diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'old/13132-h')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13132-h/13132-h.htm | 5060 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13132-h/images/image01.png | bin | 0 -> 31437 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13132-h/images/image02.png | bin | 0 -> 4404 bytes |
3 files changed, 5060 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/old/13132-h/13132-h.htm b/old/13132-h/13132-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ecb7976 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13132-h/13132-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5060 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Principles of Freedom, by Terence J. MacSwiney</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + } + HR { width: 33%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .note {margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} /* footnote */ + .blkquot {margin-left: 3em; margin-right: 3em;} /* block indent */ + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding-left: 1em; font-size: smaller; float: right; clear: right;} + + .poem {margin-left:5%; margin-right:5%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i3 {display: block; margin-left: 3em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + .poem .caesura {vertical-align: -200%;} + .center {text-align: center;} + .centerdiv {width: 20em; margin: auto;} + .centerdiv2 {width: 30em; margin: auto;} + hr.full { width: 100%; } + a:link {color:#0000ff; + text-decoration:none} + link {color:#0000ff; + text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:#0000ff; + text-decoration:none} + a:hover {color:#ff0000} + pre {font-size: 8pt;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Principles of Freedom, by Terence J. MacSwiney</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: Principles of Freedom</p> +<p>Author: Terence J. MacSwiney</p> +<p>Release Date: August 7, 2004 [eBook #13132]<br /> +Most recently updated October 23, 2008</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM***</p> +<p> </p> +<h4>E-text prepared by Jonathan Ingram, Martin Pettit,<br /> + and Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders</h4> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><img src="images/image01.png" +style="width: 300px; height: 473px; border: 0" alt="TERENCE MACSWINEY +(Late Lord Mayor of Cork)" /></p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h1><a name='PRINCIPLES_OF'></a>PRINCIPLES OF</h1> +<h1>FREEDOM</h1> + + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>TERENCE MACSWINEY</h2> + +<h5>LATE LORD MAYOR OF CORK</h5> + +<p class="center"><img src="images/image02.png" +style="width: 100px; height: 150px; border: 0" alt="Publisher's Logo" /></p> + +<h4>1921</h4> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h2>TO</h2> + +<h2>THE SOLDIERS OF FREEDOM</h2> + +<h2>IN EVERY LAND</h2> + + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h2><a name='PREFACE'></a>PREFACE</h2> + +<p>It was my intention to publish these articles in book form as soon as +possible. I had them typed for the purpose. I had no time for revision +save to insert in the typed copy words or lines omitted from the +original printed matter. I also made an occasional verbal alteration in +the original. One article, however, that on "Intellectual Freedom," +though written in the series in the place in which it now stands, was +not printed with them. It is now published for the first time.</p> + + +<h4>RELIGION</h4> + + +<p>I wish to make a note on the article under this heading to avoid a +possible misconception amongst people outside Ireland. In Ireland there +is no religious dissension, but there is religious insincerity. English +politicians, to serve the end of dividing Ireland, have worked on the +religious feelings of the North, suggesting the danger of Catholic +ascendancy. There is not now, and there never was, any such danger, but +our enemies, by raising the cry, sowed discord in the North, with the +aim of destroying Irish unity. It should be borne in mind that when the +Republican Standard was first raised in the field in Ireland, in the +Rising of 1798, Catholics and Protestants in the North were united in +the cause. Belfast was the first home of Republicanism in Ireland. This +is the truth of the matter. The present-day cleavage is an unnatural +thing created by Ireland's enemies to hold her in subjection and will +disappear entirely with political Freedom.</p> + +<p>It has had, however, in our day, one unhappy effect, only for a time +fortunately, and this is disappearing. I refer to the rise of +Hibernianism. The English ruling faction having, for their own political +designs, corrupted the Orangemen with power and flattery, enabled them +to establish an ascendancy not only over Ulster, but indirectly by their +vote over the South. This becoming intolerable, some sincere but +misguided Catholics in the North joined the organisation known as THE +ANCIENT ORDER OF HIBERNIANS. This was, in effect, a sort of Catholic +Freemasonry to counter the Orange Freemasonry, but like Orangeism, it +was a political and not a religious weapon.</p> + +<p>Further, as a political weapon, it extended all through Ireland during +the last years of the Irish Parliamentary Movement. In Cork, for +example, it completely controlled the city life for some years, but the +rapid rise of the Republican Movement brought about the equally rapid +fall of Hibernianism. At the present moment it has as little influence +in the public life of Cork as Sir Edward Carson himself. The great bulk +of its one-time members have joined the Republican Movement. This +demonstrates clearly that anything in the nature of a sectarian movement +is essentially repugnant to the Irish people. As I have pointed out, the +Hibernian Order, when created, became at once a political weapon, but +Ireland has discarded that, and other such weapons, for those with which +she is carving out the destinies of the Republic. For a time, however, +Hibernianism created an unnatural atmosphere of sectarian rivalry in +Ireland. That has now happily passed away. At the time, however, of the +writing of the article on Religion it was at its height, and this fact +coloured the writing of the article. On re-reading it and considering +the publication of the present work I was inclined to suppress it, but +decided that it ought to be included because it bears directly on the +evil of materialism in religious bodies, which is a matter of grave +concern to every religious community in the world.</p> + +<p>T. MacS.</p> + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + + +<table> + <tr> + <td> + <a href='#CHAPTER_I'>CHAPTER I</a> + </td> + <td> + THE BASIS OF FREEDOM + </td> + + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</a> + </td> + <td> + SEPARATION + </td> + + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</a> + </td> + <td> + MORAL FORCE + </td> + + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</a> + </td> + <td> + BROTHERS AND ENEMIES + </td> + + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</a> + </td> + <td> + THE SECRET OF STRENGTH + </td> + + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</a> + </td> + <td> + PRINCIPLE IN ACTION + </td> + + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</a> + </td> + <td> + LOYALTY + </td> + + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</a> + </td> + <td> + WOMANHOOD + </td> + + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</a> + </td> + <td> + THE FRONTIER + </td> + + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X</a> + </td> + <td> + LITERATURE AND FREEDOM--THE PROPAGANDIST PLAYWRIGHT + </td> + + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI</a> + </td> + <td> + LITERATURE AND FREEDOM--ART FOR ART'S SAKE + </td> + + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII</a> + </td> + <td> + RELIGION + </td> + + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII</a> + </td> + <td> + INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM + </td> + + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV</a> + </td> + <td> + MILITARISM + </td> + + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV</a> + </td> + <td> + THE EMPIRE + </td> + + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI</a> + </td> + <td> + RESISTANCE IN ARMS--FOREWORD + </td> + + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII</a> + </td> + <td> + RESISTANCE IN ARMS--THE TRUE MEANING OF LAW + </td> + + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII</a> + </td> + <td> + RESISTANCE IN ARMS--OBJECTIONS + </td> + + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX</a> + </td> + <td> + THE BEARNA BAOGHAIL--CONCLUSION + </td> + + </tr> +</table> + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h1><a name='PRINCIPLES_OF_FREEDOM'></a>PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM</h1> + +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_I'></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>THE BASIS OF FREEDOM</h3> + +<h4>I</h4> + + +<p>Why should we fight for freedom? Is it not strange, that it has become +necessary to ask and answer this question? We have fought our fight for +centuries, and contending parties still continue the struggle, but the +real significance of the struggle and its true motive force are hardly +at all understood, and there is a curious but logical result. Men +technically on the same side are separated by differences wide and deep, +both of ideal and plan of action; while, conversely, men technically +opposed have perhaps more in common than we realise in a sense deeper +than we understand.</p> + +<h4>II</h4> + +<p>This is the question I would discuss. I find in practice everywhere in +Ireland—it is worse out of Ireland—the doctrine, "The end justifies +the means."</p> + +<p>One party will denounce another for the use of discreditable tactics, +but it will have no hesitation in using such itself if it can thereby +snatch a discreditable victory. So, clear speaking is needed: a fight +that is not clean-handed will make victory more disgraceful than any +defeat. I make the point here because we stand for separation from the +British Empire, and because I have heard it argued that we ought, if we +could, make a foreign alliance to crush English power here, even if our +foreign allies were engaged in crushing freedom elsewhere. When such a +question can be proposed it should be answered, though the time is not +ripe to test it. If Ireland were to win freedom by helping directly or +indirectly to crush another people she would earn the execration she has +herself poured out on tyranny for ages. I have come to see it is +possible for Ireland to win her independence by base methods. It is +imperative, therefore, that we should declare ourselves and know where +we stand. And I stand by this principle: no physical victory can +compensate for spiritual surrender. Whatever side denies that is not my +side.</p> + +<p>What, then, is the true basis to our claim to freedom? There are two +points of view. The first we have when fresh from school, still in our +teens, ready to tilt against everyone and everything, delighting in +saying smart things—and able sometimes to say them—talking much and +boldly of freedom, but satisfied if the thing sounds bravely. There is +the later point of view. We are no longer boys; we have come to review +the situation, and take a definite stand in life. We have had years of +experience, keen struggles, not a little bitterness, and we are +steadied. We feel a heart-beat for deeper things. It is no longer +sufficient that they sound bravely; they must ring true. The schoolboy's +dream is more of a Roman triumph—tramping armies, shouting multitudes, +waving banners—all good enough in their way. But the dream of men is +for something beyond all this show. If it were not, it could hardly +claim a sacrifice.</p> + +<h4>III</h4> + + +<p>A spiritual necessity makes the true significance of our claim to +freedom: the material aspect is only a secondary consideration. A man +facing life is gifted with certain powers of soul and body. It is of +vital importance to himself and the community that he be given a full +opportunity to develop his powers, and to fill his place worthily. In a +free state he is in the natural environment for full self-development. +In an enslaved state it is the reverse. When one country holds another +in subjection that other suffers materially and morally. It suffers +materially, being a prey for plunder. It suffers morally because of the +corrupt influences the bigger nation sets at work to maintain its +ascendancy. Because of this moral corruption national subjection should +be resisted, as a state fostering vice; and as in the case of vice, when +we understand it we have no option but to fight. With it we can make no +terms. It is the duty of the rightful power to develop the best in its +subjects: it is the practice of the usurping power to develop the +basest. Our history affords many examples. When our rulers visit Ireland +they bestow favours and titles on the supporters of their regime—but it +is always seen that the greatest favours and highest titles are not for +the honest adherent of their power—but for him who has betrayed the +national cause that he entered public life to support. Observe the men +who might be respected are passed over for him who ought to be despised. +In the corrupt politician there was surely a better nature. A free state +would have encouraged and developed it. The usurping state titled him +for the use of his baser instincts. Such allurement must mean +demoralisation. We are none of us angels, and under the best of +circumstances find it hard to do worthy things; when all the temptation +is to do unworthy things we are demoralised. Most of us, happily, will +not give ourselves over to the evil influence, but we lose faith in the +ideal. We are apathetic. We have powers and let them lie fallow. Our +minds should be restless for noble and beautiful things; they are +hopeless in a land everywhere confined and wasted. In the destruction +of spirit entailed lies the deeper significance of our claim to +freedom.</p> + +<h4>IV</h4> + +<p>It is a spiritual appeal, then, that primarily moves us. We are urged to +action by a beautiful ideal. The motive force must be likewise true and +beautiful. It is love of country that inspires us; not hate of the enemy +and desire for full satisfaction for the past. Pause awhile. We are all +irritated now and then by some mawkish interpretation of our motive +force that makes it seem a weakly thing, invoked to help us in evading +difficulties instead of conquering them. Love in any genuine form is +strong, vital and warm-blooded. Let it not be confused with any flabby +substitute. Take a parallel case. Should we, because of the mawkishness +of a "Princess Novelette," deride the beautiful dream that keeps ages +wondering and joyous, that is occasionally caught up in the words of +genius, as when Shelley sings: "I arise from dreams of thee"? When +foolish people make a sacred thing seem silly, let us at least be sane. +The man who cries out for the sacred thing but voices a universal need. +To exist, the healthy mind must have beautiful things—the rapture of a +song, the music of running water, the glory of the sunset and its +dreams, and the deeper dreams of the dawn. It is nothing but love of +country that rouses us to make our land full-blooded and beautiful where +now she is pallid and wasted. This, too, has its deeper significance.</p> + + +<h4>V</h4> + + +<p>If we want full revenge for the past the best way to get it is to remain +as we are. As we are, Ireland is a menace to England. We need not debate +this—she herself admits it by her continued efforts to pacify us in her +own stupid way. Would she not ignore us if it were quite safe so to do? +On the other hand, if we succeed in our efforts to separate from her, +the benefit to England will be second only to our own. This might strike +us strangely, but 'tis true, not the less true because the English +people could hardly understand or appreciate it now. The military +defence of Ireland is almost farcical. A free Ireland could make it a +reality—could make it strong against invasion. This would secure +England from attack on our side. No one is, I take it, so foolish as to +suppose, being free, we would enter quarrels not our own. We should +remain neutral. Our common sense would so dictate, our sense of right +would so demand. The freedom of a nation carries with it the +responsibility that it be no menace to the freedom of another nation. +The freedom of all makes for the security of all. If there are tyrannies +on earth one nation cannot set things right, but it is still bound so to +order its own affairs as to be consistent with universal freedom and +friendship. And, again, strange as it may seem, separation from England +will alone make for final friendship with England. For no one is so +foolish as to wish to be for ever at war with England. It is +unthinkable. Now the most beautiful motive for freedom is vindicated. +Our liberty stands to benefit the enemy instead of injuring him. If we +want to injure him, we should remain as we are—a menace to him. The +opportunity will come, but it would hardly make us happy. This but makes +clear a need of the human race. Freedom rightly considered is not a +mere setting-up of a number of independent units. It makes for harmony +among nations and good fellowship on earth.</p> + + +<h4>VI</h4> + +<p>I have written carefully that no one may escape the conclusion. It is +clear and exacting, but in the issue it is beautiful. We fight for +freedom—not for the vanity of the world, not to have a fine conceit of +ourselves, not to be as bad—or if we prefer to put it so, as big as our +neighbours. The inspiration is drawn from a deeper element of our being. +We stifle for self-development individually and as a nation. If we don't +go forward we must go down. It is a matter of life and death; it is out +soul's salvation. If the whole nation stand for it, we are happy; we +shall be grandly victorious. If only a few are faithful found they must +be the more steadfast for being but a few. They stand for an individual +right that is inalienable. A majority has no right to annul it, and no +power to destroy it. Tyrannies may persecute, slay, or banish those who +defend it; the thing is indestructible. It does not need legions to +protect it nor genius to proclaim it, though the poets have always +glorified it, and the legions will ultimately acknowledge it. One man +alone may vindicate it, and because that one man has never failed it has +never died. Not, indeed, that Ireland has ever been reduced to a single +loyal son. She never will be. We have not survived the centuries to be +conquered now. But the profound significance of the struggle, of its +deep spiritual appeal, of the imperative need for a motive force as +lofty and beautiful, of the consciousness that worthy winning of freedom +is a labour for human brotherhood; the significance of it all is seen in +the obligation it imposes on everyone to be true, the majority +notwithstanding. He is called to a grave charge who is called to resist +the majority. But he will resist, knowing his victory will lead them to +a dearer dream than they had ever known. He will fight for that ideal in +obscurity, little heeded—in the open, misunderstood; in humble places, +still undaunted; in high places, seizing every vantage point, never +crushed, never silent, never despairing, cheering a few comrades with +hope for the morrow. And should these few sink in the struggle the +greatness of the ideal is proven in the last hour; as they fall their +country awakens to their dream, and he who inspired and sustained them +is justified; justified against the whole race, he who once stood alone +against them. In the hour he falls he is the saviour of his race.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_II'></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>SEPARATION.</h3> + +<h4>I</h4> + +<p>When we plead for separation from the British Empire as the only basis +on which our country can have full development, and on which we can have +final peace with England, we find in opponents a variety of attitudes, +but one attitude invariably absent—a readiness to discuss the question +fairly and refute it, if this can be done. One man will take it +superficially and heatedly, assuming it to be, according to his party, a +censure on Mr. Redmond or Mr. O'Brien. Another will take it +superficially, but, as he thinks, philosophically, and will dismiss it +with a smile. With the followers of Mr. Redmond or Mr. O'Brien we can +hardly argue at present, but we should not lose heart on their account, +for these men move <i>en masse</i>. One day the consciousness of the country +will be electrified with a great deed or a great sacrifice and the +multitude will break from lethargy or prejudice and march with a shout +for freedom in a true, a brave, and a beautiful sense. We must work and +prepare for that hour. Then there is our philosophical friend. I expect +him to hear my arguments. When I am done, he may not agree with me on +all points; he may not agree with me on any point; but if he come with +me, I promise him one thing: this question can no longer be dismissed +with a smile.</p> + +<h4>II</h4> + +<p>Our friend's attitude is explained in part by our never having attempted +to show that a separatist policy is great and wise. We have held it as a +right, have fought for it, have made sacrifices for it, and vowed to +have it at any cost; but we have not found for it a definite place in a +philosophy of life. Superficial though he be, our friend has indicated a +need: we must take the question philosophically—but in the great and +true sense. It is a truism of philosophy and science that the world is a +harmonious whole, and that with the increase of knowledge, laws can be +discovered to explain the order and the unity of the universe. +Accordingly, if we are to justify our own position as separatists, we +must show that it will harmonise, unify and develop our national life, +that it will restore us to a place among the nations, enable us to +fulfil a national destiny, a destiny which, through all our struggles, +we ever believe is great, and waiting for us. That must be accepted if +we are to get at the truth of the matter. A great doctrine that +dominates our lives, that lays down a rigid course of action, that +involves self-denial, hard struggles, endurance for years, and possibly +death before the goal is reached—any such doctrine must be capable of +having its truth demonstrated by the discovery of principles that govern +and justify it. Otherwise we cannot yield it our allegiance. Let us to +the examination, then; we shall find it soul-stirring and inspiring. We +must be prepared, however, to abandon many deeply-rooted prejudices; if +we are unwilling, we must abandon the truth. But we will find courage +in moving forward, and will triumph in the end, by keeping in mind at +all times that the end of freedom is to realise the salvation and +happiness of all peoples, to make the world, and not any selfish corner +of it, a more beautiful dwelling-place for men.</p> + +<p>Treated in this light, the question becomes for all earnest men great +and arresting. Our friend, who may have smiled, will discuss it readily +now. Yet he may not be convinced; he may point his finger over the +wasted land and contrast its weakness with its opponents' strength, and +conclude: "Your philosophy is beautiful, but only a dream." He is at +least impressed; that is a point gained; and we may induce him to come +further and further till he adopts the great principle we defend.</p> + +<h4>III</h4> + +<p>His difficulty now is the common error that a man's work for his country +should be based on the assumption that it should bear full effect in his +own time. This is most certainly false; for a man's life is counted by +years, a nation's by centuries, and as work for the nation should be +directed to bringing her to full maturity in the coming time, a man must +be prepared to labour for an end that may be realised only in another +generation. Consider how he disposes his plans for his individual life. +His boyhood and youth are directed that his manhood and prime may be the +golden age of life, full-blooded and strong-minded, with clear vision +and great purpose and high hope, all justified by some definite +achievement. A man's prime is great as his earlier years have been well +directed and concentrated. In the early years the ground is prepared and +the seed sown for the splendid period of full development. So it is with +the nation: we must prepare the ground and sow the seed for the rich +ripeness of maturity; and bearing in mind that the maturity of the +nation will come, not in one generation but after many generations, we +must be prepared to work in the knowledge that we prepare for a future +that only other generations will enjoy. It does not mean that we shall +work in loneliness, cheered by no vision of the Promised Land; we may +even reach the Promised Land in our time, though we cannot explore all +its great wonders: that will be the delight of ages. But some will never +survive to celebrate the great victory that will establish our +independence; yet they shall not go without reward; for to them will +come a vision of soul of the future triumph, an exaltation of soul in +the consciousness of labouring for that future, an exultation of soul in +the knowledge that once its purpose is grasped, no tyranny can destroy +it, that the destiny of our country is assured, and her dominion will +endure for ever. Let any argument be raised against one such pioneer—he +knows this in his heart, and it makes him indomitable, and it is he who +is proven to be wise in the end. He judges the past clearly, and through +the crust of things he discerns the truth in his own time, and puts his +work in true relation to the great experience of life, and he is +justified; for ultimately his work opens out, matures, and bears fruit a +hundredfold. It may not be in a day, but when his hand falls dead, his +glory becomes quickly manifest. He has lived a beautiful life, and has +left a beautiful field; he has sacrificed the hour to give service for +all time; he has entered the company of the great, and with them he +will be remembered for ever. He is the practical man in the true sense. +But there is the other self-styled practical man, who thinks all this +proceeding foolish, and cries out for the expedient of the hour. Has he +ever realised the promise of his proposals? No, he is the most +inefficient person who has ever walked the earth. But for a saving +consideration let him go contemplate the wasted efforts of the +opportunist in every generation, and the broken projects scattered +through the desert-places of history.</p> + +<h4>IV</h4> + +<p>Still one will look out on the grim things of the hour, and hypnotised +by the hour will cry: "See the strength of the British Empire, see our +wasted state; your hope is vain." Let him consider this clear truth: +peoples endure; empires perish. Where are now the empires of antiquity? +And the empires of to-day have the seed of dissolution in them. But the +peoples that saw the old empires rise and hold sway are represented now +in their posterity; the tyrannies they knew are dead and done with. The +peoples endured; the empires perished; and the nations of the earth of +this day will survive in posterity when the empires that now contend for +mastery are gathered into the dust, with all dead, bad things. We shall +endure; and the measure of our faith will be the measure of our +achievement and of the greatness of our future place.</p> + +<h4>V</h4> + +<p>Is it not the dream of earnest men of all parties to have an end to our +long war, a peace final and honourable, wherein the soul of the country +can rest, revive and express itself; wherein poetry, music and art will +pour out in uninterrupted joy, the joy of deliverance, flashing in +splendour and superabundant in volume, evidence of long suppression? +This is the dream of us all. But who can hope for this final peace while +any part of our independence is denied? For, while we are connected in +any shape with the British Empire the connection implies some +dependence; this cannot be gainsaid; and who is so foolish as to expect +that there will be no collision with the British Parliament, while +there is this connection implying dependence on the British Empire? If +such a one exists he goes against all experience and all history. On +either side of the connection will be two interests—the English +interest and the Irish interest, and they will be always at variance. +Consider how parties within a single state are at variance, +Conservatives and Radicals, in any country in Europe. The proposals of +one are always insidious, dangerous or reactionary, as the case may be, +in the eyes of the other; and in no case will the parties agree; they +will at times even charge each other with treachery; there is never +peace. It is the rule of party war. Who, then, can hope for peace where +into the strife is imported a race difference, where the division is not +of party but of people? That is in truth the vain hope. And be it borne +in mind the race difference is not due to our predominating Gaelic +stock, but to the separate countries and to distinct households in the +human race. If we were all of English extraction the difference would +still exist. There is the historic case of the American States; it is +easy to understand. When a man's children come of age, they set up +establishments for themselves, and live independently; they are always +bound by affection to the parent-home; but if the father try to +interfere in the house of a son, and govern it in any detail, there will +be strife. It is hardly necessary to labour the point. If all the people +in this country were of English extraction and England were to claim on +that account that there should be a connection with her, and that it +should dominate the people here, there would be strife; and it could +have but one end—separation. We would, of whatever extraction, have +lived in natural neighbourliness with England, but she chose to trap and +harass us, and it will take long generations of goodwill to wipe out +some memories. Again, and yet again, let there be no confusion of +thought as to this final peace; it will never come while there is any +formal link of dependence. The spirit of our manhood will always flame +up to resent and resist that link. Separation and equality may restore +ties of friendship; nothing else can: for individual development and +general goodwill is the lesson of human life. We can be good neighbours, +but most dangerous enemies, and in the coming time our hereditary foe +cannot afford to have us on her flank. The present is promising; the +future is developing for us: we shall reach the goal. Let us see to it +that we shall be found worthy.</p> + +<h4>VI</h4> + +<p>That we be found worthy; let this be borne in mind. For it is true that +here only is our great danger. If with our freedom to win, our country +to open up, our future to develop, we learn no lesson from the mistakes +of nations and live no better life than the great Powers, we shall have +missed a golden opportunity, and shall be one of the failures of +history. So far, on superficial judgment, we have been accounted a +failure; though the simple maintenance of our fight for centuries has +been in itself a splendid triumph. But then only would we have failed in +the great sense, when we had got our field and wasted it, as the nations +around us waste theirs to-day. We led Europe once; let us lead again +with a beautiful realisation of freedom; and let us beware of the +delusion that is abroad, that we seek nothing more than to be free of +restraint, as England, France and Germany are to-day; let us beware of +the delusion that if we can scramble through anyhow to freedom we can +then begin to live worthily, but that in the interval we cannot be too +particular. That is the grim shadow that darkens our path, that falls +between us and a beautiful human life, and may drive us to that +tiger-like existence that makes havoc through the world to-day. Let us +beware. I do not say we must settle now all disputes, such as capital, +labour, and others, but that everyone should realise a duty to be +high-minded and honourable in action; to regard his fellow not as a man +to be circumvented, but as a brother to be sympathised with and +uplifted. Neither kingdom, republic, nor commune can regenerate us; it +is in the beautiful mind and a great ideal we shall find the charter of +our freedom; and this is the philosophy that it is most essential to +preach. We must not ignore it now, for how we work to-day will decide +how we shall live to-morrow; and if we are not scrupulous in our +struggle, we shall not be pure in our future state, I know there are +many who are not indifferent to high-minded action, but who live in +dread of an exacting code of life, fearing it will harass our movements +and make success impossible. Let us correct this mistake with the +reflection that the time is shaping for us. The power of our country is +strengthening; the grip of the enemy is slackening; every extension of +local government is a step nearer to independent government; the people +are not satisfied with an instalment; their capacity for further power +is developed, and they are equipped with weapons to win it. Even in our +time have we made great advance. Let one fact alone make this evident. +Less than twenty years ago the Irish language was despised; to-day the +movement to restore it is strong enough to have it made compulsory in +the National University. Can anyone doubt from this sign of the times +alone that the hour points to freedom, and we are on the road to +victory? That we shall win our freedom I have no doubt; that we shall +use it well I am not so certain, for see how sadly misused it is abroad +through the world to-day. That should be our final consideration, and we +should make this a resolution—our future history shall be more glorious +than that of any contemporary state. We shall look for prosperity, no +doubt, but let our enthusiasm be for beautiful living; we shall build up +our strength, yet not for conquest, but as a pledge of brotherhood and a +defence for the weaker ones of the earth; we shall take pride in our +institutions, not only as guaranteeing the stability of the state, but +as securing the happiness of the citizens, and we shall lead Europe +again as we led it of old. We shall rouse the world from a wicked dream +of material greed, of tyrannical power, of corrupt and callous politics +to the wonder of a regenerated spirit, a new and beautiful dream; and we +shall establish our state in a true freedom that will endure for ever.