Principles of freedom

Ji &( LUJ

Terence MacSwiney's "Principles of Free-
dom," which was first published in this coun-
try, will be issued in Ireland shortly, with
the imprint of the Talbot Press. This firm
wil! also publish another volume of short
stories, "Hillsiders," by Seumas O'Kelly,
whose previous book, "The Golden Barque
and the Weaver's Grave," was hailed by the
English reviewers as the most remarkable
piece of Irish prose since "The Crock of
Gold."

PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

BY THE SAME AUTHOR

THE MUSIC OF FREEDOM - 1907

THE REVOLUTIONIST 1914

THE ETHICS OF REVOLT (Pamphlet) 1915

O'DONOVAN ROSSA - „ 1915

BATTLE-CRIES - 1918

These are all out of print. But it is hoped to
republish them, with some hitherto unpublished
plays and poems.

TERENCE MAcSWINEY
Late Lord Mayor of Cork

PRINCIPLES OF
FREEDOM

BY

TERENCE MAcSWINEY

LATE LORD MAYOR OF CORK

DUBLIN

THE TALBOT PRESS LIMITED

89 TALBOT . STREET

1921

COPYRIGHT, 1921,

THE TALBOT PRESS LIMITED

All Rights Reserved

First published (in U.S. A.) , . . January, 1921

First Irish Edition July, 1921

Second Irish Edition October, 1921

Set up and Printed ir. Ireland

TO

THE SOLDIERS OF FREEDOM
IN EVERY LAND

» >«

PREFACE

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 ori-
ginal 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.

RELIGION

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

VII

VIII PREFACE

dividing Ireland, have worked on the re-
ligious 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 Repub-
lican 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 subjec-
tion and will disappear entirely with
political Freedom.

It has had, however, in our day, one
unhappy effect, only for a time for-
tunately, and this is disappearing. I refer
to the rise of Hibernianism. The English
ruling faction having, for their own poli-
tical 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,

PREFACE IX

some sincere but misguided Catholics in
the North joined the organisation known
as THE ANCIENT ORDER OF HIBER-
NIANS. 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.

Further, as a political weapon, it ex-
tended all through Ireland during the last
years of the Irish Parliamentary Move-
ment. In Cork, for example, it completely
controlled the city life for some years, but
the rapid rise of the Republican Move-
ment 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 dis-
carded that, and other such weapons, for
those with which she is carving out the

X PREFACE

destinies of the Republic. For a time,
however, Hibernianism created an un-
natural 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 reli-
gious community in the world.

T. MACS.
Brixton Prison,
Sept., 1920.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. THE BASIS OF FREEDOM ... 1

II. SEPARATION 12

III. MORAL FORCE 26

IV. BROTHERS AND ENEMIES ... 42
V. THE SECRET OF STRENGTH . . 58

VI. PRINCIPLE IN ACTION ... 76

VII. LOYALTY 99

VIII. WOMANHOOD 114

IX. THE FRONTIER 131

X. LITERATURE AND FREEDOM — THE

PROPAGANDIST PLAYWRIGHT . 142

XI. LITERATURE AND FREEDOM — ART FOR

ART'S SAKE 152

XII. RELIGION 162

XIII. INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM . . . 176

XIV. MILITARISM 189

XV. THE EMPIRE 197

XVI. RESISTANCE IN ARMS — FOREWORD . 210

XVII. RESISTANCE IN ARMS — THE TRUE

MEANING OF LAW .... 217

XVIII. RESISTANCE IN ARMS — OBJECTIONS . 228

XIX. THE BEARNA BAOGHAIL— CONCLUSION 236

PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

CHAPTER I

THE BASIS OF FREEDOM

WHY should we fight for freedom ? Is
it not strange, that it has become
necessary to ask and answer this ques-
tion? We have fought our fight for
centuries, and contending parties still
continue the struggle, but the real sig-
nificance 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.

PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

II

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."

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 vic-
tory. 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 i£ 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 execra-
tion she has herself poured out on tyranny
for ages. I have come to see it is possible
for Ireland to win her independence by

THE BASIS OF FREEDOM 3

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 com-
pensate for spiritual surrender. Whatever
side denies that is not my side.

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, delight-
ing 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 school-
boy'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 some-
thing beyond all this show. If it were not,
it could hardly claim a sacrifice.

PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

ill

A spiritual necessity makes the true
significance of our claim to freedom : the
material aspect is only a secondary con-
sideration. 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 oppor-
tunity to develop his powers, and to fill his
place worthily. In a free state he is in the
natural environment for full self-develop-
ment. 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 be-
cause of the corrupt influences the bigger
nation sets at work to maintain its as-
cendancy. Because of this moral corrup-
tion 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

THE BASIS OF FREEDOM 5

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 circum-
stances 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

6 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

of spirit entailed lies the deeper signi-
ficance of our claim to freedom.

IV

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 satis-
faction 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 beauti-
ful 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

THE BASIS OF FREEDOM 7

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.

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 Eng-
land. 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 de-
fence of Ireland is almost farcical. A free

8 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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 dic-
tate, our sense of right would so demand.
The freedom of a nation carries with it
the responsibility xthat it be no menace to
the freedom of another nation. The free-
dom 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 un-
thinkable. Now the most beautiful motive
for freedom is vindicated. Our liberty
stands to benefit the enemy instead of in-
juring 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.

THE BASIS OF FREEDOM 9

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.

VI

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 ele-
ment 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 de-
stroy it. Tyrannies may persecute, slay,
or banish those who defend it; the thing

10 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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 acknow-
ledge it. One man alone may vindicate it,
and because that one man has never failed
it has never died. Not, indeed, that Ire-
land 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 sig-
nificance of it all is seen in the obligation
it imposes on everyone to be true, the ma-
jority 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.

THE BASIS OF FREEDOM 11

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 in-
spired 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.

CHAPTER II

SEPARATION.

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

SEPARATION 13

present, but we should not lose heart on
their account, for these men move
en masse. 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.

n

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 —

14 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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 na-
tional 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 domi-
nates 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 of1
having its truth demonstrated by the dis-
covery 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, how-
ever, to abandon many deeply-rooted
prejudices; if we are unwilling, we must

SEPARATION 15

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.

Treated in this light, the question be-
comes 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 con-
trast 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 prin-
ciple we defend.

in

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

16 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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 pre-
pared to labour for an end that may be
realised only in another generation. Con-
sider how he disposes his plans for his
individual life. , His boyhood and youth
are directed thaSt 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

SEPARATION 17

time, though we cannot explore all its
great wonders : that will be the delight of
ages. But some will never survive to cele-
brate 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 pur-
pose 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 be-
comes 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

18 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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.

IV

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 pos-
terity; the tyrannies they knew are dead

SEPARATION 19

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.

