Volume 16 , Issue 37

Development of the Celt

The Celt came about the time of the close of the glacial period appeared in Europe. The Celt was a tall, hardy man, brave and enterprising, and not a specially warlike savage.

The Celt was a maker of roads and highways for the advance of the civilization of the coming ages. He waged war upon the forests and they disappeared; on the mountains and they were passed; on the rivers and they were spanned; on the soil and it was subdued and made to bring forth an abundance to supply the wants of man. His conquests were over nature's obstructive barriers and not over his fellow men.

The Celt was a heathen, but was not addicted to the gross idolatry of other tribes. His conceptions of the unknown were spiritual, mythical and superstitious, but his mental tendency seemed to have been to investigate and know the reason why for the existence of things.

This tendency led him to take the initiative in matters of discovery and invention, and his achievements in these lines were of inestimable value to the human race. He dived into the earth and discovered the metallic properties hidden therein; extracted them from the grosser particles and adapted them to the practical purposes of life.

The Celt was the father of the Bronze Age, the first and greatest advance from savagery and barbarism toward the dawning civilization of the world.

His domestic relations was peculiar to himself at the age of the world. His family ties were tender and devoted. The wife while submitting to his authority as the head of the family was in all other respects his equal and was treated as such. Mutual respect and affectionate regard were accorded by each to the other. Their spheres of action were not specifically defined, but they went side by side into the rough turmoil of procuring a livelihood. She was his helpmate and good loyally by him and in the emergency of battle in defense of the home she was found by his side, bludgeon in hand, dealing mighty blows upon the enemy. She was stalwart and strong and was often the better warrior of the two. Their tender regard for each other, and for their bairns, was a racial characteristic that had followed them along down the pathway of time.

It was this conjugal love, and affection for kith and kin, entering into their political emergencies that led to their peculiar form of government. As the family grew and expanded it became a clan, loyal to each other and to their kin.

Their political combinations were peculiarly democratic. The individual rights of every clansman were recognized and rigidly observed. The Chieftain was elected by the unobstructed and unawed vote of the men of the clan. Once installed in office his authority was supreme, and prompt and implicit obedience to his commands was exacted. To demur, or even hesitate, was proof of disloyalty and brought on the offender condign punishment.

The Chief's sphere of action was to look after the general welfare of the clan . . . to select their location, define their boundaries and defend the same, to regulate their relations and intercourse with the adjoining clans, to direct and control all their movements as a body and to command and lead in battle. The Chief was the conservator of the honor, dignity and glory of the clan and was accorded the respect and obedience due to his high rank. But the personal and individual rights of the clansmen, outside the prerogatives of the Chief must not be infringed upon or put in jeopardy.

Any act on the part of the Ruling Power to usurp authority beyond that delegated or conceded to him by their unwritten law was followed by the speedy decapitation of the offender and the election of another Chieftain. Thus ultimate authority remained with he people, and the absolute power of the Chief was only delegated to him by the people for purposes of orderly control and might be recalled at will and resumed by those in whom it originally vested. This principle in Celtic administration was older than history and had never been abandoned, nor can its existence be traced to any of the contemporaneous tribes of men.

It is also conceded by all authentic history that the Celt was the first white man to enter Europe,, but it was so long ago that the most ancient chronicles do not say when. They peopled Great Britain, Belgium, Helvetia, North Italy, France, Germany and Spain, and under their culture the old world put on the regalia of a new life, gorgeous in comparison to the blight of Turanian idolatry with which the land had been enveloped.
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