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_III'></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>MORAL FORCE</h3> + +<h4>I</h4> + +<p>One of the great difficulties in discussing any question of importance +in Ireland is that words have been twisted from their original and true +significance, and if we are to have any effective discussion, we must +first make clear the meaning of our terms. Love of country is quoted to +tolerate every insidious error of weakness, but if it has any meaning it +should make men strong-souled and resolute in every crisis. Men working +for the extension of Local Government toast "Ireland a Nation," and +extol Home Rule as independence; but while there is any restraint on us +by a neighbouring Power, acknowledged superior, there is dependence to +that extent. Straightway, those who fight for independence shift their +ground and plead for absolute independence, but there is no such thing +as qualified independence; and when we abandon the simple name to men of +half-measures, we prejudice our cause and confuse the issue. Then there +is the irreconcilable—how is he regarded in the common cry? Always an +impossible, wild, foolish person, and we frequently resent the name and +try to explain his reasonableness instead of exulting in his strength, +for the true irreconcilable is the simple lover of the truth. Among men +fighting for freedom some start up in their plea for liberty, pointing +to the prosperity of England, France, and Germany, and when we debate +the means by which they won their power, we find our friends draw no +distinction between true freedom and licentious living; but it would be +better to be crushed under the wheels of great Powers than to prosper by +their example. And so, through every discussion we must make clear the +meaning of our terms. There is one I would treat particularly now. Of +all the terms glibly flung about in every debate not one has been so +confused as Moral Force.</p> + +<h4>II</h4> + +<p>Since the time of O'Connell the cry Moral Force has been used +persistently to cover up the weakness of every politician who was afraid +or unwilling to fight for the whole rights of his country, and confusion +has been the consequence. I am not going here to raise old debates over +O'Connell's memory, who, when all is said, was a great man and a +patriot. Let those of us who read with burning eyes of the shameless +fiasco of Clontarf recall for full judgment the O'Connell of earlier +years, when his unwearied heart was fighting the uphill fight of the +pioneer. But a great need now is to challenge his later influence, which +is overshadowing us to our undoing. For we find men of this time who +lack moral courage fighting in the name of moral force, while those who +are pre-eminent as men of moral fibre are dismissed with a +smile—physical-force men. To make clear the confusion we need only to +distinguish moral force from moral weakness. There is the distinction. +Call it what we will, moral courage, moral strength, moral force; we all +recognise that great virtue of mind and heart that keeps a man +unconquerable above every power of brute strength. I call it moral +force, which is a good name, and I make the definition: a man of moral +force is he who, seeing a thing to be right and essential and claiming +his allegiance, stands for it as for the truth, unheeding any +consequence. It is not that he is a wild person, utterly reckless of all +mad possibilities, filled with a madder hope, and indifferent to any +havoc that may ensue. No, but it is a first principle of his, that a +true thing is a good thing, and from a good thing rightly pursued can +follow no bad consequence. And he faces every possible development with +conscience at rest—it may be with trepidation for his own courage in +some great ordeal, but for the nobility of the cause and the beauty of +the result that must ensue, always with serene faith. And soon the +trepidation for himself passes, for a great cause always makes great +men, and many who set out in hesitation die heroes. This it is that +explains the strange and wonderful buoyancy of men, standing for great +ideals, so little understood of others of weaker mould. The soldier of +freedom knows he is forward in the battle of Truth, he knows his +victory will make for a world beautiful, that if he must inflict or +endure pain, it is for the regeneration of those who suffer, the +emancipation of those in chains, the exaltation of those who die, and +the security and happiness of generations yet unborn. For the strength +that will support a man through every phase of this struggle a strong +and courageous mind is the primary need—in a word, Moral Force. A man +who will be brave only if tramping with a legion will fail in courage if +called to stand in the breach alone. And it must be clear to all that +till Ireland can again summon her banded armies there will be abundant +need for men who will stand the single test. 'Tis the bravest test, the +noblest test, and 'tis the test that offers the surest and greatest +victory. For one armed man cannot resist a multitude, nor one army +conquer countless legions; but not all the armies of all the Empires of +earth can crush the spirit of one true man. And that one man will +prevail.</p> + +<h4>III</h4> + +<p>But so much have we felt the need of resisting every slavish tendency +that found refuge under the name of Moral Force, that those of us who +would vindicate our manhood cried wildly out again for the physical +test; and we cried it long and repeatedly the more we smarted under the +meanness of retrograde times. But the time is again inspiring, and the +air must now be cleared. We have set up for the final test of the man of +unconquerable spirit that test which is the first and last argument of +tyranny—recourse to brute strength. We have surrounded with fictitious +glory the carnage of the battlefields; we have shouted of wading through +our enemies' blood, as if bloody fields were beautiful; we have been +contemptuous of peace, as if every war were exhilarating; but, "War is +hell," said a famous general in the field. This, of course, is +exaggeration, but there is a grim element of truth in the warning that +must be kept in mind at all times. If one among us still would resent +being asked to forego what he thinks a rightful need of vengeance, let +him look into himself. Let him consider his feelings on the death of +some notorious traitor or criminal; not satisfaction, but awe, is the +uppermost feeling in his heart. Death sobers us all. But away from death +this may be unconvincing; and one may still shout of the glory of +floating the ship of freedom in the blood of the enemy. I give him +pause. He may still correct his philosophy in view of the horror of a +street accident or the brutality of a prize-fight.</p> + +<h4>IV</h4> + +<p>But war must be faced and blood must be shed, not gleefully, but as a +terrible necessity, because there are moral horrors worse than any +physical horror, because freedom is indispensable for a soul erect, and +freedom must be had at any cost of suffering; the soul is greater than +the body. This is the justification of war. If hesitating to undertake +it means the overthrow of liberty possessed, or the lying passive in +slavery already accomplished, then it is the duty of every man to fight +if he is standing, or revolt if he is down. And he must make no peace +till freedom is assured, for the moral plague that eats up a people +whose independence is lost is more calamitous than any physical rending +of limb from limb. The body is a passing phase; the spirit is immortal; +and the degradation of that immortal part of man is the great tragedy of +life. Consider all the mean things and debasing tendencies that wither +up a people in a state of slavery. There are the bribes of those in +power to maintain their ascendancy, the barter of every principle by +time-servers; the corruption of public life and the apathy of private +life; the hard struggle of those of high ideals, the conflict with all +ignoble practices, the wearing down of patience, and in the end the +quiet abandoning of the flag once bravely flourished; then the increased +numbers of the apathetic and the general gloom, depression, and +despair—everywhere a land decaying. Viciousness, meanness, cowardice, +intolerance, every bad thing arises like a weed in the night and blights +the land where freedom is dead; and the aspect of that land and the soul +of that people become spectacles of disgust, revolting and terrible, +terrible for the high things degraded and the great destinies +imperilled. It would be less terrible if an earthquake split the land in +two, and sank it into the ocean. To avert the moral plague of slavery +men fly to arms, notwithstanding the physical consequence, and those who +set more count by the physical consequences cannot by that avert them, +for the moral disease is followed by physical wreck—if delayed still +inevitable. So, physical force is justified, not <i>per se</i>, but as an +expression of moral force; where it is unsupported by the higher +principle it is evil incarnate. The true antithesis is not between moral +force and physical force, but between moral force and moral weakness. +That is the fundamental distinction being ignored on all sides. When the +time demands and the occasion offers, it is imperative to have recourse +to arms, but in that terrible crisis we must preserve our balance. If we +leap forward for our enemies' blood, glorifying brute force, we set up +the standard of the tyrant and heap up infamy for ourselves; on the +other hand, if we hesitate to take the stern action demanded, we fail in +strength of soul, and let slip the dogs of war to every extreme of +weakness and wildness, to create depravity and horror that will +ultimately destroy us. A true soldier of freedom will not hesitate to +strike vigorously and strike home, knowing that on his resolution will +depend the restoration and defence of liberty. But he will always +remember that restraint is the great attribute that separates man from +beast, that retaliation is the vicious resource of the tyrant and the +slave; that magnanimity is the splendour of manhood; and he will +remember that he strikes not at his enemy's life, but at his misdeed, +that in destroying the misdeed, he makes not only for his own freedom, +but even for his enemy's regeneration. This may be for most of us +perhaps too great a dream. But for him who reads into the heart of the +question and for the true shaping of his course it will stand; he will +never forget, even in the thickest fight, that the enemy of to-day and +yesterday may be the genuine comrade of to-morrow.</p> + +<h4>V</h4> + +<p>If it is imperative that we should fix unalterably our guiding +principles before we are plunged unprepared into the fight, it is even +more urgent we should clear the mind to the truth now, for we have +fallen into the dangerous habit of deferring important questions on the +plea that the time is not ripe. In a word, we lack moral strength; and +so, that virtue that is to safeguard us in time of war is the great +virtue that will redeem us in time of servility. It need not be further +laboured that in a state enslaved every mean thing flourishes. The +admission of it makes clear that in such a state it is more important +that every evil be resisted. In a normal condition of liberty many +temporary evils may arise; yet they are not dangerous—in the glow of a +people's freedom they waste and die as disease dies in the sunlight. But +where independence is suppressed and a people degenerate, a little evil +is in an atmosphere to grow, and it grows and expands; and evils +multiply and destroy. That is why men of high spirit working to +regenerate a fallen people must be more insistent to watch every little +defect and weak tendency that in a braver time would leave the soul +unruffled. That is why every difficulty, once it becomes evident, is +ripe for settlement. To evade the issue is to invite disaster. +Resolution alone will save us in our many dangers. But a plea for policy +will be raised to evade a particular and urgent question: "People won't +unite on it"; that's one cry. "Ignorant people will be led astray"; +that's another cry. There is always some excuse ready for evasion. The +difficulty is, that every party likes some part of the truth; no party +likes it all; but we must have it all, every line of it. We want no +popular editions and no philosophic selections—the truth, the whole +truth, and nothing but the truth. This must be the rule for everything +concerning which a man has a public duty and ought to have a public +opinion. There is a dangerous tendency gaining ground of slurring over +vital things because the settlement of them involves great difficulty, +and may involve great danger; but whatever the issue is we must face it. +It is a step forward to bring men together on points of agreement, but +men come thus together not without a certain amount of suspicion. In a +fight for freedom that latent suspicion would become a mastering fear to +seize and destroy us. We must allay it now. We must lead men to discuss +points of difference with respect, forbearance, and courage, to find a +consistent way of life for all that will inspire confidence in all. At +present we inspire confidence in no one; it would be fatal to hide the +fact. This is a necessary step to bringing matters to a head. We cannot +hope to succeed all at once, but we must keep the great aim in view. +There will be objections on all sides; from the <i>blasé</i> man of the +world, concerned only for his comfort, the mean man of business +concerned only for his profits, the man of policy always looking for a +middle way, a certain type of religious pessimist who always spies +danger in every proposal, and many others. We need not consider the +comfort of the first nor the selfishness of the second; but the third +and fourth require a word. The man of policy offers me his judgment +instead of a clear consideration of the truth. 'Tis he who says: "You +and I can discuss certain things privately. We are educated; we +understand. Ignorant people can't understand, and you only make mischief +in supposing it. It's not wise." To him I reply: "You are afraid to +speak the whole truth; I am afraid to hide it. You are filled with the +danger to ignorant people of having out everything; I am filled with the +danger to <i>you</i> of suppressing anything. I do not propose to you that +you can with the whole truth make ignorant people profound, but I say +you must have the whole truth out for your own salvation." Here is the +danger: we see life within certain limitations, and cannot see the +possibly infinite significance of something we would put by. It is of +grave importance that we see it rightly, and in the difficulties of the +case our only safe course is to take the evidence life offers without +prejudice and without fear, and write it down. When the matter is grave, +let it be taken with all the mature deliberation and care its gravity +demands, but once the evidence is clearly seen, let us for our salvation +write it down. For any man to set his petty judgment above the need for +setting down the truth is madness; and I refuse to do it. There is our +religious pessimist to consider. To him I say I take religion more +seriously. I take it not to evade the problems of life, but to solve +them. When I tell him to have no fear, this is not my indifference to +the issue, but a tribute to the faith that is in me. Let us be careful +to do the right thing; then fear is inconsistent with faith. Nor can I +understand the other attitude. Two thousand years after the preaching of +the Sermon on the Mount we are to go about whispering to one another +what is wise.</p> + +<h4>VI</h4> + +<p>To conclude: Now, and in every phase of the coming struggle, the strong +mind is a greater need than the strong hand. We must be passionate, but +the mind must guide and govern our passion. In the aberrations of the +weak mind decrying resistance, let us not lose our balance and defy +brute strength. At a later stage we must consider the ethics of +resistance to the Civil Power; the significance of what is written now +will be more apparent then. Let the cultivation of a brave, high spirit +be our great task; it will make of each man's soul an unassailable +fortress. Armies may fail, but it resists for ever. The body it informs +may be crushed; the spirit in passing breathes on other souls, and other +hearts are fired to action, and the fight goes on to victory. To the man +whose mind is true and resolute ultimate victory is assured. No +sophistry can sap his resistance; no weakness can tempt him to savage +reprisals. He will neither abandon his heritage nor poison his nature. +And in every crisis he is steadfast, in every issue justified. Rejoice, +then good comrades; our souls are still our own. Through the coldness +and depression of the time there has lightened a flash of the old fire; +the old enthusiasm, warm and passionate, is again stirring us; we are +forward to uphold our country's right, to fight for her liberty, and to +justify our own generation. We shall conquer. Let the enemy count his +dreadnoughts and number off his legions—where are now the legions of +Rome and Carthage? And the Spirit of Freedom they challenged is alive +and animating the young nations to-day. Hold we our heads high, then, +and we shall bear our flag bravely through every fight. Persistent, +consistent, straightforward and fearless, so shall we discipline the +soul to great deeds, and make it indomitable. In the indomitable soul +lies the assurance of our ultimate victory.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_IV'></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>BROTHERS AND ENEMIES</h3> + +<h4>I</h4> + +<p>Our enemies are brothers from whom we are estranged. Here is the +fundamental truth that explains and justifies our hope of +re-establishing a real patriotism among all parties in Ireland, and a +final peace with our ancient enemy of England. It is the view of +prejudice that makes of the various sections of our people hopelessly +hostile divisions, and raises up a barrier of hate between Ireland and +England that can never be surmounted. If Ireland is to be regenerated, +we must have internal unity; if the world is to be regenerated, we must +have world-wide unity—not of government, but of brotherhood. To this +great end every individual, every nation has a duty; and that the end +may not be missed we must continually turn for the correction of our +philosophy to reflecting on the common origin of the human race, on the +beauty of the world that is the heritage of all, our common hopes and +fears, and in the greatest sense the mutual interests of the peoples of +the earth. If, unheeding this, any people make their part of the earth +ugly with acts of tyranny and baseness, they threaten the security of +all; if unconscious of it, a people always high-spirited are plunged +into war with a neighbour, now a foe, and yet fight, as their nature +compels them, bravely and magnanimously, they but drive their enemy back +to the field of a purer life, and, perhaps, to the realisation of a more +beautiful existence, a dream to which his stagnant soul steeped in +ugliness could never rise.</p> + +<h4>II</h4> + +<p>On the road to freedom every alliance will be sternly tried. Internal +friendship will not be made in a day, nor external friendship for many a +day, and there will be how many temptations to hold it all a delusion +and scatter the few still standing loyally to the flag. We must +understand, then, the bond that holds us together on the line of march, +and in the teeth of every opposition. Nothing but a genuine bond of +brotherhood can so unite men, but we hardly seem to realise its truth. +When a deep and ardent patriotism requires men of different creeds to +come together frankly and in a spirit of comradeship, and when the most +earnest of all the creeds do so, others who are colder and less earnest +regard this union as a somewhat suspicious alliance; and, if they join +in, do so reluctantly. Others come not at all; these think our friends +labour in a delusion, that it needs but an occasion to start an old fear +and drive them apart, to attack one another with ancient bitterness +fired with fresh venom. We must combat that idea. Let us consider the +attitude to one another of three units of the band, who represent the +best of the company and should be typical of the whole; one who is a +Catholic, one who is a Protestant, and one who may happen to be neither. +The complete philosophy of any one of the three may not be accepted by +the other two; the horizon of his hopes may be more or less distant, but +that complete philosophy stretches beyond the limit of the sphere, +within which they are drawn together to mutual understanding and +comradeship, moved by a common hope, a brave purpose and a beautiful +dream. The significance of their work may be deeper for one than for +another, the origin of the dream and its ultimate aim may be points not +held in common; but the beautiful tangible thing that they all now fight +for, the purer public and private life, the more honourable dealings +between men, the higher ideals for the community and the nation, the +grander forbearance, courage and freedom, in all these they are at one. +The instinctive recognition of an attack on the ideal is alive and +vigilant in all three. The sympathy that binds them is ardent, deep and +enduring. Observe them come together. Note the warm hand grasp, the +drawn face of one, a hard-worker; of another, the eye anxious for a +brother hard pressed; of the third, the eye glistening for the ideal +triumphant; of all the intimate confidence, the mutual encouragement and +self-sacrifice, never a note of despair, but always the exultation of +the Great Fight, and the promise of a great victory. This is a finer +company than a mere casual alliance; yet it makes the uninspired pause, +wondering and questioning. These men are earnest men of different +creeds; still they are as intimately bound to one another as if they +knelt at the one altar. In the narrow view the creeds should be at one +another's throats; here they are marching shoulder to shoulder. How is +this? And the one whose creed is the most exacting could, perhaps, give +the best reply. He would reply that within the sphere in which they work +together the true thing that unites them can be done only the one right +way; that instinctively seizing this right way they come together; that +this is the line of advance to wider and deeper things that are his +inspiration and his life; that if a comrade is roused to action by the +nearer task, and labours bravely and rightly for it, he is on the road +to widening vistas in his dream that now he may not see. That is what he +would say whose vision of life is the widest. All objectors he may not +satisfy. That what is life to him may leave his comrade cold is a +difficulty; but against the difficulty stand the depth and reality of +their comradeship, proven by mutual sacrifice, endurance, and faith, and +he never doubts that their bond union will sometime prove to have a +wise and beautiful meaning in the Annals of God.</p> + +<h4>III</h4> + +<p>But the men of different creeds who stand firmly and loyally together +are a minority. We are faced with the great difficulty of uniting as a +whole North and South; and we are faced with the grim fact that many +whom we desire to unite are angrily repudiating a like desire, that many +are sarcastically noting this, that many are coldly refusing to believe; +while through it all the most bitter are emphasising enmity and +glorifying it. All these unbelievers keep insisting North and South are +natural enemies and must so remain. The situation is further embittered +by acts of enmity being practised by both sides to the extreme +provocation of the faithful few. Their forbearance will be sorely tried, +and this is the final test of men. By those who cling to prejudice and +abandon self-restraint, extol enmity, and always proceed to the further +step—the plea to wipe the enemy out: the counter plea for forbearance +is always scorned as the enervating gospel of weakness and despair. +Though we like to call ourselves Christian, we have no desire for—nay +even make a jest of—that outstanding Christian virtue; yet men not held +by Christian dogma have joyously surrendered to the sublimity of that +divine idea. Hear Shelley speak: "What nation has the example of the +desolation of Attica by Mardonius and Xerxes, or the extinction of the +Persian Empire by Alexander of Macedon restrained from outrage? Was not +the pretext for this latter system of spoliation derived immediately +from the former? Had revenge in this instance any other effect than to +increase, instead of diminishing, the mass of malice and evil already +existing in the world? The emptiness and folly of retaliation are +apparent from every example which can be brought forward." Shelley +writes much further on retaliation, which he denounces as "futile +superstition." Simple violence repels every high and generous thinker. +Hear one other, Mazzini: "What we have to do is not to establish a new +order of things by violence. An order of things so established is always +tyrannical even when it is better than the old." Let us bear this in +mind when there is an act of aggression on either side of the Boyne. +There will not be wanting on the other side a cry for retaliation and +"a lesson." We shall receive every provocation to give up and +acknowledge ancient bitterness, but then is the time to stand firm, then +we shall need to practise the divine forbearance that is the secret of +strength.</p> + +<h4>IV</h4> + +<p>But with only a minority standing to the flag we cry out for some hope +of final success. Men will not fight without result for ever; they ask +for some sign of progress, some gleam of the light of victory. Happily, +searching the skies, our eyes can have their reward. We shall, no doubt, +see, outstanding, dark evidence of old animosity; we shall hear fierce +war-cries and see raging crowds, but the crowds are less numerous, and +the wrath has lost its sting. Men who raged twenty years ago rage now, +but their fury is less real; and young men growing up around them, quite +indifferent to the ideal, are also indifferent to the counter cries: +they are passive, unimpressed by either side. Rightly approached, they +may understand and feel the glow of a fine enthusiasm; they are numbered +by prejudice, they will become warm, active and daring under an +inspiring appeal. Remember, and have done with despair. Think how you +and I found our path step by step of the way: political life was full of +conventions that suited our fathers' time, but have faded in the light +of our day. We found these conventions unreal and put them by. This was +no reflection on our fathers; what they fought for truly is our +heritage, and we pay them a tribute in offering it in turn our loyalty +inspired by their devotion. But their errors we must rectify; what they +left undone we must take up and fulfil. That is the task of every +generation, to take up the uncompleted work of the former one, and hand +on to their successors an achievement and a heritage. Youth recognises +this instinctively, and every generation will take a step in advance of +its predecessor, putting by its prejudices and developing its truth. +Every individual may know this from his own experience, and from it he +knows that those who are now voicing old bitter cries are ageing, and +will soon pass and leave no successors. Not that prejudice will die for +ever. Each new day will have its own, but that which is now dividing and +hampering us will pass. Let the memory of its bitterness be an +incentive to checking new animosities and keeping the future safe; but +in the present let us grasp and keep in our mind that the barrier that +sundered our nation must crumble, if only we have faith and persist, +undeterred by old bitter cries, for they are dying cries, undepressed by +millions apathetic, for it is the great recurring sign of the ideal, +that one hour its light will flash through quivering multitudes, and +millions will have vision and rouse to regenerate the land.</p> + +<h4>V</h4> + +<p>Happily, it is nothing new to plead for brotherhood among Irishmen now; +unhappily, it is not so generally admitted, nor even recognised, that +the same reason that exists for restoring friendly relations among +Irishmen, exists for the re-establishing of friendship with any +outsider—England or another—with whom now or in the future we may be +at war. Friendliness between neighbours is one of the natural things of +life. In the case of individuals how beautifully it shows between two +dwellers in the same street or townland. They rejoice together in +prosperity; give mutual aid in adversity; in the ordinary daily round +work together in a spirit of comradeship; at all times they find a bond +of unity in their mutual interests. Consider, then, the sundering of +their friendship by some act of evil on either side. The old friendship +is turned to hate. Now the proximity that gave intimate pleasure to +their comradeship gives as keen an edge to their enmity; they meet one +another, cross one another, harass one another at every point. The +bitterness that is such a poison to life must be revolting to their best +instincts; deep in their hearts must be a yearning for the casting out +of hate and the return of old comradeship. Still the estranged brothers +are at daggers drawn. Sometimes the evil done is so great and the +bitterness so keen that the old spirit can apparently never be restored; +but while there is any hope whatever the true heart will keep it alive +deep down, for it must be cherished and kept in mind if the whole beauty +of life is to be renewed and preserved for ever. It is so with nations +as with individuals. Once this is recognised we must be on guard against +a new error, which is an old error in new form, the taking of means for +end. The end of general peace is to give all nations freedom in +essentials, to realise the deeper purpose, possibilities, fulness and +beauty of life; it is not to have a peace at any price, peace with a +certain surrender, the meaner peace that is akin to slavery. No, its +message is to guard one nation from excess that has plunged another into +evil, to leave the way open to a final peace, not base but honourable; +it is to preserve the divine balance of the soul. It may be further +urged that we are engaged in a great fight; that to try to rouse in men +the more generous instincts will but weaken their hands by removing a +certain driving bitterness that gives strength to their fight. Whatever +it removes it will not be their strength. In a war admittedly between +brothers, a civil war, where different conceptions of duty force men +asunder, father is up against son, and brother against brother; yet they +are not weakened in their contest by ties of blood and the deeper-lying +harmony of things that in happier times prevail to the exclusion of +bitterness and hate. When, therefore, you teach a man his enemy is in a +deep sense his brother, you do not draw him from the fight, but you give +him a new conception of the goal to win and with a great dream inspire +him to persevere and reach the goal.</p> + +<h4>VI</h4> + +<p>If, then, beyond individual and national freedom there is this great +dream still to be striven for, let us not decry it as something too +sublime for earth. It must be our guiding star to lead us rightly as far +as we may go. We can travel rightly that part of the road we now tread +on only by shaping it true to the great end that ought to inspire us +all. We shall have many temptations to swerve aside, but the power of +mind that keeps our position clear and firm will react against every +destroying influence. In the first stage of the fight for internal +unity, when blind bigotry is furiously insisting that we but plan an +insidious scheme for the oppression of a minority, our firmness will +save us till our conception of the end grow on that minority and +convince all of our earnestness. Then the dream will inspire them, the +flag will claim them, and the first stage in the fight will be won. When +internal unity is accomplished, we are within reach of freedom. Yes, but +cries an objector, "Why plead for friendship with England, who will have +peace only on condition of her supremacy?" And an answer is needed. If +it takes two to make a fight, it also most certainly takes two to make a +peace, unless one accepts the position of serf and surrenders. But this +we do not fear; we can compel our freedom and we are confident of +victory. There is still the step to friendship. Many will be baffled by +the difficulty, that while we must keep alive our generous instincts, we +must be stern and resolute in the fight; while we desire peace we must +prosecute war; while we long for comradeship we must be breaking up +dangerous alliances: literary, political, trades and social unions +formed with England while she is asserting her supremacy must be broken +up till they can be reformed on a basis of independence, equality and +universal freedom. While we are prosecuting these vigorous measures it +may not seem the way to final friendship; but we must persist; +independence is first indispensable. Here again, however, while +insisting among our own ranks on our conception of the end, it will grow +on the mind of the enemy. They may put it by at first as a delusion or a +snare, but one intimate moment will come when it will light up for them, +and a new era is begun. In such a moment is evil abandoned, hate buried +and friendship reborn. There is one honest fear that our independence +would threaten their security: it will yet be replaced by the conviction +that there is a surer safeguard in our freedom than in our suppression; +the light will break through the clouds of suspicion and a star of stars +will glorify the earth. For this end our enemy must have an ideal as +high as our own; if thus an objector, he is right. But if in the gross +materialism and greed of empire that is now the ruling passion with the +enemy there is apparently little hope of a transformation that will make +them spiritual, high-minded and generous, we must not abandon our ideal: +while the meanness and tyranny of contemporary England stand forward +against our argument and leave our reasoning cold, we can find a more +subtle appeal in spirit, such an appeal as comes to us in a play of +Shakespeare's, a song of Shelley's, or a picture of Turner's. From the +heart of the enemy Genius cries, bearing witness to our common humanity, +and the yearning for such high comradeship is alive, and the dream +survives to light us on the forward path. We must travel that path +rightly. We can so travel whatever the enemy's mind. More difficult it +will be, but it can be done. That is the great significance and +justification of Nationalism: it is the unanswerable argument to +cosmopolitanism. If the greatness and beauty of life that ought to be +the dream of all nations is denied by all but one, that one may keep +alive the dream within her own frontier till its fascination will arrest +and inspire the world. If this ultimate dream is still floating far off, +in its pursuit there is for us achievement on achievement, and each +brave thing done is in itself a beauty and a joy for ever. For the good +fighter there is always fine recompense; a clear mind, warm blood, quick +imagination, grasp of life and joy in action, and at the end of day +always an eminence won. Yes, and from the height of that eminence will +come ringing down to the last doubter a last word: we may reach the +mountaintops in aspiring to the stars.