Welsh Journals

ENGLISH NURSERY RHYMES. Who wrote the English Nursery Rhymes? The early Celts. That is the discovery of a learned German whose name I am not at present permitted to disclose. His life-work, entitled The Genetic Philosophy of English Nursery Rhymes," is drawing near its completion, and then the author's name will be known throughout the world of letters. In that book it is maintained that the Anglo- Saxons, when they lived in the forests of Europe, swinging on the branches and pelting one another with nuts, heard sweet voices on the green earth below singing the strains afterwards known as Nursery Rhymes. So enchanting were the songs that the occupants of the trees ventured down from their perches and in course of time were humanized by the simple moral teaching of the Rhymes. Within a few centuries they became soldiers, sailors, mer- chants, and logicians. The singers of the Rhymes, whom the Anglo-Saxon tree-dwellers could not see, were the Fairy Folk (y Tylwyth Teg), our Celtic ancestors. They were called the Little People by the big hairy Anglo-Saxons, not because they were physically small, but because they loved singing, rhyming and other Fine Arts that are so trivial compared with the Anglo-Saxon Arts of hunting, dining and fortune-making. That, in rough outline, is the German's theory. And how plausible it is when the Rhymes are thought- fully read I Their Celtic origin betrays itself continually in the subtlety of thought, the glow of feeling (angerdd) and the mastery of form so character- istic of Celtic Literature I have before me now, by the consent of the children of the house, a book of Nursery Rhymes published under the auspices of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge. That in itself is a significant fact, for it shows how the Society has at last realized that the Book of Nursery Rhymes is in truth the Anglo-Saxon bible it is the book that has been the moral and religious teacher of the Anglo-Saxon people from the dawn of history until the present day. What wonder that it has found its way to every English home ? Its outlook on life is still the Englishman's outlook, its morality is still the morality of the English nation. The book of Nursery Rhymes has made England what it is to-day. And yet according to the above German authority, it was composed by the subtle Celt to educate the Anglo-Saxon when the latter figuratively and literally was up the tree. A STARTLING THEORY. Hush a bye baby on the tree top, When the wind blows the cradle will rock. There we have Celts singing under the trees to attract the young Sassenachs from the pines and the firs on to solid earth. And down at length they came and from that date they have gone on multiplying on the face of the earth and subtracting large slices of it from other nations. But let us turn to the Rhymes to see how the Celts proceeded to educate their moral sense when they came down. Selfishness of course is the ruling passion of the forest, and the forest-bred Anglo- Saxon had to be wisely handled. Little Jack a dandy wanted sugar candy. And fairly for it cried But little Billy Cook, who always reads his book. Shall have a horse to ride. Mark how the horse is held out before young Jack Bull as the reward of virtue, not Heaven Heaven is too intangible for the Anglo-Saxon. A solid horse in the hand is worth all the heavens in the clouds. When Jacky's a very good boy He shall have cakes and a custard. But when he does nothing but cry. He shall have nothing but mustard. Clearly the Celt taught Jacky the Moral Law by tickling his palate. Hell as a form of punishment is too nebulous for the Anglo-Saxon. The wily Celt threatened him with something concrete mustard, if he transgressed, while obedience to the Moral Law was to be rewarded with a good dinner. Even to-day the Englishman's Inferno is to be five miles distant from the nearest dinner. The Celt, however, quickly saw that the Anglo- Saxon was absolutely impervious to the claims of the Moral Law so he drew out a very simple code of morals which is probably the most brilliant epitome extant of the Englishman's religion :­ Come when you re called. Do what you're bid. Shut the door after you, And never be chid. It is the religion of good form-" Shut the door after you all the law and the prophets are con- tained in that Anglo-Saxon Commandment.