The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-01-05

likely to get young inglorious Words
worths damned than the pretenders cast
igated. Finally on the ground that the
public is the Judge, anyhow, and has
the right to be the Judge, he utterly re-
fuses to subscribe TO the notion that an
aristocracy of taste is commissioned to
order the literary diet OF the generation.
The best the critic of even the next
generation can do is to sift out OF those
whom this generation has delightcC TO
honor the few-or many-whose appeal
is large enough to reach over into his
own era.
THE OLD IRISH WORLD" Bv Alice stopFord
Green. New York: The MacMillan Go.
Political interest in Ireland began to
wane as the influence OF the Celtic Re
Nuisance and the Gaelic League began
to attract our attention. and their ma
tional significance became clear in the
many articles and books that came to
our notice. 1t became clear to us on the
outside that Mr.. Redmond and Mr
O'Brien. with their sturdy and passionate
and combative compatriots at Westmin
ster, were strengthened for n worthy, but
not for the vital need of ireland. We
did not know that something of the same
opinion was shared by ireland itself. Mr.
Ryan had not then written the Popes
Green Island" and boldly declared to
the world that while politics, in the re-
stricted sense in which il is usually re-
garded. and In other senses was much
with US. the far greater Importance IN
latter-dsy ireland has not been so much
a political movement as what might be
called the resurrection and the fostering
of civilization" In other words our
concern has been more with humanity
than with politics, with intensive Gull
ture than with theory. We would rather
see Ireland a creative, humanized home
power than one of the great powers"
And again, with reference to the party
at Westminster, he says: They have
little or no relation to the realities and
problems of the actual Ireland that we
know. OF course the NJ. P.'s will reply
that their great concern is with the root
matter, as they and their regular audi
ences believe, and the things must be
put in a bold and highly colored way for
the multitude"
Our interest in Ireland has taken a
new point of. view since we have come
to realize that Ireland has 4 history as
fascinating and glamorous as any nation
in Europe. As rich in sage lore as Ice
land and the Scandinavian countries, as
full of legendary gods and heroes as
pagan Greece, as full OF mystic fairy
lore as the primitive Germanic tribes, the
background of Ireland's past is being
sketched upon the modern mind by mod
ern Irish scholars and writer's since the
publication of MIR. Standish O'Grady's
History of Ireland; the
Heroic Period" TO Mrs. Alice Stopford
Green, 1.-THE Old Irish World" and mod
ern ireland in Mr.. W. p. Ryan's THE
Pope's Green Island
The old civilization between 500 and
100 A d interrupted and broken else
where. continued in Ireland. and she gave
back to Europe treasures of learning she
had stored up In time of the Roman EN-
pire. and which she had kept safe from
the barbarian wars. Missionaries and
scholars" writes Mrs. Green. from
Iona and ireland carried letters an6
Christian teaching to every part of Eng
land. while shiploads of Englishmen went
to Ireland for instruction. Other Irish