56 The Eisteddfod and the Feis Ceoil. 



expression in the social and economic conditions in which it 

 hVes. Man does not live by bread alone, and it is not in the 

 possession of warm clothes and comfortable dweUings that the 

 great factor of human happiness, which for want of a better 

 word I must call the soul, finds its being. It constantly desires 

 the better things. But. in time, a people deprived of the 

 legitimate outlet for its ideality and imagination comes to 

 regard these things with listless apathy, and in an emotional 

 people a vague discontent, and restless dissatisfaction of the cause 

 of which they are themselves perhaps unaware, take their 

 place. 



Such a people are the Irish of to-day. Ireland, once the 

 home of a living art, still possessed of traditions of greatness in 

 the higher things, still endowed with a spirituality which 

 centuries of misgovernment and misunderstanding on the part 

 of the ruling race have not eradicated, Ireland, the land of song, 

 sings no more, and discontent — " divine discontent," could we 

 but rightly trace its source — eats out the heart of her people. 



What may be described as a fraternity having the true and 

 highest national aims has existed in Wales. This is the 

 Gorsedd ot the Isle of Britain, which dates its origin to remote 

 times, and which, by holding festivals called Eisteddfodau, has 

 endeavoured to keep alive the interest and enthusiasm in 

 poetry, music, and art. The general aspiration of the Gorsedd 

 is embodied in the prayer, which is the only religious episode 

 in the whole event. It is said to be handed down from pagan 

 times: — " Grant us, O God, thy protection ; and in that protection, 

 power ; in that power, wisdom ; in that wisdom, knowledge ; 

 in that knowledge, knowledge of the just ; in knowing the 

 just, love ; and in love, the love of every attribute ; and by 

 loving every attribute, the love of God." This prayer touches 

 the highest note in the gamut of national aspiration. Such 

 aspiration illumines and dignifies every effort of however 

 apparently trivial a character made in the direction of true 

 progress. 



The details of the Eisteddfod vary very considerably from 



