Page:Essays ethnological and linguistic.djvu/63

Rh Bow'd in obeisance to the female soul

And deem'd some effluence of the Omniscient mind

In woman's beauteous image lay enchain'd;

With inspiration on her bosom hung,

And flow'd in heavenly wisdom from her tongue.

Fam'd among warrior chiefs the crown she wore,

At freedom's call the gory falchion bore;

Rul'd the triumphant car; and rank'd in fame

Bonduca's with Caractacus's name.

Perhaps the laws of Howell Dha which were compiled from still more ancient laws in the beginning of the 10th century say 920 of our æra and which nave been published in 1841 by the commissioners of Public Records, cannot fairly be taken as evidences of what the ancient Britons were under the Romans. It may however be allowed me to observe that they prove a state of society to have then existed among the Cymry at least as refined and elevated, as the cotemporary laws of the Saxons show them to have been at the same period.

A few years since, before Ethnology was acknowledged as a science, it would be considered that when we had gone through what history recorded of any people, we had exhausted the subject. Now however we have another and perhaps still more certain and interesting light to guide us on our way. We do not depend on vague reports and surmises, we travel by a road in which we can scarcely fail to reach what we seek. We study the physical and moral peculiarities of a people, their manners, characters, amusements, institutions and above all their language. The English people boasting as they may of their Saxon, their Norman, their Scandinavian and possibly of their Roman lineages, should be prepared also to consider what they owe to the Celtic portion of their ancestors. The history of a nation may often be best read and often alone known in its language. The English language is much more indebted to the Celtic than is generally understood; and its affinities with the Celtic I will point out in a few words in conclusion of my arguments.

Our Lexicographers have given but little attention to this important consideration, but it is for that very reason it becomes us to supply their deficiency. If then we look through the various terms in our language applicable to the several articles most useful and necessary in common life, I have no hesitation in saying that a large proportion of them betoken a Celtic origin proving that our Celtic ancestors were acquainted with them and supplied their names.