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,

20 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

while there is this connection implying de-
pendence on the British Empire ? If such a
one exists he goes against all experience
and all history. On either side of the con-
nection 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 differ-
ence 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;
if is easy to understand. When a man's
children come of age, they set up estab-

SEPARATION 21

lishments for themselves, and live inde-
pendently; 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 neigh-
bourliness 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 friend-
ship ; 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

22 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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.

vi

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 free-
dom 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 realisa-
tion of freedom; and let us beware of the
delusion that is abroad, that we seek
nothing more than to be free of restraint,

SEPARATION 23

as England, France and Germany are to-
day; let us beware of the delusion that if
we can scramble through anyhow to free-
dom 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 re-
generate 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

24 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

of life, fearing it will harass our move-
ments 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 instal-
ment; 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 de-
spised; to-day the movement to restore it
is strong enough to have it made compul-
sory in the National University. Can any-
one 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 con-
temporary state. We shall look for pros-

SEPARATION 25

perity, 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 tyran-
nical power, of corrupt and callous poli-
tics 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.

CHAPTER III

MORAL FORCE
I

ONE of the great difficulties in dis-
cussing 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 discus-
sion, we must first make clear the meaning
of our terms. Love of country is quoted
to tolerate every insidious error of weak-
ness, but if it has any meaning it should
make men strong-souled and resolute in
every crisis. Men working for the exten-
sion of Local Government toast " Ireland a
Nation," and extol Home Rule as indepen-
dence ; but while there is any restraint on
us by a neighbouring Power, acknow-
ledged superior, there is dependence to
26

MORAL FORCE 27

that extent. Straightway, those who fight
for independence shift their ground and
plead for absolute independence, but there
is no such thing as qualified indepen-
dence; and when we abandon the simple
name to men of half-measures, we preju-
dice 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 ex-
plain 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 de-
bate 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 con-
fused as Moral Force.

28 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

II

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 con-
fusion has been the consequence. I am not
going here to raise old debates over O'Con-
nell'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 shame-
less 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 in-
fluence, 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 dis-
missed 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

MORAL FORCE 29

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 essen-
tial and claiming his allegiance, stands for
it as for the truth, unheeding any conse-
quence. 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 conse-
quence. 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 him-
self passes, for a great cause always makes
great men, and many who set out in hesi-
tation die heroes. This it is that explains
the strange and wonderful buoyancy of
men, standing for great ideals, so little un-
derstood of others of weaker mould. The
soldier of freedom knows he is forward in

30 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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 exal-
tation 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 can-
not 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.

MORAL FORCE 31

III

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 vindi-
cate our manhood cried wildly out again
for the physical test; and we cried it long
and repeatedly the more we smarted un-
der 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 fic-
titious 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 exaggera-
tion, 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

32 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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.

IV

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 hesi-
tating 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

MORAL FORCE 33

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, de-
pression, and despair — everywhere a land
decaying. Viciousness, meanness, cowar-
dice, 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 de-
graded and the great destinies imperilled.
It would be less terrible if an earthquake
split the land in two, and sank it into the

84 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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 conse-
quences cannot by that avert them, for the
moral disease is followed by physical
wreck — if delayed still inevitable. So,
physical force is justified, not per se, 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 dis-
tinction 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,

MORAL FORCE 85

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 re-
source of the tyrant and the slave; that
magnanimity is the splendour of man-
hood ; 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.

v

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 im-
portant questions on the plea that the time

36 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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 ser-
vility. 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 impor-
tant that every evil be resisted. In a
normal condition of liberty many tem-
porary evils may arise; yet they are not
dangerous — in the glow of a people's free-
dom 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 de-
fect 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.

MORAL FORCE 37

"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 in-
volves 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 cer-
tain amount of suspicion. In a fight for
freedom that latent suspicion would be-
come 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

36 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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
blase 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 re-
quire a word. The man of policy offers me
his judgment instead of a clear considera-
tion 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 you of sup-
pressing 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

MORAL FORCE 39

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 mad-
ness; 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.

iO PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

VI

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

MORAL FORCE 41

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 num-
ber 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.

CHAPTER IV

BROTHERS AND ENEMIES

OUR enemies are brothers from whom
we are estranged. Here is the funda-
mental truth that explains and justifies
our hope of re-establishing a real patriot-
ism 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 Eng-
land that can never be surmounted. If
Ireland is to be regenerated, we must have
internal unity; if the world is to be re-
generated, 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
42

BROTHERS AND ENEMIES 43

not be missed we must continually turn
for the correction of our philosophy to re-
flecting 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 beau-
tiful existence, a dream to which his
stagnant soul steeped in ugliness could
never rise.

IT

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,

44 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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 re-
gard this union as a somewhat suspicious
alliance; and, if they join in, do so re-
luctantly. 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 philo-
sophy 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

BROTHERS AND ENEMIES 45

are drawn together to mutual under-
standing and comradeship, moved by a
common hope, a brave purpose and a beau-
tiful 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 sym-
pathy 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

46 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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 com-
radeship, proven by mutual sacrifice,
endurance, and faith, and he never doubts
that their bond union will sometime prove

BROTHERS AND ENEMIES 47

to have a wise and beautiful meaning in
the Annals of God.

in

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 emphasis-
ing 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 ener-
vating gospel of weakness and despair.
Though we like to call ourselves Christian,

18 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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 deso-
lation of Attica by Mardonius and Xerxes,
or the extinction of the Persian Empire by
Alexander of Macedon restrained from out-
rage? Was not the pretext for this latter
system of spoliation derived immediately
from the former ? Had revenge in this in-
stance 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 re-
pels 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 aggres-
sion on either side of the Boyne. There
will not be wanting on the other side a cry

BROTHERS AND ENEMIES 49

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.

IV

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 pro-
gress, 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 ani-
mosity; 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 in-
different 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

50 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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 con-
ventions 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 for-
mer 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 in-
dividual 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 bitter-

BROTHERS AND ENEMIES 51

ness 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 sun-
dered 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 mil-
lions will have vision and rouse to re-
generate the land.

Happily, it is nothing new to plead for
brotherhood among Irishmen now ; unhap-
pily, 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-estab-
lishing of friendship with any outsider—
England or another — with whom now or
in the future we may be at war. Friendli-
ness between neighbours is one of the
natural things of life. In the case of indi-
viduals how beautifully it shows between
two dwellers in the same street or townland.
They rejoice together in prosperity; give

52 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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. Con-
sider, then, the sundering of their friend-
ship 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 pre-
served 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

BROTHERS AND ENEMIES 53

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 honour-
able ; 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 re-
moves 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

54 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

a great dream inspire him to persevere and

reach the goal.

VI

If, then, beyond individual and national
freedom there is this great dream still to
be striven for, let us not decry it as some-
thing 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 in-
fluence. In the first stage of the fight for
internal unity, when blind bigotry is
furiously insisting that we but plan an in-
sidious 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 earnest-
ness. 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

BROTHERS AND EN7EMIES 55

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 assert-
ing her supremacy must be broken up till
they can be reformed on a basis of inde-
pendence, equality and universal freedom.
While we are prosecuting these vigorous
measures it may not seem the way to final
friendship; but we must persist; indepen-
dence 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

56 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

era is begun. In such a moment is evil
abandoned, hate buried and friendship re-
born. 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 trans-
formation that will make them spiritual,
higli-min clecl 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 Shake-
speare's, a song of Shelley's, or a picture
of Turners. 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

BROTHERS AND ENEMIES 57

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 cosmopolitan-
ism. 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 mountain-
tops in aspiring to the stars.

