hampering us will pass. Let the memory of its bitterness be an
incentive to checking new animosities and keeping the future safe; but
in the present let us grasp and keep in our mind that the barrier that
sundered our nation must crumble, if only we have faith and persist,
undeterred by old bitter cries, for they are dying cries, undepressed by
millions apathetic, for it is the great recurring sign of the ideal,
that one hour its light will flash through quivering multitudes, and
millions will have vision and rouse to regenerate the land.


V


Happily, it is nothing new to plead for brotherhood among Irishmen now;
unhappily, it is not so generally admitted, nor even recognised, that
the same reason that exists for restoring friendly relations among
Irishmen, exists for the re-establishing of friendship with any
outsider--England or another--with whom now or in the future we may be
at war. Friendliness between neighbours is one of the natural things of
life. In the case of individuals how beautifully it shows between two
dwellers in the same street or townland. They rejoice together in
prosperity; give mutual aid in adversity; in the ordinary daily round
work together in a spirit of comradeship; at all times they find a bond
of unity in their mutual interests. Consider, then, the sundering of
their friendship by some act of evil on either side. The old friendship
is turned to hate. Now the proximity that gave intimate pleasure to
their comradeship gives as keen an edge to their enmity; they meet one
another, cross one another, harass one another at every point. The
bitterness that is such a poison to life must be revolting to their best
instincts; deep in their hearts must be a yearning for the casting out