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_V'></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h4>THE SECRET OF STRENGTH</h4> + +<h4>I</h4> + +<p>To win our freedom we must be strong. But what is the secret of +strength? It is fundamental to the whole question to understand this +rightly, and, once grasped, make it the mainstay of individual +existence, which is the foundation of national life. So much has the +bodily power of over-riding minorities been made the criterion of +absolute power, that to make clear the truth requires patience, insight, +and a little mental study. But the end is a great end. It is to +reconnoitre the most important battlefield, to discover the dispositions +of the enemy, to measure our own resources and forge our strength link +by link till we put on the armour of invincibility.</p> + +<h4>II</h4> + +<p>We have to grasp a distinction, knowledge of which is essential to +discerning true strength. It can be clearly seen in the contrast between +two certain fighting forces; first, a well-organised army, capably led, +marching forward full of hope and buoyancy; second, a remnant of that +army after disaster, a mere handful, not swept like their comrades in +panic, but with souls set to fight a forlorn hope. Let us study the two: +in the contrast we shall learn the secret. The courage of the +well-organised army is not of so fine a quality as that nerving the few +to fight to the last gasp. Consider first the army. What is its value as +a force? Its discipline, its consolidation, the absolute obedience of +its units to its officers, with the resulting unity of the whole; added +to this is the sense of security in numbers, buoyancy of marching in a +compact body, confidence in capable chiefs—all these factors go to the +making of the courage and strength of the army. It is because their +combination makes for the reliability of the force that discipline is +so much valued and enforced, even to the point of death. Let us keep +this in our mind, that their strength lies in their numbers, +concentration, unity, reliance on one another and on their chiefs. A +sudden disaster overtakes that army—the death of a great general, the +miscarriage of some plan, a surprise attack, any of the chances of war, +and the strength of the army is pierced, the discipline shaken, the +sense of security gone. There is an instinctive movement to retreat; the +habit of discipline keeps it orderly at first; the fear grows; all +precaution and restraint are thrown aside—the retreat is a rout, the +army a rabble, the end debacle. External discipline in giving them its +strength left them without individual resource; internal discipline was +ignored. When their combined strength was gone there was individual +helplessness and panic. Consider, now, a remnant of that army, the +members of which have the courage of the finer quality, individually +resolute and set on resistance, clearly seeing at once all the possible +consequences of their action, yet with that higher quality of soul +accepting them without hesitation, pledging all human hopes for one +last great hope of snatching victory from defeat, or, if not to save a +lost battle, to check an advancing host, rally flying forces, and redeem +a campaign. This is the heroic quality. In a crisis, the mind possessed +of it does not wait for instructions or to reason a conclusion. It sees +definite things, and swift as thought decides. There are flying legions, +a flag down, a conquering army, and flight or death—to all eyes these +are apparent; but to a brave company between that flight and death there +is a gleam of hope, of victory, and for that forlorn hope flight is put +by with the acceptance of death in the alternative if they fail. That is +the quality to redeem us. Because it is witnessed so often in our +history we are going to win; not for our prowess in more fortunate war +on an even field or with the flowing tide, not for many victories in +many lands, but for the sacred places in this our brave land that are +memorable for fights that registered the land unconquerable. Why a last +stand and a sacrifice are more inspiring than a great victory is one of +the hidden things; but the truth stands: for thinking of them our +spirits re-kindle, our courage re-awakens, and we stiffen our backs for +another battle.</p> + +<h4>III</h4> + +<p>We have, then, to develop individual patience, courage, and resolution. +Once this is borne in mind our work begins. In places there is a +dangerous idea that sometime in the future we may be called on to strike +a blow for freedom, but in the meantime there is little to do but watch +and wait. This is a fatal error; we have to forge our strength in the +interval. There is a further mistake that our national work is something +apart, that social, business, religious and other concerns have no +relation to it, and consequently we set apart a few hours of our leisure +for national work, and go about our day as if no nation existed. But the +middle of the day has a natural connection with the beginning of the day +and the end of the day, and in whatever sphere a man finds himself, his +acts must be in relation to and consistent with every other sphere. He +will be the best patriot and the best soldier who is the best friend and +the best citizen. One cannot be an honest man in one sphere and a +rascal in another; and since a citizen to fulfil his duty to his country +must be honourable and zealous, he must develop the underlying virtues +in private life. He must strengthen the individual character, and to do +this he must deal with many things seemingly remote and inconsequential +from a national point of view. Everything that crosses a man's path in +his day's round of little or great moment requires of him an attitude +towards it, and the conscious or unconscious shaping of his attitude is +determining how he will proceed in other spheres not now in view. +Suppose the case of a man in business or social life. He has to work +with others in a day's routine or fill up with them hours of leisure +they enjoy together. Consider to what accompaniment the work is often +done and with what manner of conversation the leisure is often filled. +In a day's routine, where men work together, harmonious relations are +necessary; yet what bickerings, contentions, animosities fill many a day +over points never worth a thought. You will see two men squabble like +cats for the veriest trifle, and then go through days like children, +without a word. You will see something similar in social life among men +and women equally—petty jealousies, personalities, slanderings, mean +little stories of no great consequence in themselves, except in the +converse sense of showing how small and contemptible everything and +everyone concerned is. A keen eye notes with some depression the absence +from both spheres of a fine manliness, a generous conception of things, +a large outlook, that prevents a squabble with a smile, and because of a +consciousness of the need for determination in a great fight for a +principle, holds in true contempt the trivialities of an hour. For in +all the mean little bickerings of life there is involved not a +principle, but a petty pride. One has to note these things and decide a +line of action. In the abstract the right course seems quite natural and +easy, but in fact it is not so. A man finds another act towards him with +unconscious impudence or arrogance, and at once flies into a rage; there +is a fierce wrangle, and at the end he finds no purpose served, for +nothing was at stake. He has lost his temper for nothing. In his heat he +may tell you "he wouldn't let so-and-so do so-and-so," but on the same +principle he should hold a street-argument with every fish-wife who +might call him a name. He may tell you "he will make so-and-so respect +him," but he offends his own self-respect if he cannot consider some +things beneath him. One must have a sense of proportion and not elevate +every little act of impudence into a challenge of life to be fought over +as for life and death. It may be corrected with a little humour or a +little disdain, but always with sympathy for the narrow mind whose view +of life cannot reach beyond these petty things. Yet, to repeat, it is +not easy. An irritable temper will be on fire before reason can check +it; the process of correction will prove uncomfortable—the reasons will +be there, but the feelings in revolt. Still, little by little, it is +brought under, and in the end the nasty little irritability is killed +just like a troublesome nerve; and, by and by, what once provoked a +fierce rage becomes a subject for humorous reflection. Let no one fear +we kill the nerve for the great Battle of Life; this we but strengthen +and make constant. Every act of personal discipline is contributing to a +subconscious reservoir whence our nobler energies are supplied for +ever. And so, little things lead to great; and in an office wrangle or a +social squabble there is need for developing those very qualities of +judgment, courage, and patience which equip a man for the trials of the +battlefield or the ruling of the state.</p> + +<h4>IV</h4> + +<p>We have considered the individual in business and social life. Let us +now follow him into a political assembly. We find the same conditions +prevail. Again, men fight bitterly but most frequently for nothing worth +a fight; and again those rightly judging the situation must resolve not +to be tempted into a wrangle even if their restraint be called by +another name. What in a political assembly is often the first thing to +note? We begin by the assumption, "this is a practical body of men," the +words invariably used to cover the putting by of some great principle +that we ought all endorse and uphold. But, first, by one of the many +specious reasons now approved, we put the principle by, and before long +we are at one another's throats about things involving no principle. It +is not necessary to particularise. Note any meeting for the same general +conditions: a chairman, indecisive, explaining rules of order which he +lacks the grit to apply; members ignoring the chair and talking at one +another; others calling to order or talking out of time or away from the +point; one unconsciously showing the futility of the whole business by +asking occasionally what is before the chair, or what the purpose of the +meeting. This picture is familiar to us all, and curiously we seem to +take it always as the particular freak of a particular time or locality; +but it is nothing of the kind. It is the natural and logical result of +putting by principle and trying to live away from it. Yet, that is what +we are doing every day. It means we lack collectively the courage to +pursue a thing to its logical conclusion and fight for the truth +realised. If we are to be otherwise as a body, it will only be by +personal discipline training for the wider and greater field. We must +get a proper conception of the great cause we stand for, its magnitude +and majesty, and that to be worthy of its service we must have a +standard above reproach, have an end of petty proposals and underhand +doings, be of brave front, resolute heart, and honourable intent. We +must all understand this each in his own mind and shape his actions, +each to be found faithful in the test. In fine, if in private life there +is need for developing the great virtues requisite for public service, +even more is it necessary in public life to develop the courage, +patience and wisdom of the soldier and the statesman.</p> + +<h4>V</h4> + +<p>A concrete case will give a clearer grasp of the issue than any abstract +reasoning. Our history, recent and remote, affords many examples of the +abandoning by our public men of a principle, to defend which they +entered public life; and our action on such an occasion is invariably +the same—to regard the delinquent as simply a traitor, to load him with +invective and scorn and brand him for ever. We never see it is not +innate wickedness in the man, but a weakness against which he has been +untrained and undisciplined, and which leaves him helpless in the first +crisis. Ireland has recently been incensed by the action of some of her +mayors and lord mayors in connection with the English Coronation +festival; the feeling has been acute in the metropolis. Certain things +are obvious, but how many see what is below the surface? Let me suggest +a case and a series of circumstances; the more pointed the case, the +more interesting. I will suppose a particular mayor is an old Fenian: +let us see how for him a web is finely woven, and in the end how +securely he is netted. First a mayor is a magistrate, and must take the +judicial oath, but the old Fenian has taken an oath of allegiance to +Ireland—clash number one. It is not simply a question of yes or no; +there are attendant circumstances. Around a public man in place +circulates a swarm of interested people, needy friends, meddling +politicians, "supporters" generally. The chief magistrate will have +influence on the bench which they all wish to invoke now and then, and +they all wish to see him there. They don't approve of any principle that +stands in the way. They group themselves together as his "supporters," +and claiming to have put him into public life, they act as if they had +acquired a lease of his soul. Not what he knows to be right, but what +they believe to be useful, must be done; and before the first day is +done the first fight must be made. However, the old Fenian has enough of +the spirit of old times to come safe through the first round. But the +second is close on his heels: Dublin Castle has been attentive. The +mayor, as chief magistrate, has privileges on which the Castle now +silently closes. There are private and veiled remonstrances by secret +officials: "The mayor is acting illegally; he must not do so-and-so; +such is the function of a magistrate; he has not taken the oath," etc. +All this renewing the fight of the first day, for the Castle, too, wants +the mayor on the bench to brand him as its own and alienate him from the +old flag. It puts on the pressure by suppressing his privileges, +weakening his influence, and disappointing his "supporters." All this is +silently done. Still, the mayor holds fast, but he has not counted on +this, and is beginning to be baffled and worried. Meanwhile a sort of +guerilla attack is being maintained: invitations arrive to garden +parties at Windsor, lesser functions nearer home, free passages to all +the gay festivals, free admissions everywhere, the route indicated, and +a gracious request for the presence of the mayor and mayoress. Genuine +business engagements now save the situation, and the invitations are put +by, but our chief citizen is now bewildered. These social missiles are +flying in all directions, always gracious and flattering, never +challenging and rude—who can withstand them? Still he is bewildered, +but not yet caught. A new assault is made: the great Health Crusade +Battery is called up. Here we must all unite, God's English and the wild +Irish, the Fenian and the Castleman, the labourer and the lord. Surely, +we are all against the microbes. There is a great demonstration, their +Excellencies attend—and the mayor presides. Under the banner of the +microbe he is caught. It is a great occasion, which their Excellencies +grace and improve. His Excellency is affable with the mayor; her +Excellency is confidential and gracious with the mayoress—we might have +been schoolchildren in the same townland we are so cordial. Everything +proceeds amid plaudits, and winds up in acclamation. Their Excellencies +depart. Great is the no-politics era—you can so quietly spike the guns +of many an old politician—and keep him safe. The social amenities do +this. Their Excellencies have gone, but they do not forget. There is a +warm word of thanks for recent hospitality. Perhaps the mayor has a +daughter about to be married, or a son has died; it is remembered, and +the cordial congratulation or gracious sympathy comes duly under the +great seal. What surly man would resent sympathy? And so, the strength +of the old warrior is sapped; the web is woven finely; in its secret net +the Castle has its man. You who have exercised yourselves in Dublin +recently over mayoral doings, note all this—not to the making light of +any man's surrender, but to the true judging of the event, its deeper +significance and danger. Whoever fails must be called to account. When a +man takes a position of trust, influence, and honour, and, whatever the +difficulty, abandons a principle he should hold sacred, he must be held +responsible. A battle is an ordeal, and we must be stern with friend and +foe. But there is something more sinister than the weakness of the man: +remember the net.</p> + +<h4>VI</h4> + +<p>The concrete case makes clear the principle in question. The man whom we +have seen go down would have been safe if he had to fight no battle but +one he could face with all his true friends, and in the open light of +day. Having to fight a secret battle was never even considered: threats +direct or vague or subtle, blandishments, cajolery, graciousness, +patronage, flattery, plausible generalities, attacks indirect and +insidious—all coming without pause, secret, silent, tireless. He who is +to be proof against this, and above threat or flattery, must have been +disciplined with the discipline of a life that trains him for every +emergency. You cannot take up such a character like a garment to suit +the occasion: it must be developed in private and public by all those +daily acts that declare a man's attitude, register his convictions, and +form his mind. It gives its own reward at once, even in the day where +nothing is apparently at stake; where men scramble furiously over the +petty things of life; for he who sees these things at their proper value +is unruffled. His composure in all the fury has its own value. But the +mind that held him so, by the very act of dismissing something petty, +gets a clearer conception of the great things of life; by intuition is +at once awake to a hovering and fatal menace to individual or national +existence, unseen of the common eye; and in that hour proves, to the +confusion of the enemy, clear, vigorous and swift. Let us, then, for +this great end note what is the secret of strength. Not alone to be +ready to stand in with a host and march bravely to battle—the +discipline that provides for this is great and valuable and must be +always observed and practised. This gives, however, only the common +courage of the crowd, and can only be trusted on an even field where the +chances of war are equal. But when there is a struggle to restore +freedom, where from the nature of the case the chances are uneven and +the soldiers of liberty are at every disadvantage, then must we seek to +adjust the balance by a finer courage and a more enduring strength. The +mustering of legions will not suffice. The general reviewing this fine +array who would rightly estimate the power he may command, must silently +examine the units, to judge of this brave host how large a company can +be formed to fight a forlorn hope. If this spirit is in reserve, he is +armed against every emergency. If the chances are equal, he will have a +splendid victory; if by any of the turns of war his legions are shaken +and disaster threatened, there is always a certain rallying-ground where +the host can re-form and the field be re-won, and the flag that has seen +so many vicissitudes be set at last high and proudly in the light of +Freedom.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_VI'></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>PRINCIPLE IN ACTION</h3> + +<h4>I</h4> + +<p>Our philosophy is valueless unless we bring it into life. With +sufficient ingenuity we might frame theory after theory, and if they +could not be put to the test of a work-a-day existence we but add +another to the many dead theories that litter the History of Philosophy. +Our principles are not to argue about, or write about, or hold meetings +about, but primarily to give us a rule of life. To ignore this is to +waste time and energy. To observe and follow it is to take from the +clouds something that appeals to us, work it into life, by it interpret +the problems to hand, make our choice between opposing standards, and +maintain our fidelity to the true one against every opposition and +through every fitful though terrible depression; so shall we startle +people with its reality, and make for it a disciple or an opponent, but +always at once convince the generation that there is a serious work in +hand.</p> + +<h4>II</h4> + +<p>If our philosophy is to be worked into life the first thing naturally is +to review the situation. If we are to judge rightly, we must understand +the present, draw from the past its lesson, and shape our plans for the +future true to the principles that govern and inform every generation. +Let us survey the past, taking a sufficiently wide view between two +points—say '98 and our own time—and we see certain definite +conditions. Great luminous years—'98, '03, '48, '67, rise up, witness +to a great principle, readiness for sacrifice, unshaken belief in truth, +valour and freedom, and a flag that will ultimately prevail. In these +years the people had vision, the blood quickened, a living flame swept +the land, scorching up hypocrisy, deceit, meanness, and lighting all +brave hearts to high hope and achievement—for, the whimperers +notwithstanding, it was always achievement to challenge the enemy and +stagger his power, though yet his expulsion is delayed. Between the +glorious years of the living flame there intervened pallid times of +depression, where every disease of soul and body crept into the open. +True hearts lived, scattered here and there, believing still but +disorganised and bewildered—the leaders were stricken down and in their +place, obscuring the beauty of life, the grandeur of the past, and our +future destiny, came time-servers, flatterers, hypocrites, open +traffickers in honour and public decency, fastening their mean authority +on the land. These are the two great resting-places in our historic +survey: the generation of the living flame and the generation of +despair; and it is for us to decide—for the decision rests with +us—whether we shall in our time merely mark time or write another +luminous chapter in the splendid history of our race.</p> + +<h4>III</h4> + +<p>Let us consider these two generations apart, to understand their +distinctive features more clearly for our own guidance. Take first the +years of vision and the general effort to replant the old flag on our +walls. With the first enthusiasts breathing the living flame abroad, +the kindling hope, the widening fires, the deepening dream, there grows +a consciousness of the greatness of the goal, of the general duty, of +the individual responsibility for higher character, steadier work, and +purer motive; and gradually meanness, trickeries, and treacheries are +weeded out of the individual and national consciousness: there is a +realisation of a time come to restore the nation's independence, and +with passion and enthusiasm are fused a fine resolve and nerve. All the +excited doings of the feverish or pallid years are put by as unworthy or +futile. The great idea inspires a great fight; and that fight is made, +and, notwithstanding any reverse, must be recorded great. Whatever +concourse of circumstances mar the dream and delay the victory, those +brave years are as a torch in witness to the ideal, in justification of +its soldiers and in promise of final success.</p> + +<h4>IV</h4> + +<p>Let us examine now the deadening years that intervene between the great +fights for freedom. We have known something of these times ourselves, +have touched on them already, and need not further draw out the +demoralising things that corrupt and dishearten us. But what we urgently +require to study is the kind of effort—more often the absence of +effort—made in such years by those who keep their belief in freedom and +feel at times impelled in some way or other to action. They have +followed a lost battle, and in the aftermath of defeat they are numbed +into despair. They refuse to surrender to the forces of the hour, but +they lack the fine faith and enthusiasm of the braver years that +challenged these forces at every point and stood or fell by the issue. +They lie apathetic till, moved by some particular meanness or treachery, +they are roused to spasmodic anger, rush to act in some spasmodic +way—generally futile, and then relapse into helplessness again. They +lack the vision that inspires every moment, discerns a sure way, and +heightens the spirit to battle without ceasing, which is characteristic +of the great years. They tacitly accept that theirs is a useless +generation, that the enemy is in the ascendant, that they cannot unseat +him, and their action, where any is made, is but to show their attitude, +never to convince opponents that the battle is again beginning, that +this is a bid for freedom, that history will be called on to record +their fight and pay tribute to their times. Their action has never this +great significance. When stung to fitful madness by the boastful +votaries of power, their occasional frantic efforts are more as relief +to their feelings than destructive to the tyranny in being. Let us +realise this to the full; and seeing the futility in other years of +every pathetic makeshift to annoy or circumvent the enemy, put by +futilities and do a great work to justify our time.</p> + +<h4>V</h4> + +<p>We have, then, to consider and decide our immediate attitude to life, +where we stand. There are errors to remove. The first is the assumption +that we are only required to acknowledge the flag in places, offer it +allegiance at certain meetings at certain times that form but a small +part of our existence; while we allow ourselves to be dispensed from +fidelity to our principles when in other places, where other standards +are either explicitly or tacitly recognised. That we must carry our flag +everywhere; that there must be no dispensation: these are the cardinal +points of our philosophy. Life is a great battlefield, and any hour in +the day a man's flag may be challenged and he must stand and justify it. +An idea you hold as true is not to be professed only where it is +proclaimed; it will whisper and you must be its prophet in strange +places; it is insistent of all things—you must glory in it or deny it; +there is no escaping it, and there is no middle way; wherever your path +lies it will cross you and you must choose.</p> + +<p>Beware lest on any plea you put it by. You cannot elect to do nothing; +the concourse of circumstances would take you to some side; to do +nothing is still to take a side. Priest, poet, professor, public man, +professional man, business man, tradesman—everyone will be called to +answer; in every walk of life the true idea will find the false in +conflict and the battle must be fought out there—the battle is lost +when we satisfy ourselves with an academic debate in our spare moments. +This is a debating club age, and a plea for an ideal is often wasted, +taken as a mere point in an argument; but to walk among men fighting +passionately for it as a thing believed in, is to make it real, to +influence men never reached in other ways; it is to arrest attention, +arouse interest and quicken the masses to advance. And wherever the +appeal for the flag is calling us the snare of the enemy is in wait. Our +history so bristles with instances that a particular concrete case need +not be cited. We know that priests will get more patronage if they +discourage the national idea; that professors will get more emoluments +and honours if they can ban it; that public men will receive places and +titles if they betray it; that the professional man will be promised +more aggrandisement, the business man more commerce, and the tradesman +more traffic of his kind—if only he put by the flag. Most treacherous +and insidious the temptation will come to the man, young and able, +everywhere. It will say, "You have ability; come into the light—only +put that by; it keeps you obscure. And what purpose does it serve now? +Be practical; come." And you may weaken and yield and enter the light +for the general applause, but the old idea will rankle deep down till +smothered out, and you will stand in the splendour—a failure, +miserable, hopeless, not apparent, indeed, but for all that, final. You +may stand your ground, refuse the bribe, uphold the flag, and be rated +a fool and a failure, but they who rate you so will not understand that +you have won a battle greater than all the triumphs of empires; you will +keep alive in your soul true light and enduring beauty; you will hear +the music eternally in the heart of the high enthusiast and have vision +of ultimate victory that has sustained all the world over the efforts of +centuries, that uplifts the individual, consolidates the nation, and +leads a wandering race from the desert into the Promised Land.</p> + +<h4>VI</h4> + +<p>If we are to justify ourselves in our time we must have done with +dispensations. Many honest men are astray on this point and think +attitudes justifiable that are at the root of all our failures. What is +the weakness? It is so simple to explain and so easy to understand that +one must wonder how we have been ignoring it quietly and generally so +long. A man, as we have seen, acknowledges his flag in certain places; +in other places it is challenged and he pulls it down. He is dispensed. +He believes in his heart, may even write an anonymous letter to the +paper, will salute the flag again elsewhere, but he will not carry his +flag through every fight and through every day. When a particular crisis +arises, which involves our public boards, public men, and business men +in action, that requires a decision for or against the nation, he will +find it in his place in life not wise to be prominent on his own side, +and he is silently absent from his meetings—he gives a subscription but +excuses himself from attendance. He satisfies himself with private +professions of faith and whispered encouragement to those who fill the +gap—words that won't be heard at a distance—and, worst of all, he +thinks, because some stake in life may be jeopardised by bolder action, +he is justified. The answer is, simply he is not justified. Nor should +anyone who is prepared to take the risk himself take it on himself to +absolve others—nor, least of all, openly preach a milder doctrine to +lead others who are timid to the farther goal, believed in at heart. +Encourage them by all means to practise their principles as far as they +go; never restrict yours, or you will find yourself saying things you +can't altogether approve; and if you tell a man to do things you can't +altogether approve, and keep on telling him, it wears into you, and a +thing you once held in abhorrence you come to think of with +indifference. You change insensibly. Old friends rage at you, and +because of it you rage at them—not knowing how you have changed. You +dare not let what you believe lie in abeyance or say things inconsistent +with it, else to-morrow you'll be puzzled to say what you believe. You +will hardly say two things to fit each other. Let us have no half +policies. Our policy must be full, clear, consistent, to satisfy the +restless, inquiring minds; when we win all such over, the merely passive +people will follow. It should be clear that no man can dispense himself +or his fellow from a grave duty; but for all that we have been liberal +with our dispensations, and it has left us in confusion and failure. On +the understanding that we will be heroes to-morrow, we evade being men +to-day. We think of some hazy hour in the future when we may get a call +to great things; we realise not that the call is now, that the fight is +afoot, that we must take the flag from its hidden resting-place and +carry it boldly into life. So near a struggle may touch us with dread; +but to dread provoking a fight is to endure without resistance all the +consequences of a lost battle—a battle that might have been won. And +if we are to be fit for the heroic to-morrow we must arise and be men +to-day.</p> + +<h4>VII</h4> + +<p>At times we find ourselves on neutral ground. The exigencies of the +struggle involve this; and unfortunately we have in our midst sincere +men who do not believe in restoring Ireland to her original +independence. Perhaps, from a tendency to lose our balance at times, it +is well to have near by these men whose obvious sincerity may serve as a +correcting influence. We have to make them one with us; in the meantime +we meet them on neutral ground for some common purpose. Yet, we must +take our flag everywhere? Yes, that is fundamental. What then of the +places where men of diverging views meet; do we abjure the flag? By no +means. The understanding here is not to force our views on others, but +we must keep our principles clear in mind that no hostile view be forced +on us. We must see to it that neutrality be observed. One of the +pitfalls to be aware of is, that something which on our principles we +should not recognise, is assumed as recognised by others because to +attack it would be to violate neutrality. But if it may not be resisted, +it may not be recognised; this is neutrality; it is to stand on equal +terms. And since grave matters divide us—not directly concerned in our +national struggle for freedom—let the dangerous idea be banished, that +in entering on common ground we decry all opposing beliefs. For men who +hold beliefs as vital it would not be creditable to either side to put +them easily by. No, we do not ask them to forget themselves, but to +respect one another—an entirely greater and more honourable principle. +On neutral ground a man is not called on to abjure his flag; rather he +and his flag are in sanctuary.