sappearing we shall prove to be a
great destructive force, and out of the ruins of the British power we
shall raise such a monument that future generations will know what it
costs to murder a nation.

But, if possible, we must live and let live. The elements of
reconstruction are always at hand. Anglo-Irish culture is indeed
dead, but Gaelic culture is only seriously sick, and on that side
there is always room for hope. Sooth to say, its sickness consists
above all in the fact that the Irish language is no longer spoken in
a great part of the country. But, on the other hand, where it is
preserved, that same language is spoken in all its purity. By going
there to find it all Ireland will gradually become Gaelic.

But, it will be objected, what a loss of time and energy! If it is a
question of languages, why not learn one of the more useful ones? To
this we may reply that, while English deforms the mouth and makes it
incapable of pronouncing any language which is not spoken from the
tip of the lips, Gaelic, on the contrary, so exercises the organs of
speech that it renders easy the acquisition and the practice of most
European idioms. Let us add, by way of example, that French, which is
usually difficult for strangers, is much more within the compass of
Irishmen who speak Irish, no less because of certain linguistic
customs than from the original relationship between the two
languages.

This remark brings us to another objection which is often lodged
against our movement. It is urged that Ireland is already isolated
enough, and that by making it a Gaelic-speaking nation, we shall make
that state of affairs still worse. English, say the objectors, is
spoken more or less everywhere, while Gaelic will never be able to
claim the position of a quasi-universal language. To this line of
reasoning it might be answered, for one thing, that no one can tell
how far Gaelic will go, in case our movement is a success, and that
many a language formerly "universal" is today as dead as a door-nail.
But we must look at the question from another point of view. John
Bull's language is spread everywhere, while he himself retains the
most exclusive insularity. He travels to every land and there finds
his own language and his own customs. Now it goes without saying that
from this very universalization his language is corrupted and becomes
vulgarized. The idiom of Shakespeare and Milton gives place gradually
to the idiom of the seaports. Fur