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exactness is wanting there is room for the play of thought, wandering from point to point, spelling out here and there a known fact, and adorning it with a multitude of possibilities, any one of which may be true, and any one of which can hardly be proved to be

untrue.

How, then, shall we trace the two tribes of which we have spoken to their origin? History is available only to a limited extent, for the history of ancient times is concerned, for the most part, with totally different people. The inhabitants of many eastern lands have had their records written during ages before either Germany or England had a literature. Greece and Egypt have left us some monuments of venerable antiquity to tell us of the fame of their philosophers and poets. What though printing was unheard of, and remained to be invented in an age that was yet far away on the horizon of time, these countries had historical records, carved on stately piles of stone, more lasting than brass. The worthy who, in Goldsmith's immortal romance, spoke so learnedly of Sanchoniathon, Manetho, and Berosus, brings to mind some names of men who actually did leave testimony to the events of their time. If we had authorities such as th se to guide us in our present enquiry, we might be able to feel our way better than we now can do, through the darkness of ages, in which so little that is not fabulous can be distinguished.

We are indebted to Jewish annals for the first notice that we have to guide us. In the tenth chapter of Genesis we read that Gomer, the eldest son of Japhet, had three sons, two of whom have a special interest for us at present. It is to be observed that Gomer was the son of the patriarch from whom we believe the Aryan races to be descended. His name is identified with the early Cimmerians, with the later Cimbri, and with the modern Cymri, all of whose names are strikingly like that of their distant ancestor. His two sons, to whom we have referred, were Ashkenaz and Riphath. They were the two oldest branches of the family of Japhet. From the former are descended the Teutons, and from the latter the Celts have their origin. Authority for these statements are to be found in Smith's well known Dictionary of the Bible, and in the Hebrew Lexicon of Dr Julius Fuerst. An echo of the name of the elder brother is heard in the word Scandinavia, that of the younger is repeated in the Rhipean mountains, which are known to us as the Carpathians. It may be too much to say that the names of the patriarchs were in any way indicative of the character of their descendants. But it is worthy of remark that Ashkenaz suggests a derivation from the Hebrew root, shakan, a

root which means to rest; while Riphath is probably related to the verb riph or ruph, which means to flutter, or move about restlessly. If these derivations be accurate, they point with great force to the distinctive characteristics of the two tribes—the one patient, methodical, and persevering, while the other is quick, lively, courageous, and eager for change. Anyone who has studied history must know how marked these characteristics have always been.

It is to be regretted that so little is known with certainty about the fortunes of the tribes down to a period comparatively modern. Fain would we roll away the cloud of darkness that hangs over the past, that we might see the gradual rise of the tribes of the east, and their successive movements in quest of new homes, when their early abodes had become too narrow to contain them. It is strange to see how often history repeats itself. The leading families of mankind, in the very early ages of the world, had to move to the west, in order to find new openings for their energies, just as their descendants at the present day have to flock in thousands to America, there to settle, and lay the foundations, it may be, of many new nations, in the twentieth century and in the ages that are to follow it. The very name of Europe is to us a reminder of the feelings that rose in the minds of the first travellers when they drew near the Hellespont, and saw, across the waves, what was to them indeed a new world. The Wide Prospect -such is the meaning of the Greek words which, according to Matthew Arnold, have given a name to that continent on which the Celts and Teutons have acted such a distinguished part ever since the Christian era. It is by no means a great effort of the imagination to call up some of the thoughts that must have filled the minds of the wanderers when they looked at the view that lay before their eyes. Journeying from we know not how far, they came to a point where further march was stopped by the sea. There it became necessary either to stop their career or to find a means of crossing to the opposite shore. When navigation was in its infancy it must have been an arduous work to move a multitude of people even across the narrow strip of sea that separates the two continents, near the place where Constantinople now stands. Yet it was the destiny of both Celts and Teutons to leave their first homes far behind, and seek their fortune in an unknowu land, that was by and by to be very well known by their families in future ages. They made their way across, and proceeded to take possession A new inheritance lay before them, and we may well believe that they were prepared to make a vigorous effort to secure them

selves in it. The original inhabitants must have thought it rather hard to have to give place to the invaders, but they were overpowered, and driven into remote corners. Some had to seek the friendly shelter of the Pyrenees, where remnants of them are still to be found, and others had to betake themselves to the inhospitable regions of Finland and Lapland. The strength of the Japhetic tribes was such as to bear down any opposition that they may have met, and in process of time they divided the most of the continent between them. The Greeks, descended from Javan, the fourth son of Japhet, took up their abode in the south, while the Slavonic nations, who probably came by way of the Caucasus, to the east of the Black Sea, settled in what is now called Russia. The Celts and Teutons had for their share the north and west, including the Scandinavian peninsula.