CHAPTER V

THE SECRET OF STRENGTH

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 indivi-
dual 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
58

THE SECRET OF STRENGTH 59

link by link till we put on the armour of
invincibility.

n

We have to grasp a distinction, know-
ledge 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, cap-
ably 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 combina-
tion makes for the reliability of the force

60 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

that discipline is so much valued and en-
forced, 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 dis-
cipline 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 re-
source; 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 conse-
quences of their action, yet with that
higher quality of soul accepting them
without hesitation, pledging all human

THE SECRET OF STRENGTH 61

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 cam-
paign. This is the heroic quality. In a
crisis, the mind possessed of it does not
wait for instructions or to reason a con-
clusion. 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 be-
tween that flight and death there is a
gleam of hope, of victory, and for that for-
lorn 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-

02 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

awakens, and we stiffen our backs for
another battle.

in

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 some-
time 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 con-
cerns have no relation to it, and conse-
quently 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 connec-
tion 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 SECRET OF STRENGTH 63

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 in-
dividual 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 uncon-
scious shaping of his attitude is deter-
mining 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 conversa-
tion the leisure is often filled. In a day's
routine, where men work together, har-
monious 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

64 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

through days like children, without a
word. You will see something similar in
social life among men and women equally
—petty jealousies, personalities, slander-
ings, 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 determina-
tion 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-

THE SECRET OF STRENGTH 65

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 be-
comes 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 subcon-
scious reservoir whence our nobler

66 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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.

IV

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 prin-
ciple that we ought all endorse and up-
hold. 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 in-

THE SECRET OF STRENGTH 67

volving no principle. It is not necessary
to particularise. Note any meeting for the
same general conditions : a chairman, in-
decisive, explaining rules of order which
he lacks the grit to apply ; members ignor-
ing the chair and talking at one another;
others calling to order or talking out of
time or away from the point; one uncon-
sciously 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 parti-
cular time or locality ; but it is nothing of
the kind. It is the natural and logical re-
sult of putting by principle and trying to
live away from it. Yet, that is what we are
doing every day. It means we lack collec-
tively 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 discip-
line training for the wider and greater
field. We must get a proper conception of
the great cause we stand for, its magni-
tude and majesty, and that to be worthy
of its service we must have a standard
above reproach, have an end of petty pro-

68 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

posals and underhand doings, be of brave
front, resolute heart, and honourable in-
tent. 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.

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

THE SECRET OF STRENGTH 69

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 magis-
trate, 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" gener-
ally. The chief magistrate will have in-
fluence 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

70 PRINCIPLED OF FREEDOM

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 func-
tion 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 be-
ginning to be baffled and worried. Mean-
while 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 in-

THE SECRET OF STRENGTH 71

dicated, and a gracious request for fcbe
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 direc-
tions, 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 Castle-
man, 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 Excel-
lencies grace and improve. His Excellency
is affable with the mayor; her Excellency
is confidential and gracious with the
mayoress — we might have been school-
children in the same townland we are so
cordial. Everything proceeds amid plau-
dits, 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

72 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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 re-
cently over ma}7oral doings, note all this —
not to the making light of any man's sur-
render, 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, in-
fluence, 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 some-
thing more sinister than the weakness of
the man : remember the net.

THE SECRET OF STRENGTH 73

VI

The concrete case makes clear the prin-
ciple 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 atti-
tude, 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

74 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

that held him so, by the very act of dis-
missing 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 na-
tional existence, unseen of the common
eye; and in that hour proves, to the con-
fusion 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 prac-
tised. 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 un-
even 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 re-
viewing 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

THE SECRET OF STRENGTH 75

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 vicissi-
tudes be set at last high and proudly in the
light of Freedom.

CHAPTER VI

PRINCIPLE IN ACTION

OUR philosophy is valueless unless we
bring it into life. With sufficient in-
genuity 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 prin-
ciples are not to argue about, or write
about, or hold meetings about, but pri-
marily 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 oppos-
ing standards, and maintain our fidelity

PRINCIPLE IN ACTION 77

to the true one against every opposition
and jbhrough 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.

ii

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 achieve-

78 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

ment 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.

in

Let us consider these two generations
apart, to understand their distinctive fea-
tures more clearly for our own guidance.
Take first the years of vision and the
general effort to replant the old flag on our

PRINCIPLE IN ACTION 79

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 great-
ness of the goal, of the general duty, of the
individual responsibility for higher char-
acter, steadier work, and purer motive ; and
gradually meanness, trickeries, and trea-
cheries 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 un-
worthy or futile. The great idea inspires
a great fight; and that fight is made, and,
notwithstanding any reverse, must be re-
corded great. Whatever concourse of cir-
cumstances 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.

IV

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

80 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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 fol-
lowed 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 chal-
lenged 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 can-
not unseat him, and their action, where
any is made, is but to show their attitude,
never to convince opponents that the battle

PRINCIPLE IN ACTION 81

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 mad-
ness by the boastful votaries of power, their
occasional frantic efforts are more as re-
lief 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.

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 prin-
ciples 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 dispen-
sation : these are the cardinal points of our

82 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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.

Beware lest on any plea you put it by.
You cannot elect to do nothing; the con-
course 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, trades-
man— 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 de-
bate 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 be-
lieved in, is to make it real, to influence
men never reached in other ways; it is to

PRINCIPLE IN ACTION 83

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 emolu-
ments 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

84 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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 xof 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, con-
solidates the nation, and leads a wandering
race from the desert into the Promised
Land.

VI

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 won-
der 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

PRINCIPLE IN ACTION 85

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 justi-
fied. The answer is, simply he is not
justified. Nor should anyone who is pre-
pared 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 alto-
gether 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

86 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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 abey-
ance 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, in-
quiring 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 con-
fusion 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 con-

PRINCIPLE IN ACTION 87

sequences 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.

VII

At times we find ourselves on neutral
ground. The exigencies of the struggle in-
volve this; and unfortunately we have in
our midst sincere men who do not believe
in restoring Ireland to her original inde-
pendence. 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

88 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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.

VIII

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

PRINCIPLE IN ACTION 89

the status quo 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 num-
ber 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 vin-
dicated 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? Con-
sider when men come together for any
purpose where different views prevail and
general things of no great moment form
the subject of debate — suddenly, uncon-
sciously or tentatively, one will raise some
idea that may divide the company — say,

90 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

acknowledging the English Crown in Ire-
land, putting by the claim for freedom, in
the foolish hope of some material gain.
There is much nonsense talked and confu-
sion abroad on this head, and it is quite
possible a man, believing in Ireland's full
claim, will find himself in a large com-
pany 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 intro-
duced, 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 con-
versation 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;

PRINCIPLE IN ACTION 91

but be always quietly prepared for the
aggressive man; that is to inspire confi-
dence 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 de-
clare your attitude. We may conveniently
call it — putting up the flag.

IX

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

92 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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 like-
wise and be no fool — mark him for your
guidance. You will find his leisure is bois-
terous, 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 what-
ever walk of life, high or low. On the
higher plane he may have a more fas-
tidious 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

PRINCIPLE IN ACTION 93

—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 cir-
cumstances 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.

x

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

94 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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; per-
haps 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

PRINCIPLE IN ACTION 95

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 firm-
ness 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

96 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

capacity to live or the courage to die—
a calamity, surely. All these circum-
stances 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 in-
spiring now, where the voice of the
"practical" man sends no whisper across
the waste of years.

