Bourke Ulick J. Aryan Origin of the Gaelic Race and Language
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440
SUITED
TO PEOPLE
AND
TIMES.
judicial accessory
forms,
and
reduced to
first
principles,
are
found to
be identical one
with
the
primitive
Aryan.
"
Wherever
(says Maine)
we
have
a
body
of
Aryan
cus-
toms,
either
anterior
to,
or
slightly
affected
by,
the
Roman
Empire,
it will
be found to
exhibit
some
strong
points
of
resemblance
to
the
institutions
which
are tho
basis of theBrehon
Law."
To
conclude,
the JBrchon Law
is
not
what the
Parliament
of
Kilkenny,
or Edmund
Spencer,
or
Sir John
Davis
pronounced
it
to be either "wicked and
damnable,"
"
repugnant
to
God's law
and
man's,"
or
"
lewd
and un-
reasonable." On
the
contrary,
it
has been
shown
to
be,
and scholars versed in
law
declare that it
is,
jus>t
and in
accord with the natural
law,
and with
the
written
law,
which is
from
God. It comes down from
the
Aryan
period.
It is
twin
sister,
in
legal parentage,
of
the codo
known as
the
"
Laws of the
Twelve Tables."
It is there-
fore kindred
in its
institution to
European
law,
and
especially
to the laws
of
England.
The Eastern or
Hindoo law and itself flow
from the
same
source,
and
have been
in
time
enlarged
and
extended
quite
in
the same
fashion.
Irishmen
governed,
in
days
that are
gone, by
such
a
code
must
have,
like
other nations
grown
up,
children of honor
and
truth,
with
a
strong
aptitude
for
religion.
The
men
must
have
been,
as
they
were,
truthful, brave,
chivalrous,
noble
;
the women
free,
honored,
devoted,
as
amongst
the
Etrurians and
the
primitive
Aryans;
learning
was
fostered
and
respected
;
the arts
and
sciences
cultivated
;
works of
civilization
and material
progress patronised.
The
good
resulting
from such
a code was
manifold,
not alone in
social
life,
and
in the
political,
but in the
religious
and
the
literary.
It
was
admirably
suited
to the times
and
to
the
people.
IRISHMEN
AND
ENGLISHMEN NOT ALIENS
IN
BLOOD
441
The
study
of
the
language
and
of
the laws of Ireland
;
the
study,
as French
savants
style
it,
"
of the science
of
origins,"
has
produced
good
results
ethnological
and
philological,
historic,
social,
legal
;
it has
shewn
English-
men,
that
after
all,
the Irishman
is not
a
stranger
even
to
the British
;
that
the
peoples
of the
two countries had
been
originally
one
family
the
Aryan.
"
In
the
sphere
of
politics,
(says
Matthew
Arnold)
there
has
appeared
an
indirect
practical
result
from
the
study
of
this
science
;
the
sense
of
antipathy
to the
Irish
people,
of
radical
estrangement
from
them,
has
visibly
abated
amongst
all
the
better
part
of
us
;
the
remorse for ill-
treatment of
them
;
the wish
to make
amends,
to do
them
justice,
to
fairly
unite,
if
possible,
in
one
people
with
them,
has
visibly
increased
;
hardly
a
book on
Ireland
is now
published,
hardly
a
debate on Ireland
now
passes
in Parliament without
this
appearing.
I am
in-
clined
to think that
the
march
of
science
the
science
of
origins
shewing
that
there
is no such
original
chasm
between
the Kelt and
the Saxon as we once
popularly
imagined
;
that
they
are not
truly
what Lord
Lyndhursfc
called them
aliens
in
Uood
from us
;
but that
they
are our
brothers
in the
great Indo-European
family,
has had
a
share,
an
appreciable
share,
in
producing
this
changed
state
of
feeling."
The same
ready
writer shows
that
there are
no
greater
foes
to
England
than those
who,
from
want of science
and
from
prejudice,
disclaim,
as
had
been done
in
times
past,
right against
the
Irish .
From
the
study
of
the
language,
of the
laws and
history
of
Ireland,
Englishmen
begin
to learn that
they
are nearer a-kin
to
Irishmen
than
they
had
supposed.
