than the cells which compose it. They are able to act together and
achieve things impossible to the separated cells. Now humanity today
is, to some extent, like the individual cells. It is trying to unite
together to form a real organism, which will manifest higher qualities
of life than the individual can manifest. But very few of the organisms
created by society enable the individual to do this. The joint-stock
companies or capitalist concerns which bring men together at this work
or that do not yet make them feel their unity. Existence under a common
government effects this still less. Our modern states have not yet
succeeded in building up that true national life where all feel the
identity of interest; where the true civic or social feeling is
engendered and the individual bends all his efforts to the success of
the community on which his own depends; where, in fact, the ancient
Greek conception of citizenship is realized, and individuals are created
who are ever conscious of the identity of interest between themselves
and their race. In the old Greek civilizations this was possible
because their States were small, indeed their ideal State contained no
more citizens than could be affected by the voice of a single orator.
Such small States, though they produced the highest quality of life
within themselves, are no longer possible as political entities. We
have to see whether we could not, within our widespread nationalities,
create communities by economic means, where something of the same sense
of solidarity of interest might be engendered and the same quality of
life maintained. I am greatly ambitious for the rural community. But
it is no use having mean ambitions. Unless people believe the result of
their labors will result in their equaling or surpassing the best that
has been done elsewhere, they will never get very far. We in Ireland
are in quest of a civilization. It is a great adventure, the building up
of a civilization--the noblest which could be undertaken by any persons.
It is at once the noblest and the most practical of all enterprises, and