The literature of the Celts : its history and romance / by Magnus Maclean.

  • Magnus MacLean
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The literature of the Celts : its history and romance / by Magnus Maclean. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    90/424 page 70
    Tevipora mutantur, eheu ! The little facts that incident- ally dropped from his pen are those most sought and valued now, while the miracles, visions, and prophecies which he took to be the soul and substance of the book, wear a different aspect to modern eyes. It is these trifling details, sometimes mere names, that give us glimpses into the state of society in Ireland and Pictland, and into the civil and ecclesiastical history of the time. Adamnan’s consuming desire at all times is to present “the evidences which the venerable man gave of his power.” And when we reflect that he believed that “by some divine intuition ” St. Columba, “ through a wonderful experience of his inner soul, beheld the whole universe drawn together and laid open to his sight, as in one ray of the sun,” we need not be surprised at the wonders unfolded. In the first chapter of Book I., and before entering upon illustrative examples, he gives a summary of his hero’s supernatural qualities. For example, he healed diseases ; expelled from the island “innumerable hosts of malignant spirits, whom he saw with his bodily eyes assailing himself and beginning to bring deadly distemper on his monastic brotherhood. The surging waves quickly became quiet at his prayer, and contrary winds changed into fair. He took a white stone from the river Ness and blessed it for healing purposes. This famous pebble floated like an apple when placed in water. In the country of the Piets he raised a dead child to life, and while yet a young man in Hibernia turned water into wine. An immense blaze of heavenly light was occasionally seen to surround him in the light of day, and he was frequently favoured with the society of bright hosts of celestial beings. He often saw just men carried by angels to the highest heavens, and reprobates hurried by demons to hell. The blessed man even foretold the destinies of individual men, pleasing or painful, according to their deserts. And “in the dreadful crash of wars he obtained from God by the virtue of prayer, that some kings should be conquered and others come off victorious.”
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