XI

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 Indepen-
dence 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

PRINCIPLE IN ACTION 97

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,* largely unreal,
over her constitution and her liberties,
even while foreign wars and complica-
tions 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 Eng-
land stood shuddering on the verge of
frantic civil war;t 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 unsus-
pected 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 direc-

* Debate over House of Lords.
t The Railway strike.

98 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

tions, and our time shall be recorded, not
with the deadening but with the luminous
years. In all the vicissitudes of £he 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 con-
vincing be held, and our difference may
reduce itself to what is possible ; then will
they come to realise that he who main-
tains 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 re-
generation 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 re-
assume her place among the nations of the
earth.

CHAPTER VII

N

LOYALTY

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 re-
join 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

99

100 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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 ol
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 Ire-
land : 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 atti-
tude towards the political adventurer on
one hand, and towards the honest man of
half-measures on the other. Loyalty in-
volves 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

LOYALTY 101

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.

ii

When you insist on examining the ques-
tion 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 rela-
tive 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

102 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

the point where he does not dispute but
believes. He has been wandering about
cold and irresolute, tasting all philoso-
phies, 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 dis-
sipates the cloud and leaves the vision
clear, wonderful and inspiring. He who
acquired that vision is impervious to ar-
gument— it is not that he despises argu-
ment; 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 explana-
tion of his transformed life. He was a
doubter, a falterer, a failure; he has be-
come 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 con-
vert the world ; the philosopher has a rule
of life to immediately put into practice.
His spirit flashes with a swiftness that can

LOYALTY 103

be encircled by no theory. It is his glory to
have over and above a new penetrating ar-
gument 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.

in

Let us come now to that burning ques-
tion 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

104 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

County Councils created by Bill at West-
minster? 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 re-
lax 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

LOYALTY 105

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 fur-
ther that development and make the end
obvious when the alien Government —
finding those powers conceded to sap fur-
ther 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 posi-
tion. In our time there were the Land

106 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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 Ire-
land's independence all along the line, the
suggestion that we should abandon all
machinery of local government and enter-
prise— 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 chal-
lenges our consistency : we are carrying
the trenches of the enemy.

IV

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 free-
dom we must enrol only men who have a
clear conception of the goal, a readiness to
yield full allegiance, and a determination

LOYALTY 107

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 con-
crete cases. While human nature is what
it is we will have always on the outskirts
of every movement a certain type of poli-
tical 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 adven-
turer 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

108 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

" 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, typi-
fied 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 com-
pany and I'll tell you what you are," is
more widespread than we think. More-
over, 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

LOYALTY 109

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.

v

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 Eng-
land is not possible now and suggests
some alternative, if not Home Rule, Grat-
tan'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 free-
dom, 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

110 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

is frequently involved in some action pro-
posed 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 be-
tween 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 under-
stood there can be an independent co-
operation, where of use, with those honest

LOYALTY 111

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 atti-
tude 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 fight-
ing 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 archi-
tect 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

112 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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.

VI

This is, surely, the fine view of loyalty.
Let us write it on our banners and pro-
claim it to the world. It is consistent,
honourable, fearless and immutable.
What is said here to-day with en-
thusiasm, 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, dis-
tracted by kings, presidents and theorists,
a new polity for nations, A waverer, half-

LOYALTY 113

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 con-
sciousness 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.

CHAPTER VIII

WOMANHOOD

" And another said : I have married a wife and therefore
I cannot come."

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."

i

When the mere man approaches the
woman to study her, we can imagine the

"4

WOMANHOOD 115

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 re-
lationship ? 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 know-
ledge of the wonderful thing that is Life ?

ii

I wish to concentrate on one heroic
example of Irish Womanhood that should

116 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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, choco-
lates, 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 fre-
quently, 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-

WOMANHOOD 117

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 to-
gether. 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.

in

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

118 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

often called to acknowledge some de-
grading 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

WOMANHOOD 119

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
na ture, 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.

IV

I wish to come to the heroic type of
Irish Womanhood. When we need to
hearten ourselves or others for a great en-
terprise, 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

120 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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 feel-
ing for poetry in our lives, a feeling that
patriotism will not have it, a melting pity
for the love that went to wreck, a sym-
pathy 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 plat-
forms, 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.

v

When we think of the qualities that are
distinctive of the woman, we have in
mind a finer gentleness, sensibility, sym-
pathy and tenderness; and when we have
these qualities intensified in any woman,

WOMANHOOD 121

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 with-
out fear, for she was put to the test in
every way, and in every way found mar-
vellously 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 wonder-
ful 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 liv-
ing and righting, might be explained by
the woman's passionate attachment to the
man she loved. It is the woman's tender-
ness 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 or-
dinary 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

122 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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, pre-
paring 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 cling-
ing 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 chil-
dren 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

WOMANHOOD 123

which had so often, as it were, mira-
culously 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 sur-
pass. Her fortitude was to be more ter-
ribly 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 de-
voted souls were not on the rack : " As no
words can express what I feel for you and
our children, I shall not attempt it; com-

124 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

plaint 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 sur-
vived to write the memoirs was a child at
his father's death, his simple tribute
written in manhood is eloquent in the ex-
treme : " 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 be-
tween and find moving evidence of the
fulfilment of the trust. We see her devo-
tion 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 Em-
pire. Lucien Buonaparte, a year after
Tone's death, pleaded before the Council

WOMANHOOD 125

of Five Hundred, in warm and eloquent
praise : " If the services of Tone were not
sufficient of themselves to rouse your feel-
ings, 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 coun-
tenance 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 coun-
try ; he died for the Republic.' " When the
Republic fell, and in the upheaval her
rights were ignored, she went to the Em-
peror 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 —

126 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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 under-
stand, 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 after-
wards 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,

WOMANHOOD 127

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 hus-
band 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 in-
tensely 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,

128 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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 enervat-
ing order. We are proud cf 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 in-
domitable : a man peerless among his fel-
lows. 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.

VI

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 de-

WOMANHOOD 129

stroy 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 Ire-
land'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 se-
clusion 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

130 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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 care-
fully 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 crea-
ture, 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 un-
dreamed 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, tender-
ness and courage that gives them to realise
that life, with all its faults, struggles, and
pain is still and for ever great and
beautiful.

CHAPTER IX

THE FRONTIER

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 exist-
ence 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 Ire-
land, yet from the exigencies of the time
had to be written in English; the view not

132 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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 under-
stand 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.

ii

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

THE FRONTIER 133

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 un-
convinced 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 signi-
ficance of the language when he said :
"Tis a surer barrier, and more important
frontier, than fortress or river." The lan-
guage 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

134 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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 lan-
guage. It makes the old men proud of
their youth and gives to the young
quickened faculties, an awakened imagina-
tion 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 pro-
vincial 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 imagi-
nation with a rush of thought and a power

THE FRONTIER 185

of expression that gives the nation a new
literature. That is the justification of the
language. It awakens and draws to ex-
pression 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 other-
wise 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 retain-
ing 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 ma-
jority 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.