The
sons of
Ireland,
on
the
other
hand,
knowing
from
the same
course of
study
themselves
better,
and
tha
442
KNOWLEDGE
LIKE
LIGHT.
noble
race
from
whom
they
have
sprung,
will learn to
negative
the
saying
of Moore
"
Unprized
are her
sons
till
they
learn to
bebray
;
Undistinguished they
live,
if
they
shame not their sires
;
And
the
torch
that
should
light
them to
liberty's
way
Must be
caught
from
the
pyre
where their
country
expires.
They
will
learn
that
it
is not
treason to
love,
nor death
to defend
a
country
so
ancient,
once
so
renowned for
arts,
laws,
learning,
civilisation.
Knowledge,
like
the
sun-light,
throws
a
shower
of
bright
coloring
of
beauty
and life over
all;
makes
things
be
seen
fully
and
known
better
;
ignorance,
like
night, prevents
perception,
pro-
duces
persecution
;
begets
tyranny
in
rulers,
hatred
and
revenge
in
the
souls
of the
oppressed.
(443)
CHAPTER
XV.
Gaelic
poetry
the casket of
nearly
all
Gaelic
literature.
Wonderful
ability
in
versifing
possessed
by
the
bards.
From a
Keltic
source
spring
the
style
and
natural
magic
of
English poetry.
The
Keltic
element
was not
banished
out
of
Britain
by
the
coming
of
the
Saxon. Germans
are
singularly
devoid
of
style.
The Gaels
possess
it in
an
eminent
degree
;
their
quick
feeling
gives
them
style
;
their
high
sensibility
and
aesthetic sense
give
them
a
higher gift,
a
lucid
power
at
description.
The
magic
of
Romance
is
surely
Keltic.
Rhyme.
It
has
certainly
come
from
a Keltic
source
;
reasons
;
authority.
Men
ignorant
of
the
true cause of effects
invariably assign
like the
old
philosophers
who stated
that
nature abhored
a
vacuum
a
feigned
cause
to suit
the
emergency
and
defect
of
knowledge.
Even clever
men,
like Thomas
Moore
and
Lord
Macauley,
have fallen into this mistake.
Their
presumed
knowledge
is the cause of error
to
thou-
sands. Versification
as
practised
by
Irish bards.
Its
qualities.
Perfect
assonance one of
the
qualities.
Per-
fect
assonance,
when found
in the
final
syllable,
consti-
tutes
rhyme.
Druids of the
Continent. Eire's
Bre-
hons.
They
directed the
literary
life of
the
youth
of
the nation.
Youths flocked to their schools.
Hymnology.
Latin
hymns
of
the
Church
composed
like
the
Gaelic
poems.
The
style
of versification
not
Roman or
Greek,
but
Irish.
Hymns
composed
by
Irishmen in the fifth
century
Sedulius,
Secundinus
;
and
by
St.
Ambrose,
who was
a native
Kelt
of Gaul.
Their
school
adopted
that
style,
and
not
the Latin.
The
Early
Church embodied those
hymns
in her
liturgy.
Sir
Henry
Sumner
Maine
(Lectures
on the
Early
History
of Institutions)
says
:
"
The
ancient
laws
of
Ireland
have
come
down
to
us as an
assemblage
of law
tracts,
each
414
.
STYLE,
AND
NATURAL
MAGIC.
treating
o
some one
subject,
or
a
group
of
subjects."
And
having
told
what these
law
tracts
were,
he
adds :
"
It is
extremely
likely
that
the most
ancient
law was
preserved
in
rude
verse,
or
rhythmical prose."
Sir
Henry
appears,
as he
gets
into
his
subject,
to
acquire
a fuller
knowledge
of
it,
and
accordingly
further on
in
his lectures
he
writes
:
"
In
the
olden Irish
traditions,
the
lawyer
is
distinguished
with
difficulty
from the
poet
;
poetry
from
literature." He thus
points
out
poetry
as the
casket that
contains the
most
precious gems
of
Keltic
literary
value.
And
still
further
on
in
his lectures
he
identifies Gaelic
literature with
poetry
:
"
All
literature,
including
even
law,
seems
to
have been identified with
poetry."
