wonderful vitality in the blood. The unbeliever, near
by, still muddled by his cold theories, will argue and debate till his
intellect is in a tangle. He fails to see that a man of intellectual
agility might frame a theory and argue it out ably, and then suddenly
turn over and with equal dexterity argue the other side. Do we not have
set debates with speakers appointed on each side? That is dialectic--a
trick of the mind. But philosophy is the wine of the spirit. The
capacity then to argue the point is not the justification of a
philosophy. That justification must be found in the virtue of the
philosophy that gives its believer vision and grasp of life as a whole,
that warms and quickens his heart and makes him in spirit buoyant,
beautiful, wise and daring.

III

Let us come now to that burning question of consistency. "Very well, you
won't acknowledge the English Crown. Why then use English coins and
stamps? You don't recognise the Parliament at Westminster. Why then
recognise the County Councils created by Bill at Westminster? Why avail
of all the Local Government machinery?"--and so forth. The argument is a
familiar one, and the answer is simple. Though no guns are thundering
now, Ireland is virtually in a state of war. We are fighting to recover
independence. The enemy has had to relax somewhat in the exigencies of
the struggle and to concede all these positions of local government and
enterprise now in question. We take these posts as places conceded in
the fight and avail of them to strengthen, develop and uplift the
country and prepare her to carry the last post. Surely this is adequate.
On a field of battle it is always to the credit of a general to capture
an enemy's post and use it for the final victory. It is a sign of the
battle's progress, and tells the distant watchers on the hills how the
fight is faring and who is going to win. There would be consternation
away from the field only if word should come that the soldiers had gone
into the tents of the enemy, acknowledging him and accepting his flag.
That is the point to question. There can be no defence for the occupying
of any post conceded by the enemy. It may be held for or against
Ireland; any man accepting it and surrendering his flag to hold it
stands condemned thereby. That is clear. Yet it may be objected that
such a clear choice is not put to most of those undertaking the local
government of Ireland, that few are conscious of such an issue and