Book of Kells

“ Returning for the moment to the Irish school of Celtic art, it should be observed that richly illuminated manuscripts continued to be produced in Ireland till the ninth and tenth centuries, but these later manuscripts, fine as they are, do not equal in beauty the Book of Kells and other works of the seventh and eighth century. ”

“ The late Dr Todd, one of the most learned archæologists, and one of the best Gaelic scholars that ever Ireland produced, believed that it was as early as the time of Columba. The author of Topographia Hiberniae says of it: “The more frequently I behold it, the more diligently I examine it, the more I am lost in admiration of it.” No one who has not seen the Book of Kells can form an idea of its beauty. In the pages that have not been soiled the colours are as pure and as bright as if they were laid on only yesterday. The naked eye cannot follow all its delicate and minute tracings ”

“ The Celtic genius, under the influence of Christianity, and as representing the art of the early Christian Western civilization—exemplified in the remarkable designs in the Book of Kells—was, on the other hand, strictly ornamental in its manifestations, suggesting in its richness, and in the intricacy and ingenuity of its involved patterns, as well as the geometric forms of many of its units, a relation to certain characteristics of Eastern as well as primitive Greek art. ”

“ An intense spiritual and moral life inspired the students, a life rich also in purely intellectual and artistic force. The ancient churches speak for themselves; the artistic spirit of the time is splendidly embodied [pg 209] in the famous Latin manuscript of the Gospels, called the Book of Kells, the most beautiful specimen of illumination in the world. The wonderful colored initial letters reproduce and develop the designs of the old gold work, the motives of which came, it would seem, from the Baltic, with the De Danaan tribes. ”

“ KELLS, a market town of county Meath, Ireland, on the Blackwater, 93/4 m. N.W. of Navan on a branch of the Great Northern railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) , 2428. The prosperity of the town depends chiefly upon its antiquarian remains. The most notable is St Columbkille’s house, originally an oratory, but afterwards converted into a church, the chancel of which was in existence in 1752. The present church is modern, with the exception of the bell-tower, rebuilt in 1578. Near the church there is a fine though imperfect specimen of the ancient round tower, 99 ft. in height ”

“ Kellson sat down in his chair and thought. His brain was quite calm, and his mind was clear, He heard the rumble of the waggon, and the voice of the boy shouting to the bullocks as he drove the team. He stood up, and mechanically seized his hat and stick. He wondered where the keys of the Office were kept. He would go down to the Office, find the record, and strike the lashes out of the sentence. No—the sentence must stand. The one stainless record which his conscience held up to him, was that of his public life. He had never yet done a deed in his official capacity of which he was ashamed. ”

“ Poor Kellas we left sewn in a blanket of the usual military type and covered with a Union Jack. I never met a man I respected more than Kellas, he was most gentle and brave, and in every way a good sort. If a man really deserved to be "sat upon" no one could squash him better than Kellas.
August 9th.—Fiddes and I came to Aberdeen Gully last night with most of the men, leaving twelve and an N.C.O. to act as bearers in the Zigzag track, these to be relieved every twelve hours. ”

“ The front door was still open, and Kellson, remembering this, went to shut it. The moon had now soared high above the mountain, and a spectacle, wonderfully and wildly beautiful, was revealed. Kellson walked into the garden and gazed on it. The mist, no longer smooth and clinging, but drawn and curled into fantastic wreaths, was rising slowly into the windless sky. The tired-out man took one lingering look, and then walked quickly into the house. ”

“ Then, in a later charter, ‘the family of Kells have granted, for the support of Deoradh, or pilgrims, Ardcamma, that is, Baile Ui Uidhrin, with its mill and all its land, and Baile Ui Chomhgain, with all its land and with its mill, to God and to Columcille and to the bishop O’Cellaigh, the senior of all the men of Meath, and to Malmaire O’Robhartaigh, the Cenn, or head, of the Disert, on the third of the Ides of November, the feast of Martin, in the year when the kine and swine of Ireland perished by a pestilence. The Disert of Kells is granted to pious pilgrims for ever. ”