To
have
stated
this
much
on
one's
own
authority
would not
be valued
by
the
scholar or
by
those of
the
British
people
who read
this
volume.
The writer
has
therefore
deemed
it
wise
to
present
Sir
Henry
Sumner
Maine's
words,
as
he
is the
latest,
the
safest,
and
the
best
legal
authority
on the three
volumes of the Brehon
Law,
already
pub-
lished
;
and
Sir
Henry
cannot be considered
by
the
Eng-
lish student
as
partial
to the
law
or
to the
language
of
the
ancient
Gael.
It
is
not
necessary
at this
stage
to
quote
either
Zeuss,
Nigra,
O'Curry,
or Dr.
Sullivan
on the
'knowledge
of
the
ancient Irish in
the art
of
composing
in metrical strains
;
or,
of
committing
and of
reciting
the
poems
and
songs
of
the bards. No scholar
at
present
denies
the
surprising
powers
of
intellect,
of
imagination,
and
memory
possessed
by
the ancient Irish.
FROM A
KELTIC
SOUliCE SPRING
THE
STYLE AND NATURAL
MAGIC
OF ENGLISH
POETBY.
Mathew Arnold
says
:
"
If
I were asked where
English
poetry
got
these three
things
its
turn for
style,
its
turn
for
melancholy,
and
its turn
for
natural
magic,
for catch-
MODEBN
"BRITONS,
HALF
KELTS
445
ing
and
rendering
the
charm of
nature
in
a
wonderfully
clear
and vivid
way
I should
answer,
with
much
doubt,
that it
got
much
of its
turn for
style
from a
Keltic
source
;
with
less
doubt,
that
it
got
much
of
its
melancholy
from
a
Keltic
source
;
with
no doubt at
all,
that from a Keltic
source
it
got
nearly
all its natural
magic."
"
It is in our
poetry
that
the
Keltic
part
in
us
(Eng-
lish)
has
left
its
trace clearest.
The Keltic
element
was
not
banished
out
of Britain
by
the
coming
of
the
Angles
or
the
Saxon."
Study
of
Keltic
Literature,
p.
135.
"
The
turn of
style
is
perceptible
all
through
English
poetry,
proving
the
genuine
poetical
gift
of
the race
;
this
turn
imparts
to our
poetry
a
stamp
of
high distinction,
and sometimes
it doubles the force
of a
poet
not
by
nature of the
very highest
order,
such as
Gray,
and
raises
him
to
a rank
beyond
what
his
natural
richness
and
power
seem
to
promise.
Goethe,
with his fine
critical
perception,
saw
clearly
enough
both
the
power
of
style
in
itself
and the lack of
style
in the
literature
of his
own
country.
He
had to
try
and
create
out
of his
own
powers
a
style
for German
poetry,
as
well as to
provide
contents
for this
style
to
carry
;
and thus his
labor
as a
poet
was
doubled.
.
.
Style,
then,
the
Germans are
singu-
larly
without
But the
Kelts
have it
in
a
wonderful measure.
Style
is
the most
striking
quality
of
their
poetry.
Keltic
poetry
seems
to
make
up
to
itself
for
being
unable
t ;> master the world and
give
an
adequate
interpretation
of
it,
by throwing
all its force into
style,
by
bending language
at
any
rate
to its
will,
and
express-
ing
the
ideas
it
has,
with
unsurpassable intensity,
eleva-
tion,
and
effect."
"
Take
this
epitaph
of an Irish
Kelt,
Angus
the
Culdee,
whose
Felire,
or
festology
at the
end
of
the
eighth
or
beginning
of
the
ninth
century,
he
collected
from
the
446
ROMANCE
GOT
ITS MAGIC FROM
A
KELTIC
MOTHER.
countless hosts
of the illuminated
books
of
Erin,
giving
the
festivals of the Irish
saints,
his
poem
having
a
stanza
for
every
day
in
the
year.
The
epitaph
on
Angus,
who
died at
Cluain
Eidhnech,
in
Queen's
County,
runs
thus
Angus
in
the
assembly
of
heaven,
Here
are his
tomb
and his bed
;
It
is
from
hence
he
went to
death,
In
the
Friday
to
holy
heaven.