136 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

ill

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 Eng-
lish civilisation he should go back to Eng-
land. There only can he develop on
English lines. An Irishman in Ireland
with an English mind is a queer contradic-
tion, who can serve neither Ireland nor
England in any good sense, and both Ire-
land 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 pos-
sibility and guaranteed by a fine comrade-

THE FRONTIER 137

ship — 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.

IV

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 some-
thing they hold as a great principle of
Life ; that Catholic, Protestant and Dissen-
ter 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 dis-
pose 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, reli-
gious 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

138 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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 re-
quires him to be a good citizen : we give
him a fine field in which he can be to us a
fine example.

In further consideration of this we
should put by the thought of finding a
mere working agreement. There is a deep-
tying basis of authority and justice to
seek, which it should be our highest aim
to discover. Modern governments con-
cede 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 tyianny, and tyranny is in seed in the
democratic governments of our time. We
must consider this well, for it is pressing

THE FRONTIER 139

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 under-
mine nor tyranny destroy.

VI

We have to consider, in conclusion, the
unrest in the world, the war of parties and
classes, and the need of judging the ten-
dencies 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 up-
heavals, 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

140 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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 re-
press 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 ex-
press her own mind, to give utterance to
her own tongue, to stand behind her own
frontier, is but a sentiment will be sur-

THE FRONTIER 141

prised 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 build-
ing up of a national life, harmonious and
beautiful — a conception of citizenship,
from which a right is conceded, not be-
cause 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.

CHAPTER X

LITERATURE AND FREEDOM — THE PROPA-
GANDIST PLAYWRIGHT

A NATION'S literature is an index to
its mind. If the nation has its free-
dom 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, pas-
sionate 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 wor-
ship; 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

LITERATURE AND FREEDOM 143

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 dim-
cult 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 poseur in being ; and to conclude,
that only by a saving sense of humour can
we find our way back to the truth.

144 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

II

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 misinter-
pretation, 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 in-
sincere; 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 work-
ing 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 repre-
senting 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.

LITERATURE AND FREEDOM 145

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 un-
willingness 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
lidiculous; they are essentially cari-
catures. 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
cur intelligence.

in

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

146 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

persons of the play who "walk on" eter-
nally talking of Ireland. Our heroes were
men; these are poseurs. Get to under-
stand Davis, Tone, or any of our great
ones, and you will find them human, gay,
and lovable. "Were you ever in love,
Davis r asked one of his wondering ad-
mirers, 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 sud-
denly 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 ser-
mon 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,

LITERATURE AND FREEDOM 147

or boating on fine rivers in the sunlight,
o:: 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 under-
stand one thing : if we want to make men
dutiful we must make them joyous.

IV

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 poseur works mischief to every cause,
and we can see the poseur on every side.
In politics, he has made the platform con-
temptible, which is a danger to the nation,
needing the right use of platform ; in litera-
ture— well, we all know bourgeois, but
who has done justice to the artist who gets

148 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

on a platform to talk about the bourgeois ?
— in religion, the poseur is more likely to
make agnostics than all the Rationalist
Piess; and the agnostic poseur in turn is
very funny. Now all these are an afflic-
tion, 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 endea-
vour. Then we shall begin to move. Let
us remember a revolution will surely fail
when its leaders have no sense of humour.

v

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
or others. The fine humorist is delightfully
courteous; the commonplace wit, invari-
ably insulting. We must keep two things in

LITERATURE AND FREEDOM 149

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 in-
fallible laugh at ourselves. The common-
place wit arranges incidents to make
someone he dislikes ridiculous; his atti-
tude is the attitude of the superior person.
He is nearly always — often unintention-
ally— offensive ; he repels the public some-
times in irritation, sometimes in amuse-
ment, 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 him-
self. 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 —

150 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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 ^eep and sing.
Then we are in the line of greatness.

VI

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 argu-
ment 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 pro-

LITERATURE AND FREEDOM 151
pagandist 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 poseur 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 com-
petent 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 f)re along the land shall
quicken to a blaze, history shall be again
in the making. We shall be caught in the
living flame.

CHAPTER XI

LITERATURE AND FREEDOM — ART FOR ART'S
SAKE

I

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 mis-
use 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
152

ART FOR ART'S SAKE 153

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.

ii

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 pas-
sionate feeling for the vital things that
move men, heart and soul, they cannot in-
terpret 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 ex-
citement; 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

154 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

lacks the touch of fire that would lift it

from common things to greatness.

HI

If we are to apply art to great work we
must distinguish art from artifice. We
find the two well contrasted in Synge's
"Eiders 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 caoine, 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 charac-
teristic of the art of our time. Let it be
called art if the critics will, but it is not
life,

IV

No, it is not life. But there is so much
talk just now of getting "down to funda-
mentals/' of the poetry of the tramp
walking the world," and the rest of it,

ART FOR ART'S SAKE 135

that it would be well if we did get down
to fundamentals ; and this is one thing fun-
damental— 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 vic-
tory. 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.

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

156 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

note with exasperation, perhaps with some
misgiving, how men raise a riot over some-
thing 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 litera-
ture; 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 ridi-
cule, but for the pure love of things, good,
true and beautiful. With the best of in-
tentions 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.

ART FOR ART'S SAKE 157

VI

We naturally think of the Abbey
Theatre when we speak of these things,
and as the Abbey work has certainly suf-
fered 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
did 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 in-
sist, 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 Moliere; and
lesser men may be called brilliant, talented
or able — anything you will but great. Con-
sider 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 Shake-
speare's duels and brawls and battles and
blood; his generation revelled in excite-
ment. Yes, they craved it, and he gave it

158 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

to them, but shot through with wonder,
subtlety, ecstasy; and his splendid crea-
tions, like mighty worlds, keep us wonder-
ing 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.

vii

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 ;
wo want what they think about them-
selves. 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 dre-ad of being

ART FOR ART'S SAKE 159

thought a politician or suspected of mo-
tives cannot feel, and will as surely
fail, as the one who sits down to play
the role 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 propa-
gandist 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 it-
self— 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.

VIII

Yes, and the poet will be unlike you,
gentlemen of the fastidious phrase. He will

160 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

not be careless of form, but the passion thai
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, 0 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 sensitive-
ness 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,

ART FOR ART'S SAKE 161

" an eye for an eye " — for who could 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 tender-
ness 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 gene-
rosity and noble fire, full of that great love
the common cry can never make other
than humanising and beautiful, not with-
out 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.