“ In A.D. 807 they began to build a new religious ‘city’ in Kells; the great church was finished in A.D. 814, when the old Abbot Cellach resigned the principatus of Iona, which thenceforward was transferred to Kells, where the new abbot fixed his official abode. It seems that the venerable Cellach would not leave his beloved island for the new city in Ireland, and so he resigned his office, and next year went to his rest in that old churchyard, where the bones of so many of his sainted predecessors were already laid. ”

“ She stumbled over Pearce's body, almost falling, and staggered back to the wall. Kells had the center of the room to himself. Like a mad steer in a corral he gazed about, stupidly seeking some way to escape. But the escape Kells longed for was from himself. Then either he let himself go or was unable longer to control his rage. He began to plunge around. His actions were violent, random, half insane. He seemed to want to destroy himself and everything. But the weapons were guarded by his men and the room contained little he could smash. ”

“ As the cart went slowly down the hill, the moon was rising over the eastern mountains, and a breathless stillness reigned, broken only by the rumble of the vehicle. How familiar it all was; he knew every curve of the road and every ant-heap; every bush looming in the twilight seemed like an old acquaintance. Nineteen years had passed since Kellson had last seen the village. A clerk in the local public offices, he had left it on promotion, and now he was returning as chief Government functionary. ”

“ Chap. viii.—Clement's family history.
Then said Peter: "Is there then no one of your family surviving?" I answered: "There are indeed many powerful men, coming of the stock of Cæsar; for Cæsar himself gave a wife to my father, as being his relative, and educated along with him, and of a suitably noble family. By her my father had twin sons, born before me, not very like one another, as my father told me; for I never knew them. But indeed I have not a distinct recollection even of my mother; but I cherish the remembrance of her face, as if I had seen it in a dream. ”

“ But the doctrine of the soul being transported to heaven, and of its happiness being completed at death, finds no place in the Bible or the Liturgies of any branch—Greek, Roman, or Anglican—of the Church Catholic. Yet this was the tenet of our Keltic forefathers, and it has maintained itself in English Protestantism, so as to divest the doctrine of the resurrection of the body of its grasp on the popular mind. Among the Kelts, again, reception into the sacred inner circle of the illuminated was precisely analogous to the received dissenting doctrine of conversion. ”

“ If we cannot understand what manner of man Kelley was, it is through no fault of his, for in his voluminous writings his personality is reflected with all the clear outlines of reality. We see him first as a serious- minded boy of studious and pious habits of thought ”

“ Knuckles rapped on the door.
“Who’s there?” demanded von Essen, with the catch of awakened terror in his voice.
“Me—Philip.”
Von Essen strode to the doors and flung them open. “Come in,” he snarled. “Come in....”
Philip, face blackened and bloody, stumbled into the room and stood panting.
“What is it?” von Essen demanded in German. “What’s the matter?”
Philip stared at Hildegarde and motioned. Her father turned and scowled at her. “Never mind her. She’s been spying. She knows. We’ll have to shut her mouth.... What’s wrong?”
“We set the bomb—I lighted the fuse.... They were watching the place. ”

“ I want him to be my world.”
“It is useless to argue,” said Evan Pell.
[160] Carmel flamed.
“Argue!” she said. “Mr. Pell, let me tell you this, and as you said to me a moment ago, it is final. If you and I were the sole survivors upon the earth, I could do nothing but pity you. I am not sure I could do that. You are abnormal, and the abnormal is repulsive.... You rather fancy yourself. You are all ego. Please try to believe that you are of no importance to anybody. You are negligible. Whether you live or die can be of no importance to any living creature.... ”

“ The Kelt has come to grief heretofore—or at least been forced to play second fiddle to other races—because he lacked the right sort of a drink. He has in his blood an excess of impulsive, imaginative, even fantastic qualities. It is much easier for him to make a fool of himself, to begin with, than it is for people of slower wits and more sluggish temperaments. When you add whiskey to that, or that essence of melancholia which in Ireland they call 'porther,' you get the Kelt at his very weakest and worst. These young men down there are changing all that. They have discovered lager. ”

