The problem of mind and character with which we had to deal in Ireland presented this central and somewhat discouraging fact.  In practical life the Irish had failed where the English had succeeded, and this was attributed to the lack of certain English qualities which have been undoubtedly essential to success in commerce and in industry from the days of the industrial revolution until a comparatively recent date.  It was the individualism of the English economic system during this period which made these qualities indispensable.  The lack of these qualities in Irishmen to-day may be admitted, and the cause of the deficiency has been adequately explained.  But those who regard the Irish situation as industrially hopeless probably ignore the fact that there are other qualities, of great and growing importance under modern economic conditions, which can be developed in Irishmen and may form the basis of an industrial system.  I refer to the range of qualities which come into play rather in association than in the individual, and to which the term ‘associative’ is applied.[34] So that although much disparaging criticism of Irish character is based upon the survival in the Celt of the tribal instincts, it is gratifying to be able to show that even from the practical English point of view, our preference for thinking and working in groups may not be altogether a damnosa hereditas.  If, owing to our deficiency in the individualistic qualities of the English, we cannot at this stage hope to produce many types of the ‘economic man’ of the economists, we think we see our way to provide, as a substitute, the economic association.  If the association succeeds, and by virtue of its financial success becomes permanent, a great change will, in our opinion, be produced on the character of its members.  The reflex action upon the individual mind of the habit of doing, in association with others, things which were formerly left undone, or badly done, may be relied upon to have a tonic effect upon the character of the individual.  This is, I suppose, the secret of discipline, which, though apparently eliminating volition, seems in weak characters to strengthen the will.

There is, too, as we have learned, in the association a strange influence which develops qualities and capacities that one would not expect on a mere consideration of the character of its members.  This psychological phenomenon has been admirably and most entertainingly discussed by the French psychologist, Le Bon,[35] who, in the attractive pursuit of paradox, almost goes to the length of the proposition that the association inherently possesses qualities the opposite of those possessed by its members.  My own experience—­and I have had opportunities of observing hundreds of associations formed by my friends upon the principles above laid down—­does not carry me quite so far.  But, unquestionably, the association in Ireland does often become an entity as distinct from the individualities of which it is composed, as is a new chemical compound from its constituent elements.