In tracing the workings of
old Celtic leaven in poems which embody the Celtic soul of all time
in a mediaeval form, I do not see that you come into any necessary
opposition with him, for your concern is with the spirit, his with
the substance only.' I entirely agree with almost all which Lord
Strangford here urges, and indeed, so sincere is my respect for Mr.
Nash's critical discernment and learning, and so unhesitating my
recognition of the usefulness, in many respects, of the work of
demolition performed by him, that in originally designating him as a
Celt-hater, I hastened to add, as the reader will see by referring to
the passage, {0a} words of explanation and apology for so calling
him. But I thought then, and I think still, that Mr. Nash, in
pursuing his work of demolition, too much puts out of sight the
positive and constructive performance for which this work of
demolition is to clear the ground. I thought then, and I think
still, that in this Celtic controversy, as in other controversies, it
is most desirable both to believe and to profess that the work of
construction is the fruitful and important work, and that we are
demolishing only to prepare for it. Mr. Nash's scepticism seems to
me,--in the aspect in which his work, on the whole, shows it,--too
absolute, too stationary, too much without a future; and this tends
to make it, for the non-Celtic part of his readers, less fruitful
than it otherwise would be, and for his Celtic readers, harsh and
repellent.
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