Blair Collection > Celtic gleanings, or, Notices of the history and literature of the Scottish Gael

28 LECTURE I.
have turned their backs upon the country. The
feudal system will cover with its influence the
whole land — for how long a time it is hard to say.
There is something in these old Celtic ideas
that serves to recommend them strongly to the
popular mind ; and it need not be wondered at,
if at some future time, and in some modified
form, they should vindicate for themselves a
place in the jurisprudence of Great Britain.
Already are the3anfluencing the systems of other
nations. The experiment is being made, and the
developments of time will show better than
anything else, whether they, or the ideas char-
acteristic of the Anglo-Saxon, are most adapted
to secure national happiness and prosperity.
But besides these views on the tenure of
land, the Celts had peculiar views on the whole
question of government, — views radically dis-
tinct from those of tlie Saxon. The central idea
in their system was that of the family. The sept
was a family of which the chieftain was head ;
the clan a larger family headed by the chief.
The king himself was but the head of his house.
The idea never entered into the mind of a Scotch
Highlander that the chief was anything else
but the head of the clan. His relation to the
soil was dependent on, and subordinate to, his
relation to the people. His power over them