the particular manuscript now in the Museum of the Royal Irish
Academy was once in St. Patrick's pocket?

I insist upon extravagances like these, not in order to throw
ridicule upon the Celt-lovers,--on the contrary, I feel a great deal
of sympathy with them,--but rather, to make it clear what an immense
advantage the Celt-haters, the negative side, have in the controversy
about Celtic antiquity; how much a clear-headed sceptic, like Mr.
Nash, may utterly demolish, and, in demolishing, give himself the
appearance of having won an entire victory. But an entire victory he
has, as I will next proceed to show, by no means won.


II.


I said that a sceptic like Mr. Nash, by demolishing the rubbish of
the Celtic antiquaries, might often give himself the appearance of
having won a complete victory, but that a complete victory he had, in
truth, by no means won. He has cleared much rubbish away, but this
is no such very difficult feat, and requires mainly common-sense; to
be sure, Welsh archaeologists are apt to lose their common-sense, but
at moments when they are in possession of it they can do the
indispensable, negative part of criticism, not, indeed, so briskly or
cleverly as Mr. Nash, but still well enough. Edward Davies, for
instance, has quite clearly seen that the alleged remains of old
Welsh literature are not to be taken for genuine just as they stand:
'Some petty and mendicant minstrel, who only chaunted it as an old
song, has tacked on' (he says of a poem he is discussing) 'these
lines, in a style and measure totally different from the preceding