It is that inner
unity which constitutes the national being.
The idea of the national being emerged at no recognizable point in our
history in Ireland. It is older than any name we know. It is not
earth-born, but the synthesis of many heroic and beautiful moments, and
these, it must be remembered, are divine in their origin. Every heroic
deed is an act of the spirit, and every perception of beauty is vision
with the divine eye, and not with the mortal sense. The spirit was
subtly intermingled with the shining of old romance, and it is no mere
phantasy which shows Ireland at its dawn in a misty light thronged with
divine figures, and beneath and nearer to us demi-gods and heroes fading
into recognizable men. The bards took cognizance only of the most
notable personalities who preceded them, and of these only the acts
which had a symbolic or spiritual significance; and these grew thrice
refined as generations of poets in enraptured musings along by the
mountains or in the woods brooded upon their heritage of story, until,
as it passed from age to age, the accumulated beauty grew greater than
the beauty of the hour.
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