</p> + +<h4>VIII</h4> + +<p>When we find the national idea touches life at every point, we begin to +realise how frequent the call is to defend it without warning. It is not +that men directly raise the idea purposely to reject it, but that their +habit of life, to which they expect all to conform, is unconsciously +assuming that our ruling principle can have no place now or in the +future. Their assumption that the <i>status quo</i> cannot be changed will +be the cause of most collision at first; and we must be quietly ready +with the counter-assumption, stand for the old idea and justify it. We +must realise, too, that the number of people who have definite, strong, +well-developed views against ours are comparatively small. This small +number embraces the English Government that commands forces, obeying it +without reason, and influencing the general mass of people whose general +attitude is indecision—adrift with the ruling force. It is this general +mass of men we must permeate with the true idea, and give them more +decision, more courage, more pride of race, and bring them to prove +worthy of the race. They will begin to have confidence in the Cause when +they begin to see it vindicated amongst them day by day; and that +vindication must be our duty. That duty will not be to seek; it will +offer itself and we shall have our test. How? Consider when men come +together for any purpose where different views prevail and general +things of no great moment form the subject of debate—suddenly, +unconsciously or tentatively, one will raise some idea that may divide +the company—say, acknowledging the English Crown in Ireland, putting +by the claim for freedom, in the foolish hope of some material gain. +There is much nonsense talked and confusion abroad on this head, and it +is quite possible a man, believing in Ireland's full claim, will find +himself in a large company who ought to stand for Ireland, yet who have +lost a clear conception of her rights. But he will find that they have +no clear conception the other way, either; they are confused and +generally pliable; and so, when the challenging idea is introduced, if +he is quick and clear with the vital points, he can tear the surface off +the many nostrums of the hour and prove them mean, worthless, and +degrading; and, doing so, he will be forming the minds about him. He +must be ready; that is the great need. Understand how a conversation is +often turned by a chance word, and how governed by one man who has +passionate, well-defined views, while others are cold and undecided. Be +that one man. You do not know where the circumstances of life will take +you; your flag may be directly challenged to your face, and you must +reveal yourself. These are things to avoid. Be firm, rather than +aggressive; but be always quietly prepared for the aggressive man; that +is to inspire confidence in the timid. Avoid vituperation as a disease, +but have your facts clear and ready for friend or foe. Whenever, and +wherever least expected, a false idea comes wandering forth, put in at +once a luminous word or two to clear the air, hearten friends and keep +them steady. If you find yourself alone in the midst of opponents, who +assume you are with them and expect your co-operation, you put them +right with a word. This will arrest them; they will understand where you +stand, and that you are ready; and they will generally yield you +respect. But whether it involve a fight or not, thus do you declare your +attitude. We may conveniently call it—putting up the flag.</p> + +<h4>IX</h4> + +<p>It is well to consider something of the opposition that confronts a man +who tries to fill his life with a brave purpose. He will be told it is +an illusion; he is a dreamer, a crank, or a fool. And it may serve a +purpose to see if our critics are blinded by no illusion, to contrast +our folly with their wisdom. Here is one pushing by who will not be a +fool, as he thinks—he's for the emigrant-ship. Ask yourself if the +people who go out from the remote places of Ireland, quiet-spoken and +ruddy-faced, and return after a few years loud-voiced and pallid, have +found things exactly as their hope. They protest, yes; but their voice +and colour belie them. Take the other man who does not emigrate but who +has his fling at home, who "knocks around" and tells you to do likewise +and be no fool—mark him for your guidance. You will find his leisure is +boisterous, but never gay. Catch him between whiles off his guard and +you will find the deadening lassitude of his life. This votary of +pleasure has a burden to carry in whatever walk of life, high or low. On +the higher plane he may have a more fastidious club or two, a more +epicurean sense of enjoyment, more leisure and more luxury; but the type +wherever found is the same. Life is an utter burden to him; in his soul +is no interest, no inspiration, no energy, and no hope. Let him be no +object of envy. Here a friend pats you on the shoulder: "Quite right; be +neither an emigrant nor a waster; but be practical; have no illusions; +deal with possibilities—who can say what is in the future? We must +face these facts." Our confident friend lacks a sense of humour. He +would put your plan by for its bearing on the future, but he proposes +one himself that the future must justify. He tells you circumstances +will not be in your favour: he assumes them in his own. But we only +claim that our principles will rule the future as they have ruled the +past; for the circumstances no man can speak. He calls you a dreamer for +your principles, but he can't show, now nor in history, that his +exemplars were ever justified. We are all dreamers, then; but some have +ugly dreams, while the dreams of others are beautiful worlds, +star-lighted and full of music.</p> + +<h4>X</h4> + +<p>Let the newborn enthusiast, just come eagerly to the flag, be warned of +hours of depression that seize even the most earnest, the boldest and +the strongest. Our work is the work of men, subject to such vicissitudes +as hover around all human enterprise; and every man enrolled must face +hard struggles and dark hours. Then the depression rushes down like a +horrible, cold, dark mist that obscures every beautiful thing and every +ray of hope. It may come from many causes: perhaps, a body not too +robust, worn down by a tireless mind; perhaps, the memory of long years +of effort, seemingly swallowed in oblivion and futility; perhaps contact +with men on your own side whose presence there is a puzzle, who have no +character and no conception of the grandeur of the Cause, and whose +mean, petty, underhand jealousies numb you—you who think anyone +claiming so fine a flag as ours should be naturally brave, +straightforward and generous; perhaps the seemingly overwhelming +strength of the enemy, and the listlessness of thousands who would hail +freedom with rapture, but who now stand aloof in despair—and along with +all this and intensifying it, the voice of our self-complacent practical +friend, who has but sarcasm for a high impulse, and for an immutable +principle the latest expedient of the hour. Through such an experience +must the soldier of freedom live. But as surely as such an hour comes, +there comes also a star to break the darkened sky; let those who feel +the battle-weariness at times remember. When in places there may be but +one or two to fight, it may seem of no avail; still let them be true +and their numbers will be multiplied: love of truth is infectious. When +progress is arrested, don't brood on what is, but on what was once +achieved, what has since survived, and what we may yet achieve. If some +have grown lax and temporise a little, with more firmness on your part +mingle a little sympathy for them. It is harder to live a consistent +life than die a brave death. Most men of generous instincts would rouse +all their courage to a supreme moment and die for the Cause; but to rise +to that supreme moment frequently and without warning is the burden of +life for the Cause; and it is because of its exhausting strain and +exacting demands that so many men have failed. We must get men to +realise that to live is as daring as to die. But confusion has been made +in our time by the glib phrase: "You are not asked now to die for +Ireland, but to live for her," without insisting that the life shall aim +at the ideal, the brave and the true. To slip apologetically through +existence is not life. If such a mean philosophy went abroad, we would +soon find the land a place of shivering creatures, without the capacity +to live or the courage to die—calamity, surely. All these circumstances +make for the hour of depression; and it may well be in such an hour, +amid apathy and treachery, cold friends and active enemies, with +worn-down frame and baffled mind, you, pleading for the Old Cause, may +feel your voice is indeed a voice crying in the wilderness; and it may +serve till the blood warms again and the imagination recover its glow, +to think how a Voice, that cried in the wilderness thousands of years +ago, is potent and inspiring now, where the voice of the "practical" man +sends no whisper across the waste of years.</p> + +<h4>XI</h4> + +<p>What, then, to conclude, must be our decision? To take our philosophy +into life. When we do that generally, in a deep and significant sense +our War of Independence will have begun. Let there be no deferring a +duty to a more convenient future. It is as possible that an opening for +freedom may be thrust on us, as that we shall be required to organise a +formal war with the usual movements of armies; in our assumptions for +the second, let us not be guilty of the fatal error of overlooking the +first. As in other spheres, so in politics we have our conventions; and +how little they may be proven has been lately seen, when England went +through a war of debate,[Footnote: Debate over House of Lords.] largely +unreal, over her constitution and her liberties, even while foreign wars +and complications were still being debated; and in the middle of it all, +suddenly, from a local labour dispute, putting by all thought of the +constitution, feeling as comparatively insignificant the fear of +invasion, all England stood shuddering on the verge of frantic civil +war;[Footnote: The Railway strike.] and all Ireland, when the moment of +possible freedom was given, when England might have been hardly able to +save herself, much less to hold us—Ireland, thinking and working in old +grooves, lay helpless. Let us draw the moral. We cannot tell what +unsuspected development may spring on us from the future, but we can +always be prepared by understanding that the vital hour is the hour at +hand. Let the brave choice now be made, and let the life around be +governed by it; let every man stand to his colours and strike his flag +to none; then shall we recover ground in all directions, and our time +shall be recorded, not with the deadening but with the luminous years. +In all the vicissitudes of the fight, let us not be distracted by the +meanness of the mere time-server nor the treachery of the enemy, but be +collected and cool; and remembering the many who are not with us from +honest motives or unsuspected fears, live to show our belief beautiful +and true and, in the eternal sense, practical. Then shall those who are +worth convincing be held, and our difference may reduce itself to what +is possible; then will they come to realise that he who maintains a +great faith unshaken will make more things possible than the opportunist +of the hour; then will they understand how much more is possible than +they had ever dared to dream: they will have a vision of the goal; and +with that vision will be born a steady enthusiasm, a clear purpose, and +a resolute soul. The regeneration of the land will be no longer a +distant dream but a shaping reality; the living flame will sweep through +all hearts again; and Ireland will enter her last battle for freedom to +emerge and reassume her place among the nations of the earth.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_VII'></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>LOYALTY</h3> + +<h4>I</h4> + +<p>To be loyal to his cause is the finest tribute that can be paid to any +man. And since loyalty to the Irish cause has been the great virtue of +Irishmen through all history, it is time to have some clear thinking as +to who are the Irish rebels and who the true men. When a stupid +Government, grasping our reverence for fidelity, tried to ban our heroes +by calling them felons, it was natural we should rejoin by writing "The +Felons of our Land" and heap ridicule on their purpose. But once this +end was achieved we should have reverted to the normal attitude and +written up as the true Irish Loyalists, Brian the Great, and Shane the +Proud, the valiant Owen Roe and the peerless Tone, Mitchel and +Davis—irreconcilables all. When men revolt against an established evil +it is their loyalty to the outraged truth we honour. We do not extol a +rebel who rebels for rebellion's sake. Let us be clear on this point, or +when we shall have re-established our freedom after centuries of effort +it shall be open to every knave and traitor to challenge our +independence and plot to readmit the enemy. Loyalty is the fine +attribute of the fine nature; the word has been misused and maligned in +Ireland: let us restore it to its rightful honour by remembering it to +be the virtue of our heroes of all time. In considering it from this +view-point we shall find occasion to touch on delicate positions that +have often baffled and worried us—the asserting of our rights while +using the machinery of the Government that denies them, the burning +question of consistency, our attitude towards the political adventurer +on one hand, and towards the honest man of half-measures on the other. +Loyalty involves all this. And it shows that the man who revolts to win +freedom is the same as he who dies to defend it. He does not change his +face and nature with the changing times. He is loyal always and most +wonderfully lovable, because in the darkest times, when banned as wild, +wicked and rebelly, he is loyal still as from the beginning, and will be +to the end. Yes, Tone is the true Irish Loyalist, and every aider and +abettor of the enemy a rebel to Ireland and the Irish race.</p> + +<h4>II</h4> + +<p>When you insist on examining the question in the light of first +principles your opportunist opponent at once feels the weakness of his +position and always turns the point on your consistency. It is well, +then, in advance to understand the relative value and importance of +argument as argument in the statement of any case. A body of principles +is primarily of value, not as affording a case that can be argued with +ingenuity, but as enshrining one great principle that shines through and +informs the rest, that illumines the mind of the individual, that warms, +clarifies and invigorates—that, so to speak, puts the mind in focus, +gets the facts of existence into perspective, and gives the individual +everything in its right place and true proportion. It brings a man to +the point where he does not dispute but believes. He has been wandering +about cold and irresolute, tasting all philosophies, or none, and +drinking deep despair. He does not understand the want in his soul while +he has been looking for some panacea for its cure till the great light +streams on him, and instead of receiving something he finds himself. +That is it. There is a power of vision latent in us, clouded by error; +the true philosophy dissipates the cloud and leaves the vision clear, +wonderful and inspiring. He who acquired that vision is impervious to +argument—it is not that he despises argument; on the contrary, he +always uses it to its full strength. But he has had awakened within him +something which the mere logician can never deduce, and that mysterious +something is the explanation of his transformed life. He was a doubter, +a falterer, a failure; he has become a believer, a fighter, a conqueror. +You miss his significance completely when you take him for a theorist. +The theorist propounds a view to which he must convert the world; the +philosopher has a rule of life to immediately put into practice. His +spirit flashes with a swiftness that can be encircled by no theory. It +is his glory to have over and above a new penetrating argument in the +mind—a new and wonderful vitality in the blood. The unbeliever, near +by, still muddled by his cold theories, will argue and debate till his +intellect is in a tangle. He fails to see that a man of intellectual +agility might frame a theory and argue it out ably, and then suddenly +turn over and with equal dexterity argue the other side. Do we not have +set debates with speakers appointed on each side? That is dialectic—a +trick of the mind. But philosophy is the wine of the spirit. The +capacity then to argue the point is not the justification of a +philosophy. That justification must be found in the virtue of the +philosophy that gives its believer vision and grasp of life as a whole, +that warms and quickens his heart and makes him in spirit buoyant, +beautiful, wise and daring.</p> + +<h4>III</h4> + +<p>Let us come now to that burning question of consistency. "Very well, you +won't acknowledge the English Crown. Why then use English coins and +stamps? You don't recognise the Parliament at Westminster. Why then +recognise the County Councils created by Bill at Westminster? Why avail +of all the Local Government machinery?"—and so forth. The argument is a +familiar one, and the answer is simple. Though no guns are thundering +now, Ireland is virtually in a state of war. We are fighting to recover +independence. The enemy has had to relax somewhat in the exigencies of +the struggle and to concede all these positions of local government and +enterprise now in question. We take these posts as places conceded in +the fight and avail of them to strengthen, develop and uplift the +country and prepare her to carry the last post. Surely this is adequate. +On a field of battle it is always to the credit of a general to capture +an enemy's post and use it for the final victory. It is a sign of the +battle's progress, and tells the distant watchers on the hills how the +fight is faring and who is going to win. There would be consternation +away from the field only if word should come that the soldiers had gone +into the tents of the enemy, acknowledging him and accepting his flag. +That is the point to question. There can be no defence for the occupying +of any post conceded by the enemy. It may be held for or against +Ireland; any man accepting it and surrendering his flag to hold it +stands condemned thereby. That is clear. Yet it may be objected that +such a clear choice is not put to most of those undertaking the local +government of Ireland, that few are conscious of such an issue and few +governed by it. It is true. But for all that the machinery of local +government is clearly under popular control, and as clearly worked for +an immediate good, preparing for a greater end. Men unaware of it are +unconsciously working for the general development of the country and +recovering her old power and influence. Those conscious of the deeper +issue enter every position to further that development and make the end +obvious when the alien Government—finding those powers conceded to sap +further resistance are on the contrary used to conquer wider +fields—endeavours to force the popular government back to the purposes +of an old and failing tyranny. That is the nature of the struggle now. +At periods the enemy tries to stem the movement, and then the fight +becomes general and keen around a certain position. In our time there +were the Land Leagues, the Land War, fights for Home Rule, +Universities, Irish; and these fights ended in Land Acts, Local +Government Acts, University Acts, and the conceding of pride of place to +the native language in university life. Every position gained is a step +forward; it is accepted as such, and so is justified. For anyone who +grasps the serious purpose of recovering Ireland's independence all +along the line, the suggestion that we should abandon all machinery of +local government and enterprise—because they are "Government +positions"—to men definitely attached to the alien garrison is so +foolish as not to be even entertained. When our attitude is questioned +let it be made clear. That is the final answer to the man who challenges +our consistency: we are carrying the trenches of the enemy.</p> + +<h4>IV</h4> + +<p>Even while dismissing a false idea of consistency we have to make clear +another view still remote from the general mind. If we are to have an +effective army of freedom we must enrol only men who have a clear +conception of the goal, a readiness to yield full allegiance, and a +determination to fight always so as to reflect honour on the flag. The +importance of this will be felt only when we come to deal with concrete +cases. While human nature is what it is we will have always on the +outskirts of every movement a certain type of political adventurer who +is ready to transfer his allegiance from one party to another according +as he thinks the time serves. He has no principle but to be always with +the ascendant party, and to succeed in that aim he is ready to court and +betray every party in turn. As a result, he is a character well known to +all. The honest man who has been following the wrong path, and after +earnest inquiry comes to the flag, we readily distinguish. But it is +fatal to any enterprise where the adventurer is enlisted and where his +influence is allowed to dominate. It may seem strange that such men are +given entry to great movements: the explanation is found in the desire +of pioneers to make converts at once and convince the unconverted by the +confidence of growing numbers. We ignore the danger to our growing +strength when the adventurer comes along, loud in protest of his +support—he is always affable and plausible, and is received as a "man +of experience"; and in our anxiety for further strength we are apt to +admit him without reserve. But we must make sure of our man. We must +keep in mind that an alliance with the adventurer is more dangerous than +his opposition; and we must remember the general public, typified by the +man in the street whom we wish to convince, is quietly studying us, +attracted perhaps by our principles and coming nearer to examine. If he +knows nothing else, he knows the unprincipled man, and when he sees such +in our ranks and councils he will not wait to argue or ask questions; he +will go away and remain away. The extent to which men are ruled by the +old adage, "Show me your company and I'll tell you what you are," is +more widespread than we think. Moreover, consistency in a fine sense is +involved in our decision. We fight for freedom, not for the hope of +material profit or comfort, but because every fine instinct of manhood +demands that man be free, and life beautiful and brave, and surely in +such a splendid battle to have as allies mean, crafty profit-seekers +would be amazing. Let us be loyal in the deep sense, and let us not be +afraid of being few at first. An earnest band is more effective than a +discreditable multitude. That band will increase in numbers and strength +till it becomes the nucleus of an army that will be invincible.</p> + +<h4>V</h4> + +<p>The fine sense of consistency that keeps us clear of the adventurer +decides also our attitude to the well-meaning man of half-measures. He +says separation from England is not possible now and suggests some +alternative, if not Home Rule, Grattan's Parliament, or leaving it an +open question. In the general view this seems sensible, and we are +tempted to make an alliance based on such a ground; and the alliance is +made. What ensues? Men come together who believe in complete freedom, +others who believe in partial freedom that may lead to complete freedom, +and others who are satisfied with partial freedom as an end. Before long +the alliance ends in a deadlock. The man of the most far-reaching view +knows that every immediate action taken must be consistent with the +wider view and the farther goal, if that goal is to be attained; and he +finds that his ultimate principle is frequently involved in some action +proposed for the moment. When such a moment comes he must be loyal to +his flag and to a principle that if not generally acknowledged is an +abiding rule with him; but his allies refuse to be bound by a principle +that is an unwritten law for him because the law is not written down for +them. This is the root of the trouble. The friends, thinking to work +together for some common purpose, find the unsettled issue intrudes, and +a debate ensues that leads to angry words, recriminations, bad feeling +and disruption. The alliance based on half measures has not fulfilled +its own purpose, but it has sown suspicion between the honest men whom +it brought together; that is no good result from the practical proposal. +There is an inference: men who are conscious of a clear complete demand +should form their own plans, equally full of care and resolution, and go +ahead on their own account. But we hear a plaintive cry abroad: "Oh, +another split; that's Irishmen all over—can never unite," etc. We will +not turn aside for the plaintive people; but let it be understood there +can be an independent co-operation, where of use, with those honest men +who will not go the whole way. That independent co-operation can serve +the full purpose of the binding alliance that has proved fatal. Above +all, let there be no charge of bad faith against the earnest man who +chooses other ways than ours; it is altogether indefensible because we +disagree with him to call his motives in question. Often he is as +earnest as we are; often has given longer and greater service, and only +qualifies his own attitude in anxiety to meet others. To this we cannot +assent, but to charge him with bad faith is flagrantly unjust and always +calamitous. In getting rid of the deadlock we have too often fallen to +furiously fighting with one another. Let us bear this in mind, and +concern ourselves more with the common enemy; but let not the hands of +the men in the vanguard be tied by alien King, Constitution, or +Parliament. All the conditions grow more definite and seem, perhaps, too +exacting; remember the greatness of the enterprise. Suppose in the +building of a mighty edifice the architect at any point were careless or +slurred over a difficulty, trusting to luck to bring it right, how the +whole building would go awry, and what a mighty collapse would follow. +Let us stick to our colours and have no fear. When all these principles +have been combined into one consistent whole, a light will flash over +the land and the old spirit will be reborn; the mean will be purged of +their meanness, the timid heartened with a fine courage, and the +fearless will be justified: the land will be awake, militant, and +marching to victory.</p> + +<h4>VI</h4> + +<p>This is, surely, the fine view of loyalty. Let us write it on our +banners and proclaim it to the world. It is consistent, <i>honourable</i>, +fearless and immutable. What is said here to-day with enthusiasm, +exactness and care, will stand without emendation or enlargement, if in +a temporary reverse we are called to stand in the dock to-morrow; or if, +finely purged in the battle of freedom, we come through our last fight +with splendid triumph, our loyalty is there still, shining like a great +sun, the same beautiful, unchanging thing that has lighted us through +every struggle—perhaps now to guide us in framing a constitution and +giving to a world, distracted by kings, presidents and theorists, a new +polity for nations. A waverer, half-caught between the light, half +fearful with an old fear, pleads: "This is too much—we are men, not +angels." Precisely, we are not angels; and because of our human +weakness, our erring minds, our sudden passions, the most confident of +us may at any moment find himself in the mud. What, then, will uplift +him if he has been a waverer in principle as well as in fact? He is +helpless, disgraced and undone. Let him know in time we do not set up +fine principles in a fine conceit that we can easily live up to them, +but in the full consciousness that we cannot possibly live away from +them. That is the bed-rock truth. When the man of finer faith by any +slip comes to the earth, he has to uplift him a staff that never fails, +and to guide him a principle that strengthens him for another fight, to +go forth, in a sense Alexander never dreamed of, to conquer new worlds. +'Tis the faith that is in him, and the flag he serves, that make a man +worthy; and the meanest may be with the highest if he be true and give +good service. Let us put by then the broken reed and the craft of little +minds, and give us for our saving hope the banner of the angels and the +loyalty of gods and men.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_VIII'></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>WOMANHOOD</h3> + + +<p class="center">"And another said: I have married a wife and therefore<br /> +I cannot come."</p> + +<p>Yes, and we have been satisfied always to blame the wife, without +noticing the man who is fond of his comfort first of all, who slips +quietly away to enjoy a quiet smoke and a quiet glass in some quiet +nook—always securing his escape by the readiest excuse. We are coming +now to consider the aspect of the question that touches our sincere +manhood; but let no one think we overlook that mean type of man who +evades every call to duty on the comfortable plea: "I have married a +wife."</p> + +<h4>I</h4> + +<p>When the mere man approaches the woman to study her, we can imagine the +fair ones getting together and nudging one another in keen amusement as +to what this seer is going to say. It is often sufficiently amusing when +the clumsy male approaches her with self-satisfied air, thinking he has +the secret of her mysterious being. I have no intention here of entering +a rival search for the secret. But we can, perhaps, startle the gay ones +from merriment to gravity by stating the simple fact that every man +stands in some relationship to woman, either as son, brother, or +husband; and if it be admitted that there is to be a fight to-morrow, +then there are some things to be settled to-day. How is the woman +training for to-morrow? How, then, will the man stand by that very +binding relationship? Will clinging arms hold him back or proud ones +wave him on? Will he have, in place of a comrade in the fight, a burden; +or will the battle that has too often separated them but give them +closer bonds of union and more intimate knowledge of the wonderful thing +that is Life?</p> + +<h4>II</h4> + +<p>I wish to concentrate on one heroic example of Irish Womanhood that +should serve as a model to this generation; and I do not mean to dwell +on much that would require detailed examination. But some points should +be indicated. For example, the awakening consciousness of our womanhood +is troubling itself rightly over the woman's place in the community, is +concentrating on the type delineated in "The Doll's House," and is +agitating for a more honourable and dignified place. We applaud the +pioneers thus fighting for their honour and dignity: but let them not +make the mistake of assuming the men are wholly responsible for "The +Doll's House," and the women would come out if they could. We have +noticed the man who prefers his ease to any troubling duty: he has his +mate in the woman who prefers to be wooed with trinkets, chocolates, and +the theatre to a more beautiful way of life, that would give her a +nobler place but more strenuous conditions. Again, the man is not always +the lord of the house. He is as often, if not more frequently, its +slave. Then there are the conventions of life. In place of a fine sense +of courtesy prevailing between man and woman, which would recognise with +the woman's finer sensibility a fine self-reliance, and with the man's +greater strength a fine gentleness, we have a false code of manners, by +which the woman is to be taken about, petted and treated generally as +the useless being she often is; while the man becomes an effeminate +creature that but cumbers the earth. Fine courtesy and fine comradeship +go together. But we have allowed a standard to gain recognition that is +a danger alike to the dignity of our womanhood and the virility of our +manhood. It is for us who are men to labour for a finer spirit in our +manhood: we cannot throw the blame for any weakness over on external +conditions. The woman is in the same position. She must understand that +greater than the need of the suffrage is the more urgent need of making +her fellow-woman spirited and self-reliant, ready rather to anticipate a +danger than to evade it. When she is thus trained, not all the men of +all the nations can deny her recognition and equality.</p> + +<h4>III</h4> + +<p>For the battle of to-morrow then there is a preliminary fight to-day. +The woman must come to this point, too. In life there is frequently so +much meanness, a man is often called to acknowledge some degrading +standard or fight for the very recognition of manhood, and the woman +must stand in with him or help to pull him down. Let her understand this +and her duty is present and urgent. The man so often wavers on the verge +of the right path, the woman often decides him. If she is nobler than +he, as is frequently the case, she can lift him to her level; if she is +meaner, as she often is, she as surely drags him down. When they are +both equal in spirit and nobility of nature, how the world is filled +with a glory that should assure us, if nothing else could, of the truth +of the Almighty God and a beautiful Eternity to explain the origin and +destiny of their wonderful existence. They are indispensable to each +other: if they stand apart, neither can realise in its fulness the +beauty and glory of life. Let the man and woman see this, and let them +know in the day that is at hand, how the challenge may come from some +petty authority of the time that rules not by its integrity but by its +favourites. We are cursed with such authority, and many a one drives +about in luxury because he is obsequious to it: he prefers to be a +parasite and to live in splendour than be a man and live in straits. He +has what Bernard Shaw so aptly calls "the soul of a servant." If we are +to prepare for a braver future, let us fight this evil thing; if we are +to put by national servitude, let us begin by driving out individual +obsequiousness. This is our training ground for to-morrow. Let the woman +realise this, and at least as many women as men will prefer privation +with self-respect to comfort with contempt. Let us, then, in the name of +our common nature, ask those who have her training in hand, to teach the +woman to despise the man of menial soul and to loathe the luxury that is +his price.