Page:Speeches and addresses by the late Thomas E Ellis M P.pdf/96

 races and to impact with peoples possessing temperaments and energies and qualities different from those which are dominant in itself. Greece owed much of its civilisation to Egypt and the wondrous East. The Romans drew from the Greeks their selectest forms of manners and of nature, while France and medieval Germany were transformed by Latin civilisation. Britain owes much of its greatness, of its value and interest to the world, to the Celtic elements within its borders. Britain has been made by the blending of the Germanic, the Celtic, and the Norman races and temperaments. I shall take the estimate of Mr. Matthew Arnold of the genius of these three races:—

"The Germanic genius has steadiness as its main basis with commonness and humdrum for its defect, fidelity to nature for its excellence."

"The Celtic genius, sentiment for its main basis. with love of beauty, charm, and spirituality for its excellence, ineffectualness and self-will for its defect."

"The Norman genius, talent for affairs as its main basis, with strenuousness and clear rapidity for its excellence, hardness and insolence for its defect."