No one can work for his race without the hope that the highest,
or more than the highest, humanity has reached will be within reach of
his race also. We are all laying foundations in dark places, putting
the rough-hewn stones together in our civilizations, hoping for the
lofty edifice which will arise later and make all the work glorious.
And in Ireland, for all its melancholy history, we may, knowing that we
are human, dream that there is the seed of a Pericles in Patrick's
loins, and that we might carve an Attica out of Ireland.
V.
In Ireland we must of necessity give special thought to the needs of the
countryman, because our main industry is agriculture. We have few big
cities. Our great cities are almost all outside our own borders. They
are across the Atlantic. The surplus population of the countryside do
not go to our own towns but emigrate. The exodus does not enrich
Limerick or Galway, but New York. The absorption of life in great
cities is really the danger which most threatens the modern State with a
decadence of its humanity.
Pages:
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47