It
was
in
Cluain
Eidhnech
he was
reared;
It
was
in
Cluain Eidhnech he
was
buried
j
In
Cluain Eidhnech of
many
crosses
He first read
his
psalms.
"
That
(says
the
Professor
of
Poetry
of
Oxford
Uni-
versity)
is
by
no
eminent
hand
;
and
yet
a
Greek
epitaph
could
not show
a
finer
perception
of
what
constitutes
propriety
and
felicity
of
style
in
compositions
of
this
nature."
THE
MAGIC
OF
ROMANCE
KELTIC.
"
The
Kelt's
quick
feeling
for
what
is noble
and
distin-
guished
gave
his
poetry
style
;
his
indomitable
personality
gave
it
pride
and
passion
;
his
sensibility
and
nervous
exaltation
gave
it a better
gift
still the
gift
of
render-
ing,
with wonderful
felicity,
the
magical
charm
of
nature.
The
forest
solitude,
the
bubbling spring,
the
wild
flowers
are
everywhere
in
romance.
They
have
a
mysterious
life
and
grace
there
;
they
are
nature's
own
children,
and
litter
her
secret
in
a
way
which
makes them
something
quite
different
from the
woods,
the
waters,
and
plants
of
Greek
and
Latin
poetry.
Now,
of
this
dslicate
magic,
Keltic
Romance
is so
pre-eminent
a
mistres,
that it
seems
impossible
to
believe
the
power
did not
come
into
romance
from
the
Kelts.
Magic
is
just
the
word for
it
the
magic
of
nature,
not
merely
the
beauty
of
nature
that
the Greeks
and
Latins
had
j
not
merely
an
honest
smack
BHYME.
447
of
the
soil,
a faithful
realism,
that the
Germans
had
;
bat
the intimate life of
nature,
her
weird
power
and her
fairy
charm."
The troubadours
and
those
who
recorded
the-
events of
the
holy
wars were
chiefly
from
France,
Spain,
Belgium,
and
Northern
Italy
the Keltic
garden
of
Europe
!
Their weird
tales
were
only
their
bardic
tales
revived
on
a
grander
scale.
BHYME.
Amongst
the
many
important
results
from the
modern
study
of
Gaelic,
as
a
language
and
as
a
branch
of
philo-
logy,
is the
certainty
that from
the
"
dans,"
or
songs
of
the
Kelts has come the use
of
rhyme
in
modern
European,
poetry.
The
human mind seeks
for
knowledge,
which
is the-
atmosphere
that
supports
the
vitality
of truth.
The
greatest
of
philosophers
and
theologians
tells us that
truth
is
the
expression
of
the
mind,
declaring
that
a
thing
is what
in
reality
it
is;
and
that
it
is
not
that
which it is not.
There must be an
agreement
between
the
object
and
the mind that
forms a
notion
of it. If
in
reality
an
object
does not
exist,
the mind
forms one ac-
cording
to
its
own
fancy.
This
process
of
mental
action
is
plain,
if one
only
reflect
how he
frames
his
thoughts
and
make
them the
messengers
of
objective
science. For
instance,
fame tells
us
of some
celebrated
personage
whom
we have never seen.
Instinctively
the
mind
pictures
to
itself some definite
image
of
the
object
one of its
own
creation,
and clothes
it
with robes
which
the
light
of
fancy
gilds
with
choicest
coloring.
In
this
way, English literary
writers of the
past
nofc
those
of
the
present,
who
have
written within
the
past
ten
years
have
acted
regarding
the
subject
of
rhyme
in-
modern
poetry.
They
knew
that
rhyme
is
found at
the
448 CLEVER
MEN SOMETIMES BLIND
GUIDES
present
time
in
poetry
of
every
language
throughout
Europe.
Where
did
it
come from
?
Not
from
Latin
poetry
as
practised by
the
Romans
;
not
from
the
Greek,
because
the
Greeks
never
knew
anything
about
rhyme
;
not from
Germany,
for
the
ancient
Germans did
not
regard
rhyme
as a
requisite
of
poetic composition.
