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Show The Philosophic Celt. To the tendency of the literary Celt to localize the creations of his imagination imag-ination corresponds an important trait in the philosophic Celt, his disputa-tiousness, disputa-tiousness, or, to use a current idiom, his "love of argyfying." It is often said that the Scotchman would rather argue about metaphysics than eat. And from the days of Charlemagne down to the present time the Irishman at the Continental schools was famous for his elaborate argumentations. Benedict of Aniane, in the ninth century, talks of the "syllogism of delusion." at which the Irish were experts. Montesquieu, in his Lettres Persanes, talks about the Irishmen who crossed over to France to be educated, and adds that they brought with them, as their only means of obtaining a livelihood, "a formidable for-midable talent for disputation." And in our own day a distinguished teacher at the Gregorian university in Rome, where the test of proficiency is ability to conduct a theological debate, bears witness to the fact that the Irish students in Rome at the present time are keeping up to the tradition. Car-dinol Car-dinol Franzelin is reported to have said to Archbishop Croke: "As a professor of theology at Rome for many years j I had every day opportunities of studying study-ing the character and mental equipment equip-ment of various nations, and though in favor of the Germans, I give it as my opinion that the Irish, as a race, have the most theological minds of anv people." The typical Scotch mind is also theological. And for the same reason. rea-son. v Because the Celt is so closely in touch with the world of spiritual things, he is under the necessity of clearing up all his ideas of the spiritual, spirit-ual, the immaterial, and the abstract. As soon as a man begins to believe in anything he must try to have a clear idea of it. If, then, the imagination of the Celt is directed towards the other world, if the other world and by this I mean not merely heaven, the life to come, but the whole world of our ideals and spiritual ideas is more real to him than this material world, he takes very naturally to the task of trying by argumentation to make his ideas about it exact. And here is the root of that talent for scientific investigation inves-tigation which, outside the domain of philosophy proper, has distinguished such men as Tyndal, Kelvin, Pasteur and Ramsay. These are only a few of the Celts who, in our own day, have attained high rank as scientists. It is a mistake to think that the ideal scientific sci-entific temperament includes merely the talent for painstaking investigation investiga-tion of facts. That is necessary. But more necessary still is the talent for scientific generalization and the formulation formu-lation of laws and hypotheses. And this is a talent that belongs to the imagination. im-agination. An Imagination that combines com-bines with extraordinary fertility and resourcefulness a demand for exactness and localization is a quality which must be present in a scientist, if he is to accomplish the best work. As to philosophic thought, what have been the services of the Celt in this department of human endeavor? How has the Celtic factor influenced the history of philosophy? The Celts have leavened the mass of human speculation with a love of Idealism, of spiritual values, of the entities and realities which transcend the limits of matter. Their influence has been for good. To the literature of the world, and to life, of which literature is but a picture, the Celt has contributed much that the world cannot well dispense dis-pense with. He has pleased us by the genial play of his fancy ani amused us by the brilliant flashes of his withe wit-he has stirred us by his eloquence and played on all our emotions by the sweet, tunefulness of his song. In philosophy phil-osophy he has. lifted us up by his emphatic em-phatic assertion of the reality of the spiritual world, he has enlivened us bi the vivacity and subtlety of his argumentative argu-mentative powers, and he has saved us from the prosaic literalness of the materialist ma-terialist and empiricist who would have us believe only that which we see, and would deny us the right to use the eye of the soul as well as that of the body. The Celt stands for lofty speculation; specu-lation; the matter-of-fact materialist stands for minute determination. The Celt stands for the morality of ideals-the ideals-the empiricist stands for the restrictive restric-tive force of law. and grounds all moral mor-al principle on ultimate expediency. The Celt is an optimist. William Turner, Tur-ner, in the Catholic World |