It is in stories like these that we find the keen sense of what is beautiful in nature, the sense of "man's brotherhood with bird and beast, star and flower," which has become the mark of "
Celtic" literature.
The earliest one of these peoples which need here be mentioned belonged to the
Celtic family and was itself divided into two branches.
The
Celtic blood was up, and the
Celtic faction spirit ran high.
Formerly a temple of the
Celtic divinities, when Belle-Isle was still called Kalonese, this grotto had beheld more than one human sacrifice accomplished in its mystic depths.
Hegan had
Celtic imagination and daring, and to such degree that Daylight's cooler head was necessary as a check on his wilder visions.
In his tall stalwartness Adam Bede was a Saxon, and justified his name; but the jet-black hair, made the more noticeable by its contrast with the light paper cap, and the keen glance of the dark eyes that shone from under strongly marked, prominent and mobile eyebrows, indicated a mixture of
Celtic blood.
"A glance at our friend here reveals the rounded head of the Celt, which carries inside it the
Celtic enthusiasm and power of attachment.
He has all the
Celtic power of quick intuition, but he is deficient in the wide range of exact knowledge which is essential to the higher developments of his art.
These were the prime in order and in might; The rest were long to tell, though far renown'd, Th' IONIAN Gods, of JAVANS Issue held Gods, yet confest later then Heav'n and Earth Thir boasted Parents; TITAN Heav'ns first born With his enormous brood, and birthright seis'd By younger SATURN, he from mightier JOVE His own and RHEA'S Son like measure found; So JOVE usurping reign'd: these first in CREET And IDA known, thence on the Snowy top Of cold OLYMPUS rul'd the middle Air Thir highest Heav'n; or on the DELPHIAN Cliff, Or in DODONA, and through all the bounds Of DORIC Land; or who with SATURN old Fled over ADRIA to th' HESPERIAN Fields, And ore the
CELTIC roam'd the utmost Isles.
The
Celtic dolmen and cromlech, the Etruscan tumulus, the Hebrew galgal, are words.
"An' how is it ye can get men to do anything on God's earth an' sea?" Louis demanded with
Celtic fire.
"What smouldering fire of vengeance had suddenly sprung into flame in this passionate
Celtic woman's soul when she saw the man who had wronged her--wronged her, perhaps, far more than we suspected--in her power?