creations of fancy. The Welsh Bards, as they merely introduced allusions, must allude to something already known. It might be a fabulous occurrence, but to be intelligible, it must have been long received as a fact, and not the creation of their own fancy; but the Ballad and the Narrative, to be attractive, must be the work of imagination either in the groundwork or the filling up.

Such being the case with regard to these several languages, the question begins to be reduced within pretty narrow limits, i. e. Welsh Lyric Poetry against Irish and Gaelic Narrative Poetry; but as the two styles are so different, it will be difficult to find a standard of comparison. Perhaps it will appear that each possesses an eminent degree of merit in its particular class, but which class claims the precedence is a question, the determination of which can scarcely be expected in the present Essay: and so for the present, all that can be done is to endeavour to ascertain the degree of merit, to which each particular division has attained in its respective class.

If we look at the Welsh Poetry as an incorporation of patriotic sentiment, and an expression of public and coexistent enthusiasm, connected with the real and immediate occurrence of national events, we feel constrained to assign it the highest place in the scale of European Poetry. Neither Greece nor Rome can furnish a parallel instance. Pindar stands alone in this class, but the subjects of his praise, though real existences, were not so strictly national. Modern Continental Europe is equally destitute of such instances. The Spanish Ballads are all Romances, whilst the Trouvères and Troubadours of France, the Minnesingers of Germany, and the Scalds of the North, occupied themselves either with fabulous events, or with those of such distant occurrence as to admit of their being treated as fables. As to the muse of Modern Britain, it has already been shown that she has been less patriotic, less grateful, and less mindful of national events, than even that of any other country whatever. It would be more desirable to give the Welsh awen its due meed of praise, without having recourse to such comparisons, but in an estimate of this nature, this comparison affords the only means of arriving at the required results. And with regard to the present inquiry, we must come to the conclusion, that the

Welsh Poems bear evidence of the existence of a spirit of patriotism in a far greater degree than those of the Irish or Gaelic.

As to the degree of genius exhibited in each in its respective class, we are also under the necessity of examining the standard of excellence acknowledged in other languages, in order to establish a criterion; and here a curious fact presents itself. After three hundred years of Roman dominion, upon the departure of that people, the Welsh Poetry does not manifest the slightest resemblance to that of Rome, either in metrical construction or train of thought. The essentials of Roman metrical composition consist in quantity; those of the Welsh are rhyme and alliteration. The Latin classic prosody does not recognize these latter arrangements, nor do the Welsh understand any thing of classic quantity. Neither is there any resemblance in the structure of the Poems of the two races. And if, amongst the classic Poets of either Greece or Rome, there is any one to whose works the Welsh Poems bear any resemblance, it is Pindar; one, from his nation and language, not very likely to have furnished models of poetic composition to the Welsh Bards; and even here the resemblance is not so close as to justify us in asserting an identity of style; and we can only say, that if, in order to fix the character of the Bardic Poems, it were requisite to class them under the name of the ancient Poet to whose style they bear the nearest resemblance, we should certainly call them Pindaric; a term which it does not appear could with propriety be applied to any portion of the Irish or Gaelic poetry, which comprises no Lyric Odes. But at the same time, we must not deny, that the Ossianic Poems contain many passages of a highly Lyric character, such as Ossian's Address to the Sun in Carthon, and also in Caric-thura, and which, even without the advantage of Macpherson's diction, must be allowed to belong to the highest order of poetic composition: still these Lyric effects are but transient, the bent of the Ossianic genius is more Narrative and Descriptive, and in these particulars, the Gwyddelian poetry has a decided superiority over the Welsh. As, in the Ossianic poetry, the narration is consecutive uninterrupted and the story well told, so the descriptive passages are minute and graphic in their representations; whereas in the Welsh Poems there is but little

narration at all, and that little abrupt and desultory; and with regard to the descriptive passages, though they are often highly poetic, yet, they partake of the same transient character; they are but brilliant flashes of light, which for an instant produce an electric effect, and then the subject is altogether quitted, and some other idea started, to be dealt with in the same manner. But, notwithstanding this irregu larity of proceeding, such is the sweetness of the versification, the correctness of the metre, the force and effect of the diction, and altogether the high-wrought character of the Welsh Ode, that the absence of the connected narrative is never felt, but on the contrary its introduction would only cast a shade of tameness over the Ode, and destroy much of its spirit. Let us imagine a stanza of narrative or descriptive matter inserted in Gwalchmai's spirited Ode, [p. 194,] or the Hirlas of Owen Cefeilioc, [p. 198,] and we cannot but comprehend the deadening effect of such an introduction.

