threatened by one cause, and one cause above all. Far more than by
the helplessness of an aristocracy whose day is fast coming to an
end, far more than by the rawness of a lower class whose day is only
just beginning, we are emperilled by what I call the "Philistinism"
of our middle class. On the side of beauty and taste, vulgarity; on
the side of morals and feeling, coarseness; on the side of mind and
spirit, unintelligence,--this is Philistinism. Now, then, is the
moment for the greater delicacy and spirituality of the Celtic
peoples who are blended with us, if it be but wisely directed, to
make itself prized and honoured. In a certain measure the children
of Taliesin and Ossian have now an opportunity for renewing the
famous feat of the Greeks, and conquering their conquerors. No
service England can render the Celts by giving you a share in her
many good qualities, can surpass that which the Celts can at this
moment render England, by communicating to us some of theirs.'

Now certainly, in that letter, written to a Welshman and on the
occasion of a Welsh festival, I enlarged on the merits of the Celtic
spirit and of its works, rather than on their demerits. It would
have been offensive and inhuman to do otherwise. When an
acquaintance asks you to write his father's epitaph, you do not
generally seize that opportunity for saying that his father was blind
of one eye, and had an unfortunate habit of not paying his
tradesmen's bills. But the weak side of Celtism and of its Celtic
glorifiers, the danger against which they have to guard, is clearly
indicated in that letter; and in the remarks reprinted in this
volume,--remarks which were the original cause of Mr. Owen's writing
to me, and must have been fully present to his mind when he read my
letter,--the shortcomings both of the Celtic race, and of the Celtic
students of its literature and antiquities, are unreservedly marked,