The only remarkable remnant of Cornish literature comes under this head, being three ecclesiastical plays of the 14th c.—the Creation, the Passion, and the Welsh prose, we have first the chronicles. Geoffrey's chronicle, though Latin, is thoroughly national; then there is that of Caradoc, who begins where Geoffrey leaves off; and the Liber Landaeensis, a history of the bishops of Llandaff down to 1132. Further, we have the lfabinogion (Children's Tales), romantic stories. The most inter esting of these refer to Arthur and his champions; the lady of the fountain, Peredur, Geraint (now revived by Tennyson), Arthur's boar-hunt. Amongst the non-Arthurian tales, special mention is deserved by the .211abinogi of Taliesin, interspersed with verses, relating the adventures, transformations into animal shape, and transmigrations of that bard. There are besides some scientific writings, a treatise on medicine, another. on geometry, and one on Welsh prosody by Edeyrn (1260). This last, a grammatical essay in and on a vernacular tongue, is paralleled in the middle ages only by Icelandic litera ture, to which, upon the whole, the Welsh, although not quite so high, bears a marked resemblance.
Concluding Remarks.—Altogether, the Celts are a very important branch of our Indo German family. The incessant warfares of the Gauls bespeak at least activity of mind
and body; the Irish missions have done a great deal for European civilization; whilst the traditions of the Britons have deeply influenced rnedimval literature. The one great defect of the Celts is incapacity for political organization. Their very enthusiasm, lively feeling, and vivid imagination, have ever prevented them from taking coolly and delib erately those measures which lead to national unity; hence it is that they gave way before the more practical Roman and Teuton. But while they lost their independence; and oftentimes their very language, in the contest with the foreigner, whose strong hand molded them into national unity, yet they reacted on him in their turn. They are fast disappearing by merging into the English; but if the quiet resolution, the sturdy common sense, the talent for public life, state organization, and political dominion, that charac terize the modern British nation, are altogether Teutonic—on the other hand, their genuine refinement of manner and feeling, and their high poetical susceptibilities, are to no small extent due to the admixture of Celtic blood.