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AN GAODHAL.
manhood.
Those whose hearts are warmed with Celtic
blood have at least the satisfaction of knowing,
that they are descendants of perhaps the oldest
race in Europe. Although the earliest appearance
of the Celts on that Continent is enveloped in hope
less obscurity it is true beyond contradiction that
our Celtic forefathers were both numerous and pow¬
erful, and had the hoar and honor of centuries on
their side before the English or German or French
or Italian peoples had any distinctive existence.
Pride of extraction and veneration for genealogies
that reach back into the distant past, seem to poss¬
ess a strong and a strange fascination for the hu¬
man heart. In the social life of modern days,
there is a tacit admission, that any one is entitled
to more than ordinary respect, who can prove that
the blood of many illustrious generations is cours¬
ing in his veins. In his very instructive lecture
on the Peopling of Europe, (p. 7.) Professor Camp¬
bell remarks with reference to the extravagant
claims to a very remote origin which are made by
the Welsh and Scotch and Irish: "We smile at
these pretentions to antiquity, and treat them with
the incredulity that most of them deserve; but we
have little to put in their place beyond vague con¬
jecture. That Celts, Germans and Sclaves came
originally from the East is a truth requiring little
more ingenuity to discover than that the dawn
springs in the same quarter into day. But how
they were known in the East, and how they trav¬
elled westward, and when they reached their pres¬
ent seats or their historic homes: these are quest¬
ions that are still almost unanswered:" With a
larger measure of truthfulness and applicability,
perhaps, than he had in contemplation, these well-
known words of Horace are predicable of the
Celts:
Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona
Multi : sed omnes illacrimabiles
Urgentur ignotique longa
Nocte, carent quia vate sacro,
Paulum sepultӕ distat inertiӕ
Celata virtus.
Many magnanimous and heroic Celts there doubt¬
less were in the unrecorded past, — Celts whose
names and prowess are buried in the grave of stern
oblivion, because no memorial of them was com¬
mitted either to stone or verse, — Celts who, so far
as subsequent generations are concerned, and so
far as the efforts of Celtic scholars to penetrate the
the far-off past are concerned, exemplify with pain¬
ful accuracy the saying of Horace, that "virtue or
valor, when it is uncelebrated, is removed but a
short distance from buried listlessness." Max
Muller thus tersely and lucidly describes the hist¬
ory and the present position of the Celts: "The
Celts seem to have been the first of the Aryans to
arrive in Europe ; but the pressure of subsequent
migrations, particularly of Teutonic tribes has driv¬
en them towards the westernmost parts, and lat¬
terly from Ireland across the Atlantic. At present
the only remaining dialects are Kymric and Gad¬
helic. The Kymric comprises the Welsh and Cor¬
nish, lately extinct, and the Armorican of Brittan¬
ny. The Gadelic comprises the Irish, the Gaelic
of the west coast of Scotland, and the dialect of the
Isle of Man. Although these Celtic dialects are
still spoken, the Celts themselves can no longer be
considered an independent nation like the Germans
or Slaves. In former times, however, they not on¬
ly enjoyed political autonomy, but asserted it suc¬
cessfully against Germans and Romans. Gaul,
Belgium and Britain were Celtic dominions, and
the north of Italy was chiefly inhabited by them.
In the time of Herodotus, we find Celts in Spain;
and Switzerland, the Tyrol, and the country south
of the Danube, have been once the seats of Celtic
tribes. But after repeated inroads into the regions
of civilization, familiarizing Latin and Greek writ¬
ers with the names of their kings, they disappear
from the coast of Europe. Brennus is supposed
to mean king, from the Welsh brennin. A Bren¬
nus conquered Rome, B. C. (390), and another
Brennus threatened Delphi, B. C. (280). And a¬
bout the same time a Celtic colony settled in Asia
and founded Galatia, where the language spoken
at the time of St. Jerome was still that of the
Gauls." * The earliest settlers of any permanence
in a country are wont to leave behind them indeli¬
ble reminiscences in the names of mountains, lakes
and rivers. It is to the careful dissection of the
Celtic languages that the philologist must needs
have recourse, to determine where those langua¬
ges were at one time spoken; over what are they
extended, and what relations they bear to the clas¬
sical languages of the ancient world. Topograph¬
ical names are to be found in Europe and else¬
where, which are manifestly Celtic, and which jus¬
tify the inference, that the Celts inhabited at some
time or other those places where such names still
exist, having been carried over the centuries to
our own day. Though much that is fanciful and
that cannot bear rigid examination may enter into
the reasoning, and conclusions of enthusiastic Celts
respecting the early greatness and prowess of their
race, it cannot be doubted that a very fertile and
attractive field is offered to the careful scholar by
the topography of the countries with which the
Celts may have had an intimate connection. In a
work entitled "The History of Celtic Languages,"
— a work which is perhaps, but little known,
though its author displays no small acumen and
scholarship and ingenuity, — the student can dis¬
cover a fair example of what a warm enthusiasm
can accomplish. The author contends that e.g.
Heber is probably a compound of oin or ain, river,
and bar or bhar, beyond. The term Heber, there¬
fore, means to cross over, is simply the opposite
side, and is the equivalent of Inver, a word which
is commonly found in the topography of Scotland.
* Science of Language ; 1st Series, p. 198.
