is, that in the attainment of an object, where a sad-faced
Englishman would despair, an Irishman will, probably, laugh, drink,
weep, and fight, during his progress to accomplish it. A Scotchman will
miss it, perhaps, but, having done all that could be done, he will
try another speculation. The Irishman may miss it too; but to console
himself he will break the head of any man who may have impeded him in
his efforts, as a proof that he ought to have succeeded; or if he cannot
manage that point, he will crack the pate of the first man he meets, or
he will get drunk, or he will marry a wife, or swear a gauger never
to show his face in that quarter again; or he will exclaim, if it be
concerning a farm, with a countenance full of simplicity--"God bless
your honor, long life and honor to you, sir! Sure an' 'twas but a
thrifle, anyhow, that your Reverence will make up for me another time.
An' 'tis well I know your Lordship 'ud be the last man on airth to give
me the cowld shoulder, so you would, an' I an ould residenthur on your
own father's estate, the Lord be praised for that same! An' 'tis
a happiness, an' nothjn' else, so it is, even if I payed double
rint--wherein, maybe, I'm not a day's journey from that same, manin'
the double rint, your honor; only that one would do a great deal for
the honor an' glory of livin' undher a raal gintleman--an' that's but
rason."

There is, in short, a far-sightedness in an Irishman which is not
properly understood, because it is difficult to understand it. I do
not think there is a nation on earth, whose inhabitants mix up their
interest and their feelings together more happily, shrewdly, and yet
less ostensibly, than Irishmen contrive to do. An Irishman will make you
laugh at his joke, while the object of that joke is wrapped up from
you in the profoundest mystery, and you will consequently make the
concession to a certain point of his character, which has been really
obtained by a faculty you had not penetration to discover, or, rather,
which he had too much sagacity to exhibit. Of course, as soon as your
back is turned, the broad grin is on him, and one of his cheeks is stuck
out two inches beyond the other, because his tongue is in it at your
stupidity, simplicity, or folly. Of all the national characters on this
habitable globe, I verily believe that that of the Irish is the most
profound and unfathomable; and the most difficult on which to form a
system, either social, moral, or rel