races.
Much in us is manifestly not Teutonic.
The Anglo-Saxon is quite a different
being from all other Saxons. Climate
and occupation may explain, in a meas
ure, the difference, but not entirely.
Some of the prominent traits which
Englishmen and Americans alike pos
sess, belong so clearly to the German,
�1870.1
The Tale
of a
Comet.
K21
I
or Teutonic people, in every land, that the sentiments of their people, then
we do not hesitate to ascribe them at these old manuscripts become of incal
once to our Saxon blood;—but what culable value in explaining our indebt
shall we do with others equally promi edness to those Britons, who, as history
nent, and naturally foreign to Teutons and science alike indicate, contributed
so essentially to our popular forma
everywhere ?
Were these found peculiarly charac tion.
On some future occasion, we may pre
terizing the Celts from their earliest his
tory, might we not—must we not—with sent such illustrations of their antiquity
equal propriety also ascribe them to our and general character, as will make it
appear still more clearly that the AngloCeltic blood 1
If, then, it can be shown—and we Saxon is—what we might expect the
think it can—that, not only before the offspring of two such varied races to
time of Gower and Chaucer, but also become—the union of the varied char
before Caedmon uttered the first note acteristics of Celt and Teuton, stronger,
of English song, Celtic wits and poets braver, more complete in every respect,
were busy expressing in prose and verse for his diverse parentage.
THE TALE OF A COMET.
IN TWO PARTS:
I.
“ Berum nature tsacra sun non simul tradit. Initiates nos credimus; in vestibulo ejus haeremus.”
Seneca. Nat. Quaest. vii.
young man, my dear Bernard, because I
have confidence in the evenness of your
The year in which the comet came I disposition, and the steady foothold you
was living by myself, at the windmill. have obtained upon the middle way of
Early in May I received from my friend life. He is an anomaly, and therefore
must be treated with prudence, and a
the Professor the following letter:
tender reserve such as we need not
“College Observatory, May 5.
exercise toward the rough-and-tumble
“Mv Dear Bernard.—I want to ask youth of the crowd. In fact, this young
a favor, which, if you please to grant it, I man Baimond Letoile is a unique and
honestly think will contribute sensibly perfect specimen of that rare order of
to the advancement of science, without beings, which, not being able to anato
causing much disorder to your bachelor mize and classify, owing to the infre
life. I want you, in fact, to take a pupil. quency of their occurrence, we men of
There has come to us a very strange Science carelessly label under the name
young man, who knows nothing but the of Genius, and put away upon our shelves
mathematics; but knows them so thor for future examination. Letoile is cer
oughly and with such remarkable and tainly a genius, and when properly in
intuitive insight, that I am persuaded he structed, I believe he will develop a
is destined to become the wonder of this faculty for the operations of pure science
age. His name is Raimond Letoile; he such as has no parallel, unless we turn
is about twenty years old, and his nature, to the arts and compare him with Ra
so far as I can determine upon slight ac phael and Mozart. He is a born mathe
quaintance, is singularly amiable, pure, matician. And when I say this, I do
and unsophisticated. His recommenda not mean that he simply has an extraor
tions are good, he has money sufficient for dinary power of calculation, like Colburn
all his purposes, and I think you will find and those other prodigies who have
him a companion as well as a pupil, proved but pigmies after all — I mean
who, while giving you but little trouble, that he possesses an intuitive faculty for
will reward you for your care by the the higher analysis, and possesses it to
contemplation of his unexampled pro such a wonderful degree that all of us
gress. I want you to take charge of this here stand before him in genuine amazeI.—THE rEOFBSSOB’s LETTER.
�
Dublin Core
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Title
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
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Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Our Celtic inheritance
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [New York]
Collation: [513]-521 p. ; 22 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. From Putnam's Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and National Interests. Vol. V, No. XXIX, May 1870. Printed in double columns.
Publisher
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[G. P. Putnam's Sons]
Date
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1870
Identifier
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G5564
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<p class="western"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" name="graphics1" width="88" height="31" border="0" alt="88x31.png" /></p>
<p class="western">This work (Our Celtic inheritance), identified by <span style="color:#0000ff;"><span lang="zxx"><u>Humanist Library and Archives</u></span></span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</p>
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
Creator
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[Unknown]
Subject
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History
Celts
Conway Tracts