</p> + +<h4>IV</h4> + +<p>I wish to come to the heroic type of Irish Womanhood. When we need to +hearten ourselves or others for a great enterprise, we instinctively +turn to the examples of heroes and heroines who, in similar difficulties +to ours, have entered the fight bravely, and issued heroically, leaving +us a splendid heritage of fidelity and achievement. It is little to our +credit that our heroes are so little known. It is less to our credit +that our heroines are hardly known at all; and when we praise or sing +of one our selection is not always the happiest. How often in the +concert-hall or drawing-room do we get emotional when someone sings in +tremulous tones, "She is far from the Land." There is a feeling for +poetry in our lives, a feeling that patriotism will not have it, a +melting pity for the love that went to wreck, a sympathy for ourselves +and everybody and everything—a relaxing of all the nerves in a wave of +sentiment. This emotion is of the enervating order. There is no sweep of +strong fire through the blood, no tightening grip on life, no set +resolve to stand to the flag and see the battle through. It is well, +then, a generation that has heard from a thousand platforms, in +plaintive notes, of Sarah Curran and her love should turn to the braver +and more beautiful model of her who was the wife of Tone.</p> + +<h4>V</h4> + +<p>When we think of the qualities that are distinctive of the woman, we +have in mind a finer gentleness, sensibility, sympathy and tenderness; +and when we have these qualities intensified in any woman, and with +them combined the endurance, courage and daring that are taken as the +manly virtues, we have a woman of the heroic type. Of such a type was +the wife of Tone. We can speak her praise without fear, for she was put +to the test in every way, and in every way found marvellously true. For +her devotion to, and encouragement of, her great husband in his great +work, she would have won our high praise, even if, when he was stricken +down and she was bereft of his wonderful love and buoyant spirits, she +had proved forgetful of his work and the glory of his name. But she was +bereft, and she was then found most marvellously true. Her devotion to +Tone, while he was living and fighting, might be explained by the +woman's passionate attachment to the man she loved. It is the woman's +tenderness that is most evident in these early years, but there is +shining evidence of the fortitude that showed her true nobility in the +darker after-years. It was no ordinary love that bound them, and reading +the record of their lives this stands out clear and beautiful. Tone, +whom we know as patient organiser, tenacious fighter, far-seeing +thinker, indomitable spirit—a born leader of men—writes to his wife +with the passionate simplicity of an enraptured child: "I doat upon you +and the babes." And his letters end thus: "Kiss the babies for me ten +thousand times. God Almighty for ever bless you, my dearest life and +soul." (This from the "French Atheist." I hope his traducers are +heartily ashamed of themselves.) Nor is it strange. When, in the +beginning of his enterprise, he is in America, preparing to go to France +on his great mission, he is troubled by the thought of his defenceless +ones. In the crisis how does his wife act? Does she wind clinging arms +around him, telling him with tears, of their children and his early +vows, and beseeching him to think of his love and forget his country? +No; let the diary speak: "My wife especially, whose courage and whose +zeal for my honour and interests were not in the least abated by all her +past sufferings, supplicated me to let no consideration of her or our +children stand for a moment in the way of my engagements to our friends +and my duty to my country, adding that she would answer for our family +during my absence, and that the same Providence which had so often, as +it were, miraculously preserved us, would, she was confident, not desert +us now." It is the unmistakable accent of the woman. She is quivering as +she sends him forth, but the spirit in her eyes would put a trembling +man to shame—a spirit that her peerless husband matched but no man +could surpass. Her fortitude was to be more terribly tried in the +terrible after-time, when the Cause went down in disaster and Tone had +to answer with his life. No tribute could be so eloquent as the letter +he wrote to her when the last moment had come and his doom was +pronounced: "Adieu, dearest love, I find it impossible to finish this +letter. Give my love to Mary; and, above all, remember you are now the +only parent of our dearest children, and that the best proof you can +give of your affection for me will be to preserve yourself for their +education. God Almighty bless you all." That letter is like Stephens' +speech from the dock, eloquent for what is left unsaid. There is no +wailing for her, least of all for himself, not that their devoted souls +were not on the rack: "As no words can express what I feel for you and +our children, I shall not attempt it; complaint of any kind would be +beneath your courage and mine"—but their souls, that were destined to +suffer, came sublimely through the ordeal. When Tone left his children +as a trust to his wife, he knew from the intimacy of their union what we +learn from the after-event, how that trust might be placed and how +faithfully it would be fulfilled. What a tribute from man to wife! How +that trust was fulfilled is in evidence in every step of the following +years. Remembering Tone's son who survived to write the memoirs was a +child at his father's death, his simple tribute written in manhood is +eloquent in the extreme: "I was brought up by my surviving parent in all +the principles and in all the feelings of my father"—of itself it would +suffice. But we can follow the years between and find moving evidence of +the fulfilment of the trust. We see her devotion to her children and her +proud care to preserve their independence and her own. She puts by +patronage, having a higher title as the widow of a General of France; +and she wins the respect of the great ones of France under the Republic +and the Empire. Lucien Buonaparte, a year after Tone's death, pleaded +before the Council of Five Hundred, in warm and eloquent praise: "If +the services of Tone were not sufficient of themselves to rouse your +feelings, I might mention the independent spirit and firmness of that +noble woman who, on the tomb of her husband and her brother, mingles +with her sighs aspirations for the deliverance of Ireland. I would +attempt to give you an expression of that Irish spirit which is blended +in her countenance with the expression of her grief. Such were those +women of Sparta, who, on the return of their countrymen from the battle, +when with anxious looks they ran over the ranks and missed amongst them +their sons, their husbands, and their brothers, exclaimed, 'He died for +his country; he died for the Republic.'" When the Republic fell, and in +the upheaval her rights were ignored, she went to the Emperor Napoleon +in person and, recalling the services of Tone, sought naturalization for +her son to secure his career in the army; and to the wonder of all near +by, the Emperor heard her with marked respect and immediately granted +her request. She sought only this for her surviving son. She had seen +two children die—there was moving pathos in the daughter's death—and +now she was standing by the last. Never was child guarded more +faithfully or sent more proudly on his path in life. One should read the +memoirs to understand, and pause frequently to consider: how she +promised her husband bravely in the beginning that she would answer for +their children, and how, in what she afterwards styled the hyperbole of +grief, she was called to fulfil to the letter, and was found faithful, +with an unexampled strength and devotion; how she saw two children +struck down by a fatal disease, and how she drew the surviving son back +to health by her watchful care to send him on his college and military +career with loving pride; how, when a Minister of France, irritated at +her putting by his patronage, roughly told her he could not "take the +Emperor by the collar to place Mr. Tone"—she went to the Emperor in +person, with dignity but without fear, and won his respect; how the +suggestion of the mean-minded that her demand was a pecuniary one, drew +from her the proud boast that in all her misfortunes she had never +learned to hold out her hand; how through all her misfortunes we watch +her with wonderful dignity, delicacy, courage, and devotion quick to +see what her trust demanded and never failing to answer the call, till +her task is done, and we see her on the morning when her son sets out on +the path she had prepared, the same quivering woman, who had sent her +husband with words of comfort to his duty, now, after all the years of +trial, sending her son as proudly on his path. It is their first +parting. Let her own words speak: "Hitherto I had not allowed myself +even to feel that my William was my own and my only child; I considered +only that Tone's son was confided to me; but in that moment Nature +resumed her rights. I sat in a field: the road was long and white before +me and no object on it but my child.... I could not think; but all I had +ever suffered seemed before and around me at that moment, and I wished +so intensely to close my eyes for ever, that I wondered it did not +happen. The transitions of the mind are very extraordinary. As I sat in +that state, unable to think of the necessity of returning home, a little +lark rushed up from the grass beside me; it whirled over my head and +hovered in the air singing such a beautiful, cheering, and, as it +sounded to me, approving note, that it roused me. I felt in my heart as +if Tone had sent it to me. I returned to my solitary home." It is a +picture to move us, to think of the devoted woman there in the sunshine, +bent down in the grass, utterly alone, till the lark, sweeping +heavenward in song, seems to give a message of gentle comfort from her +husband's watching spirit. Our emotion now is of no enervating order. We +are proud of our land and her people; our nerves are firm and set; our +hearts cry out for action; we are not weeping, but burning for the +Cause. How little we know of this heroic woman. We are in some ways +familiar with Tone, his high character, his genial open nature, his +daring, his patience, his farsightedness, his judgment—in spirit +tireless and indomitable: a man peerless among his fellows. But he had +yet one compeer; there was one nature that matched his to depth and +height of its greatness—that nature was a woman's, and the woman was +Wolfe Tone's wife.</p> + +<h4>VI</h4> + +<p>It is well this heroic example of our womanhood should be before not +only our womanhood but our manhood. It should show us all that +patriotism does not destroy the finer feelings, but rather calls them +forth and gives them wider play. We have been too used to thinking that +the qualities of love and tenderness are no virtues for a soldier, that +they will sap his resolution and destroy his work; but our movements +fail always when they fail to be human. Until we mature and the poetry +in life is wakening, we are ready to act by a theory; but when Nature +asserts herself the hard theorist fails to hold us. Let us remember and +be human. We have been saying in effect, if not in so many words: "For +Ireland's sake, don't fall in love"—we might as well say: "For +Ireland's sake, don't let your blood circulate." It is impossible—even +if it were possible it would be hateful. The man and woman have a great +and beautiful destiny to fulfil together: to substitute for it an +unnatural way of life that can claim neither the seclusion of the +cloister nor the dominion of the world is neither beautiful nor great. +We have cause for gratitude in the example before us. The woman can +learn from it how she may equal the bravest man; and the man should +learn to let his wife and children suffer rather than make of them +willing slaves and cowards. For there are some earnest men who are +ready to suffer themselves but cannot endure the suffering of those they +love, and a mistaken family tenderness binds and drags them down. No +one, surely, can hold it better to carefully put away every duty that +may entail hardship on wife and child, for then the wife is, instead of +a comrade, a burden, and the child becomes a degenerate creature, +creeping between heaven and earth, afraid to hold his head erect, and +unable to fulfil his duty to God or man. Let no man be afraid that those +he loves may be tried in the fire; but let him, to the best of his +strength, show them how to stand the ordeal, and then trust to the +greatness of the Truth and the virtue of a loyal nature to bring each +one forth in triumph, and he and they may have in the issue undreamed of +recompense. For the battle that tries them will discover finer chords +not yet touched in their intercourse; finer sympathies, +susceptibilities, gentleness and strength; a deeper insight into life +and a wider outlook on the world, making in fine a wonderful blend of +wisdom, tenderness and courage that gives them to realise that life, +with all its faults, struggles, and pain is still and for ever great and +beautiful.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_IX'></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>THE FRONTIER</h3> + +<h4>I</h4> + +<p>Our frontier is twofold, the language and the sea. For the majesty of +our encircling waters we have no need to raise a plea, but to give God +thanks for setting so certain a seal on our individual existence and +giving us in the spreading horizon of the ocean some symbol of our +illimitable destiny. For the language there is something still to be +said; there are some ideas gaining currency that should be +challenged—the cold denial of some that the unqualified name Irish be +given to the literature of Irishman that is passionate with Irish +enthusiasm and loyalty to Ireland, yet from the exigencies of the time +had to be written in English; the view not only assumed but asserted by +some of the Gael that the Gall may be recognised only if he take second +place; the aloofness of many of the Gall, not troubling to understand +their rights and duties; the ignoring on both sides of the fine +significance of the name Irishman, of a spirit of patriotism and a +deep-lying basis of authority and justice that will give stability to +the state and secure its future against any upheaval that from the +unrest of the time would seem to threaten the world.</p> + +<h4>II</h4> + +<p>Consider first the literature of Irishmen in English. From the attitude +commonly taken on the question of literary values, it is clear that the +primary significance of expression in writing is often lost. What is +said, and the purpose for which it is said, take precedence of the +medium through which it is said. But from our national awakening to the +significance of the medium so long ignored we have grown so excited that +we frequently forget the greater significance of the thing. The +utterance of the man is of first importance, and, where his utterance +has weight, the vital need is to secure it through some medium, the +medium becoming important when one more than another is found to have a +wider and more intimate appeal; and then we do well to become insistent +for a particular medium when it is in anxiety for full delivery of the +writer's thought and a wide knowledge of its truth. But we are losing +sight of this natural order of things. It is well, then, the unconvinced +Gall should hear why he should accept the Irish language; not simply to +defer to the Gael, but to quicken the mind and defend the territory of +what is now the common country of the Gael and Gall. Davis caught up the +great significance of the language when he said: "Tis a surer barrier, +and more important frontier, than fortress or river." The language is at +once our frontier and our first fortress, and behind it all Irishmen +should stand, not because a particular branch of our people evolved it, +but because it is the common heritage of all. One who has a knowledge of +Irish can easily get evidence of its quickening power on the Irish mind. +Travel in an Irish-speaking district and hail one of its old people in +English, and you get in response a dull "Good-day, Sir." Salute him in +Irish and you touch a secret spring. The dull eyes light up, the face +is all animation, the body alert, and for a dull "good-day," you get +warm benedictions, lively sallies, and after you, as you pass on your +road, a flood of rich and racy Irish comes pouring down the wind. That +is the secret power of the language. It makes the old men proud of their +youth and gives to the young quickened faculties, an awakened +imagination and a world to conquer. This is no exaggeration. It is not +always obvious, because we do not touch the secret spring nor wander +near the magic. But the truth is there to find for him who cares to +search. You discover behind the dullness of a provincial town a bright +centre of interest, and when you study the circle you know that here is +some wonderful thing: priests, doctors, lawyers, teachers, tradesmen, +clerks—all drawn together, young and old, both sexes, all enthusiasts. +Sometimes a priest is teaching a smith, sometimes the smith is teaching +the priest: for a moment at least we have unconsciously levelled +barriers and there is jubilation in the natural life re-born. Out of +that quickened life and consciousness rises a vivid imagination with a +rush of thought and a power of expression that gives the nation a new +literature. That is the justification of the language. It awakens and +draws to expression minds that would otherwise be blank. It is not that +the revelation of Davis is of less value than we think, but that through +the medium of Irish other revelations will be won that would otherwise +be lost. Again, in subtle ways we cannot wholly understand, it gives the +Irish mind a defence against every other mind, taking in comradeship +whatever good the others have to offer, while retaining its own power +and place. The Irish mind can do itself justice only in Irish. But still +some ardent and faithful spirits broke through every difficulty of time +and circumstance and found expression in English, and we have the +treasures of Davis, Mitchel, and Mangan; yet, the majority remained +cold, and now, to quicken the mass, we turn to the old language. But +this is not to decry what was won in other fields. In the widening +future that beckons to us, we shall, if anything, give greater praise to +these good fighters and enthusiasts, who in darker years, even with the +language of the enemy, resisted his march and held the gap for Ireland.</p> + +<h4>III</h4> + +<p>On this ground the Gael and Gall stand on footing of equality. That is +the point many on both sides miss and we need to emphasise it. Some +Irishmen not of Gaelic stock speak of Irish as foreign to them, and +would maintain English in the principal place now and in the future. We +do well then to make clear to such a one that he is asked to adopt the +language for Ireland's sake as a nation and for his own sake as a +citizen. If he wishes to serve her he must stand for the language; if he +prefers English civilisation he should go back to England. There only +can he develop on English lines. An Irishman in Ireland with an English +mind is a queer contradiction, who can serve neither Ireland nor England +in any good sense, and both Ireland and England disown him. So the +Irishman of other than Gaelic ancestors should stand in with us, not +accepting something disagreeable as inevitable, but claiming a right by +birth and citizenship, joining the fine army of the nation for a brave +adventurous future, full of fine possibility and guaranteed by a fine +comradeship—owning a land not of flattery and favouritism, but of +freedom and manhood. This saving ideal has been often obscured by our +sundering class names. This is why we would substitute as common for all +the fine name of Irishman.</p> + +<h4>IV</h4> + +<p>But in asking all parties to accept the common name of Irishman, we find +a fear rather suggested than declared—that men may be asked in this +name to put by something they hold as a great principle of Life; that +Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter will all be asked to find agreement +in a fourth alternative, in which they will not submit to one another +but will all equally belie themselves. There is such a hidden fear, and +we should have it out and dispose of it. The best men of all parties +will have no truck with this and they are right. But on what ground, +then, shall we find agreement, the recognition of which Irish +Citizenship implies? On this, that the man of whatever sincere +principles, religious or civic, counts among his great duties his duty +as citizen; and he defends his creed because he believes it to be a safe +guide to the fulfilling of all duties, this including. When, therefore, +we ask him to stand in as Irish Citizen, it is not that he is to abandon +in one iota his sincere principles, but that he is to give us proof of +his sincerity. He tells us his creed requires him to be a good citizen: +we give him a fine field in which he can be to us a fine example.</p> + +<h4>V</h4> + +<p>In further consideration of this we should put by the thought of finding +a mere working agreement. There is a deep-lying basis of authority and +justice to seek, which it should be our highest aim to discover. Modern +governments concede justice to those who can compel justice—even the +democracy requires that you be strong enough to formulate a claim and +sustain it; but this is the way of tyranny. A perfect government should +seek, while careful to develop its stronger forces and keep them in +perfect balance, to consider also the claims of those less powerful but +not less true. A government that over-rides the weak because it is safe, +is a tyranny, and tyranny is in seed in the democratic governments of +our time. We must consider this well, for it is pressing and grave; and +we must get men to come together as citizens to defend the rights as +well of the unit which is unsupported as of the party that commands +great power. So shall we give steadiness and fervour to our growing +strength by balancing it with truth and justice: so shall we found a +government that excesses cannot undermine nor tyranny destroy.</p> + +<h4>VI</h4> + +<p>We have to consider, in conclusion, the unrest in the world, the war of +parties and classes, and the need of judging the tendencies of the time +to set our steps aright. With the wars and rumours of wars that threaten +the great nations from without and the wild upheavals that threaten them +within, it would be foolish to hide from ourselves the drift of events. +We must decide our attitude; and if it is too much to hope that we may +keep clear of the upheavals, we should aim at strengthening ourselves +against the coming crash. We cannot set the world right, but we can go a +long way to setting things in our own land right, by making through a +common patriotism a united people. What if we are held up occasionally +by the cold cries shot at every high aim—"dreamer—Utopia"; cry this +in return: no vision of the dreamer can be more wild than the frantic +make-shifts of the Great Powers to vie in armaments with one another or +repress internal revolts. Consider England in the late strike that +paralysed her. It was only suspended by a step that merely deferred the +struggle; the strife is again threatening. All the powers are so +threatened and their efforts to defer the hour are equally feverish and +fruitless; for the hour is pressing and may flash on the world when 'tis +least prepared. Let who will deride us, but let us prepare. We may not +guide our steps with the certainty of prophets, nor hope by our +beautiful schemes to make a perfect state; but we can only come near to +perfection in the light of a perfect ideal, and however far below it we +may remain, we can at least, under its inspiration, reach an existence +rational and human: our justification for a brave effort lies in that +the governments of this time are neither one nor the other. He who +thinks Ireland's struggle to express her own mind, to give utterance to +her own tongue, to stand behind her own frontier, is but a sentiment +will be surprised to find it leads him to this point. Herein is the +justification and the strength of the movement. Men are deriding things +around them, of the significance of which they have not the remotest +idea. Ireland is calling her children to a common banner, to the defence +of her frontier, to the building up of a national life, harmonious and +beautiful—a conception of citizenship, from which a right is conceded, +not because it can be compelled, but because it is just: to the +foundation of a state that will by its defence of the least powerful +prove all powerful, that will be strong because true, beautiful because +free, full of the music of her olden speech and caught by the magic of +her encircling sea.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_X'></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>LITERATURE AND FREEDOM—THE PROPAGANDIST PLAYWRIGHT</h3> + +<h4>I</h4> + +<p>A nation's literature is an index to its mind. If the nation has its +freedom to win, from its literature may we learn if it is passionately +in earnest in the fight, or if it is half-hearted, or if it cares not at +all. Whatever state prevails, passionate men can pour their passion +through literature to the nation's soul and make it burn and move and +fight. For this reason it is of transcendent importance to the Cause. +Literature is the Shrine of Freedom, its fortress, its banner, its +charter. In its great temple patriots worship; from it soldiers go +forth, wave its challenge, and fight, and conquering, write the charter +of their country. Its great power is contested by none; rather, all +recognise it, and many and violent are the disputes as to its right use +and purpose. I propose to consider two of the disputants—the +propagandist playwright and the art-for-art's-sake artist, since they +raise issues that are our concern. It is curious that two so violently +opposed should be so nearly alike in error: they are both afraid of +life. The propagandist is all for one side; the artist afraid of every +side. The one lacks imagination; the other lacks heart; they are both +wide of the truth. The service of the truth requires them to pursue one +course; in their dispute they swerve from that course, one to right, one +to left. Because they leave the path on opposite sides, they do not see +how much alike is their error; but that they do both leave the path is +my point, and it is well we should consider it. It would be difficult to +deal with both sides at once; so I will consider the propagandist first. +What I have to charge against him is that his work is insincere, that he +is afraid to do justice to the other side, that he makes ridicule of our +exemplars, that he helps to keep the <i>poseur</i> in being; and to conclude, +that only by a saving sense of humour can we find our way back to the +truth.</p> + +<h4>II</h4> + +<p>When we judge literature we do so by reference to the eternal truth, not +by what the writer considers the present phase of truth; and if +literature so tested is found guilty of suppression, evasion or +misinterpretation, we call the work insincere, though the author may +have written in perfect good faith. That is a necessary distinction to +keep in mind. If you call a man's work insincere, the superficial critic +will take it as calling the man himself insincere; but the two are +distinct, and it needs to be emphasised, for sincere men are making +these propagandist plays, of which the manifest and glaring untruth is +working mischief to the national mind. A type of such a play is familiar +enough in these days when we like to ridicule the West Briton. We are +served up puppets representing the shoneen with a lisp set over against +the patriot who says all the proper things suitable to the occasion. +Now, such a play serves no good purpose, but it has a certain bad +effect. It does not give a true interpretation of life; it enlightens no +one; but it flatters the prejudices of people who profess things for +which they have no zeal. That is the root of the mischief. Many of us +will readily profess a principle for which we will not as readily +suffer, but when the pinch comes and we are asked to do service for the +flag, we cover our unwillingness by calling the man on the other side +names. Where such a spirit prevails there can be no national awakening. +If we put a play before the people, it must be with a hope of arresting +attention, striking their imagination, giving them a grip of reality, +and filling them with a joy in life. Now, the propagandist play does +none of these things; it has neither joy nor reality; its characters are +puppets and ridiculous; they are essentially caricatures. This is +supposed to convert the unbeliever; but the intelligent unbeliever +coming to it is either bored or irritated by its extravagant absurdity, +and if he admits our sincerity, it is only at the expense of our +intelligence.</p> + +<h4>III</h4> + +<p>A propagandist play for a political end is even more mischievous—at +least lovers of freedom have more cause for protest. It makes our heroes +ridiculous. No man of imagination can stand these impossible persons of +the play who "walk on" eternally talking of Ireland. Our heroes were +men; these are <i>poseurs</i>. Get to understand Davis, Tone, or any of our +great ones, and you will find them human, gay, and lovable. "Were you +ever in love, Davis?" asked one of his wondering admirers, and prompt +and natural came the reply: "I'm never out of it." We swear by Tone for +his manly virtues; we love him because we say to ourselves: "What a fine +fellow for a holiday." A friend of Mitchel's travelling with him once +through a storm, was astonished to find him suddenly burst out into a +fine recitation, which he delivered with fine effect. He was joyous in +spirit. For their buoyancy we love them all, and because of it we +emulate them. We are influenced, not by the man who always wants to +preach a sermon at us, but by the one with whom we go for a holiday. Our +history-makers were great, joyous men, of fine spirit, fine imagination, +fine sensibility, and fine humour. They loved life; they loved their +fellow man; they loved all the beautiful, brave things of earth. When +you know them you can picture them scaling high mountains and singing +from the summits, or boating on fine rivers in the sunlight, or walking +about in the dawn, to the music of Creation, evolving the philosophy of +revolutions and building beautiful worlds. You get no hint of this from +the absurd propagandist play, yet this is what the heart of man craves. +When he does not get it, he cannot explain what he wants; but he knows +what he does not want, and he goes away and keeps his distance. The play +has missed fire, and the playwright and his hero are ridiculous. Let us +understand one thing: if we want to make men dutiful we must make them +joyous.</p> + +<h4>IV</h4> + +<p>It is because we must talk of grave things that we must preserve our +gaiety; otherwise we could not preserve our balance. By some freak of +nature, the average man strikes attitudes as readily as the average boy +whistles. We know how the <i>poseur</i> works mischief to every cause, and we +can see the <i>poseur</i> on every side. In politics, he has made the +platform contemptible, which is a danger to the nation, needing the +right use of platform; in literature—well, we all know bourgeois, but +who has done justice to the artist who gets on a platform to talk about +the bourgeois?—in religion, the <i>poseur</i> is more likely to make +agnostics than all the Rationalist Press; and the agnostic <i>poseur</i> in +turn is very funny. Now all these are an affliction, a collection of +absurdities of which we must cure the nation. If we cannot cure the +nation of absurdity we cannot set her free. Let it be our rule to +combine gaiety with gravity and we will acquire a saving sense of +proportion. Only the solemn man is dull; the serious man has a natural +fund of gaiety: we need only be natural to bring back joy to serious +endeavour. Then we shall begin to move. Let us remember a revolution +will surely fail when its leaders have no sense of humour.</p> + +<h4>V</h4> + +<p>But our humour will not be a saving humour unless it is of high order. A +great humorist is as rare as a great poet or a great philosopher. Though +ours may not be great we must keep it in the line of greatness. +Remember, great humour must be made out of ourselves rather than out of +others. The fine humorist is delightfully courteous; the commonplace +wit, invariably insulting. We must keep two things in mind, that in +laughter at our own folly is the beginning of wisdom; and the keenest +wit is pure fun, never coarse fun. We start a laugh at others by getting +an infallible laugh at ourselves. The commonplace wit arranges incidents +to make someone he dislikes ridiculous; his attitude is the attitude of +the superior person. He is nearly always—often +unintentionally—offensive; he repels the public sometimes in +irritation, sometimes in amusement, for they often see point in his +joke, but see a greater joke in him, and they are often laughing, not at +his joke, but at himself. Let us for our salvation avoid the attitude of +the superior person. Don't make sport of others—make it of yourself. +Ridicule of your neighbour must be largely speculation; of the comedy in +yourself there can be no doubt. When you get the essential humour out of +yourself, you get the infallible touch, and you arrest and attract +everyone. You are not the superior person. In effect, you slap your +neighbour on the back and say, "We're all in the same boat; let us enjoy +the joke"; and you find he will come to you with glistening eye. He may +feel a little foolish at first—you are poking his ribs; but you cannot +help it—having given him the way to poke your own. By your merry +honesty he knows you for a safe comrade, and he comes with relief and +confidence—we like to talk about ourselves. He will be equally frank +with yourself; you will tell one another secrets; you will reach the +heart of man. That is what we need. We must get the heart-beat into +literature. Then will it quiver and dance and weep and sing. Then we are +in the line of greatness.