time discovered to be fundamental in Irish character. A child in the
same way makes discoveries about itself. The mood evoked by picture or
poem reveals a love of beauty; the harsh treatment of an animal
provokes an outburst of pity; some curiosity of nature draws forth the
spirit of scientific inquiry, and so, as the incidents of life reveal
the innate affinities of a child to itself, do the adventures of a
nation gradually reveal to it its own character and the will which is in
it.

For all our passionate discussions over self-government we have had
little speculation over our own character or the nature of the
civilization we wished to create for ourselves. Nations rarely, if
ever, start with a complete ideal. Certainly we have no national
ideals, no principles of progress peculiar to ourselves in Ireland,
which are a common possession of our people. National ideals are the
possession of a few people only. Yet we must spread them in wide
commonalty over Ireland if we are to create a civilization worthy of our
hopes and our ages of struggle and sacrifice to attain the power to
build. We must spread them in wide commonalty because it is certain
that democracy will prevail in Ireland. The aristocratic classes with
traditions of government, the manufacturing classes with economic
experience, will alike be secondary in Ireland to the small farmers and
the wage-earners in the towns. We must rely on the ideas common among
our people, and on their power to discern among their countrymen the
aristocracy of character and intellect.

Civilizations are externalizations of the soul and character of races.
They are majestic or mean according to the treasure of beauty,
imagination, will, and thought laid up in the soul of the people. That
great mid-European State, which while I write is at bay surrounded by