that Hell can as disguise put on the outward garments of Heaven. Yet
what is eternally true remains pure and uncorrupted, and those who turn
to it find it there--as all finally must turn to it to fulfill their
destiny of inevitable beauty.





IX.



Often with sadness I hear people speak of industrial development in
Ireland, for I feel they contemplate no different system than that which
fills workers with despair in countries where it is more successfully
applied. All these energetic people are conspiring to build factories
and mills and to fill them with human labor, and they believe the more
they do this the better it will be for Ireland. They talk of Ireland as
if it was only admirable as a quantity rather than a quality. They
express delight at swelling statistics and increased trade, but where do
we hear any reflection on the quality of life engendered by this
industrial development? Our civilization is to differ in no way from
any other. No new ideal of life is suggested to differentiate us. We
are to go on exploiting human labor. Our working classes are to
increase and multiply and earn profits for an employing class, as labor
has one from time immemorial in Babylon, in Nineveh, in Rome, and in
London today. But a choice yet remains to us, because the character of
our civilization is not yet fixed. It is mainly germinal. It fills the
spirit with weariness to think of another nation following the old path,