s kind much more rapidly than the Teuton. The Highlander and the
Irishman swarm into Glasgow; the Irishman and the Welshman swarm into
Liverpool; the west-countryman into Bristol; Celts of all types into
London, Southampton, Newport, Birmingham, Sheffield. This eastward
return-wave of Celts upon the Teuton has leavened the whole mass; if you
look at the leaders of Radicalism in England you will find they bear,
almost without exception, true Celtic surnames. Chartists and Socialists
of the first generation were marshalled by men of Cymric descent, like
Ernest Jones and Robert Owen, or by pure-blooded Irishmen like Fergus
O'Connor. It is not a mere accident that the London Socialists of the
present day should be led by Welshmen like William Morris, or by the
eloquent brogue of Bernard Shaw's audacious oratory. We Celts now lurk
in every corner of Britain; we have permeated it with our ideas; we have
inspired it with our aspirations; we have roused the Celtic remnant in
the south-east itself to a sense of their wrongs; and we are marching
to-day, all abreast, to the overthrow of feudalism. If Lord Salisbury
thinks we are a Celtic fringe he is vastly mistaken. But he doesn't
really think so: 'tis a piece of his ponderous Saxon humour. Talk of
"Batavian grace," indeed! Well, the Cecils came first from the fens of
Lincolnshire.

XIX.

_IMAGINATION AND RADICALS._

Conservatism, I believe, is mainly due to want of imagination.

In saying this, I do not for a moment mean to deny the other and equally
obvious truth that Conservatism, in the lump, is a euphemism for
selfishness. But the two ideas have much in common. Selfish people are
apt to be unimaginative: unimaginative people are apt to be selfish.
Clearly to realise the condition of the unfortunate is the beginning of
philanthropy. Clearly to realise the rights of others is the beginning
of justice. "Put yourself in his place" strikes the keynote of ethics.
Stupid people can only see their own side of a question: they cannot
even imagine any other side possible. So, as a rule, stupid people are
Conservative. They cling to what they have; they dread revision,
redistribution, justice. Also, if a man has imagination he is likely to
be Radical, even though selfish; while if he has no imagination he is
likely to be Conservative, even though otherwise good and kind-hearted.
Some men are Conservative from defects of heart, while some are
Conservative from defects of hea