Page:Speeches and addresses by the late Thomas E Ellis M P.pdf/118

 fact. He is sentimental, spiritual. Here is the testimony of Lucan, an educated Roman, fifty years after Christ, to the Celtic race:—

"Ye too, ye bards, who by your praises perpetuate the memory of the fallen brave, without hindrance poured forth your strains. And ye, ye Druids, now that the sword was removed, began once more your barbaric rites and weird solemnities. To you only is given knowledge or ignorance (whichever it be) of the gods and the powers of heaven; your dwelling is in the lone heart of the forest. From you we learn that the bourne of man's spirit is not the senseless grave, not the pale realm of the monarch below; in another world his spirit survives still; death, if your lore be true, is but the passage to enduring life."

Thus did the Celt bear witness against the materialism of Rome. When the Roman Church itself became materialised, Celts like Pelagius, Duns Scotus, Roscelin, Abelard, Descartes, and, in later times, Chateaubriand, Lamennais and Ernest Renan arose to awaken and broaden the minds of men. Writing of Ernest Renan, the idoliser and idol of Britanny, Mr. Frederick Myers says:—