188 PRINCE— SLAV AND CELT. 



and the scanty remnant of Gaelic in Man,^ although mutually simi- 

 lar to the philologist, are, when spoken, far apart from one another 

 phonetically, while the Armorican idioms, Welsh and Breton, are 

 not only almost incomprehensible to each other, but are divided by a 

 great phonetic and morphological gulf from the Gaelic branch. So 

 here we have people to whom the rule of similarity of language 

 just expounded for the Slav would seem not to apply, and yet these 

 tribes are all strikingly alike in thought and trend of mind, and it 

 is especially noticeable that among the Celts who have lost their 

 original tongues, such as the central French and mid-European 

 Germans, this spirit has practically disappeared. The rule for Slavs 

 and Celts is really the same, although obscured, for in ancient days, 

 the Gaelic Celts of Ireland, Scotland and Man were mutually in- 

 telligible, as their educated classes still are, and even the Armorican, 

 whose tongue was once the idiom of all southern Britain, drew from 

 the same linguistic fountain-head as did the Gaels. The fact that 

 the influence still lasts is due to the extreme traditionalism of the 

 Celt who has clung to his ancient tendencies handed down to him 

 in early oral literatures, varying to-day in language, but similar in 

 thought and trend. 



What then is the common Slavo-Celtic spirit which seems to 

 connect these two geographically remote Indo-European branches ? 

 What force underlies the folk-literature of Slav and Celt al'ke, 

 inspiring both Slavonic and Celtic music and poetry, with a common 

 fire, showing similar trends in the thought of both peoples, and 

 moulding the individual disposition along closely similar lines ? 



The underlying similarity seems to be twofold ; viz., (a) tempera- 

 mental discontent, and (b) morbid joy in sorrow. 



(a) The most important point in common is perhaps the quality 

 of longing, a passionate desire for the unattainable, which, when 

 reached, shall give perfect joy, in other words, a spirit of res' less 

 quest. Thus, the Slavonic religious ideals, demanding intensive, 

 often absurd personal sacrifices, long fasts or arduous pilgrimages 



3 There is hardly a score of people to-day in Man who can converse in 

 Manx. When the writer was in Man in 1897, a Mr. Cashell of Port Erin 

 was almost the only person who could talk Manx fluently. He told me that 

 at that time there were about twenty-five people who had a thorough knowl- 

 edge of the language. 