</p> + +<h4>VI</h4> + +<p>It is because we need the truth that we object to the propagandist +playwright. Only in a rare case does he avoid being partial; and when he +is impartial he is cold and unconvincing. He gives us argument instead +of emotion; but emotion is the language of the heart. He does not touch +the heart; he tries to touch the mind: he is a pamphleteer and out of +place. He fails, and his failure has damaged his cause, for it leaves us +to feel that the cause is as cold as his play; but when the Cause is a +great one it is always vital, warm and passionate. It is for the sake of +the Cause we ask that a play be made by a sincere man-of-letters, who +will give us not propagandist literature nor art-for-art's-sake, but +the throbbing heart of man. The great dramatist will have the great +qualities needed, sensibility, sympathy, insight, imagination, and +courage. The special pleader and the <i>poseur</i> lack all these things, and +they make themselves and their work foolish. Let us stand for the truth, +not pruning it for the occasion. The man who is afraid to face life is +not competent to lead anyone, to speak for anyone, or to interpret +anything: he inspires no confidence. The one to rouse us must be +passionate, and his passion will win us heart and soul. When from some +terribly intense moment, he turns with a merry laugh, only the fool will +take him as laughing at his cause; the general instinct will see him +detecting an attitude, tripping it up, and making us all merry and +natural again. In that moment we shall spring up astonished, +enthusiastic, exultant—here is one inspired; we shall enter a +passionate brotherhood, no cold disputes now—the smouldering fire along +the land shall quicken to a blaze, history shall be again in the making. +We shall be caught in the living flame.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_XI'></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h3>LITERATURE AND FREEDOM—ART FOR ART'S SAKE</h3> + +<h4>I</h4> + +<p>Art for art's sake has come to have a meaning which must be challenged, +but yet it can be used in a sense that is both high and sacred. If a +gifted writer take literature as a great vocation and determine to use +his talents faithfully and well, without reference to fee or reward; if +prosperity cannot seduce him to the misuse of his genius, then we give +him our high praise. Let it still not be forgotten that the labourer is +worthy of his hire. But if the hire is not forthcoming, and he knowing +it, yet says in his heart, "The work must still be done"; and if he does +it loyally and bravely, despite the present coldness of the world, +doing the good work for the love of the work and all beautiful things; +and if with this meaning he take "art for art's sake" as his battle-cry, +then we repeat it is used in a sense both high and sacred.</p> + +<h4>II</h4> + +<p>But there are artists abroad whose chief glory seems to be to deny that +they have convictions—that is, convictions about the passionate things +of life that rouse and move their generation. Now that they should not +be special pleaders is an obvious duty, but unless they have a +passionate feeling for the vital things that move men, heart and soul, +they cannot interpret the heart and soul of passionate men, and their +work must be for ever cold. When literature is not passionate it does +not touch the spirit to lift and spread its wings and soar to finer air. +That is the great want about all the clever books now being turned +out—they often give us excitement; they never give us ecstasy. Then +there is an obvious feeling of something lacking which men try to make +up with art; and they produce work faultless in form and fastidious in +phrase, but still it lacks the touch of fire that would lift it from +common things to greatness.</p> + +<h4>III</h4> + +<p>If we are to apply art to great work we must distinguish art from +artifice. We find the two well contrasted in Synge's "Riders to the Sea" +and his "Playboy." The first was written straight from the heart. We +feel Synge must have followed those people carrying the dead body, and +touched to the quick by the <i>caoine</i>, passed the touch on to us, for in +the lyric swell of the close we get the true emotion. Here alone is he +in the line of greatness. This gripped his heart and he wrote out of +himself. But in the other work of his it was otherwise. He has put his +method on record: he listened through a chink in the floor, and wrote +around other people. It is characteristic of the art of our time. Let it +be called art if the critics will, but it is not life.</p> + +<h4>IV</h4> + +<p>No, it is not life. But there is so much talk just now of getting "down +to fundamentals," of the poetry of the tramp "walking the world," and +the rest of it, that it would be well if we <i>did get</i> down to +fundamentals; and this is one thing fundamental—the tramp is a deserter +from life. He evades the troubled field where great causes are fought; +he shuns the battle because of the wounds and the sacrifice; he has no +heart for high conflict and victory. Let him under the cover of darkness +but secure his share of the spoils and the world may go to wreck. Yes, +he is the meanest of things—a deserter. On the field of battle he would +be shot. If we let him desert the field of life, go his way and walk the +world, let us not at least hail him as a hero.</p> + +<p>The Repertory Theatre is the nursery of this particular art-cult, and +'twould relieve some of us to talk freely about it. The Repertory +Theatre has already become fashionable, and is quite rapidly become a +nuisance. Men are making songs and plays and lectures for art's sake, +for the praise of a coterie or to shock the bourgeois—above all shock +the bourgeois. A certain type of artist delights in shocking the +bourgeois—a riot over a play gives him great satisfaction. In passing, +one must note with exasperation, perhaps with some misgiving, how men +raise a riot over something not worth a thought, and will not fight for +things for which they ought to die. But he likes the bourgeois to think +him a terrible person; in his own esteem he is on an eminence, and he +proceeds to send out more shock-the-bourgeois literature; and 'tis +mostly very sorry stuff. Sometimes he tries to be emotional and is but +painfully artificial; sometimes he tries to be merry and gives us +flippancy for fun. And we feel a terrible need for getting back to a +standard, worthy and true. Great work can be made only for the love of +work; not for money, not for art's sake, not for intellectual appeal nor +flippant ridicule, but for the pure love of things, good, true and +beautiful. With the best of intentions we may fail; and this should be +laid down as a safe guiding principle; a dramatist should be moved by +his own tragedy; the novelist should be interested in his own story; the +poet should make his song for the love of the song and his comedy for +the fun of the thing.</p> + +<h4>VI</h4> + +<p>We naturally think of the Abbey Theatre when we speak of these things, +and as the Abbey work has certainly suffered from overpraise we may +correct it by comparison with Shakespeare. Before the Abbey we were so +used to triviality that when clever and artistic work appeared we at +once hailed it great. We <i>did</i> get one or two great things, a fact to +note with hearty pleasure and pride. But the rest was merely clever; and +now that we are getting nothing great we must insist, and keep on +insisting, that 'tis merely clever. But let us remember that value of +the word great. Let it be kept for such names as Shakespeare and +Molière; and lesser men may be called brilliant, talented or +able—anything you will but great. Consider the scenes from the supreme +plays of Shakespeare and compare with them the innumerable plays now +coming forth and note a vital difference. These give us excitement, +where Shakespeare gave us vision. We may be reminded of Shakespeare's +duels and brawls and battles and blood; his generation revelled in +excitement. Yes, they craved it, and he gave it to them, but shot +through with wonder, subtlety, ecstasy; and his splendid creations, like +mighty worlds, keep us wondering for ever. We must get back that supreme +note of blended music and wonder, that makes the spirit beautiful and +tempts it to soar, till it rise over common things and mere commotion, +spreading its wings for the finer air where reason faints and falls to +earth.</p> + +<h4>VII</h4> + +<p>A dramatist cannot make a great play out of little people. His chief +characters at least must be great of heart and soul—the great hearts +that fight great causes. When such are caught, in the inevitable +struggle of affections and duties and the general clash of life their +passionate spirits send up all the elements that make great literature. +The writer who cannot enter into their battles and espouse their cause +cannot give utterance to their hearts; and we don't want what he thinks +about them; we want what they think about themselves. He who is in +passionate sympathy with them feels their emotion and writing from the +heart does great things. The artist who is in mortal dread of being +thought a politician or suspected of motives cannot feel, and will as +surely fail, as the one who sits down to play the rôle of politician +disguised as play-right. That is what the artist has got to see; and he +has got to see that while the Irish Revolution for centuries has +attracted the greatest hearts and brains of Ireland, for him carefully +to avoid it is to avoid the line of greatness. For a propagandist to sit +down to give it utterance would be as if a handy-man were to set out to +build a cathedral. The Revolution does not need to be argued; it +justifies itself—all we need is to give it utterance—give it utterance +once greatly. Then the writer may proceed to give utterance to every +good thing under the sun. But our artists are making, and will continue +to make, only second-class literature, for they are afraid of the +Revolution, and it is all over our best of life; they are afraid of that +life. But to enter the arena of greatness they must give it a voice. +That is the vocation of the poet.</p> + +<h4>VIII</h4> + +<p>Yes, and the poet will be unlike you, gentlemen of the fastidious +phrase. He will not be careless of form, but the passion that is in him +will make simple words burn and live; never will he in the mode of the +time go wide of the truth to make a picturesque phrase; his mind rapt on +the thing will fix on the true word; his heart warm with the battle will +fashion more beautiful forms than you, O detached and dainty artist; his +soul full of music and adventure will scale those heights it is your +fate to dream of but not your fortune to possess. Yet, you, too, might +possess them would you but step with him into the press of adventurous +legions, and make articulate the dream of men, and make splendid their +triumph. He is the prophet of to-morrow, though you deny him to-day. He +is not like to you, supercilious and aloof—he would have you for a +passionate brother, would raise your spirit in ecstasy, flood your mind +with thought, and touch your lips with fire. Because of his +sensitiveness he knows every mood and every heart and gives a voice and +a song to all. You might know him for a good comrade, where freedom is +to win or to hold, over in the van or the breach; able to deal good +blows and take them in the fine manner, a fine fighter; not with +darkened brow crying, "an eye for an eye"—for who <i>could</i> give him +blow for blow or match his deed with a deed?—but one of open front and +open hand who will count it happiness to have made for a victory he may +not live to enjoy, as ready to die in its splendour as he had been to +live through the darkness before the dawn; remembering with soldier +tenderness the comrades of old battles, forgetting the malice of old +enemies; a high example of the magnanimous spirit, happily not yet +unknown on earth; with fine generosity and noble fire, full of that +great love the common cry can never make other than humanising and +beautiful, not without a gleam of humour more than half divine, he will +pass, leaving to the foe that hated him heartily equally with the friend +that loved him well, the wonder of his thought and the rapture of his +melody.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_XII'></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h3>RELIGION</h3> + +<h4>I</h4> + +<p>It ought to be laid down as a first principle that grave questions which +have divided us in the past, and divide us still with much bitterness, +should not be thrust aside and kept out of view in the hope of harmony. +Where the attitude is such, the hope is vain. They should be approached +with courage in the hope of creating mutual respect and an honourable +solution for all. Religion is such a question. To the majority of men +this touches their most intimate life. Because of their jealous regard +for that intimate part of themselves they are prepared for bitter +hostilities with anyone who will assail it; and because of the +unmeasured bitterness of assaults on all sides we have come to count it +a virtue to bring together in societies labelled non-sectarian, men who +have been violently opposed on this issue. It will be readily allowed +that to bring men together anyhow, even suspiciously, is somewhat of an +advance, when we keep in mind how angrily they have quarrelled. But 'tis +not to our credit that in any assembly a particular name hardly dare be +mentioned; and it must be realised that, whatever purpose it may serve +in lesser undertakings, in the great fight for freedom no such attitude +will suffice. No grave question can be settled by ignoring it. Since it +is our duty to make the War of Independence a reality and a success, we +must invoke a contest that will as surely rouse every latent passion and +give every latent suspicion an occasion and a field. That is the danger +ahead. We must anticipate that danger, meet and destroy it. Perhaps at +this suggestion most of us will at once get restive. Some may say with +irritation: Why raise this matter? Others on the other side may prepare +forthwith to dig up the hatchet. Is not the attitude on both sides +evidence of the danger? Does anyone suppose we can start a fight for +freedom without making that danger a grimmer reality? Who can claim it a +wise policy merely for the moment to dodge it? For that is what we do. +Let us have courage and face it. At what I have to say let no man take +offence or fright—it commits no one to anything. It is written to try +and make opponents understand and respect one another, not to set them +at one another, least of all to make them "liberal," that is, lax and +contemptible, ready to explain everything away. We want primarily the +man who is prepared to fight his ground, but who is big enough in heart +and mind to respect opponents who will also fight theirs. In the +integrity and courage of both sides is the guarantee of the independence +of both. That should be our guiding thought. But as on this question +most people abandon all tolerance, it is quite possible what may be +written will satisfy none; still, it may serve the purpose of making a +need apparent. To repeat, we must face the question. But whoever elects +to start it, should approach the issue with sympathy and forbearance. +These are as necessary as courage and resolution; yet, since many often +sacrifice firmness to sympathy, others will take the opposite line of +riding roughshod over everyone, a harshness that confirms the weakling +in his weakness. To note all this is but to note the difficulty; and if +what is now written fails in its appeal, it need only be said to walk +unerringly here would require the insight of a prophet and the balance +of an angel.</p> + +<h4>II</h4> + +<p>What everyone should take as a fair demand is that all men should be +sincere in their professions, and that we should justify ourselves by +the consistency of our own lives rather than by the wickedness of our +neighbours: which is nothing new. It is our trouble that we must +emphasise obvious duties. To approach the question frankly with no +matter what good faith will lead to much heart-burning, perhaps, to no +little bitterness; but if we realise that all sides are about equally to +blame, we may induce an earnestness that may lead to better things. It +is in that hope I write. Catholics and Protestants, instead of saying to +one another the things with which we are familiar, should look to their +own houses; and if in this age of fashionable agnosticism, they should +conclude that the general enemy is the atheist, socialist, and the +syndicalist, they should still be reminded to look to their own houses; +and if the agnostic take this to justify himself, he should be reminded +he has never done anything to justify himself. It may seem a curious way +for inducing harmony to set out to prove everyone in the wrong; but the +point is clear, not to attack what men believe but to ask them to +justify their words by their deeds. The request is not unreasonable and +it may be asked in a tone that will show the sincerity of him who makes +it and waken a kindred feeling in all earnest men. The world will be a +better place to live in, and we shall be all better friends when every +man makes a genuine resolve to give us all the example of a better life.</p> + +<h4>III</h4> + +<p>A development that would require a treatise in itself I will but touch +on, to suggest to all interested a matter of general and grave +concern—the growing materialism of religious bodies. On all sides +self-constituted defenders of the faith are troubling themselves, not +with the faith but with the numbers of their adherents who have jobs, +equal sharers in emoluments, and so forth. A Protestant of standing +writes a book and proves his religion is one of efficiency; a Catholic +of equal standing quickly rejoins with another book to prove his +religion is also efficient; each blind to the fact that the resulting +campaign is disgraceful to both. When religion ceases to represent to us +something spiritual, and purely spiritual, we begin to drift away from +it. "Where thy treasure is, there thy heart is also." "No man can serve +God and Mammon." The modern rejoinder is familiar: "We must live." This, +our generation is not likely to forget. The grave concern is that +well-meaning men are accustoming themselves to this cry to sacrifice all +higher considerations for the "equal division of emoluments." Let us as +citizens and a community see that every man has the right and the means +to live; but when self-interested bodies start a rivalry in the name of +their particular creeds, we know it ends in a squalid greed and fight +for place, in a pursuit of luxury, the logical outcome of which must be +to make the world ugly, sordid and brutal. It would be a mistake to +overlook that high-minded men are allowing themselves to be committed +by plausible reasons to this growing evil. It is misguided enthusiasm. +There is a divine authority that warns us all: "Be zealous for the +better gifts."</p> + +<h4>IV</h4> + +<p>I wish to examine the attitude of the average Christian to the Agnostic. +"The world is falling away from religion," he will cry when depressed, +without thinking how much he himself may be a contributing cause. Let +him study it in this light. What is his attitude? When he comes to speak +of the tendency of the age he will indulge in vague generalities about +atheism, socialism, irreligion, and the rest; always the cause is +outside of him, and against him; he is not part of it. I ask him to pass +by the atheist awhile and take what may be of more concern. There is a +type of Catholic and Protestant who has as little genuine religion in +him as any infidel, who does not deny the letter of the law, but who +does not observe its spirit, whose only use for the letter is to +criticise and harass adversaries. Observe the high use he has for +liberty—drinking, card-playing, gambling, luxury; he has no place in +his life for any worthy deeds, nay, only scorn for such. Still he passes +for orthodox. If he is a Catholic, he secures that by putting in an +appearance at Mass on Sundays. His mind is not there; he arrives late +and goes early. His Protestant fellow in his private judgment finds more +scope: "Let the women go listen to the parson." This is the sort of +saying gives him such a conceit of himself. We have the type on both +sides, so all can see it. Now it is not in the way of the Pharisee we +come to note them, but to note that, strange as it may appear, either or +both together will come to applaud the denouncing of the atheist. We +gather such into our religious societies, and flatter them that they are +adherents of religion and the bulwark of the faith, and they forthwith +anathematise the atheist with great gusto. The one so anathematised is +often as worthless as themselves with a conceit to despise priest and +parson alike. But it sometimes happens he is a fine character who has no +religion as most of us understand it, but who has yet a fine spiritual +fervour, ready to fight and make sacrifices for a national or social +principle that he believes will make for better things, a man of +integrity and worth whom the best of men may be glad to hold as a +friend. Yet we find in the condition to which we have drifted such a one +may be pilloried by wasters, gamblers, rioters, a crew that are the +curse of every community. We lash the atheist and the age but give +little heed to the insincerity and cant of those we do not refuse to +call our own. What an example for the man anathematised. He sees the +vice and meanness of those we allow to pass for orthodox, and when he +sees also the complacency of the better part, he is unconvinced. We +praise the sweetness of the healing waters of Christ-like charity, but +despite our gospel he never gets it, never. We give him execration, +injustice; if we let him go with a word, it is never a gentle word, but +a bitter epithet; and we wonder he is estranged, when he sees our +amazing composure in an amazing welter of hypocrisy and deceit. There +is, of course, the better side, the many thousands of Catholics and +Protestants who sincerely aim at better things. But what has to be +admitted is that most sincerely religious people adopt to the man of no +established religion the same attitude as does the hypocrite: they join +in the general cry. They should look to their own houses; they should +purge the temple of the money-lender and the knave; they should see that +their field gives good harvest; they should remember that not to the +atheist only but to the orthodox was it written: "Every tree therefore +that doth not yield good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the +fire."</p> + +<h4>V</h4> + +<p>There is a word to be said to the man for whom was invented the curious +name agnostic. I'm concerned only with him who is sincere and +high-minded. Let us pass the flippant critics of things they do not +understand. But all sincere men are comrades in a deep and fine sense. +What the honest unbeliever has to keep in mind is that the darker side +is but one side. If he stands studying a crowd of the orthodox and finds +therein the drunkard, the gambler, the sensualist; and if he says bitter +things of the value of religion and gets in return the clerical fiat of +one who is more a politician than a priest; and if he rejoins +contemptuously, "This is fit for women and children," let him be +reminded that he can also study the other side if he care. If he has the +instinct of a fighter he must know every army has in its trail the +camp-follower and the vulture, but when the battle is set and the danger +is imminent, only the true soldier stands his ground. Because some who +are of poor spirit are in high place, let him not forget the old spirit +still exists. Not only the women but the best intellects of men still +keep the old traditions. Newman and Pascal, Dante and Milton, Erigena +and Aquinas, are all dead, but in our time even they have had followers +not too far off. In the same spirit Gilbert Chesterton found wonder at a +wooden post, and Francis Thompson, in his divine wandering, troubled the +gold gateways of the stars. Let our friend before he frames his final +judgment pause here. He may well be baffled by many anomalies of the +time, his eye may rest on the meaner horde, his ear be filled with the +arrogance of some unworthy successor of Paul; and if he says: "Why +permit these things?" he may be told there are some alive in this +generation who will question all such things, and who, however hard it +go with them, have no fear for the final victory.</p> + +<h4>VI</h4> + +<p>Perhaps the conventional Christian and conventional non-Christian may +rest a moment to consider the reality. Between the bitter believer and +the exasperated unbeliever, Christianity is being turned from a practice +to a polemic, and if we are to recall the old spirit we must recall the +old earnestness and simplicity of the early Martyrs. We do not hear that +they called Nero an atheist, but we do hear that they went singing to +the arena. By their example we may recover the spirit of song, and have +done with invective. If we find music and joyousness in the old +conception, it is not in the fashion of the time to explain it away in +some "new theology," for he to whom it is not a fashion, but a vital +thing, keeps his anchor by tradition. To him it is the shining light +away in the mists of antiquity; it is the strong sun over the living +world; it is the pillar of fire over the widening seas and worlds of the +unknown; it is the expanse of infinity. When he is lost in its mystery +he adverts to the wonder about him, for all that is wonderful is touched +with it, and all that is lovely is its expression. It is in the breath +of the wind, pure and bracing from the mountain top. It is in the song +of the lark holding his musical revel in the sunlight. It is in the +ecstasy of a Spring morning. It is in the glory of all beautiful things. +When it has entered and purified his spirit, his heart goes out to the +persecuted in all ages and countries. None will he reject. "I am not +come to call the just but sinners." He remembers those words, and his +great charity encompasses not only the persecuted orthodox, but the +persecuted heretics and infidels.</p> + +<h4>VII</h4> + +<p>I will not say if such an endeavour as I suggest can have an immediate +success. But I think it will be a step forward if we get sincere men on +one side to understand the sincerity of the other side; and if in +matters of religion and speculation, where there is so much difficulty +and there is likely to be so much conflict of opinion, there should be +no constraint, but rather the finest charity and forbearance; then the +orthodox would be concerned with practising their faith rather than in +harassing the infidel, and the infidel would receive a more useful +lesson than the ill-considered tirades he despises. He may remain still +unconvinced, but he will give over his contempt. This question of +religion is one on which men will differ, and differing, ultimately they +will fight if we find no better way. We must remember while freedom is +to win we are facing a national struggle, and if we are threatened +within by a civil war of creeds it may undo us. That is why we must face +the question. That is why I think utter frankness in these grave matters +is of grave urgency. If we approach them in the right spirit we need +have no fear—for at heart the most of men are susceptible to high +appeals. What we need is courage and intensity; it is gabbling about +surface things makes the bitterness. If in truth we safeguard the right +of every man as we are bound to do we shall win the confidence of all, +and we may hope for a braver and better future, wherein some light of +the primal Beauty may wander again over earth as in the beginning it +dawned on chaos when the Spirit of God first moved over the waters.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_XIII'></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<h3>INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM</h3> + +<h4>I</h4> + +<p>It will probably cause surprise if I say there is, possibly, more +intellectual freedom in Ireland than elsewhere in Europe. But I do not +mean by intellectual freedom conventional Free-thought, which is, +perhaps, as far as any superstition from true freedom of the mind. The +point may not be admitted but its consideration will clear the air, and +help to dispose of some objections hindering that spiritual freedom, +fundamental to all liberty.</p> + +<h4>II</h4> + +<p>I have no intention here of in any way criticising the doctrine of +Free-thought, but one so named cannot be ignored when we consider +Intellectual Freedom. This, then, has to be borne in mind when speaking +of Free-thought, that while it allows you latitude of opinion in many +things, it will not allow you freedom in all things, in, for example, +Revealed Religion. I only mention this to show that on both sides of +such burning questions you have disputants dogmatic. A dogmatic "yes" +meets an equally dogmatic "no." The dogmas differ and it is not part of +our business here to discuss them: but to come to a clear conception of +the matter in hand, it must be kept in mind, that if you, +notwithstanding, freely of your own accord, accept belief in certain +doctrines, the freethinkers will for that deny you freedom. And the +freethinkers are right in that they are dogmatic. (But this they +themselves appear to overlook.) Freedom is absolutely dogmatic. It is +fundamentally false that freedom implies no attachment to any belief, no +being bound by any law, "As free as the wind," as the saying goes, for +the wind is not free. Simple indeterminism is not liberty.</p> + +<h4>III</h4> + +<p>We must, then, find the true conception of Intellectual Freedom. It is +the freedom of the individual to follow his star and reach his goal. +That star binds him down to certain lines and his freedom is in exact +proportion to his fidelity to the lines. The seeming paradox may be +puzzling: a concrete example will make it clear. Suppose a man, +shipwrecked, finds himself at sea in an open boat, without his bearings +or a rudder. He is at the mercy of the wind and wave, without freedom, +helpless. But give him his bearings and a helm, and at once he recovers +his course; he finds his position and can strike the path to freedom. He +is at perfect liberty to scuttle his boat, drive it on the rocks or do +any other irrational thing; but if he would have freedom, he must follow +his star.</p> + +<h4>IV</h4> + +<p>This leads us to track a certain error that has confused modern debate. +A man in assumed impartiality tells you he will stand away from his own +viewpoint and consider a case from yours. Now, if he does honestly hold +by his own view and thinks he can put it by and judge from his +opponent's, he is deceiving both himself and his opponent. He can do so +<i>apparently,</i> but, whatever assumption is made, he is governed +subconsciously by his own firm conviction. His belief is around him like +an atmosphere; it goes with him wherever he goes; he can only stand free +of it by altogether abandoning it. If his case is such that he can come +absolutely to the other side to view it uninfluenced by his own, then he +has abandoned his own. He is like a man in a boat who has thrown over +rudder and bearings: he may be moved by any current: he is adrift. If he +is to recover the old ground, he must win it as something he never had. +But if instead of this he does at heart hold by his own view, he should +give over the deception that he is uninfluenced by it in framing +judgment. It is psychologically impossible. Let the man understand it as +a duty to himself to be just to others, and to substitute this principle +for his spurious impartiality. This is the frank and straightforward +course. While he is under his own star, he is moving in its light: he +has, if unconsciously, his hand on the helm: he judges all currents +scrupulously and exactly, but always from his own place at the wheel and +with his own eyes. To abandon one or the other is to betray his trust, +or in good faith and ignorance to cast it off till it is gone, perhaps, +too far to recover.</p> + +<h4>V</h4> + +<p>If we so understand intellectual freedom, in what does its denial +consist? In this: around every set of principles guiding men, there +grows up a corresponding set of prejudices that with the majority in +practice often supersede the principles; and these prejudices with the +march of time assume such proportions, gather such power, both by the +numbers of their adherents and the authority of many supporting them, +that for a man of spirit, knowing them to be evil and urgent of +resistance, there is needed a vigour and freedom of mind that but few +understand and even fewer appreciate or encourage. The prejudices that +grow around a man's principles are like weeds and poison in his garden: +they blight his flowers, trees and fruit; and he must go forth with fire +and sword and strong unsparing hand to root out the evil things. He +will find with his courage and strength are needed passion and patience +and dogged persistence. For men defend a prejudice with bitter venom +altogether unlike the fire that quickens the fighter for freedom; and +the destroyer of the evil may find himself assailed by an astonishing +combination—charged with bad faith or treachery or vanity or sheer +perversity, in proportion as those who dislike his principles deny his +good faith; or those who profess them, because of his vigour and candour +denounce him for an enemy within the fold. But for all that he should +stand fast. If he has the courage so to do, he gives a fine example of +intellectual freedom.</p> + +<h4>VI</h4> + +<p>It will serve us to consider some prejudices, free-thinking and +religious. First the free-thinker. He has a prejudice very hard to kill. +If I believe in the beginning what Bernard Shaw has found out thus late +in the day, that priests are not as bad as they are painted, the +free-thinker would deny me intellectual freedom. The fact of my right to +think the matter out and come to that conclusion would count for +nothing. On the other hand, if I were known to have professed a certain +faith and to have abandoned it, he would acclaim that as casting off +mental slavery. This is hopelessly confusing. If a man has ceased to +hold a certain belief he deserves no credit for courage in saying so +openly. If he thinks what he once believed, or is supposed to have +believed, has no vitality, surely he can have no reason for being afraid +of it, and to speak of dangerous consequences from it to him, can be +<i>for him</i> at least only a bogey. His simple denial is, then, no mark of +courage. Courage is a positive thing. Yet he may well have that courage. +Suppose him in taking his stand to have taken up some social faith that +for him has promise of better things. He will find his new creed +surrounded by its own swarm of prejudices, and if he refuse to worship +every fetish of the free-thinker, declaring that this stands to him for +a certain definite, beautiful thing, and fighting for it, he will find +himself denied and scouted by his new friends. He may find himself often +in company with some supposed enemies. He will surely need in his +sincere attitude to life a freedom of mind that is not a name merely but +a positive virtue that demands of him more than denunciation of +obscurantism, the recognition of a personal duty and the justification +of personal works.