may prove a dark curse.

Let the coarse and sensuous literature of England drop from our
people's hands. Let us encourage native genius to dip her pen
into the old holy well of Catholic truth, and build up a
literature that will be racy of the soil and redolent of its
Faith. Let us feed the minds of the young on the untainted
productions of our own countrymen and women. Let us brace them
with robust Catholic principles that are mortised into the solid
bed-rock of knowledge. Then the most powerful foe the future
holds will blow the trumpet in vain.

But to the priest who slumbers, heedless of the swift march of
time, and the forces of evil now possessing our land, I say--
Dream on, dear gentle soul, dream on! The day may come when you
will awake with a thunder-clap, perhaps to find the Irish Church
in chains.



CHAPTER EIGHTH

THE YOUNG PRIEST'S ACTIVITIES

I should like to see the priest at the head of every movement for
the bettering and uplifting of the people.

[Side note: The Last Fortress]

Ireland is the last fortress of Catholic Christendom. Latin