Nor will the tide thus set in motion spread only to
Saxon and Angle; its influence will be felt wherever those who work are
deprived unjustly of the fruit of their toil, whether by law or without
law. The evils suffered by Ireland will thus be not unavailing; they
will rather bring the best of all rewards: a reward to others, of
whatever race and in whatever land, who are victims of a like injustice.

The story of Ireland, through many centuries, has thus been told. The
rest belongs to the future. We have seen the strong life of the prime
bringing forth the virtues of war and peace; we have seen valor and
beauty and wisdom come to perfect ripeness in the old pagan world. We
have seen that old pagan world transformed by the new teaching of
gentleness and mercy, a consciousness, wider, more humane and universal,
added from above to the old genius of individual life. With the new
teaching came the culture of Rome, and something of the lore of Hellas
and Palestine, of Egypt and Chaldea, warmly welcomed and ardently
cherished in Ireland at a time when Europe was submerged under barbarian
inroads and laid waste by heathen hordes. We have seen the faith and
culture thus preserved among our western seas generously shared with the
nascent nations who emerged from the pagan invasions; the seeds of
intellectual and spiritual life, sown with faith and fervor as far as
the Alps and the Danube, springing up with God-given increase, and
ripening to an abundant harvest.

To that bright epoch of our story succeeded centuries of growing
darkness and gathering storm. The forces of our national life, which
until then had found such rich expression and flowered in such abundant
beauty, were now checked, driven backward and inward, through war,
oppression and devastation, until a point was reached when the whole
indigenous population had no vestige of religious or civil rights; when
they ceased even to exist in the eyes of the law.

The tide of life, thus forced inward, gained a firm possession of the
invisible world, with the eternal realities indwelling there. Thus fixed
and founded in the real, that tide turned once again, flowing outwards
and sweeping before it all the barriers in its way. The population of
Ireland is diminishing in numbers; but the race to which they belong
increases steadily: a race of clean life, of unimpaired vital power,
unspoiled by wealth or luxury, the most virile force in the New World.

It happens very rarel