Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race - Knowledge Rush

74 Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race[92]part of the living forces of the world; it is plastic and vital; it hashidden potencies which a variety of causes, such as a felicitouscross with a different, but not too different, stock, or—in anothersphere—the adoption of a new religious or social ideal, may atany time unlock and bring into action.Of one thing I personally feel convinced—that the problemof the ethical, social, and intellectual development of the peopleconstituting what is called the “Celtic Fringe” in Europe ought tobe worked for on Celtic lines; by the maintenance of the Celtictradition, Celtic literature, Celtic speech—the encouragement, inshort, of all those Celtic affinities of which this mixed race isnow the sole conscious inheritor and guardian. To these it willrespond, by these it can be deeply moved; nor has the harvest everfailed those who with courage and faith have driven their ploughinto this rich field. On the other hand, if this work is to be donewith success it must be done in no pedantic, narrow, intolerantspirit; there must be no clinging to the outward forms of the pastsimply because the Celtic spirit once found utterance in them. Letit be remembered that in the early Middle Ages Celts from Irelandwere the most notable explorers, the most notable pioneers ofreligion, science, and speculative thought in Europe. 73 Moderninvestigators have traced their footprints of light over half theheathen continent, and the schools of Ireland were thronged withforeign pupils who could get learning nowhere else. The Celticspirit was then playing its true part in the world-drama, and agreater it has never played. The legacy of these men should becherished indeed, but not as a museum curiosity; nothing couldbe more opposed to their free, bold, adventurous spirit than to letthat legacy petrify in the hands of those who claim the heirship73For instance, Pelagius in the fifth century; Columba, Columbanus, andSt. Gall in the sixth; Fridolin, named Viator, “the Traveller,” and Fursa inthe seventh; Virgilius (Feargal) of Salzburg, who had to answer at Rome forteaching the sphericity of the earth, in the eighth; Dicuil, “the Geographer,”and Johannes Scotus Erigena—the master mind of his epoch—in the ninth.