But that material nature in which the soul is embodied has the dividing
quality of the prism, which resolves pure light into distinct rays; and
so on earth we get the principle of freedom and the virtue of solidarity
as separated ideals continually at warfare with each other, and the
reconcilement on earth of these principles in man is the conquest of
matter by the spirit. This dramatic sundering on earth of virtues in
unison in the heavens explains the struggle between Protestantism and
Catholicism, between nationality and imperialism, between individualist
and socialist, between dynamic and static in philosophy. Indeed in the
last analysis all human conflicts are the balancing on earth of the
manifestation of divine principles which are one in the unmanifest
spirit.
The civilization we create, the social order we build up, must provide
for essential freedom for the individual and for solidarity of the
nation. Now essential freedom is denied to men if they are in their
condition servile. Can we contemplate the permanent existence of a
servile class in Ireland? For, disguise it how we will, our present
industrial system is practically a form of slavery for the workers,
differing in externals only from the ages when the serf had a collar
round his neck.
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