But of all the gods of antiquity, none could with
propriety sit for this picture excepting Saturn, the acknowledged
representative of Noah, and the husband of Rhea, which was but
another name for Ceres, the genius of the ark.'
And Ceres, the genius of the ark, is of course found in Ceridwen,
'the British Ceres, the arkite goddess who initiates us into the
deepest mysteries of the arkite superstition.'
Now the story of Taliesin, as it proceeds, exhibits Ceridwen as a
sorceress; and a sorceress, like a goddess, belongs to the world of
the supernatural; but, beyond this, the story itself does not suggest
one particle of relationship between Ceridwen and Ceres. All the
rest comes out of Davies's fancy, and is established by reasoning of
the force of that about 'bald serenity.'
It is not difficult for the other side, the Celt-haters, to get a
triumph over such adversaries as these. Perhaps I ought to ask
pardon of Mr. Nash, whose Taliesin it is impossible to read without
profit and instruction, for classing him among the Celt-haters; his
determined scepticism about Welsh antiquity seems to me, however, to
betray a preconceived hostility, a bias taken beforehand, as
unmistakable as Mr. Davies's prepossessions. But Mr. Nash is often
very happy in demolishing, for really the Celt-lovers seem often to
try to lay themselves open, and to invite demolition.
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