Matthew Arnold and the Celts [pp. 884-890]

MA TTHEi W ARNOLD 4AND THE CELTS.
Mr. Arnold gives some charming translations, both from the
Welsh and Irish MSS.; some quaint legends that show much of
the strange mingling of childish simplicity and lofty sentiment
in the ancient Celts. He relates a suggestive story of Thomas
Moore, who, with a poet's superb assurance, undertook to write
the history of Ireland; but when confronted with the mere list
and the array of voluminous works left by Celtic writers, without
consulting them at all, told his friend Dr. Petrie: "Those huge
tomes could not have been written by fools for any foolish pur pose. I never knew anything about them before, and I had no
right to undertake the history of Ireland."
Then follows a most valuable account of the best Celtic lit erary remains, suggestive extracts, and some passing notice of
the patient, patriotic, or scientific compilers, Zeuss, O'Curry,
and others. Then he gives a few philological hints, showing
the relationship, the nearness of kinship, of several leading
species of scientific research, Persian, Greek, and Scandinavian,
with the vocabulary and the legendary lore of the Celts. It is
like drawing aside a thick curtain to admit to our unsuspecting
vision a series of enchanting prospects.
While Mr. Arnold, true Briton at heart, disclaims all the political hopes and aspirations of the Celts, even deprecating the efforts
of the Welsh to preserve the common use of their language,
considering only its claim to scientific and not practical value,
he is still too conscientious a critic to overlook the immense
possibilities of thorough scientific and scholarly search in the
rich fields of Celtism. He gives in one succinct sentence a'
true key-note to some of the difficulties of Saxon supremacy:
"My brother Saxons have, it is well known, a terrible way
with them of wanting to improve everything but themselves off
the face of the earth; I have no such passion for finding nothing but myself everywhere; I like variety to exist and to show
itself to me; and I would not for the world have the lineaments
of the Celtic genius lost..."
Perhaps, if some of this spirit of intelligent appreciation were
a little more diffused, it might lighten the Saxon yoke that lies
so heavy on Celtic shoulders, borne down by the Briton's purblind self-sufficiency and eagerness "to improve everything but
himself off the face of the earth." But I fear even a touch on
the sore spot of politics is foolish in the pen that aspires to
dip into the beautiful ideas that Mr. Arnold awakens around
888
[Mar.,