And as in material civilisation he has been ineffectual, so has the
Celt been ineffectual in politics. This colossal, impetuous,
adventurous wanderer, the Titan of the early world, who in primitive
times fills so large a place on earth's scene, dwindles and dwindles
as history goes on, and at last is shrunk to what we now see him.
For ages and ages the world has been constantly slipping, ever more
and more out of the Celt's grasp. 'They went forth to the war,'
Ossian says most truly, 'BUT THEY ALWAYS FELL.'
And yet, if one sets about constituting an ideal genius, what a great
deal of the Celt does one find oneself drawn to put into it! Of an
ideal genius one does not want the elements, any of them, to be in a
state of weakness; on the contrary, one wants all of them to be in
the highest state of power; but with a law of measure, of harmony,
presiding over the whole. So the sensibility of the Celt, if
everything else were not sacrificed to it, is a beautiful and
admirable force. For sensibility, the power of quick and strong
perception and emotion, is one of the very prime constituents of
genius, perhaps its most positive constituent; it is to the soul what
good senses are to the body, the grand natural condition of
successful activity. Sensibility gives genius its materials; one
cannot have too much of it, if one can but keep its master and not be
its slave.
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