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Current of Irish Civilization in England
3. ANGLO-SAXON MEDIOCRE IMITATION OF IRISH
CIVILIZATION
Anglo-Saxon civilization, such as it became, was thus
in a large measure a transplanted Irish civilization, and
it partook of the mediocrity in comparison
with the
original that is the fate of all reproductions. Its scholars
were not numerous. Bede and Alcuin, the greatest of
them, were collectors and distributors rather than thinkers
and originators. For that "philosophy" and speculative
activity for which the Irish schools were famous no
English scholar showed an aptitude. No English school
attained to the fame of even the lesser establishments in
Ireland. In truth the career of such English schools as
came into existence was brief and their end violent. No
English scholar arose to challenge comparison in
originality and strength of intellect with Eriugena, or
Dungal or Sedulius Scotus. None of them in anything
they have left to us have shown real knowledge of Greek
literature or philosophy despite Theodore and Adrian
and despite their close association with Irishmen. Tho
the literary works of medieval Irishmen have been systematically
destroyed, tho we know the titles of many
Irish works of which nothing but the titles have been
preserved, the fragments that remain brilliantly prove the
actuality and permanence of Irish intellectual supremacy,
everlastingly helping others, but always keeping itself in
the lead. Reference is made here mainly to Irish literary
remains in Latin. Irish medieval literature in the Irish
tongue is an isolated phenomenon of another class, a world
in itself and a luminous link between the ancient and the
modern age, of which here the treatment can be only
indirect.
All this converges in the same direction. Civilization
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