to you, the departed visit
not the silent Erebus, nor the dark realm of pallid Pluto; the same
spirit animates a body in a different world. Death, if what you say is
true, is but the middle of a long life. Happy the error of those that
live under Arcturus; the worst of fears is to them unknown--the fear of
death!"[6]

The inhabitants of Britain possessed, again in common with those of
Gaul, a singular aptitude to understand and learn quickly. A short time
after the Roman Conquest it becomes hard to distinguish Celtic from
Roman workmanship among the objects discovered in tombs. Caesar is
astonished to see how his adversaries improve under his eyes. They were
simple enough at first; now they understand and foresee, and baffle his
military stratagems. To this intelligence and curiosity is due, with all
its advantages and drawbacks, the faculty of assimilation possessed by
this race, and manifested to the same extent by no other in Europe.

The Latin authors also admired another characteristic gift in the men of
this race: a readiness of speech, an eloquence, a promptness of repartee
that distinguished them from their Germanic neighbours. The people of
Gaul, said Cato, have two passions: to fight well and talk cleverly
(_argute loqui_).[7] This is memorable evidence, since it reveals to us
a quality of a literary order: we can easily verify its truth, for we
know now in what kind of compositions, and with what talent the men of
Celtic blood exercised their gift of speech.

II.

That the Celtic tribes on both sides of the Channel closely resembled
each other in manners, tastes, language, and turn of mind cannot be
doubted. "Their language differs little," says Tacitus; "their buildings
are almost similar,"[8] says Caesar. The similitude of their literary
genius is equally certain, for Cato's saying relates to continental
Celts and can be checked by means of Irish poems and tales. Welsh
stories of a later date afford us evidence fully as conclusive. If we
change the epoch, the result will be the same; the main elements of the
Celtic genius have undergone no modification; Armoricans, Britons,
Welsh, Irish, and Scotch, are all inexhaustible tale-tellers, skilful in
dialogue, prompt at repartee, and never to be taken unawares. Gerald de
Barry, the Welshman, gives us a description of his countrymen in the
twelfth century, which seems a paraphrase of what Cato had said of the
Gaulish Celts fourteen hundred years before.[9]