The Irish standard., 1886-08-28
A NEGLECTED LITERATURE.
The Incessant Struggle for Asoendaney Elk
isting for Centuries Between Ire
land and England.
IRELAND'S ANCIENT LITERATURE

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It Was the Common Property Of the Whole
People to Such an Extent as Scarcely
Ever Happened Elsewhere.
While Celt and Saxon are playing the
great game for empire, a match that
more thar, any other to-day claims the
worlds attention, it may make the
spectacle still more interesting TO on
lockers, it the motives, means and his
torical characteristics OF the antagonists
he clearly understood. 1t is really the
greatest puzzle Of the age how the peo-
pie of small island after 300 years i'll
incessant struggle and constant defeat
are able to wage not unequal battle
against the most powerfui empire. This
struggle was by no means lovers
quarrel, it was the hardest and most In
tense since that between Rome and
Carthage. Hundreds OF thousands OF
the Irish fell by sword and famlne;eYery
means ever employed by one nation
against another was used against them;
slaughter without scrupDle, destruction
Of the crops, the seizure and transpor-
tion Of the little children as slaves. and
the conhscation OF the soil three times
over. Yet. after all. here they are once
mole filling the world with the report
OF their conflict. That they shall win,
no one doubts: least OF all do they doubt
themselves: neither do their opponents,
although to them the very thought is
gall and worm-wood. The great pro
blem is, how did they preserve their
spirit of nationhood, how did they re-
sist so we'll the degrading lnhuenee ct
slavery? They have not had for oyer
ESQ years one real Irish national school
or college in which to learn the glorious
creed of patriotism. They had none OF
the ordinary human motives for loving
their native land, for as the poet said,
1T was treason to love her and death
tosdsfeJlds.' g1cls the answer lnsiists
glance back into the far past, and there
we can see clearly the fore es that oper~
ated to keep the spirit OF national chiv"
airy alive in Erin through the darkest
period of her recent history Ireland
had in the past and still possesses,to be
revived and renovated we may hope in
the future. one Of the noblest and most
splendid literatures ever produced by a
people. This may sound strange to
many who think in their hearts with
the old pedagoguei in his advertisement:
II know AMI Can teach all things, and
what I don't know is not worth the
knowing However strange il is true.
and as the long twilight Of Summer
lights the earth for hours after the sun
has disappeared below the horizon, and
the heat of the departed lunlinary still
warns the evening air, SO the twilight
radiance and warmth OF the vanished
Gaelic literature kept alive the aspira-
tions Of the patriotic soldier and lover
OF the green isle long after Carolan had
sung his last strain and his harp was
nung sad and silent fol ever on the will
lows of Kilronan.
After the irreparable loss Of all enor-
nous number OF the most precious Gae-
lie books at the hands OF Danish and
English invaders, there still remains OF
this ancient and valuable literature a
greater quantity than exists III any dead
language. There are in fact piles OF
MSS. in Ireland. England, Belgium and
Italy, comprising among their contents
general and national history, civil and
ecclesiastical records, and abundant
genealogical materials, besides poetry,
romance, law and medicine, and some
fragments OF tracts on mathematics, and
astronomy. Not only does it abound
with original works. but it contains
translations from the Greek and Latin
languages sufficient to give the mere
Gaelic scholar full and complete
knowledge of the history of these peo-
pie. 1t is rich also in the records of the
Middle ages, and possesses translations
of the travels Of Marco Polo
and Sir John Vaudeville, con-
temporaneous with the original writ
ings Of these quaint Old story
tellers. The quality of these books
is such as we might expect from
Irishmen at their best. OF the prose
compositions the most perfect in style
are the ecclesiastical words and homi-
lies Of the early saints. They attain
the high-water mark of the language for
purity, grandeur, and chaste eloquence:
indeed, to match them for condensed
and unadorned dignity, we
must go to the writings of Thucydides,
Tacitus, or Pascal. We know Mr..
Mathew Arnold, whois an authority Oh
style if on nothing else, rather prefers
the Gaelic to the Greek in this respect.
The Hellenic method was to view an
object in the clear white sunlight of the
Hellenic cline and mind; it was placed
in perfectly artistic position and point
Of view, and there described in the