,
he is justified. The answer is, simply he is not justified. Nor should
anyone who is prepared to take the risk himself take it on himself to
absolve others--nor, least of all, openly preach a milder doctrine to
lead others who are timid to the farther goal, believed in at heart.
Encourage them by all means to practise their principles as far as they
go; never restrict yours, or you will find yourself saying things you
can't altogether approve; and if you tell a man to do things you can't
altogether approve, and keep on telling him, it wears into you, and a
thing you once held in abhorrence you come to think of with
indifference. You change insensibly. Old friends rage at you, and
because of it you rage at them--not knowing how you have changed. You
dare not let what you believe lie in abeyance or say things inconsistent
with it, else to-morrow you'll be puzzled to say what you believe. You
will hardly say two things to fit each other. Let us have no half
policies. Our policy must be full, clear, consistent, to satisfy the
restless, inquiring minds; when we win all such over, the merely passive
people will follow. It should be clear that no man can dispense himself
or his fellow from a grave duty; but for all that we have been liberal
with our dispensations, and it has left us in confusion and failure. On
the understanding that we will be heroes to-morrow, we evade being men
to-day. We think of some hazy hour in the future when we may get a call
to great things; we realise not that the call is now, that the fight is
afoot, that we must take the flag from its hidden resting-place and
carry it boldly into life. So near a struggle may touch us with dread;
but to dread provoking a fight is to endure without resistance all the
consequences of a lost battle--a battle that might have been won. And
if we are to be fit for the heroic to-morrow we must arise and be men
to-day.

VII

At times we find ourselves on neutral ground. The exigencies of the
struggle involve this; and unfortunately we have in our midst sincere
men who do not believe in restoring Ireland to her original
independence. Perhaps, from a tendency to lose our balance at times, it
is well to have near by these men whose obvious sincerity may serve as a
correcting influence. We have to make them one with us; in the meantime
we meet them on neutral ground for some common purpose. Yet, we must
take our flag everywhere? Yes, that is fundamental. What then of t