The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1904-04-09

doubt by her isolated position on the
map. but partly also, believe, owing
to the instructive dislike of the com
mon sense. conservative Irishman. The
natural consequence should have been
darkness. barbarism. ignorance. Ire
land never fell so low. Her sons
though deprived of exterior help and
university culture. could still feed fol
centuries upon their own literary treas
ures. All the way down to the Stuart
| dynasty the nation preserved not only
her princes, her clans. her Brehon laws
but her shanachies. her manuscripts
her ancient literature and traditions
"All the beauty of the Kings daughter
was from Within
The current of Professionalism, the
backwater of the Renaissance broke
itself in vain against the Irish mind.
After the long reign of Elizabeth, after
all the turmoil and wars and persecu-
ton and brides, only sixty Irishmen
We're found to have succumbed to the
charms of Martin Luther. Talk of
want of steadiness, talk of the tickle
ness and feebleness of the Irish char
acter after this!
am aware that so nice a critic as
Mathew Arnold has stated that the
Celtic genius has sentiment as it's main
basis, with love Of beauty and spiritu-
ality for its excellence but Intellectual
ness and self-will for it's defects.
Mommsen, the great German historian,
recently deceased, is still more brutally
frank. He calls the Celts indolent and
poetical, irresolute and fervid, inquisi-
tive, credulous, amiable, but, in a DO
litical point of view thoroughly useless
nations. 1.-The chief political charac-
teristics of Celtic nations" he adds, sis
Il want of perseverance to attain Civ
en- end, and inability to unite perma-
nently for common object. They will
cherish, however, a fixed desire to at
tain that which they have failed to ac-
complish. Ancient traditions and ma
tional longngs form the staple of their
political ideas so that they do not APP
preciate existing circumstances and fail
to adapt themselves to an existing Or
der Of things"
''.The Celt does not exert continued
effort to attain common object?' Are
not the coercion acts on the statute
booS of England-one of them, by the
way, is at present in force, evidence.
singing evidence, that the political
efforts of lrishmen have been not alone
continuous but strenuous. "The Celt
does not adapt himself to an existing
order of things?" This time let the
1rish-American, especially the Irish
American politician, give the lie to the
German professor. The truth is that
we have failed politically so far not
through ticllleness or unadaptability,
but through the fact that the Celt con-
ceives ideas clearly and rapidly but
forgets them easily; lie is brilliant but
not persevering, his thoughts are vivid
but not enduring. Now, the Irish Celt
may be restless, quarrelsome, tickle and
even feeble of purpose in good many
matters of minor Importance or of daily
life: but there are two things at least
on which his mind is "fixed as the
Northern star''-his nationality and
ABOVE all his religion.
1t was Professionalism that first made
the Irish Celt a Nationalist. Previously
he had been Il tribesnan, a clansman.
He would call in the Sassenach even
for the luxury of triumphing over a
rival clan. Before Queen Elizabeth's
time it was an O'Neill against an
ODonnel, an O'Byrne against an
O"Toole. an O'Moore against an
OCarrOl, a Butler against Geraldine;
but Professionalism closed the feud-riven
ranks and henceforth it was Catholic
Ireland against Protestant England. In
the new struggle, without the aid of
an Oxford or Cambridge, Paris or {,
Salamanca, the Irish Celt revealed a
principle that stamps him at once with
the highest idealism The most learned
man III England. perhaps in Europe ut
the time, was Sir Thomas More, lord
high chancellor; and Blessed Thomas
More, as we call him now, went to the
block for the assertion of the principle
that twenty years Of worldly honors
and prosperity We're nothing to the sal
walton Of the soul. He had few fol-
lowers in England, but in Ireland ev~
cry peasant was Il Sir Thomas More
From that day to this the words Irish
man and Catholic are synonymous
terms. Flung among strange and vi
cious environments, very many of our
people fall away and forget for the
time being that there is moral law
or even a God; but. Notwithstanding
al. this, any missionary priest will tell
you that even the fallen away Irish
man will rally to his duty in his dying
hour. The need of reviving an Irish
mans faith is rarely called for when,
after life of sin, the shadow Of death
reminds him Of the duty he owes to
his own soul. There is scarcely any
need of asking an Irishman, "Do you
believe" A whole life may lie in the
blackness Of ruin and the ashes of
crime, but the ember of faith ia still