CHAPTER XII

RELIGION
I

IT ought to be laid down as a first prin-
ciple 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
162

RELIGION 163

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 antici-
pate 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

164 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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 under-
stand and respect one another, not to set
them at one another, least of all to make
them "liberal," that is, lax and con-
temptible, 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
th3 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 reso-
lution; yet, since many often sacrifice
firmness to sympathy, others will take the

RELIGION 165

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 re-
quire the insight of a prophet and the
balance of an angel.

ii

What everyone should take as a fair de-
mand 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 say-
ing 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

166 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

general enemy is the atheist, socialist, and
the syndicalist, they should still be re-
minded 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.

in

A development that would require a
treatise in itself I will but touch on, to sug-
gest to all interested a matter of general
and grave concern — the growing material-
ism of religious bodies. On all sides self-
constituted defenders of the faith are
tioubling themselves, not with the faith
but with the numbers of their adherents

RELIGION 167

who have jobs, equal sharers in emolu-
ments, 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 them-
selves to this cry to sacrifice all higher con-
siderations 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 mistako to overlook that high-minded

168 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

men are allowing themselves to be com-
mitted by plausible reasons to this grow-
ing evil. It is misguided enthusiasm.
There is a divine authority that warns us
all : " Be zealous for the better gifts."

IV

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 contri-
buting 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

RELIGION 169

in his life for any worthy deeds, nay, only
scorn for such. Still he passes for ortho-
dox. 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 anathema-
tised 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

170 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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 com-
munity. 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 ana-
thematised. He sees the vice and mean-
ness 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 com-
posure 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

RELIGION 171

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."

y

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

172 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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 un-
worthy 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.

RELIGION 173

VI

Perhaps the conventional Christian and
conventional non-Christian may rest a
moment to consider the reality. Between
the bitter believer and the exasperated un-
believer, 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 concep-
tion, 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 un-
known ; it is the expanse of infinity. When
he is lost in its mystery he adverts to the
wonder about him, for all that is wonder-
ful is touched with it, and all that is lovely
is its expression. It is in the breath of

174 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

the wind, pure and bracing from the moun-
tain 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.

VII

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-

RELIGION 175

considered tirades he despises. He may
remain still unconvinced, but he will give
over his contempt. This question of reli-
gion 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 ques-
tion. 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.

CHAPTER XIII

INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM

IT will probably cause surprise if I say
there is, possibly, more intellectual free-
dom in Ireland than elsewhere in Europe.
But I do not mean by intellectual free-
dom 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 free-
dom, fundamental to all liberty.

ii

I have no intention here of in any way
criticising the doctrine of Free-thought,
but one so named cannot be ignored when

176

INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM 177

we consider Intellectual Freedom. This,
then, has to be borne in mind when speak-
ing 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 dis-
putants 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, not-
withstanding, freely of your own accord,
accept belief in certain doctrines, the free-
thinkers 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.

178 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

HI

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 con-
crete 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 free-
dom. 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 free-
dom, he must follow his star.

IV

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

INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM 179

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 apparently,
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 re-
cover 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 uncon-
sciously, his hand on the helm : he judges

180 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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.

If we so understand intellectual free-
dom, in what does its denial consist? In
this : around every set of principles guid-
ing 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 ad-
herents and the authority of many sup-
porting 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

INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM 181

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 dis-
like 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 intellec-
tual freedom.

VI

It will serve us to consider some preju-
dices, 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 noth-

182 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

ing. 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 hope-
lessly 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 sup-
posed to have believed, has no vitality,
surely he can have no reason for being
afraid of it, and to speak of dangerous con-
sequences from it to him, can be JOT him
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 cer-
tain 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 sup-
posed enemies. He will surely need in his
sincere attitude to life a freedom of mind
that is not a name merely but a positive

INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM 183

virtue that demands of him more than
denunciation of obscurantism, the recogni-
tion of a personal duty and the justifica-
tion of personal works.

VII

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 sin-
cere 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 preju-
dices 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

184 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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 un-
willing 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 ithe
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 ethers
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

INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM 185

between them a bond of sympathy that
mutual sincerity can never fail to estab-
lish. 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 preju-
dice, 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."

VIII

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 sin-
cerely. If his creed is insufficient or incon-
sistent, in his struggle he shall test it, and
in his sincerity he must make up the in-
sufficiency or remove the inconsistency.

186 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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 ex-
terior 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 sud-
denly proposed as a test to both sides the
readiness to adventure bravely on the Sea
of Life. The free-thinker may be as-
tonished 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 his-
tory 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

INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM 187

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 bitter-
ness will still ply their bitter trade, crying
that anarchists, atheists, heretics, infidels,
all outcasts and wicked men, are all ram-
pant for our destruction. It may be dis-
puted, 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 prac-
tised. 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 blood-
less and beautiful revolution. We are in

188 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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 objec-
tions : "Fear not; only believe."

CHAPTER XIV

MILITARISM

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 asser-
tion 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 mili-
tarism there can be no question, but a
careful study of some anti-militaristic
literature discloses very different motives
189

190 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

for the campaign. I propose to lay some
of the motives bare and let the reader
judge whether there may not be an in-
sidious 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 capi-
talist has no country. Well, our comment

MILITARISM 191

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."

ii

The limits of this essay do not admit of
detailed examination of the book named.
What I propose to do is make characteris-
tic 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 :

1. The Ethics of the Case.

2. The Power of Money.

3. The Deal.

Where italics are used they are mine.
1. THE ETHICS OF THE CASE.—" The
real basis of Social Morality is self-

192 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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 in-
terest ?" (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.)

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 de-
gree than has ever yet been the case in
history." (p. 47.)

" 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).

" The most absolute despots cannot com-
mand money." (p. 226.)

" With reference to capital, it may almost
be said that it is organised so naturally
internationally that formal organisation is
not necessary!' (p. 269.)

MILITARISM 193

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 speak-
ing, for conquest at all, but for police pur-
poses" (p. 115.)

"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.
. . . . Germany may need to police
Asia Minor" (pp. 117, 118.)

" It is much more to our interest to have
an orderly and organised A sia Minor under
German tutelage than to have an unor-
ganised and disorderly one which should
be independent" (p. 120.)

" 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 : ' You know that we ought to make
common cause in our dealings with back-
ivard races of the world !' "

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

194 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

common sense is the advantage of con-
quering 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
Morning Post, 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 dic-
tate 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 Morning Post-, 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-

MILITARISM 195

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 de-
scribed in another context as " the incon-
venience of the reappearance of a soul."

in

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." Eather, 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, Dieu et mon
droit" ("War and Its Alleged Benefits,"
p. 12.) He can be ironical and he can be
warm. Later, he writes : "The French (and

196 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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 de-
fended 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.

CHAPTER XV

THE EMPIRE

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 our-
selves 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 not 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 Em-
pire. We shall have our say for the nation,
but as even now many things, false and
hypocritical, are being urged on behalf of

O 197

198 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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.

ii

One candid writer, Machiavelli, has put
the Imperial creed into a book, the exami-
nation 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 un-
derstand thoroughly that the Empire is a
thing, bad in itself, utterly wicked, to be
resisted everywhere, fought without ceas-

THE EMPIRE 199

ing, 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 dis-
obliged 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 great-
ness 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 advis-
able. 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

200 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

any State is to execute and put in practice
all the cruelties which he thinks material
at once." Cromwell rises before us.