</p> + +<h4>VII</h4> + +<p>The religious prejudice will be no less hard to kill. Indiscriminate +denunciation of unbelievers as wicked men serves no good purpose and +leads nowhere. There are wicked men on all sides. Our standard must be +one that will distinguish the sincere men on all sides; and our loyalty +to our particular creeds must be shown in our lives and labours, not in +the reviling of the infidel. We are justified in casting out the +hypocrite from every camp, and when we come to this task we can be sure +only of the hypocrites in our own; and we should lay it as an injunction +on all bodies to purge themselves. The burden will be laid on all—not +one surely of which men can complain—that they shall prove their +principles in action and lay their prejudices by. Christians might well +find exemplars in the early martyrs, those who for their principles went +so readily to the lions. One may anticipate the complacent rejoinder: +"This is not so exacting an age; men are not asked to die for religion +now"—and one may in turn reply, that, perhaps our age may not be +without occasion for such high service, but that we may be unwilling to +go to the lions. Our time has its own trial—by no means unexacting let +me tell you—but we quietly slip it by: it is much easier to revile the +infidel. This as a test of loyalty should be pinned: we shall shut up +thereby the hypocrite. And the earnest man, more conscious of his own +burden, will be more sympathetic, generous and just, and will come to be +more logical and to see what Newman well remarked, that one who asks +questions shows he has no belief and in asking may be but on the road to +one. If to ask a question is to express a doubt, it is no less, perhaps, +to seek a way out of it. "What better can he do than inquire, if he is +in doubt?" asks Newman. "Not to inquire is in his case to be satisfied +with disbelief." We should, acting in this light, instead of denouncing +the questioner, answer his question freely and frankly, encourage him to +ask others and put him one or two by the way. Men meeting in this manner +may still remain on opposite sides, but there will be formed between +them a bond of sympathy that mutual sincerity can never fail to +establish. This is freedom, and a fine beautiful thing, surely worth a +fine effort. What we have grown accustomed to, the bitterness, the +recriminations, the persecutions and retaliations, are all the evil +weeds of prejudice, growing around our principles and choking them. They +are so far a denial of principle, a proof of mental slavery. Our freedom +will attest to faith: "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is +Liberty."</p> + +<h4>VIII</h4> + +<p>This, in conclusion, is the root of the matter: to claim freedom and to +allow it in like measure; rather than to deny, to urge men to follow +their beliefs: only thus can they find salvation. To constrain a man to +profess what we profess is worse than delusion: should he give lip +service to what he does not hold at heart, 'twere for him deceitful and +for us dangerous. Where his star calls, let him walk sincerely. If his +creed is insufficient or inconsistent, in his struggle he shall test it, +and in his sincerity he must make up the insufficiency or remove the +inconsistency. This is the only course for honourable men and no man +should object. To repeat, it puts an equal burden on all—the onus of +justifying the faith that is in them. Life is a divine adventure and he +whose faith is finest, firmest and clearest will go farthest. God does +not hold his honours for the timid: the man who buried his talent, +fearing to lose it, was cast into exterior darkness. He who will step +forward fearlessly will be justified. "All things are possible to him +who believeth." Many on both sides may be surprised to find suddenly +proposed as a test to both sides the readiness to adventure bravely on +the Sea of Life. The free-thinker may be astonished to hear, not that he +goes too far, but does not go far enough. He may gasp at the test, but +it is in effect the test and the only true one. The man who does not +believe he is to be blotted out when his body ceases to breathe, who +holds all history for his heritage and the wide present for his +battle-ground, believes also the future is no repellent void but a +widening and alluring world. If in his travel he is scrupulous in +detail, it is in the spirit of the mariner who will neither court a +ship-wreck nor be denied his adventure. He cannot deny to others the +right to hesitate and halt by the way, but his spirit asks no less than +the eternal and the infinite. Yes, but many good religious people are +not used to seeing the issue in this light, and those who make a trade +of fanning old bitterness will still ply their bitter trade, crying that +anarchists, atheists, heretics, infidels, all outcasts and wicked men, +are all rampant for our destruction. It may be disputed, but, admitting +it, one may ask: Is there no place among Christian people for those +distinctive virtues on which we base the superiority of our religion? +When the need is greatest, should the practice be less urgent? It is not +evident that the free-thinker is obliged by any of his principles to +give better example. It is evident the Christian is so obliged. Why is +he found wanting? If human weakness were pleaded, one could understand. +It is against the making a virtue of it lies the protest. How many noble +things there are in our philosophies, and how little practised. No +violent convulsions should be needed to make us free, if men were but +consistent: we should find ourselves wakening from a wicked dream in a +bloodless and beautiful revolution. We are in the desert truly and a +long way from the Promised Land. But we must get to the higher ground +and consider our position; and if one by one we are stripped of the +prejudices that too long have usurped the place of faith, and we find +ourselves, to our dismay, perhaps lacking that faith that we have so +long shouted but so little testified, and tremble on the verge of panic, +there is one last line that gives in four words with divine simplicity +and completeness a final answer to all timidity and objections: "Fear +not; only believe."</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_XIV'></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<h3>MILITARISM</h3> + +<h4>I</h4> + +<p>To defend or recover freedom men must be always ready for the appeal to +arms. Here is a principle that has been vindicated through all history +and needs vindication now. But in our time the question of rightful war +has been crossed by the evil of militarism, and in our assertion of the +principle, that in the last resort freemen must have recourse to the +sword, we find ourselves crossed by the anti-militarist campaign. We +must dispose of this confusing element before we can come to the ethics +of war. Of the evil of militarism there can be no question, but a +careful study of some anti-militaristic literature discloses very +different motives for the campaign. I propose to lay some of the +motives bare and let the reader judge whether there may not be an +insidious plot on foot to make a deal between the big nations to crush +the little ones. For this purpose I will consider two books on the +question, one by Mr. Norman Angell, "The Great Illusion," and one by M. +Jacques Novikow, "War and Its Alleged Benefits." In the work of Mr. +Angell the reader will find the suggestion of the deal, while in the +work of M. Novikow is given a clear and honest statement of the +anti-militarist position, with which we can all heartily agree. Those of +us who would assert our freedom should understand the right +anti-militarist position, because in its exponents we shall find allies +at many points. But with Mr. Angell's book it is otherwise. These points +emerge: the basis of morality is self-interest; the Great Powers have +nothing to gain by destroying one another, they should agree to police +and exploit the territory of the "backward races"; if the statesmen take +a different view from the financiers, the financiers can bring pressure +to bear on the statesmen by their international organisation; the +capitalist has no country. Well, our comment is, the patriot has a +country, and when he wakens to the new danger, he may spoil the +capitalist dream, and this book of Mr. Angell's may in a sense other +than that the author intended be appropriately named "The Great +Illusion."</p> + +<h4>II</h4> + +<p>The limits of this essay do not admit of detailed examination of the +book named. What I propose to do is make characteristic extracts +sufficiently full to let the reader form judgment. As we are only +concerned for the present with the danger I mention, I take particular +notice of Mr. Angell's book, and I refer the reader for further study to +the original. But the charge of taking an accidental line from its +context cannot be made here, as the extracts are numerous, the tendency +of all alike, and more of the same nature can be found. I divide the +extracts into three groups, which I name:</p> + + +<p class="blkquot">1. The Ethics of the Case.</p> +<p class="blkquot">2. The Power of Money.</p> +<p class="blkquot">3. The Deal.</p> + + +<p>Where italics are used they are mine.</p> + +<p class="blkquot">1. THE ETHICS OF THE CASE.—"The +real basis of Social Morality is self-interest." +("The Great Illusion," 3rd Ed., +p. 66.) "Have we not abundant evidence, +indeed, that the passion of patriotism, as +divorced from material interest, is being +modified by the pressure of material interest?" +(p. 167.) "Piracy was magnificent, +doubtless, but it was not business." +(Speaking of the old Vikings, p. 245.) +"The pacifist propaganda has failed largely +because it has not put (and proven) the +plea of interest as distinct from the moral +plea." (p. 321.)</p> + +<p class="blkquot">2. THE POWER OF MONEY.—"The +complexity of modern finance makes New +York dependent on London, London upon +Paris, Paris upon Berlin, to a greater degree> +than has ever yet been the case in +history." (p. 47.)</p> + +<p class="blkquot">"It would be a miracle if already at this +point the whole influence of British +Finance were not thrown against the action +of the British Government." (On the +assumed British capture of Hamburg, +p. 53).</p> + +<p class="blkquot">"The most absolute despots cannot command +money." (p. 226.)</p> + +<p class="blkquot">"With reference to capital, it may almost +be said that it is organised so naturally +internationally that <i>formal organisation is +not necessary</i>." (p. 269.)</p> + +<p class="blkquot">3. THE DEAL.—"France has benefited +by the conquest of Algeria, England by +that of India, because in each case the +arms were employed not, properly speaking, +for conquest at all, but <i>for police purposes</i>." +(p. 115.)</p> + +<p class="blkquot">"While even the wildest Pan-German +has never cast his eyes in the direction of +Canada, he has cast them, and does cast +them, in the direction of Asia +Minor.... <i>Germany may need to police +Asia Minor</i>." (pp. 117, 118.)</p> + +<p class="blkquot">"<i>It is much more to our interest to have +an orderly and organised Asia Minor under +German tutelage than to have an unorganised +and disorderly one which should +be independent</i>." (p. 120.)</p> + +<p class="blkquot">"Sir Harry Johnston, in the 'Nineteenth +Century' for December, 1910, comes a great +deal nearer to touching the real kernel of +the problem.... He adds that the +best informed Germans used this language +to him: '<i>You know that we ought to make +common cause in our dealings with backward +races of the world</i>!'"</p> + +<p>The quotations speak for themselves. Note the policing of the "backward +races." The Colonies are not in favour. Mr. Angell writes: "What in the +name of common sense is the advantage of conquering them if the only +policy is to let them do as they like?" (p. 92.) South Africa occasions +bitter reflections: "The present Government of the Transvaal is in the +hands of the Boer Party." (p. 95.) And he warns Germany, that, supposing +she wishes to conquer South Africa, "she would learn that the policy +that Great Britain has adopted was not adopted by philanthropy, but in +the hard school of bitter experience." (p. 104.) We believe him, and we +may have to teach a lesson or two in the same school. It may be noted in +passing Mr. Angell gives Ireland the honour of a reference. In reply to +a critic of the <i>Morning Post</i>, who wrote thus: "It is the sublime +quality of human nature that every great nation has produced citizens +ready to sacrifice themselves rather than submit to external force +attempting to dictate to them a conception other than their own of what +is right." (p. 254.) Mr. Angell replied: "One is, of course, surprised +to see the foregoing in the <i>Morning Post</i>; the concluding phrase would +justify the present agitation in India, or in Egypt, or in Ireland +against British, rule." (p. 254.) Comment is needless. The reading and +re-reading of this book forces the conclusion as to its sinister +design. Once that design is exposed its danger recedes. There is one at +least of the "backward races" that may not be sufficiently alive to +self-interest, but may for all that upset the capitalist table and +scatter the deal by what Ruskin described in another context as "the +inconvenience of the reappearance of a soul."</p> + +<h4>III</h4> + +<p>We must not fail to distinguish the worth of the best type of +anti-militarist and to value the truth of his statement. It is curious +to find Mr. Angell writing an introduction to M. Novikow's book, for M. +Novikow's position is, in our point of view, quite different. He does +not draw the fine distinction of policing the "backward races." Rather, +he defends the Bengalis. Suppose their rights had never been violated, +he says: "They would have held their heads higher; they would have been +proud and dignified, and perhaps might have taken for their motto, <i>Dieu +et mon droit</i>." ("War and Its Alleged Benefits," p. 12.) He can be +ironical and he can be warm. Later, he writes; "The French (and all +other people) should vindicate their rights with their last drop of +blood; so what I write does not refer to those who defend their rights, +but to those who violate the rights of others." (Note p. 70.) He does +not put by the moral plea, but says: "Political servitude develops the +greatest defects in the subjugated peoples." (p. 79.) And he pays his +tribute to those who die for a noble cause: "My warmest sympathy goes +out to those noble victims who preferred death to disgrace." (p. 82.) +This is the true attitude and one to admire; and any writer worthy of +esteem who writes for peace never fails to take the same stand. Emerson, +in his essay on "War," makes a fine appeal for peace, but he writes: "If +peace is sought to be defended or preserved for the safety of the +luxurious or the timid, it is a sham and the peace will be base. War is +better, and the peace will be broken." And elsewhere on "Politics," he +writes: "A nation of men unanimously bent on freedom or conquest can +easily confound the arithmetic of the statists and achieve extravagant +actions out of all proportions to their means." Yes, and by our +unanimity for freedom we mean to prove it true.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_XV'></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<h3>THE EMPIRE</h3> + +<h4>I</h4> + +<p>With the immediate promise of Home Rule many strange apologists for the +Empire have stepped into the sun. Perhaps it is well—we may find +ourselves soon more directly than heretofore struggling with the Empire. +So far the fight has been confused. Imperialists fighting for Home Rule +obscured the fact that they were <i>not</i> fighting the Empire. Now Home +Rule is likely to come, and it will serve at least the good purpose of +clearing the air and setting the issue definitely between the nation and +the Empire. We shall have our say for the nation, but as even now many +things, false and hypocritical, are being urged on behalf of the +Empire, it will serve us to examine the Imperial creed and show its +tyranny, cruelty, hypocrisy, and expose the danger of giving it any +pretext whatever for aggression. For the Empire, as we know it and deal +with it, is a bad thing in itself, and we must not only get free of it +and not be again trapped by it, but must rather give hope and +encouragement to every nation fighting the same fight all the world +over.</p> + +<h4>II</h4> + +<p>One candid writer, Machiavelli, has put the Imperial creed into a book, +the examination of which will—for those willing to see—clear the air +of illusion. Now, we are conscious that defenders of the Empire profess +to be shocked by the wickedness of Machiavelli's utterance—we shall +hear Macaulay later—but this shocked attitude won't delude us. Let +those who have not read Machiavelli's book, "The Prince," consider +carefully the extracts given below and see exactly how they fit the +English occupation of Ireland, and understand thoroughly that the Empire +is a thing, bad in itself, utterly wicked, to be resisted everywhere, +fought without ceasing, renounced with fervour and without +qualification, as we have been taught from the cradle to renounce the +Devil with all his works and pomps. Consider first the invasion. +Machiavelli speaks:—"The common method in such cases is this. As soon +as a foreign potentate enters into a province those who are weaker or +disobliged join themselves with him out of emulation and animosity to +those who are above them, insomuch that in respect to those inferior +lords no pains are to be omitted that may gain them; and when gained, +they will readily and unanimously fall into one mass with the State that +is conquered. Only the conqueror is to take special care that they grow +not too strong, nor be entrusted with too much authority, and then he +can easily with his own forces and their assistance keep down the +greatness of his neighbours, and make himself absolute arbiter in that +province." Here is the old maxim, "Divide and conquer." To gain an entry +some pretence is advisable. Machiavelli speaks with approval of a +certain potentate who always made religion a pretence. Having entered a +vigorous policy must be pursued. We read—"He who usurps the government +of any State is to execute and put in practice all the cruelties which +he thinks material at once." Cromwell rises before us.</p> + +<p>"A prince," says Machiavelli, "is not to regard the scandal of being +cruel if thereby he keeps his subjects in their allegiance." "For," he +is cautioned, "whoever conquers a free town and does not demolish it +commits a great error and may expect to be ruined himself; because +whenever the citizens are disposed to revolt they betake themselves, of +course, to that blessed name of Liberty, and the laws of their +ancestors, which no length of time nor kind usage whatever will be able +to eradicate." An alternative to utter destruction is flattery and +indulgence. "Men are either to be flattered and indulged or utterly +destroyed." We think of the titles and the bribes. Again, "A town that +has been anciently free cannot more easily be kept in subjection than by +employing its own citizens." We think of the place-hunter, the King's +visit, the "loyal" address. To make the conquest secure we read: "When a +prince conquers a new State and annexes it as a member to his old, then +it is necessary your subjects be disarmed, all but such as appeared for +you in the conquest, and they are to be mollified by degrees and +brought into such a condition of laziness and effeminacy that in time +your whole strength may devolve upon your own natural militia." We think +of the Arms Acts and our weakened people. But while one-half is disarmed +and the other half bribed, with neither need the conqueror keep faith. +We read: "A prince who is wise and prudent cannot, or ought not, to keep +his parole, when the keeping of it is to his prejudice and the causes +for which he promised removed." This is made very clear to prevent any +mistake. "It is of great consequence to disguise your inclination and +play the hypocrite well." We think of the Broken Treaty and countless +other breaches of faith. It is, of course, well to seem honourable, but +Machiavelli cautions: "It is honourable to seem mild, and merciful, and +courteous, and religious, and sincere, and indeed to be so, provided +your mind be so rectified and prepared, that you can act quite contrary +upon occasion." Should anyone hesitate at all this let him hear: "He is +not to concern himself if run under the infamy of those vices, without +which his dominion was not to be preserved." Thus far the philosophy of +Machiavelli. The Imperialist out to "civilise the barbarians" is, of +course, shocked by such wickedness; but we are beginning to open our +eyes to the wickedness and hypocrisy of both. To us this book reads as +if a shrewd observer of the English Occupation in Ireland had noted the +attending features and based these principles thereon. We have reason to +be grateful to Machiavelli for his exposition. His advice to the prince, +in effect, lays bare the marauders of his age and helps us to expose the +Empire in our own.</p> + +<h4>III</h4> + +<p>There is a lesson to be learnt from the fact that this book of +Machiavelli's, written four centuries ago in Italy, is so apt here +to-day. We must take this exposition as the creed of Empire and have no +truck with the Empire. It may be argued that the old arts will be no +longer practised on us. Let the new supporters of the Empire know that +by the new alliance they should practise these arts on other people, +which would be infamy. We are not going to hold other people down; we +are going to encourage them to stand up. If it means a further fight we +have plenty of stimulus still. Our oppression has been doubly bitter +for having been mean. The tyranny of a strong mind makes us rage, but +the tyranny of a mean one is altogether insufferable. The cruelty of a +Cromwell can be forgotten more easily than the cant of a Macaulay. When +we read certain lines we go into a blaze, and that fire will burn till +it has burnt every opposition out. In his essay on Milton, Macaulay +having written much bombast on the English Revolution, introduces this +characteristic sentiment: "One part of the Empire there was, so +unhappily circumstanced, that at that time its misery was necessary to +our happiness and its slavery to our freedom." For insolence this would +be hard to beat. Let it be noted well. It is the philosophy of the +"Predominant Partner." If he had thanked God for having our throats to +cut, and cut them with loud gratitude like Cromwell, a later generation +would be incensed. But this other attitude is the gall in the cup. +Macaulay is, of course, shocked by Machiavelli's "Prince." In his essay +on Machiavelli we read: "It is indeed scarcely possible for any person +not well acquainted with the history and literature of Italy to read +without horror and amazement the celebrated treatise which has brought +so much obloquy on the name of Machiavelli. Such a display of +wickedness, naked, yet not ashamed, such cool, judicious, scientific +atrocity, seemed rather to belong to a fiend than to the most depraved +of men." But, later, in the same essay, is a valuable sidelight. He +writes of Machiavelli as a man "whose only fault was that, having +adopted some of the maxims then generally received, he arranged them +most luminously and expressed them more forcibly than any other writer." +Here we have the truth, of course not so intended, but evident: +Machiavelli's crime is not for the sentiments he entertained but for +writing them down luminously and forcibly—in other words, for giving +the show away.</p> + +<p>Think of Macaulay's "horror and amazement," and read this further in the +same essay: "Every man who has seen the world knows that nothing is so +useless as a general maxim. If it be very moral and very true it may +serve for a copy to a charity boy." So the very moral and the very true +are not for the statesman but for the charity-boy. This perhaps may be +defended as irony; hardly, but even so, in such irony the character +appears as plainly as in volumes of solemn rant. To us it stands out +clearly as the characteristic attitude of the English Government. The +English people are used to it, practise it, and will put up with it; but +the Irish people never were, are not now, and never will be used to it; +and we won't put up with it. We get calm as old atrocities recede into +history, but to repeat the old cant, above all to try and sustain such +now, sets all the old fire blazing—blazing with a fierceness that will +end only with the British connection.</p> + +<h4>IV</h4> + +<p>Not many of us in Ireland will be deceived by Macaulay, but there is +danger in an occasional note of writers, such as Bernard Shaw and Stuart +Mill. Our instinct often saves us by natural repugnance from the +hypocrite, when we may be confused by some sentiment of a sincere man, +not foreseeing its tendency. When an aggressive power looks for an +opening for aggression it first looks for a pretext, and our danger lies +in men's readiness to give it the pretext. Such a sentiment as this from +Mill—on "Liberty"—gives the required opening: "Despotism is a +legitimate mode of government in dealing with Barbarians, provided the +end be their improvement"; or this from Shaw's preface to the Home Rule +edition of "John Bull's Other Island": "I am prepared to Steam-roll +Tibet if Tibet persist in refusing me my international rights." Now, it +is within our right to enforce a principle within our own territory, but +to force it on other people, called for the occasion "barbarians," is +quite another thing. Shaw may get wrathful, and genuinely so, over the +Denshawai horror, and expose it nakedly and vividly as he did in his +first edition of "John Bull's Other Island," Preface for Politicians; +but the aggressors are undisturbed as long as he gives them pretexts +with his "steam-roll Tibet" phrase. And when he says further that he is +prepared to co-operate with France, Italy, Russia, Germany and England +in Morocco, Tripoli, Siberia and Africa to civilise these places, not +only are his denunciations of Denshawai horrors of no avail—except to +draw tears after the event—but he cannot co-operate in the civilising +process without practising the cruelty; and perhaps in their privacy the +empire-makers may smile when Shaw writes of Empire with evident +earnestness as "a name that every man who has ever felt the sacredness +of his own native soil to him, and thus learnt to regard that feeling in +other men as something holy and inviolable, spits out of his mouth with +enormous contempt." When, further, in his "Representative Government" +Mill tells the English people—a thing about which Shaw has no +illusions—that they are "the power which of all in existence best +understands liberty, and, whatever may have been its errors in the past, +has attained to more of conscience and moral principle in its dealing +with foreigners than any other great nation seems either to conceive as +possible or recognise as desirable"—they not only go forward to +civilise the barbarians by Denshawai horrors, but they do so unctuously +in the true Macaulayan style. We feel a natural wrath at all this, not +unmingled with amusement and amazement. In studying the question we read +much that rouses anger and contempt, but one must laugh out heartily in +coming to this gem of Mill's, uttered with all Mill's solemnity: +"Place-hunting is a form of ambition to which the English, considered +nationally, are almost strangers." When the sincerest expression of the +English mind can produce this we need to have our wits about us; and +when, as just now, so much nonsense, and dangerous nonsense, is being +poured abroad about the Empire, we need to pause, carefully consider all +these things, and be on our guard.</p> + +<h4>V</h4> + +<p>In conclusion, we may add our own word to the talk of the hour—the +politicians on Home Rule. It should raise a smile to hear so often the +prophecy that Ireland will be loyal to the Empire when she gets Home +Rule. We are surprised that any Irishman could be so foolish, though, no +doubt, many Englishmen are so simple as to believe it. History and +experience alike deny it. Possibly the Home Rule chiefs realise their +active service is now limited to a decade or two, and assume Home Rule +may be the limit for that time, and speak only for that time; but at the +end of that time our generation will be vigorous and combative, and if +we cannot come into our own before then, we shall be ready then. We need +say for the moment no more than this—the limit of the old generation +is not the limit of ours. If anyone doubt the further step to take let +him consider our history, recent and remote. The old effort to subdue or +exterminate us having failed, the new effort to conciliate us began. +Minor concessions led to the bigger question of the land. One Land Act +led to another till the people came by their own. Home Rule, first to be +killed by resolute government, was next to be killed by kindness, and +Local Government came. Local Government made Home Rule inevitable; and +now Home Rule is at hand and we come to the last step. Anyone who reads +the history of Ireland, who understands anything of progress, who can +draw any lesson from experience, must realise that the advent of Home +Rule marks the beginning of the end.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_XVI'></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<h3>RESISTANCE IN ARMS—FOREWORD</h3> + +<h4>I</h4> + +<p>The discussion of freedom leads inevitably to the discussion of an +appeal to arms. If proving the truth and justice of a people's claim +were sufficient there would be little tyranny in the world, but a +tyrannical power is deaf to the appeal of truth—it cannot be moved by +argument, and must be met by force. The discussion of the ethics of +revolt is, then, inevitable.</p> + +<h4>II</h4> + +<p>The ubiquitous pseudo-practical man, petulant and critical, will at once +arise: "What is the use of discussing arms in Ireland? If anyone wanted +to fight it would be impossible, and no one wants to fight. What +prevents ye going out to begin?" Such peevish criticism is anything but +practical, and one may ignore it; but it suggests the many who would +earnestly wish to settle our long war with a swift, conclusive fight, +yet who feel it no longer practical. Keeping to the practical issue, we +must bear in mind a few things. Though Ireland has often fought at odds, +and could do so again, it is not just now a question of Ireland poorly +equipped standing up to England invincible. England will never again +have such an easy battle. The point now to emphasise is this—by +remaining passive and letting ourselves drift we drift into the conflict +that involves England. We must fight for her or get clear of her. There +can be no neutrality while bound to her; so a military policy is an +eminently practical question. Moreover, it is an urgent one: to stand in +with England in any danger that threatens her will be at least as +dangerous as a bold bid to break away from her. One thing above all, +conditions have changed in a startling manner; England is threatened +within as without; there are labour complications of all kinds of which +no one can foresee the end, while as a result of another complication +we find the Prime Minister of England going about as carefully protected +as the Czar of Russia.[Footnote: The militant suffragette agitation.] +The unrest of the times is apt to be even bewildering. England is not +alone in her troubles—all the great Powers are likewise; and it is at +least as likely for any one of them to be paralysed by an internal war +as to be prepared to wage an external one. This stands put clearly—we +cannot go away from the turmoil and sit down undisturbed; we must stand +in and fight for our own hand or the hand of someone else. Let us +prepare and stand for our own. However it be, no one can deny that in +all the present upheavals it is at least practical to discuss the ethics +of revolt.</p> + +<h4>III</h4> + +<p>We can count on a minority who will see wisdom in such a discussion; it +must be our aim to make the discussion effective. We must be patient as +well as resolute. We are apt to get impatient and by hasty denunciation +drive off many who are wavering and may be won. These are held back, +perhaps, by some scruple or nervousness, and by a fine breath of the +truth and a natural discipline may yet be made our truest soldiers. +Emerson, in his address at the dedication of the Soldiers' Monument, +Concord, made touching reference in some such in the American Civil War. +He told of one youth he knew who feared he was a coward, and yet +accustomed himself to danger, by forcing himself to go and meet it. "He +enlisted in New York," says Emerson, "went out to the field, and died +early." And his comment for us should be eloquent. "It is from this +temperament of sensibility that great heroes have been formed." The +pains we are at to make men physically fit we must take likewise to make +them mentally fit. We are minutely careful in physical training, drill +regulations and the rest, which is right, for thus we turn a mob into an +army and helplessness into strength. Let us be minutely careful, too, +with the untried minds—timid, anxious, sensitive in matters of +conscience; like him Emerson spoke of, they may be found yet in the +foremost fighting line, but we must have patience in pleading with them. +Here above all must we keep our balance, must we come down with sympathy +to every particular. It is surely evident that it is essential to give +the care we lavish on the body with equal fulness to the mind.