do something towards promoting a greater definiteness of aim and method,
and a better understanding of each other's work, among those who are in
various ways striving for the upbuilding of a worthy national life in
Ireland.

So far the task, if difficult, was congenial and free from
embarrassment. Unhappily, it had been borne in upon me, in the course of
a long study of Irish life, that our failure to rise to our
opportunities and to give practical evidence of the intellectual
qualities with which the race is admittedly gifted, was due to certain
defects of character, not ethically grave, but economically paralysing.
I need hardly say I refer to the lack of moral courage, initiative,
independence and self-reliance--defects which, however they may be
accounted for, it is the first duty of modern Ireland to recognise and
overcome. I believe in the new movements in Ireland, principally because
they seem to me to exert a stimulating influence upon our moral fibre.

Holding such an opinion, I had to decide between preserving a discreet
silence and speaking my full mind. The former course would, it appeared
to me, be a poor example of the moral courage which I hold to be
Ireland's sorest need. Moreover, while I am full of hope for the future
of my country, its present condition does not, in my view, admit of any
delay in arriving at the truth as to the essential principles which
should guide all who wish to take a part, however humble, in the work of
national regeneration.

I desire to state definitely that I have not written in any
representative capacity except where I say so explicitly. I write on my
own responsibility, with the full knowledge that there is much in the
book with which many of those with whom I work do not agree.