Men
ignorant
of the true cause
of
an
effect,
like
the
philosophers
of
old,
who,
not
being
able to account
for
the
fact that
a
fluid
ascended
an
exhausted
tube,
said that it
was
because
nature abhored a
vacuum,
feign
a
cause rather
than
admit their
want of
knowledge.
Hence,
not
knowing
the
origin
of
rhyme,
sciolists
and
mere
literateurs stated
that it must have
been borrowed
from
the
Saracens.
Those who made this
statement did
not
know Keltic
poetry.
Even
good,
clever,
and
learned
men make
great
blunders
on
subjects
concerning
which
they
have not
had
any
scholarly
knowledge.
For
instance,
Thomas
Moore,
the
poet
and
historian,
spoke slightingly
of the
value,
to
the
historian
of
Ireland,
of
the
materials afforded
by
Irish
manuscripts.
It
was
only
in
1839,
when he
saw the
enormous
pile
of
Irish MS.S.
in
the
lioyal
Irish
Academy,
that
he
admitted
such
splendid
works were not
composed by
fools,
or
for any
foolish
purpose.
Lord
Macaulay
played
a
similar
part,
and
declared
to Sir
Robert Peel that the in-
valuable
collection
of
Irish
manuscripts
in
the
Stowe
Library
were
not
worth the
purchase,
when, in
1849,
his
opinion
had been
asked
by
the
Conservative Chief
regard
ing
their
worth
for
the
British Museum.
Lord
Macaulay
himself
knew
nothing
of
their
value,
and
therefore did not
care,
and
consequently
advised
Sir
Eobert
Peel not to
pur-
chase
them.
The
presumed
knowledge
of
scholars un-
doubtedly
great
in
other
departments
lead
many astray.
Men
who
have
studied
Irish
poetry
express
their
opinion
forcibly
and
favorably
on the
subject
of
rhyme
RHYME.
9
jout
of
i-liyme,
and
say,
with
strong
reason,
that
it is
to
the
Kelts
of Gaul
and
Ireland,
Europe
owes
the
poetic
property
of
rhyme
in modern metrical
composition.
"What
says
Zeuss,
the
greatest
of
German
Keltic scho-
lars,
and his
authority
alone
is worth
that of a
thousand
others ?
"
In
ea
assonantia,
origo prima
assonantise
fincfi*
est,
caltse
prsesertim
a
populis
recentioribus
Earopae
quam
dicunt
rimum."
And he shows
in
a
note
that
the
word
'rimum
(rhyme)
is
of Irish
origin
:."
Quamvis
ea vox
com-
putationem
poeticam
indicans
in
vetustis libris
Hibernicis
non
occurrat,
frequentissimi
tamen est
usns.
Simplex
Hibernica
substantiva
rim,
inde
dorivatur
rimire,
compu-
tator."
The
authority
of
Mathew
Arnold,
Professor
of
Poetry
in
the
University
of
Oxford,
ought
on a
subject
relating
to
English
poetry
to
have
great weight
with
the
English
reader,
both
because
he
is
a man
of
great
learning,
espe-
cially
in
poetry,
and is
an
impartial
witness on
this
special
subject
of Gaelic
learning;
moreover he
is a
man
of
honour
and
truth.
He
declares
that
"Rhyme
is the
most
striking
characteristic
of
our
modern
poetry
as
distinguished
from
that
of the
ancients,
and a main
source
to
our
poetry
of
its
magic
charm
of what
we
call
its
romantic
elenunt
:
rhyme
itself,
all
the
weight
of
evidence
tends
to
show,
conies
into our
poetry
from
the
Kelts."
VERSIFICATION
AS
PRACTISED BY
IRISH
BARDS.
Was their
versification
founded
on
quantity
or
on
accent,
on
measure
alone,
on
assonance,
alliteration,
or
parallelism
?
It
was founded
on
none of
these
exclusively
;
not
on
quantity,
as
practised
by
the
G
;
eeks and
Latins,
which
any
one
skilled
in Latin
prosody may
readily
Jearn
by
analyzing
an
Irish
quatrain
;
nor
on
accent
only.
Of