That
knowledge comes to those who go within themselves, and not to those who
seek without for the way, the truth, and the life. But, once
proclaimed, the incorruptible spiritual element in man intuitively
recognizes it as truth, and it has a profound effect on human action.
There is, I believe, a powerful Irish character which has begun to
reassert itself in modern times, and this character is in essentials
what it was two thousand years ago. We discover its first manifestation
in the ancient clans. The clan was at once aristocratic and democratic.
It was aristocratic in leadership and democratic in its economic basis.
The most powerful character was elected as chief, while the land was the
property of the clan. That social order indicates the true political
character of the Irish. Races which last for thousands of years do not
change in essentials. They change in circumstance. They may grow better
or worse, but throughout their history the same fundamentals appear and
reassert themselves. We can see later in Irish literature or politics,
as powerful personalities emerged and expressed themselves, how the
ancient character persisted.
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