“ Much as he loved his forefathers, keen as was his delight in celebrating the glories of his race, oral tradition contented him, and very strong was the pressure from the neighbouring nations before his bards recorded anything in writing, even the long genealogies hitherto preserved in each man’s accumulated names. The beauty of their legends did indeed recommend them to the general store-house of European fancy, but though the spirit may be Keltic, the body through which it comes is almost always Teutonic. ”

“ It is to the effect that one should never underestimate an antagonist.”
“Oh, I shan’t. I’ll cool down presently, and then I’ll be as cold-blooded and calculating as anybody. But right now I—I want to—stamp on his pudgy toes.”
The telephone interrupted and Evan Pell put the receiver to his ear. “... Yes, this is the Free Press.... Please repeat that.... In Boston last night?... Who saw him? Who is speaking?” Then his face assumed that blank, exasperated look which nothing can bring in such perfection as to have the receiver at the other end of the line hung up in one’s ear. He turned to Carmel. ”

“ Then she said: "I am the mother of the youth." Then says Peter: "What is his name?" And she answered: "Clement." Then said Peter: "It is himself; and he it was that spoke with me a little while ago, and whom I ordered to go before me to the ship." Then she fell down at Peter's feet, and began to entreat him that he would hasten to the ship. Then Peter said: "Yes, if you will promise me that you will do as I say." Then she said: "I will do anything; only show me my only son, for I think that in him I shall see my twins also." ”

“ Not the reformation of a religion, but a reformation in the basic thought of the world—surely of America....”
“Whew!” exclaimed Kendall. “I follow you, I guess, but my feet are off the bottom ... and I can’t swim.”
“You can think, can’t you?” she said, a trifle tartly.
“I guess I feel more than I think,” he said.
“We all do.... We have to feel in order to think, and we have to feel in order to understand. Cold logic isn’t worth a snap of the fingers—really.... You’ve been getting something out of Paris, haven’t you? Feeling something? ”

“ No punishment was inflicted upon Cleland, but a bookseller (Drybutter) , who is said to have altered the language of the book for the worse after it had been favourably noticed in the 'Monthly Review' (ii. 461-2) , was made to stand in the pillory in 1757. Lord Granville, who had been at the council, procured Cleland a pension of 100l. a year, in order that he might make a worthier use of his talents, or perhaps with a view to his prospective services as a newspaper writer. After this Cleland wrote for the theatre and for the newspapers. ”

“ So Kol took his axe, though he was ill at ease, for he knew that evil would come of it, and he mounted one of Gunnar’s horses and fared to the wood.
He soon saw Swart and his men piling up bundles of firewood, so he left his horse in a hollow, and crouched down behind some bushes, till he heard Swart bid the [48] men carry the wood to Njal’s house, as he himself had more work to do. He began to look about for a tall straight young stem with which to make himself a bow, when Kol sprang out of the bushes and dealt Swart such a stroke with his axe that he fell dead without a word. ”

“ Ken drew Andree to him, but she did not respond; she was cold, frightened.
“But for a day ...” she said.
“Monsieur Bert and I we do not deceive ourselves. We tell each other that thees is not for always.... It is play—so there is no cloud between us.... But you—oh, you are ver’ wrong, mademoiselle. In your heart you know.... You love Monsieur Ken and he loves you—it is true. But—ask him the question, mademoiselle—does he stay forever? Or, when the day comes on which he mus’ depart, will he take you weeth him to thees America?... ”

“ They mixed, however, everywhere far more than is commonly allowed. Our language bears testimony to the general fact. The many Keltic household words in daily use are the best evidence.
Here in the New Forest I may mention that the form "plock" is used instead of the common block (bloc) , and that we have, as, perhaps, throughout the West of England, "hob," in the sense of potato-hob — a place where potatoes are covered over, instead of "hog" (hwg) , noticed by Mr. Davies in his list of Keltic words in Lancashire. ”