seems to me vitally necessary if the Irish people are to play a worthy part in the future history of the world.  That part is a far greater one than they could ever hope to play as an independent and separate State, yet their success in playing it must closely depend upon their remaining a distinct nationality, in the sense so clearly and wisely indicated by his Majesty when, in his reply to the address of the Belfast Corporation, he spoke of the ’national characteristics and ideals’ which he desired his kingdoms to cherish in the midst of their imperial unity.[36] The great experiment which I am about to relate is, in its own province, one of the many applications which we see around us of the conception here put forward.  And I believe that a few more years of quiet work by those who are taking part in this movement, with its appeal to Irish intellect, and its reliance upon Irish patriotism, is all that is needed to prove that by developing the industrial qualities of the Celt on associative lines we can in politics as well as in economics, add strength to the Irish character without making it less Irish or less attractive than of old.

FOOTNOTES: 

[28] This body is fully described in the next chapter.

[29] See Appendix to Third Report, p. 311.

[30] The Damnation of Theron Ware.  This was the title of the book I read in the United States.  I am told he published it in England under the title of Illuminations—­a nice discrimination!

[31] They appeared under the signature of ‘X.’ in Nov. and Dec., 1893, and Jan., 1894.

[32] Fortnightly Review, Jan. 1894, pp. 11, 12.

[33] The difficulties of the writer who is not a writer are great.  I sent this chapter to two literary friends, one of whom, with the help of a globe, disputed my accuracy in a learned ethnological disquisition with which he favoured me.  The other warned me to be even more obscure and sent me the following verses, addressed by ‘Cynicus’ (J.K.  Stephen) to Shakespeare,

“You wrote a line too much, my sage, Of seers the first, the first of sayers; For only half the world’s a stage, And only all the women players.”

[34] These qualities, as will be explained later, happen to have a special economic value in the farming industry, and so are available for the elevation of rural life, with whose problems we are now so deeply concerned in Ireland.  Their applicability to urban life need not be discussed here.  But my study of the co-operative movement in England has convinced me that, if the English had the associative instincts of the Irish, that movement would play a part in English life more commensurate with its numerical strength and the volume of its commercial transactions, than can be claimed for it so far.

[35] La Psychologie de la Foule.