</p> + +<h4>IV</h4> + +<p>At the heart of the question we will be met by the religious objection +to revolt. Here all scruples, timidity, wavering, will concentrate; and +here is our chief difficulty to face. The right to war is invariably +allowed to independent states. The right to rebel, even with just cause, +is not by any means invariably allowed to subject nations. It has been +and is denied to us in Ireland. We must answer objectors line by line, +leading them, where it serves, step by step to our conclusions; but this +is not to make freedom a mere matter of logic—it is something more. +When it comes to war we shall frequently give, not our promises, but our +conclusions. This much must be allowed, however, that, as far as logic +will carry, our position must be perfectly sound; yet, be it borne in +mind, our cause reaches above mere reasoning—mere logic does not +enshrine the mysterious touch of fire that is our life. So, when we +argue with opponents we undertake to give them as good as or better than +they can give, but we stake our cause on the something that is more. On +this ground I argue not in general on the right of war, but in +particular on the right of revolt; not how it may touch other people +elsewhere ignoring how it touches us here in Ireland. A large treatise +could be written on the general question, but to avoid seeming academic +I will confine myself as far as possible to the side that is our +concern. For obvious reasons I propose to speak as to how it affects +Catholics, and let them and others know what some Catholic writers of +authority have said on the matter. One thing has to be carefully made +clear. It is seen in the following quotation from an eminent Catholic +authority writing in Ireland in the middle of the last century, Dr. +Murray, of Maynooth: "The Church has issued no definition whatever on +the question—has left it open. Many theologians have written on it; the +great majority, however (so far as I have been able to examine them), +pass it over in silence." (<i>Essays chiefly Theological</i>, vol. 4). This +has to be kept in mind. Theologians have written, some on one side and +some on the other, but the Church has left it open. I need not labour +the point why it is useful to quote Catholic authorities in particular, +since in Ireland an army representative of the people would be largely +Catholic, and much former difficulty arose from Catholics in Ireland +meeting with opposition from some Catholic authorities. It may be seen +the position is delicate as well as difficult, and in writing a +preliminary note one point should be emphasised. We must not evade a +difficulty because it is delicate and dangerous, and we must not +temporise. In a physical contest on the field of battle it is allowable +to use tactics and strategy, to retreat as well as advance, to have +recourse to a ruse as well as open attack; but <i>in matters of principle +there can be no tactics, there is one straightforward course to follow, +and that course must be found and followed without swerving to the end</i>.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_XVII'></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + +<h3>RESISTANCE IN ARMS—THE TRUE MEANING OF LAW</h3> + +<h4>I</h4> + +<p>When we stand up to question false authority we should first make our +footing firm by showing we understand true authority and uphold it. Let +us be clear then as to the meaning of the word law. It may be defined; +an ordinance of reason, the aim of which is the public good and +promulgated by the ruling power. Let us cite a few authorities. "A human +law bears the character of law so far as it is in conformity with right +reason; and in that point of view it is manifestly derived from the +Eternal Law." (<i>Aquinas Ethicus,</i> Vol. 1, p. 276.) Writing of laws that +are unjust either in respect to end, author or form, St. Thomas says: +"Such proceedings are rather acts of violence than laws; because St. +Augustine says: 'A law that is not just goes for no law at all.'" +(<i>Aquinas Ethicus</i>, Vol. 1, p. 292.) "The fundamental idea of all law," +writes Balmez, "is that it be in accordance with reason, that it be an +emanation from reason, an application of reason to society" (<i>European +Civilisation</i>, Chap. 53). In the same chapter Balmez quotes St. Thomas +with approval: "The kingdom is not made for the king, but the king for +the kingdom"; and he goes on to the natural inference: "That all +governments have been established for the good of society, and that this +alone should be the compass to guide those who are in command, whatever +be the form of government." It is likewise the view of Mill, in +<i>Representative Government</i>, that the well-being of the governed is the +sole object of government. It was the view of Plato before the Christian +era: his ideal city should be established, "that the whole City might be +in the happiest condition." (<i>The Republic</i>, Book 4.) Calderwood writes: +"Political Government can be legitimately constructed only on condition +of the acknowledgment of natural obligations and rights as inviolable." +(<i>Handbook of Modern Philosophy, Applied Ethics</i>, Sec. 4.) Here all +schools and all times are in agreement. Till these conditions are +fulfilled for us we are at war. When an independent and genuine Irish +Government is established we shall yield it a full and hearty +allegiance: the law shall then be in repute. We do not stand now to deny +the idea of authority, but to say that the wrong people are in +authority, the wrong flag is over us.</p> + +<h4>II</h4> + +<p>"We must overthrow the arguments that might be employed against us by +the advocates of blind submission to any power that happens to be +established," writes Balmez, on resistance to <i>De Facto</i> Governments. +(<i>European Civilisation</i>, Chap. 55.) We could not be more explicit than +the famous Spanish theologian. To such arguments let the following stand +out from his long and emphatic reply:—"Illegitimate authority is no +authority at all; the idea of power involves the idea of right, without +which it is mere physical power, that is force." He writes further: "The +conqueror, who, by mere force of arms, has subdued a nation, does not +thereby acquire a right to its possession; the government, which by +gross iniquities has despoiled entire classes of citizens, exacted undue +contributions, abolished legitimate rights, cannot justify its acts by +the simple fact of its having sufficient strength to execute these +iniquities." There is much that is equally clear and definite. What +extravagant things can be said on the other side by people in high +places we know too well. Balmez in the same book and chapter gives an +excellent example and an excellent reply: "Don Felix Amat, Archbishop of +Palmyra, in the posthumous work entitled <i>Idea of the Church Militant</i>, +makes use of these words: 'Jesus Christ, by His plain and expressive +answer, <i>Render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's</i>, has sufficiently +established that the mere fact of a government's existence is sufficient +for enforcing the obedience of subjects to it....' His work was +forbidden at Rome," is Balmez' expressive comment, and he continues, +"and whatever may have been the motives for such a prohibition, we may +rest assured that, in the case of a book advocating such doctrines, +every man who is jealous of his rights might acquiesce in the decree of +the Sacred Congregation." So much for <i>De Facto</i> Government. It is +usurpation; by being consummated it does not become legitimate. When its +decrees are not resisted, it does not mean we accept them in +principle—nor can we even pretend to accept them—but that the hour to +resist has not yet come. It is the strategy of war.</p> + +<h4>III</h4> + +<p>We stand on the ground that the English Government in Ireland is founded +in usurpation and as such deny its authority. But if it be argued, +assuming it as Ireland's case, that a usurped authority, gradually +acquiesced in by the people, ultimately becomes the same as legitimate, +the reply is still clear. For ourselves we meet the assumption with a +simple denial, appealing to Irish History for evidence that we never +acquiesced in the English Usurpation. But to those who are not satisfied +with this simple denial, we can point out that even an authority, +originally founded legitimately, may be resisted when abusing its power +to the ruin of the Commonwealth. We still stand on the ground that the +English government is founded in usurpation, but we can dispose of all +objections by proving the extremer case. This is the case Dr. Murray, +already quoted, discusses. "The question," he writes, "is about +resistance to an established and legitimate government which abuses its +power." (<i>Essays, Chiefly Theological</i>, Vol. 4.) He continues: "The +common opinion of a large number of our theologians, then, is that it is +lawful to resist by force, and if necessary to depose, the sovereign +ruler or rulers, in the extreme—the very extreme—case wherein the +following conditions are found united:</p> + + +<p class="blkquot">"1. The tyranny must be excessive—intolerable.</p> + +<p class="blkquot">"2. The tyranny must be manifest, manifest to men of +good sense and right feeling.</p> + +<p class="blkquot">"3. The evils inflicted by the tyrant must be greater +than those which would ensue from resisting and deposing him.</p> + +<p class="blkquot">"4. There must be no other available way of getting +rid of the tyranny except by recurring to the extreme course.</p> + +<p class="blkquot">"5. There must be a moral certainty of success.</p> + +<p class="blkquot">"6. The revolution must be one conducted or approved by the +community at large ... the refusal of a small party in the State to join with +the overwhelming mass of their countrymen would not render the resistance of +the latter unlawful." (<i>Essays, Chiefly Theological</i>; see also +Rickaby, <i>Moral Philosophy</i>, Chap. 8, Sec. 7.)</p> + +<p>Some of these conditions are drawn out at much length by Dr. Murray. I +give what is outstanding. How easily they could fit Irish conditions +must strike anyone. I think it might fairly be said that our leaders +generally would, if asked to lay down conditions for a rising, have +framed some more stringent than these. It might be said, in truth, of +some of them that they seem to wait for more than a moral certainty of +success, an absolute certainty, that can never be looked for in war.</p> + +<h4>IV</h4> + +<p>When a government through its own iniquity ceases to exist, we must, to +establish a new government on a true and just basis, go back to the +origin of Civil Authority. No one argues now for the Divine Right of +Kings, but in studying the old controversy we get light on the subject +of government that is of all time. To the conception that kings held +their power immediately from God, "Suarez boldly opposed the thesis of +the initial sovereignty of the people; from whose consent, therefore, +all civil authority immediately sprang. So also, in opposition to +Melanchthon's theory of governmental omnipotence, Suarez <i>a fortiori</i> +admitted the right of the people to depose those princes who would have +shown themselves unworthy of the trust reposed in them." (De Wulf, +<i>History of Medieval Philosophy,</i> Third Edition, p. 495.) Suarez' +refutation of the Anglican theory, described by Hallam as clear, brief, +and dispassionate, has won general admiration. Hallam quotes him to the +discredit of the English divines: "For this power, by its very nature, +belongs to no one man but to a multitude of men. This is a certain +conclusion, being common to all our authorities, as we find by St. +Thomas, by the Civil laws, and by the great canonists and casuists; all +of whom agree that the prince has that power of law-giving which the +people have given him. And the reason is evident, since all men are +born equal, and consequently no one has a political jurisdiction over +another, nor any dominion; nor can we give any reason from the nature of +the thing why one man should govern another rather than the contrary." +(Hallam—<i>Literature of Europe</i>, Vol. 3, Chap. 4.) Dr. Murray, in the +essay already quoted, speaks of Sir James Mackintosh as the ablest +Protestant writer who refuted the Anglican theory, which Mackintosh +speaks of as "The extravagance of thus representing obedience as the +only duty without an exception." Dr. Murray concludes his own essay on +<i>Resistance to the Supreme Civil Power</i> by a long passage from +Mackintosh, the weight and wisdom of which he praises. The greater part +of the passage is devoted to the difficulties even of success and +emphasising the terrible evils of failure. In what has already been +written here I have been at pains rather to lay bare all possible evils +than to hide them. But when revolt has become necessary and inevitable, +then the conclusion of the passage Dr. Murray quotes should be endorsed +by all: "An insurrection rendered necessary by oppression, and warranted +by a reasonable probability of a happy termination, is an act of public +virtue, always environed with so much peril as to merit admiration." +Yes, and given the happy termination, the right and responsibility of +establishing a new government rest with the body of the people.</p> + +<h4>V</h4> + +<p>We come, then, to this conclusion, that government is just only when +rightfully established and for the public good; that usurpation not only +may but ought to be resisted; that an authority originally legitimate +once it becomes habitually tyrannical may be resisted and deposed; and +that when from abuse or tyranny a particular government ceases to exist, +we have to re-establish a true one. It is sometimes carelessly said, +"Liberty comes from anarchy," but this is a very dangerous doctrine. It +would be nearer truth to say from anarchy inevitably comes tyranny. Men +receive a despot to quell a mob. But when a people, determined and +disciplined, resolve to have neither despotism nor anarchy but freedom, +then they act in the light of the Natural Law. It is well put in the +doctrine of St. Thomas, as given by Turner in his <i>History of +Philosophy</i> (Chap. 38): "The redress to which the subjects of a tyrant +have a just right must be sought, not by an individual, but by an +authority temporarily constituted by the people and acting according to +law." Yes, and when wild and foolish people talk hysterically of our +defiance of all authority, let us calmly show we best understand the +basis of Authority—which is Truth, and most highly reverence its +presiding spirit—which is Liberty.</p> + + + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_XVIII'></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + +<h3>RESISTANCE IN ARMS—OBJECTIONS</h3> + +<h4>I</h4> + +<p>Having stated the case for resistance, it will serve us to consider some +objections. Many inquiring minds may be made happy by a clear view of +the doctrine, till some clever opponent holds them up with remarks on +prudence, possibly sensible, or remarks on revolutionists, most probably +wild, with, perhaps, the authority of a great name, or unfailing refuge +in the concrete. It is curious that while often noticed how men, trying +to evade a concrete issue, take refuge in the abstract, it is not +noticed that men, trying to avoid acknowledging the truth of some +principle, take refuge in the concrete. A living and pressing +difficulty, though transient, looms larger than any historical fact or +coming danger. Seeing this, we may restore confidence to a baffled mind, +by helping it to distinguish the contingent from the permanent. Thus, by +disposing of objections, we make our ground secure.</p> + +<h4>II</h4> + +<p>To the name of prudence the most imprudent people frequently appeal. +Those whose one effort is to evade difficulties, who to cover their +weakness plead patience, would be well advised to consider how men +passionately in earnest, enraged by these evasions, pour their scorn on +patience as a thing to shun. The plea does not succeed; it only for the +moment damages the prestige of a great name. Patience is not a virtue of +the weak but of the strong. An objector says: "Of course, all this is +right in the abstract, but consider the frightful abuses in practice," +and some apt replies spring to mind. Dr. Murray, writing on "Mental +Reservation," in his <i>Essays, chiefly Theological</i>, speaks thus: "But it +is no objection to any principle of morals to say that unscrupulous men +will abuse it, or that, if publicly preached to such and such an +audience or in such and such circumstances, it will lead to mischief." +This is admirable, to which the objector can only give some helpless +repetitions. With Balmez, we reply: "But in recommending prudence to the +people let us not disguise it under false doctrines—let us beware of +calming the exasperation of misfortune by circulating errors subversive +of all governments, of all society." (<i>European Civilisation</i>, Chap. +55.) Of men who shrink from investigating such questions, Balmez wrote: +"I may be permitted to observe that their prudence is quite thrown away, +that their foresight and precaution are of no avail. Whether they +investigate these questions or not, they <i>are</i> investigated, agitated +and decided, in a manner that we must deplore." (Ibid. Chap. 54.) Take +with this Turner on France under the old <i>régime</i> and the many and +serious grievances of the people: "The Church, whose duty it was to +inculcate justice and forbearance, was identified, in the minds of the +people, with the Monarchy which they feared and detested." (<i>History of +Philosophy</i>, Chap. 59.) The moral is that when injustice and evil are +rampant, let us have no palliation, no weakness disguising itself as a +virtue. What we cannot at once resist, we can always repudiate. To +ignore these things is the worst form of imprudence—an imprudence which +we, for our part at least, take the occasion here heartily to disclaim.</p> + +<h4>III</h4> + +<p>There is so much ill-considered use of the word revolutionist, we should +bear in mind it is a strictly relative term. If the freedom of a people +is overthrown by treachery and violence, and oppression practised on +their once thriving land, that is a revolution, and a bad revolution. +If, with tyranny enthroned and a land wasting under oppression, the +people rise and by their native courage, resource and patience +re-establish in their original independence a just government, that is a +revolution, and a good revolution. The revolutionist is to be judged by +his motives, methods and ends; and, when found true, his insurrection, +in the words of Mackintosh, is "an act of public virtue." It is the +restoration of, Truth to its place of honour among men.</p> + +<h4>IV</h4> + +<p>Balmez mentions Bossuet as apparently one who denies the right here +maintained; and we may with profit read some things Bossuet has said in +another context, yet which touches closely what is our concern. Writing +of <i>Les Empires</i>, thus Bossuet: "Les révolutions des empires sont +réglées par la providence, et servent à humilier les princes." This is +hardly calculated to deter us from a bid for freedom; and if we go on to +read what he has written further under this heading, we get testimony to +the hardihood and love of freedom and country that distinguished early +Greece and Rome in language of eloquence that might inflame any people +to liberty. Of undegenerate Greece, free and invincible: "Mais ce que la +Grece avait de plus grand était une politique ferme et prévoyante, qui +savait abandonner, hasarder et défendre, ce qu'il fallait; et, ce qui +est plus grand encore, un courage que l'amour de la liberté et celui de +la patrie rendaient invincible." Of undegenerate Rome, her liberty: "La +liberté leur était donc un trésor qu'ils préferoient à toutes les +richesses de l'univers." Again: "La maxime fondamentale de la +république était de regarder la liberté comme une chose inséparable du +nom Roman." And her constancy: "Voila de fruit glorieux de la patience +Romaine. Des peuples qui s'enhardissaient et se fortifiaient par leurs +malheurs avaient bien raison de croire qu'on sauvait tout pourvu qu'on +ne perdit pas l'esperance." And again: "Parmi eux, dans les états les +plus tristes, jamais les faibles conseils n'ont été seulement écoutés." +The reading of such a fine tribute to the glory of ancient liberties is +not likely to diminish our desire for freedom; rather, to add to the +natural stimulus found in our own splendid traditions, the further +stimulus of this thought that must whisper to us: "Persevere and +conquer, and to-morrow our finest opponent will be our finest panegyrist +when the battle has been fought and won."</p> + +<h4>V</h4> + +<p>In conclusion, in the concrete this simple fact will suffice: we have +established immutable principles; the concrete circumstances are +contingent and vary. It is admirably put in the following passage: "The +historical and sociological sciences, so carefully cultivated in modern +times, have proved to evidence that social conditions <i>vary</i> with the +epoch and the country, that they are the resultant of quite a number of +fluctuating influences, and that, accordingly, the science of Natural +Right should not merely establish <i>immutable</i> principles bearing on the +moral end of man, but should likewise deal with the <i>contingent</i> +circumstances accompanying the application of those principles." (De +Wulf, <i>Scholasticism, Old and New</i>, Part 2, Chap. 2, Sec. 33.) Yes, and +if we apply principles to-morrow, it is not with the conditions of +to-day we must deal, but "with the contingent circumstances accompanying +the application of those principles." Let that be emphasised. The +conditions of twenty years ago are vastly changed to-day; and how +altered the conditions of to-morrow can be, how astonishing can be the +change in the short span of twenty years, let this fact prove. Ireland +in '48 was prostrate after a successful starvation and an unsuccessful +rising—to all appearances this time hopelessly crushed; yet within +twenty years another rising was planned that shook English government in +Ireland to its foundations. Let us bear in mind this further from De +Wulf: "Sociology, understood in the wider and larger sense, is +transforming the methods of the science of Natural Right." In view of +that transformation he is wise who looks to to-morrow. What De Wulf +concludes we may well endorse, when he asks us to take facts as they are +brought to light and study "each question on its merits, in the light of +these facts and not merely in its present setting but as presented in +the pages of history." It can be fairly said of those who have always +stood for the separation of Ireland from the British Empire, that they +alone have always appealed to historical evidence, have always regarded +the conditions of the moment as transient, have always discussed +possible future contingencies. The men who temporised were always +hypnotised by the conditions of the hour. But in the life-story of a +nation stretching over thousands of years, the British occupation is a +contingent circumstance, and the immutable principle is the Liberty of +the Irish People.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> +<h2><a name='CHAPTER_XIX'></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2> + +<h3>THE BEARNA BAOGHAIL—CONCLUSION</h3> + +<h4>I</h4> + +<p>But when principles have been proved and objections answered, there are +still some last words to say for some who stand apart—the men who held +the breach. For, they do stand apart, not in error but in constancy; not +in doubt of the truth but its incarnation; not average men of the +multitude for whom human laws are made, who must have moral certainty of +success, who must have the immediate allegiance of the people. For it is +the distinguishing glory of our prophets and our soldiers of the forlorn +hope, that the defeats of common men were for them but incentives to +further battle; and when they held out against the prejudices of their +time, they were not standing in some new conceit, but most often by +prophetic insight fighting for a forgotten truth of yesterday, catching +in their souls to light them forward, the hidden glory of to-morrow. +They knew to be theirs by anticipation the general allegiance without +which lesser men cannot proceed. They knew they stood for the Truth, +against which nothing can prevail, and if they had to endure struggle, +suffering and pain, they had the finer knowledge born of these things, a +knowledge to which the best of men ever win—that if it is a good thing +to live, it is a good thing also to die. Not that they despised life or +lightly threw it away; for none better than they knew its grandeur, none +more than they gloried in its beauty, none were so happily full as they +of its music; but they knew, too, the value of this deep truth, with the +final loss of which Earth must perish: the man who is afraid to die is +not fit to live. And the knowledge for them stamped out Earth's oldest +fear, winning for life its highest ecstasy. Yes, and when one or more of +them had to stand in the darkest generation and endure all penalties to +the extreme penalty, they knew for all that they had had the best of +life and did not count it a terrible thing if called by a little to +anticipate death. They had still the finest appreciation of the finer +attributes of comradeship and love; but it is part of the mystery of +their happiness and success, that they were ready to go on to the end, +not looking for the suffrage of the living nor the monuments of the +dead. Yes, and when finally the re-awakened people by their better +instincts, their discipline, patriotism and fervour, will have massed +into armies, and marched to freedom, they will know in the greatest hour +of triumph that the success of their conquering arms was made possible +by those who held the breach.</p> + +<h4>II</h4> + +<p>When, happily, we can fall back on the eloquence of the world's greatest +orator, we turn with gratitude to the greatest tribute ever spoken to +the memory of those men to whom the world owes most. Demosthenes, in the +finest height of his finest oration, vindicates the men of every age and +nation who fight the forlorn hope. He was arraigned by his rival, +Æschines, for having counselled the Athenians to pursue a course that +ended in defeat, and he replies thus: "If, then, the results had been +foreknown to all—not even then should the Commonwealth have abandoned +her design, if she had any regard for glory, or ancestry, or futurity. +As it is, she appears to have failed in her enterprise, a thing to which +all mankind are liable, if the Deity so wills it." And he asks the +Athenians: "Why, had we resigned without a struggle that which our +ancestors encountered every danger to win, who would not have spit upon +you?" And he asks them further to consider strangers, visiting their +City, sunk in such degradation, "especially when in former times our +country had never preferred an ignominious security to the battle for +honour." And he rises from the thought to this proud boast: "None could +at any period of time persuade the Commonwealth to attach herself in +secure subjection to the powerful and unjust; through every age has she +persevered in a perilous struggle for precedency and honour and glory." +And he tells them, appealing to the memory of Themistocles, how they +honoured most their ancestors who acted in such a spirit: "Yes; the +Athenians of that day looked not for an orator or a general, who might +help them to a pleasant servitude: they scorned to live if it could not +be with freedom." And he pays them, his listeners, a tribute: "What I +declare is, that such principles are your own; I show that before my +time such was the spirit of the Commonwealth." From one eloquent height +to another he proceeds, till, challenging Æschines for arraigning him, +thus counselling the people, he rises to this great level: "But, never, +never can you have done wrong, O Athenians, in undertaking the battle +for the freedom and safety of all: I swear it by your forefathers—those +that met the peril at Marathon, those that took the field at Platæa, +those in the sea-fight at Salamis, and those at Artimesium, and many +other brave men who repose in the public monuments, all of whom alike, +as being worthy of the same honour, the country buried, Æschines, not +only the successful and victorious." We did not need this fine eloquence +to assure us of the greatness of our O'Neills and our Tones, our +O'Donnells and our Mitchels, but it so quickens the spirit and warms the +blood to read it, it so touches—by the admiration won from ancient and +modern times—an enduring principle of the human heart—the capacity to +appreciate a great deed and rise over every physical defeat—that we +know in the persistence of the spirit we shall come to a veritable +triumph. Yes; and in such light we turn to read what Ruskin called the +greatest inscription ever written, that which Herodotus tells us was +raised over the Spartans, who fell at Thermopylæ, and which Mitchel's +biographer quotes as most fitting to epitomise Mitchel's life: +"Stranger, tell thou the Lacedemonians that we are lying here, having +obeyed their words." And the biographer of Mitchel is right in holding +that he who reads into the significance of these brave lines, reads a +message not of defeat but of victory.</p> + +<h4>III</h4> + +<p>Yes; and in paying a fitting tribute to those great men who are our +exemplars, it would be fitting also, in conclusion, to remember +ourselves as the inheritors of a great tradition; and it would well +become us not only to show the splendour of the banner that is handed on +to us, but to show that this banner <i>we</i>, too, are worthy to bear. For, +how often it shall be victorious and how high it shall be planted, will +depend on the conception we have of its supreme greatness, the +knowledge that it can be fought for in all times and places, the +conviction that we may, when least we expect, be challenged to deny it; +and that by our bearing we may bring it new credit and glory or drag it +low in repute. We do well, I say, to remember these things. For in our +time it has grown the fashion to praise the men of former times but to +deny their ideal of Independence; and we who live in that ideal, and in +it breathe the old spirit, and preach it and fight for it and prophesy +for it an ultimate and complete victory—we are young men, foolish and +unpractical. And what should be our reply? A reply in keeping with the +flag, its history and its destiny. Let them, who deride or pity us, see +we despise or pity their standards, and let them know by our works—lest +by our election they misunderstand—that we are not without ability in a +freer time to contest with them the highest places—avoiding the boast, +not for an affected sense of modesty but for a saving sense of humour. +For in all the vanities of this time that make Life and Literature choke +with absurdities, pretensions and humbug, let us have no new folly. Let +us with the old high confidence blend the old high courtesy of the +Gaedheal. Let us grow big with our cause. Shall we honour the flag we +bear by a mean, apologetic front? No! Wherever it is down, lift it; +wherever it is challenged, wave it; wherever it is high, salute it; +wherever it is victorious, glorify and exult in it. At all times and +forever be for it proud, passionate, persistent, jubilant, defiant; +stirring hidden memories, kindling old fires, wakening the finer +instincts of men, till all are one in the old spirit, the spirit that +will not admit defeat, that has been voiced by thousands, that is +noblest in Emmet's one line, setting the time for his epitaph: "<i>When</i> +my country"—not <i>if</i>—but "<i>when</i> my country takes her place among the +nations of the earth." It is no hypothesis; it is a certainty. There +have been in every generation, and are in our own, men dull of +apprehension and cold of heart, who could not believe this, but we +believe it, we live in it: <i>we know it</i>. Yes, we know it, as Emmet knew +it, and as it shall be seen to-morrow; and when the historian of +to-morrow, seeing it accomplished, will write its history, he will not +note the end with surprise. Rather will he marvel at the soul in +constancy, rivalling the best traditions of undegenerate Greece and +Rome, holding through disasters, persecutions, suffering, and not less +through the seductions of milder but meaner times, seeing through all +shining clearly the goal: he will record it all, and, still marvelling, +come to the issue that dauntless spirit has reached, proud and happy; +but he will write of that issue—<i>Liberty; Inevitable</i>: in two words to +epitomise the history of a people that is without a parallel in the +Annals of the World.</p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 13132-h.txt or 13132-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/1/3/13132">https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/1/3/13132</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution.</p> + + + +<pre> +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +<a href="https://gutenberg.org/license">https://gutenberg.org/license)</a>. + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS,' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's +eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII, +compressed (zipped), HTML and others. + +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over +the old filename and etext number. The replaced older file is renamed. +VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving +new filenames and etext numbers. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">https://www.gutenberg.org</a> + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000, +are filed in directories based on their release date. If you want to +download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular +search system you may utilize the following addresses and just +download by the etext year. + +<a href="http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext06">http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext06</a> + + (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99, + 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90) + +EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are +filed in a different way. The year of a release date is no longer part +of the directory path. The path is based on the etext number (which is +identical to the filename). The path to the file is made up of single +digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename. For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: +https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL">https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL</a> + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** +</pre> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/old/13132-h/images/image01.png b/old/13132-h/images/image01.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7c95f5f --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13132-h/images/image01.png diff --git a/old/13132-h/images/image02.png b/old/13132-h/images/image02.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f7136c9 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13132-h/images/image02.png |
