andon
Christianity in favour of Mr. Kipling's rather morbid version of
Judaism. Such a moral boom of a book would be almost impossible in
Ireland, because the Irish mind distinguishes between life and
literature. Mr. Bernard Shaw himself summed this up as he sums up so
many things in a compact sentence which he uttered in conversation with
the present writer, "An Irishman has two eyes." He meant that with one
eye an Irishman saw that a dream was inspiring, bewitching, or sublime,
and with the other eye that after all it was a dream. Both the humour
and the sentiment of an Englishman cause him to wink the other eye. Two
other small examples will illustrate the English mistake. Take, for
instance, that noble survival from a nobler age of politics--I mean
Irish oratory. The English imagine that Irish politicians are so
hot-headed and poetical that they have to pour out a torrent of burning
words. The truth is that the Irish are so clear-headed and critical that
they still regard rhetoric as a distinct art, as the ancients did. Thus
a man makes a speech as a man plays a violin, not necessarily without
feeling, but chiefly because he knows how to do it. Another instance of
the same thing is that quality which is always called the Irish charm.
The Irish are agreeable, not because they are particularly emotional,
but because they are very highly civilised. Blarney is a ritual; as much
of a ritual as kissing the Blarney Stone.

Lastly, there is one general truth about Ireland which may very well
have influenced Bernard Shaw from the first; and almost certainly
influenced him for good. Ireland is a country in which the political
conflicts are at least genuine; they are about something. They are about
patriotism, about religion, or about money: the three great realities.
In other words, they are concerned with what commonwealth a man lives in
or with what universe a man lives in or with how he is to manage to live
in either. But they are not concerned with which of two wealthy cousins
in the same governing class shall be allowed to bring in the same Parish
Councils Bill; there is no party system in Ireland. The party system in
England is an enormous and most efficient machine for preventing
political conflicts. The party system is arranged on the same principle
as a three-legged race: the principle that union is not always strength
and is never activity. Nobody asks for what he really wants. But in
Ireland the loyalist is just as