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CELTIC PROVINCE. 



for the study of Nature under all her various ava- 

 tars, it is the goodly island that Providence has, 

 in favour, given us for a birth-place and home. If 

 there be one region above all other regions fitted to 

 be constituted the type and model, whether through 

 the variety of its inhabitants, their abundance, or 

 their convenient collocation, it is the Celtic province 

 of which the British Islands seem to constitute the 

 centre. 



The Celtic province is the neutral ground of the 

 European seas; it is the field upon which the crea- 

 tures of the north and those of the south meet 

 and intermingle. It has its own special inhabitants, 

 the aborigines of the province, but these are far 

 exceeded in numbers by the colonists who are dif- 

 fused among them. It includes within its proper 

 population the survivors of an epoch when the 

 seas of Europe were differently parcelled out than 

 they are now. Here and there, these old people 

 still retain limited tracks of the sea-bed, whilst the 

 vast mass of the nations to which they originally 

 belonged have retired far to the north, or west, or 

 south, according to their tribe. These must not 

 be confounded with the immigrants who have gradu- 

 ally made their way into the Celtic area during the 

 ages that have past since its first constitution into a 

 distinct province. They are like the Basques 

 among the Spaniards, or the Cornish among Eng- 

 lishmen, relics of ancient possessors of the country 

 whose epoch of dominance has ceased to be, but 