" 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 com-
mits a great error and may expect to be
ruined himself ; because whenever the citi-
zens 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 de-
stroyed." 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 neces-
sary your subjects be disarmed, all but
such as appeared for you in the conquest,

THE EMPIRE 201

and they are £0 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 inclina-
tion 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

202 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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 wicked^
ness 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.

in

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

THE EMPIRE 203

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 in-
sufferable. 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 in-
censed. 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 amaze-

204 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

ment the celebrated treatise which has
brought so much obloquy on the name of
Machiavelli. Such a display of wicked-
ness, naked, yet not ashamed, such cool,
judicious, scientific atrocity, seemed rather
to belong to a fiend than to the most de-
praved 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 ex-
pressed 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 en-
tertained but for writing them down
luminously and forcibly — in other words,
for giving the show away.

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 de-
fended as irony; hardly, but even so, in

THE EMPIRE 205

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.

IV

Not many of us in Ireland will be de-
ceived by Macaulay, but there is danger in
an occasional note of writers, such as Ber-
nard 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 aggres-
sive power looks for an opening for aggres-
sion 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

206 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

opening : " Despotism is a legitimate mode
of government in dealing with Barbarians,
provided the end be their improvement";
or this irom 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 wrath-
ful, 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 fur-
ther that he is prepared to co-operate with
France, Italy, 'Russia, Germany and Eng-
land 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

THE EMPIRE 207

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 feel-
ing in other men as something holy and in-
violable, 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 de-
sirable"— they not only go forward to
civilise the barbarians by Denshawai hor-
rors, 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

208 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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.

v

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. Pos-
sibly 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 com-
bative, 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 EMPIRE 209

—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 sub-
due 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 govern-
ment, was next to be killed by kindness,
and Local Government came. Local
Government made Home Eule inevitable;
and now Home Eule 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 Eule marks the be-
ginning of the end.

CHAPTER XVI

RESISTANCE IN ARMS — FOREWORD

THE discussion of freedom leads in-
evitably 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.

ii

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

RESISTANCE IN ARMS— FOREWORD 211
would be impossible, and no one wants to
fight. What prevents ye going out to be-
gin ?" 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 stand-
ing 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. More-
over, 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

212 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

end, while as a result of another complica-
tion we find the Prime Minister of England
going about as carefully protected as the
Czar of Russia.* 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 tur-
moil 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.

in

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 nervous-

*The militant suffragette agitation.

RESISTANCE IN ARMS— FOREWORD 213
ness, 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' Monu-
ment, Concord, made touching reference to
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 regula-
tions and the rest, which is right, for thus
we turn a mob into an army and helpless-
ness into strength. Let us be minutely
careful, too, with the untried minds —
timid, anxious, sensitive in matters of con-
science; 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 wTe come down with
sympathy to every particular. It is surely

214 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

evident that it is essential to give the care
we lavish on the body with equal fulness to
the mind.

iv

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 diffi-
culty to face. The right to war is in-
variably 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 per-
fectly 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

RESISTANCE IN ARMS— FOREWORD 215

give, but we stake our cause on the some-
thing 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 ignor-
ing 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 autho-
rity 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." (Essays chiefly Theological,
vol. 4). This has to be kept in mind. Theo-
logians 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

216 PRINCIPLES OB FREEDOM

it is useful to quote Catholic authorities in
particular, since in Ireland an army repre-
sentative 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 prelimi-
nary 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 in matters of principle there
can be no tactics, there is one straightfor-
ward course to follow, and that course must
be found and followed without swerving to
the end.

CHAPTER XVII

RESISTANCE IN ARMS — THE TRUE MEANING
OF LAW

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." (Aquinas Ethicus,
Vol. 1, p. 276.) Writing of laws that are
unjust either in respect to end, author or
217

218 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

form, St. Thomas says : " Such proceedings
are rather acts of violence than laws; be-
cause St. Augustine says : ' A law that is
not just goes for no law at all.' " (Aquinas
Ethicus, 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" (European Civilisation,
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 govern-
ments have been established for the good
of society, and that this alone should be the
compass to guide those who are in com-
mand, whatever be the form of govern-
ment." It is likewise the view of Mill, in
Representative Government, that the well-
being of the governed is the sole object of
government. It was the view of Plato be-
fore the Christian era : his ideal city should
be established, " that the whole City might
be in the happiest condition." (The
Republic, Book 4.) Calderwood writes :
" Political Government can be legitimately
constructed only on condition of the ac-
knowledgment of natural obligations and

THE TRUE MEANING OF LAW 219

rights as inviolable." (Handbook of
Modern Philosophy, Applied Ethics, Sec.
4.) Here all schools and all times are in
agreement. Till these conditions are ful-
filled for us we are at war. When an in-
dependent 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.

"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 De
Facto Governments. (European Civilisa-
tion, Chap. 55.) We could not be more
explicit than the famous Spanish theolo-
gian. 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

220 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

force of arms, has subdued a nation, does
not thereby acquire a right to its posses-
sion; 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 hav-
ing 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
Idea of the Church Militant, makes use of
these words : ' Jesus Christ, by His plain
and expressive answer, Render to Ccesar
the things that are Caesar's, has sufficiently
established that the mere fact of a govern-
ment's existence is sufficient for enforcing
the obedience of subjects to it. . . .'
His work was forbidden at Rome," is
Balmez' expressive comment, and he con-
tinues, " and whatever may have been the
motives for such a prohibition, we may rest
assured that, in the case of a book advo-
cating such doctrines, every man who is

THE TRUE MEANING OF LAW 221

jealous of his rights might acquiesce in the
decree of the Sacred Congregation." So
much for De Facto 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 pre-
tend to accept them — but that the hour to
resist has not yet come. It is the strategy
of war.

in

We stand on the ground that the English
Government in Ireland is founded in usur-
pation 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 be-
comes the same as legitimate, the reply is
still clear. For ourselves we meet the
assumption with a simple denial, appeal-
ing to Irish History for evidence that we
never acquiesced in the English Usurpa-
tion. 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 Common-
wealth. We still stand on the ground that

222 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

the English government is founded in
usurpation, but we can dispose of all objec-
tions 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 legi-
timate government which abuses its
power." (Essays, Chiefly Theological,
Vol. 4.) He continues : " The common
opinion of a large number of our theolo-
gians, 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 fol-
lowing conditions are found united :

1. The tyranny must be excessive — intoler-

able.

2. The tyranny must be manifest, manifest

to men of good sense and right feeling.

3. The evils inflicted by the tyrant must be

greater than those which would ensue
from resisting and deposing him.

4. There must be no other available way

of getting rid of the tyranny except by
recurring to the extreme course.-

5 There must be a moral certainty of
success.

6. The revolution must be one conducted

THE TRUE MEANING OF LAW 223

or approved by the community at
large . . . the refusal of a small
party in the State to join with the over-
whelming mass of their countrymen
would not render the resistance of the
latter unlawful." (Essays, Chiefly
Theological; see also Rickaby, Moral
Philosophy, Chap. 8, Sec. 7.)
e 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 any-
one. 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 cer-
tainty of success, an absolute certainty,
that can never be looked for in war.