The two last-named have become the most famous of them all, and it is not too much to say that, united, they bid fair to possess the world. Macaulay says that liberty and order are two of the greatest blessings which a nation can enjoy. We may go further, and say that society, in the form of a nation, cannot exist unless it enjoys the advantages of liberty and order combined. The two races of which we speak have been distinguished in an eminent degree for their attachment to these two great foundations upon which power rests. With the Celts the love of freedom seems to have always been the ruling passion. Witness the untiring zeal with which our forefathers resisted, against such tremendous odds, the power of Saxon England, when it was unrighteously exercised to crush them, in the middle ages. That is but one illus

tration out of many that might be given. It may suffice to show the inherent principle that abode in their hearts, as it still abides, to keep down every unjust attempt to bear the sway over them. No doubt this is a disposition that may be carried too far, and the Highlanders have on more than one occasion marred their fortunes by a too eager desire to have their own way. This was con

It was

spicuously the case in the history of the Highland clans. impossible for them to unite against a common enemy, because they could not get over their jealousy of each other, and consequently they were again and again made to bear the loss of the objects at which they aimed. When Robert the Bruce was engaged in his struggle for the independence of Scotland some of the clans were amongst his most bitter antagonists, not because they desired Scotland to become a province of England, but because they wished to take the opposite side from other clans who fought under his banner. It was much the same in the civil

wars that arose after the union of the crowns in 1603. At Killiecrankie--almost exactly two hundred years ago-an army, composed chiefly of Highlanders, but commanded by Dundee, was victorious over the Whig army, led by an able officer and thorough Highlander, General Mackay. When Prince Charles Edward made his brilliant but unhappy fiasco in 1745-6, the number of clansmen that sympathised with the cause of King George was probably not much less than the number of those who rose for the Chevalier. And all this was on account of the feeling that no one chief should be allowed to bear the sway over all. It may be supposed that this says very little for the capacity of the Celtic races to take a share in ruling the world. We shall see in a little how this overgrowth of an independent spirit has been tempered into manageable, proportions.

With the Teutons, as we have seen, the love of freedom has been no less strong than with the Celts, but it has been accompanied by an equally strong desire for order and settled government. We are accustomed to regard the Germans as a thoughtful, cautious race, whose delight is in philosophy, music, and, generally speaking, all that pertains to civilisation. And upon the whole the estimate is correct. The natural disposition of the

people is towards the arts of peace. To Germany we are indebted for leading the van in nearly all the great movements of thought that have taken possession of the minds of men. And, in order to avoid any allusion that may suggest controversy, it may be enough to say that Germany has for many centuries been the chief civiliser of the world. Let it not be supposed that this throws any discredit on our own country, for everybody knows that the English are really a people of Teutonic descent, and that by their union with Scotland they have secured for our nation the two chief elements of national greatness.

But it is remarkable that the relations subsisting between the two principal branches of the Japhetic race have, for the most part, been of a hostile nature. Indeed, it has only been in modern times, and in peculiar circumstances, that any kind of union between them has taken place. That union has been chiefly confined to English-speaking nations, and, even within these limits, Ireland forms a partial exception. The Irish difficulty, though closely connected with the subject of the present enquiry, must be left out of account, as it is a political problem that causes an unpleasant difference of opinion. We need not, however, hesitate to remark that the troubles of Ireland have arisen almost wholly from the ancient, and not yet quite extinct, feud between Celt and

Teuton. This feud appears in history as early as the fourth cen tury A.D., when the Franks, a German tribe, began to threaten the decaying power of Rome in Gaul. These Franks, with the firmness and energy of their race, made themselves masters of the land, to which they gave the mediæval name of France, which it is likely to bear during the rest of its history. France did not lose her identity as a nation when thus overrun. On the contrary, this was the turning point at which her career began as one of the great Powers of the world. From the fifth century to the close of the eighteenth the French monarchs held the reins, many of them with great ability and distinguished success, raising their country step by step, till France, under Louis XIV., was perhaps the most powerful nation in Europe. The age of splendour was followed by the disastrous war of the Spanish succession; and the misrule of Louis XV. and Louis XVI. brought the kingdom of Clovis to an end.

Not to digress any further, it is interesting to notice the results of the Frankish invasion. As the Norman conquerors of England combined with the Saxons whom they found there, so the Franks, on assuming the sovereignty of France, became part of the people over whom they ruled. Hence the greatness to which the country attained. The two essentials were introduced. Freedom and order were established, and the heavy yoke of Rome was thrown off for ever. But France was, and still is, Celtic to the core. Consequently she has never been able to keep up a good understanding with Germany. As the Normanised England became the inveterate foe of France, so the German power, once set up in France, became more Celtic than the Celts themselves in hating the country beyond the Rhine. It is not difficult to see circumstances that tended to strengthen this mutual distrust. There was, for one thing, the rivalry that was natural, and almost inevitable, between the two leading nations of the continent. Further, in process of time a sort of alliance sprang up between England and Germany, which was equally natural between two countries who had a common ancestry, whose languages were closely connected, and who latterly were drawn together by the Reformation in the sixteenth century. It was not possible that the friend of England could at any time be the friend of France. With all these considerations, it is not strange that the French and Germans should for so long a time have lived in a state of chronic warfare. The fire has not yet burnt out. The stirring scenes of Metz and Sedan were the consequences of the strife that led to the battle of Jena, and the fall of the Prussian capital before

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