The Celt has not produced great poetical works, he has
only produced poetry with an air of greatness investing it all, and
sometimes giving, moreover, to short pieces, or to passages, lines,
and snatches of long pieces, singular beauty and power. And yet he
loved poetry so much that he grudged no pains to it; but the true
art, the architectonice which shapes great works, such as the
Agamemnon or the Divine Comedy, comes only after a steady, deep-
searching survey, a firm conception of the facts of human life, which
the Celt has not patience for. So he runs off into technic, where he
employs the utmost elaboration, and attains astonishing skill; but in
the contents of his poetry you have only so much interpretation of
the world as the first dash of a quick, strong perception, and then
sentiment, infinite sentiment, can bring you. Here, too, his want of
sanity and steadfastness has kept the Celt back from the highest
success.
If his rebellion against fact has thus lamed the Celt even in
spiritual work, how much more must it have lamed him in the world of
business and politics! The skilful and resolute appliance of means
to ends which is needed both to make progress in material
civilisation, and also to form powerful states, is just what the Celt
has least turn for.
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