that pleasant existence.

It is a pity to think of how poorly the National school, to which those
children would go with their tasks in the morning, seconds the help
which this home life gives it. Easily could the school--which takes
whatever real light it has from the home, just as it depends for warmth
on the few turf which scholars bring daily along with their
books--reflect sound and fruitful ideas on to the home through the
children. It could teach the children and the parents, not only the
political, but the economic history of their own country; it could teach
them what has been done in Ireland, what has succeeded, what has failed,
and why; it could teach them, who are already proud of being Irish, to
have new reasons for their pride; it could teach them, who are already
willing to do their best for Ireland, into what channels the driving
force of that willingness may be poured.

Outside of definite religion, the only fruitful source of educational
ideas connected with the moral order that I see in Ireland is the Gaelic
League. This organisation, founded to save from extinction, and to
revive into new prosperity the national language of Ireland, based
itself entirely upon a moral appeal. It appealed to Irishmen as they
were proud of their race, to save the most distinctive symbol of their
nationality; and the appeal met with an extraordinary promptness of
response. But to stimulate and promote the movement, it was found
necessary to widen the propaganda. Irishmen were urged to learn Irish,
and to speak Irish because of pride in their country; the same
organisation soon began to teach that an Irishman who set an example of
drunkenness, or gave an occasion of it, not only sinned against himself,
but against his country. Vulgar and indecent literature was denounced as
un-Irish; Irish dances were advocated, not only for their admirable
grace and their historic interest, but also because it was held that
dances like the waltz, departed from the austere standard of Irish
morality. Irish men and women were taught to buy goods of Irish
manufacture by the people who taught them to learn the language, on the
ground that if the Irish nation continued to ebb away out of Ireland,
nationality and language must perish together.

Thus through the medium of a propaganda which at first sight would seem
merely literary and archaeological, many practical issues of life were
related to a purely educational purpose. There is no doub