Our
geographical position and the slender population of our country also
make it evident that the utmost force Ireland could organize would make
but a feeble barrier against assault by any of the greater States. We
have seen how Belgium, a country with a population larger than that of
Ireland, was thrust aside, crushed and bleeding, by one stroke from the
paw of its mighty neighbor.* The military and political institutions of
a small country are comparatively easy to displace, but it would be a
task infinitely more difficult to destroy ideals or to extinguish a
national being based on a social order, democratic and co-operative in
character, the soul of the country being continually fed by institutions
which, by their very nature, would be almost impossible to alter unless
destruction of the whole humanity of the country was aimed at. National
ideals, based on a co-operative social order, would have the same power
of resistance almost as a religion, which is, of all things, most
unconquerable by physical force, and, when it is itself militant, the
most powerful ally of military power.
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