QUALITY AND DEGREE OF INTENSITY
OF POETIC FEELING.

In quality, the Welsh Bardic poetry is martial and anima-
ting, and in poetic feeling it is in a high degree ardent and
impetuous. The Ossianic Poetry, on the other hand, is
pathetic and melancholy, and at the same time heroic and
sublime; and if Macpherson's translation be admitted as a
faithful interpretation of sentiment, it must be acknowledged
that in sublimity of pathos, tenderness, and heroic melan-
choly, the Ossianic Poems are not only vastly superior to the
Welsh, but probably to those of every other nation. How to
form a just estimate in this case, is not so easily understood,
unless some standard of excellence were admitted as a criterion;
and, in the mean time, we can only say, that if the Irish and
Gaels on the one hand, hold out the Address to the Sun in
Carthon as a specimen of excellence, and unsurpassable; the
Welsh may on the other hand produce the Address to
Tudur and Moreiddig, in the Hirlas, as equally unsurpas-
sable in its style; and perhaps these two Celtic races might
conjointly challenge the world to meet them
grounds.

on those

HISTORICAL.

POETRY.

Ir has already been shown, that the subjects of Welsh Poetry were chiefly passing occurrences of the day; whilst the efforts of the Irish and Gaelic muse were directed towards the celebration of fabulous and imaginary events. These facts must at once prove the superiority of the Welsh Poetic remains, as historical records. There are, of course, exceptions amongst each people, as for instance, the Circuit of Ireland in the Irish language, and the Albanic Duan amongst the Gaels, and on the other hand, the Mythological and Arthurian romantic poetry amongst the Welsh. But, taking into consideration the great mass of poetry belonging to each race respectively, we cannot hesitate a moment in deciding, that in an historical point of view, the Welsh remains possess a vast superiority over those of the Irish and the Gael,

PROSE.

The same decision will not apply to the Prose compositions of the three races, (if the Gaelic can be admitted into the comparison,) as the Prose Chronicles of the Irish, claim a degree of merit at least equal to the Welsh. All have their fabulous periods, and also their period of authentic record; and, upon the whole, we may place the historical writings of the Welsh and Irish upon an equality in this regard: they all contain much that is valuable and authentic. But, besides the Chronicles, there are other Prose compositions belonging to each race, of a legendary and imaginative character, as for example, the Mabinogion amongst the Welsh, and the Three Tragical Stories amongst the Irish. Of these the historical value is absolutely nothing; and if we are to compare their merits, we must look upon them merely as specimens of imaginative composition.

PROSE IMAGINATIVE COMPOSITIONS.

Ir is a singular fact, that the Poets and Prose writers. amongst the Welsh, have taken up positions the very opposite to those of the same classes in other nations. The Bards

occupying themselves with the matter of fact occurrences of the day, whilst the Prose writers were employed in composing Romances; for such are the Mabinogion, a series of tales, which for variety of incident, originality, and power of invention, are not to be equalled by those of any country prior to the revival of literature in modern times. Such an assertion will of course be immediately disputed, and the Arabian Nights and French Metrical Romances adduced in confutation. But it must be recollected, that the Arabian Nights, in their present form, are not older than the sixteenth century such ancient Arabic tales as have been preserved, and which appear to be the rudiments of the present compositions, being greatly inferior in point of imagination and general interest. And with regard to the French metrical Romances of the middle ages, they are merely the legends of the Welsh translated and put into verse. Besides those stories which are to be found in the Welsh and French languages, the Mabinogion contain several others, which do not appear to have been known to the French, and which are equally original and interesting with them. Therefore, in thus claiming such a degree of eminence for the Welsh Tales as works of fiction, it must not cause surprise if we assign them a rank much higher than that which belongs to the same class of compositions in the Irish language.

VALUE

IN ELUCIDATING THE ANCIENT HISTORY, AND THE
MENTAL CULTIVATION OF THE INHABITANTS OF
BRITAIN, IRELAND, AND GAUL.

WELSH RECORDS.

FROM the addition of the ancient History of Gaul to that of Britain and Ireland, it may be presumed that it was intended, that the Essay should comprise a period anterior to the conquest of the two first named countries by the Romans; if so, it must not be concealed, that we enter upon a very barren field indeed. The references to ancient Gaul, found in either British or Irish works, being exceedingly few, and