The State is a physical
body prepared for the incarnation of the soul of a race. The body of the
national soul may be spiritual or secular, aristocratic or democratic,
civil or militarist predominantly. One or other will be most powerful,
and the body of the race will by reflex action affect its soul, even as
through heredity the inherited tendencies and passions of the flesh
affect the indwelling spirit. Our brooding over the infant State must
be dual, concerned not only with the body but the soul. When we essay
self-government in Ireland our first ideas will, in all probability, be
borrowed from the Mother of Parliaments, just as children before they
grow to have a character of their own repeat the sentiments of their
parents. After a time, if there is anything in the theory of Irish
nationality, we will apply original principles as they are from time to
time discovered to be fundamental in Irish character. A child in the
same way makes discoveries about itself. The mood evoked by picture or
poem reveals a love of beauty; the harsh treatment of an animal
provokes an outburst of pity; some curiosity of nature draws forth the
spirit of scientific inquiry, and so, as the incidents of life reveal
the innate affinities of a child to itself, do the adventures of a
nation gradually reveal to it its own character and the will which is in
it.
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