The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-03-29

iShed,
 This they gave to Erin's youth. Never nation cherished honor, Or held longing to be free,
 Higher than did dear Old Erin,
 Just what Erin used to be.
 "Boys when born in dear Old Erin, Were baptized and pledged to truth Pledged to faith and Love of Country Everywhere except Maynooth. Still the teachers in the college,
 Could not keep the spirit down, That with Sarsfield, Clare and Meag- her,
 Won the race it's rich renown God and Country, Truth and Honor, Were the words from sea to sea, In Old Erin, dear Old Erin,
 Just What Erin used to be-"
 A NATIONS MEASURE.
 Races and nations are often meas ured by their great men and the gen. eral average of the masses. By this standard the Irish have no cause for confusion or fear. Another, perhaps on the whole, the best measure, is one that estimates the value of a races or peoples contribution to the worlds progress. particularly as represented by contributions to Literature, the Arts, the Sciences. Law or Legislation and Religion. Again the Irish have no reason to repress the most rigid investigation. Never mas a nation had less reason to fear the light upon it's past-or, for that matter, in many ways upon it's present efforts.
 Benjamin Kidd, the great socio1og- ist, puts the Greeks at the head of the great races. followed by the French. Including the supernatural feature in the life of Israel, I have to give first place to the Jews. for they lead in almost every line. Only the pictorial, and sculptured forms of art fail in the in- ventory: of their contributions. In laws Leviticus and the tables of the law, the great ten commandments of Moses, are the worlds most priceless legal and moral possession. No elo- quence equals that of the fire-touched lips of Isaiah. No writer, Greek or Roman, ever spoke or wrote as Job spoke in the awful tragedy of his life, not Eschylus. nor Euripides nor sang as David sang? What king or wise man ever contributed to the worlds wisdom tenth of what Sol omon gave us? Where lived the phil osopher whose golden pen wrote down a philosophy to touch that of Saint John? Plato? Aristotle Spinoza? Kant? There is absolute ly no comparison. Who has written biography like that of the four Evan gelists? Not Plutarch, not Boswell, not Macau1ay. I say all this by way of preface, to disarm the mind ed who are wont to charge us with unfairness. If I ask justice. it is be- cause I am willing to do justice. Measured by any of the worlds great standards, for measuring a nations greatness, those indicated above, Ire- land has a right to a high place, how high, I shall leave you to decide after you have heard such evidence as I have to offer.
 LITERATURE.
 The first question asked as we en- II. What has been the races or nations contributions to the literature of the world? Here, Ireland can hold up her hand, for she has her hands and lap. her halls of history, full of liter ary treasures, songs, tales, graceful legends, quaint stories and heroic his tories. As the research workers dig deeper and deeper into the historical debris piled up in Ireland, England, Scotland, and Wales, aye, even among, the verses of continental lore, they find. not only traces, but wide, golden. literary pathways leading back to the holy hills and dales of ourzIreland, Old, dear Old Ireland Only quite re- gently Dr. Brown, of the Northwestern University, a distinguished scholar. showed conclusively that the Arthuri- an and other tales used by Wales. Eng land, and the continent. had their ori- gin in Irish hills Irish scholarship is as real as anything written in the
 
 traceable in York. in all parts of Eng land, even in Oxford. Tradition links the name of Alfred, the Washington of England, with the names of Irish scholars. In Paris. Pavia, in Bobbio, St. Gall (Switzerland), Wurtzburg, Strasburg. and Munich. Germany, one may easily find not traces, but actual Irish prototypes. When the lamps of learning had nearly Aied out in Eu- rope they famed like Greek torches Ireland is fo act that we must turn. The last hundred or two hundred years are as much ours, as they are anyone's. In the higher forms of literature, those that lift the mind from the mean and sor- did, from the vile and vulgar. the low and mean, Ireland holds high place. if she does not lead. The great test comedies in English, hardly excepting those of Shakespeare, were penned by Sheridan. born in Dublin and by Goldsmith. born in Pallas, Ireland In the literature of romance and song that is to live as long as the language lives. A high place, perhaps the hi~h- est. will have to be given to Gold deserted village. Need I name the writers who have lifted human hearts by their happy tales, the men and the women only a degree or two lower in the literary scale than Goldsmith 2 The Banins. Carltons, Levers, Lovers, Griffins, etc?
 If turn to the highest kind Of literature that concerning a nations life. the State papers. the wisdom that is to guide governments, Burke bears off the palm from all times and all people. In no Senate, Greek or Ro- man. has his equal ever sat. Pure and hish-rninded as Fabricius. patri- otfc and sincere as Demosthenes pol- ished as Cicero. he added an Irish mans fiery scorn to his greater works. In oratory. Burke and Sheridan. Grat- 4or oy