I desire to continue still to sing the deeds of yore, and to live upon ancient glories.  Now am I stricken with years, my life is frozen within me, and all my joys are fleeting away.  No more can my hand grasp the sword, nor mine arm hold the lance in rest.  Among priests my last sad hour lengtheneth out, and psalms take now the place of songs of victory.”  “Let thy songs rest,” says Patrick, “and dare not to compare thy Finn to the King of Kings, whose might knoweth no bounds:  bend thy knees before Him, and know Him for thy Lord.”  It was indeed necessary to surrender, and the legend relates how the old bard ended his days in the cloister, among the priests whom he had so often used rudely, in the midst of these chants that he knew not.  Ossian was too good an Irishman for any one to make up his mind to damn him utterly.  Merlin himself had to cede to the new spell.  He was, it is said, converted by St. Columba; and the popular voice in the ballads repeats to him unceasingly this sweet and touching appeal:  “Merlin, Merlin, be converted; there is no divinity save that of God.”

VI.

We should form an altogether inadequate idea of the physiognomy of the Celtic races, were we not to study them under what is perhaps the most singular aspect of their development—­that is to say, their ecclesiastical antiquities and their saints.  Leaving on one side the temporary repulsion which Christian mildness had to conquer in the classes of society which saw their influence diminished by the new order of things, it can be truly said, that the gentleness of manners and the exquisite sensibility of the Celtic races, in conjunction with the absence of a formerly existing religion of strong organisation, predestined them to Christianity.  Christianity in fact, addressing itself by preference to the more humble feelings in human nature, met here with admirably prepared disciples; no race has so delicately understood the charm of littleness, none has placed the simple creature, the innocent, nearer God.  The ease with which the new religion took possession of these peoples is also remarkable.  Brittany and Ireland between them scarce count two or three martyrs; they are reduced to venerating as such those of their compatriots who were slain in the Anglo-Saxon and Danish invasions.  Here comes to light the profound difference dividing the Celtic from the Teutonic race.  The Teutons only received Christianity tardily and in spite of themselves, by scheming or by force, after a sanguinary resistance, and with terrible throes, Christianity was in fact on several sides repugnant to their nature; and one understands the regrets of pure Teutonists who, to this day, reproach the new faith with having corrupted their sturdy ancestors.