IV

When a government through its own
iniquity ceases to exist, we must, to estab-
lish 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

224 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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, there-
fore, all civil authority immediately
sprang. So also, in opposition to Melanch-
thon's theory of governmental omni-
potence, Suarez a fortiori admitted the
right of the people to depose those princes
who would have shown themselves un-
worthy of the trust reposed in them." (De
Wulf, History of Medieval Philosophy,
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

THE TRUE MEANING OF LAW 225
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 — Literature
of Europe, 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 ex-
travagance of thus representing obedience
as the only duty without an exception."
Dr. Murray concludes his own essay on
Resistance to the Supreme Civil Power 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 em-
phasising 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 in-
surrection rendered necessary by oppres-
sion, and warranted by a reasonable
probability of a happy termination, is an

226 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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.

v

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 legi-
timate once it becomes habitually tyran-
nical may be resisted and deposed; and
that when from abuse or tyranny a parti-
cular government ceases to exist, we have
to re-establish a true one. It is some-
times 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 History of Philosophy

THE TRUE MEANING OF LAW 227

(Chap. 38) : " The redress to which the sub-
jects 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 autho-
rity, let us calmly show we best understand
the basis of Authority — which is Truth,
and most highly reverence its presiding
spirit — which is Liberty.

CHAPTER XVIII

RESISTANCE IN ARMS OBJECTIONS

HAVING stated the case for resistance,
it will serve us to consider some ob-
jections. Many inquiring minds may be
made happy by a clear view of the doc-
trine, 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 con-
crete issue, take refuge in the abstract, it
is not noticed that men, trying to avoid
acknowledging the truth of some prin-
ciple, take refuge in the concrete. A living
pui2 pressing difficulty, though transient,
228

RESISTANCE IN ARMS— OBJECTIONS 229
looms larger than any historical fact or
coming danger. Seeing this, we may re-
store 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.

ii

To the name of prudence the most im-
prudent 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 pres-
tige 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 Eeservation," in his Essays,
chiefly Theological, 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
Q

230 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

such an audience or in such and such cir-
cumstances, 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 govern-
ments, of all society." (European Civilisa-
tion, 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 are investigated,
agitated and decided, in a manner that we
must deplore." (Ibid. Chap. 54.) Take
with this Turner on France under the old
regime and the many and serious griev-
ances of the people : " The Church, whose
duty it was to inculcate justice and for-
bearance, was identified, in the minds of
the people, with the Monarchy which they
feared and detested." (History of Philo-
sophy, Chap. 59.) The moral is that when
injustice and evil are rampant, let us have
no palliation, no weakness disguising itself

RESISTANCE IN ARMS— OBJECTIONS 231
as a virtue. What we cannot at once re-
sist, we can always repudiate. To ignore
these things is the worst form of impru-
dence— an imprudence which we, for our
part at least, take the occasion here hear-
tily to disclaim.

in

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 insurrec-
tion, in the words of Mackintosh, is " an act
of public virtue." It is the restoration of
Truth to its place of honour among men.

232 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

IV

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 Les Empires, thus Bossuet :
"Les revolutions des empires sont reglees
par la providence, et servent a humilier les
princes." This is hardly calculated to de-
ter 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 Eome
in language of eloquence that might in-
flame any people to liberty. Of unde-
generate Greece, free and invincible :
" Mais ce que la Grece avait de plus grand
etait une politique ferme et prevoyante,
qui savait abandonner, hasarder et de-
fendre, ce qu'il fallait; et, ce qui est plus
grand encore, un courage que 1'amour de
la liberte et celui de la patrie rendaient
invincible." Of undegenerate Rome, her
liberty : " La liberte leur 6 tait done
un tresor qu'ils pre"feroient a toutes
les richesses de 1'univers." Again : " La

RESISTANCE IN ARMS— OBJECTIONS 233
maxime fondamentale de la republique
etait de regarder la liberte comme une
chose inseparable du nom Boman." And
her constancy : " Voila de fruit glorieux de
la patience Eomaine. 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 1'esperance." And again : " Parmi eux,
dans les etats les plus tristes, jamais
les faibles conseils n'ont ete seulement
e"coutes." The reading of such a fine tri-
bute 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."

v

In conclusion, in the concrete this simple
fact will suffice : we have established
immutable principles; the concrete circum-
stances are contingent and vary. It is
admirably put in the following passage :

234 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

" The historical and sociological sciences,
so carefully cultivated in modern times,
have proved to evidence that social condi-
tions vary with the epoch and the country,
that they are the resultant of quite a num-
ber of fluctuating influences, and that,
accordingly, the science of Natural Right
should not merely establish immutable
principles bearing on the moral end of
man, but should likewise deal with the
contingent circumstances accompanying
the application of those principles." (De
Wulf, Scholasticism, Old and New, 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 ac-
companying the application of those prin-
ciples." Let that be emphasised. The
conditions of twenty years ago are vastly
changed to-day; and how altered the con-
ditions of to-morrow can be, how astonish-
ing can be the change in the short span of
twenty years, let this fact prove. Ireland
in '48 was prostrate after a successful star-
vation and an unsuccessful rising — to all
appearances this time hopelessly crushed;
yet within twenty years another rising was
planned that shook English government in

RESISTANCE IN ARMS— OBJECTIONS 235
Ireland to its foundations. Let us bear in
, mind this further from De Wulf : " Socio-
logy, 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 condi-
tions of the moment as transient, have
always discussed possible future contin-
gencies. 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 circum-
stance, and the immutable principle is the
Liberty of the Irish People.

CHAPTER XIX

THE BEARNA BAOGHAIL — CONCLUSION

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 com-
mon men were for them but incentives to
further battle; and when they held out
against the prejudices of their time, they
236

CONCLUSION 237

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 alle-
giance 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, suffer-
ing 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

238 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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, pa-
triotism 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.

ii

When, happily, we can fall back on the
eloquence of the world's greatest orator,
we turn with gratitude to the greatest tri-
bute 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, ^Eschines,
for having counselled the Athenians to
pursue a course that ended in defeat, and

CONCLUSION 239

he replies thus : " If, then, the results had
been foreknown to all — not even then
should the Commonwealth have aban-
doned 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 with-
out 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 degrada-
tion, " especially when in former times our
country had never preferred an igno-
minious 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

240 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

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, chal-
lenging ^Eschines 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 Plataea, 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, ^Eschines, not only the suc-
cessful 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 —

CONCLUSION 241

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 Ther-
mopylae, and which Mitchel's biographer
quotes as most fitting to epitomise Mit-
chel's life : " Stranger, tell thou the Lace-
demonians 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.

in

Yes; and in paying a fitting tribute to
those great men who are our exemplars, it
would be fitting also, in conclusion, to re-
member 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 we, too, are worthy to
bear. For, how often it shall be victorious
and how high it shall be planted, will de-

242 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

pend 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 misunder-
stand— 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 sav-
ing sense of humour. For in all the
vanities of this time that make Life and
Literature choke with absurdities, preten-
sions and humbug, let us have no new

CONCLUSION 243

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, de-
fiant; 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 : " When my country " — not if
— but " when 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 : we know it. 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 accom-
plished, will write its history, he will not
note the end with surprise. Rather will he

244 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM

marvel at the soul in constancy, rivalling
the best traditions of undegenerate Greece
and Rome, holding through disasters, per-
secutions, 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 — Liberty; Inevitable :
in two words to epitomise the history of a
people that is without a parallel in the
Annals of the World.

THE END

§*"'

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