cal view of nature, peculiar to but one English poet,
Wordsworth is a national characteristic; and much in the creation of the
Ireland in the mind is already done, and only needs retelling by the new
writers. More important, however, for the literature we are imagining
as an offset to the cosmopolitan ideal would be the creation of heroic
figures, types, whether legendary or taken from history, and enlarged
to epic proportions by our writers, who would use them in common, as
Cuculain, Fionn, Ossian, and Oscar were used by the generations of poets
who have left us the bardic history of Ireland, wherein one would write
of the battle fury of a hero, and another of a moment when his fire
would turn to gentleness, and another of his love for some beauty of his
time, and yet another tell how the rivalry of a spiritual beauty made
him tire of love; and so from iteration and persistent dwelling on a few
heroes, their imaginative images found echoes in life, and other heroes
arose, continuing their tradition of chivalry.

That such types are of the highest importance, and have the most
ennobling influence on a country, cannot be denied. It was this idea led
Whitman to exploit himself as the typical American. He felt that what
he termed a "stock personality" was needed to elevate and harmonize the
incongruous human elements in the States. English literature has always
been more sympathetic with actual beings than with ideal types, and
cannot help us much. A man who loves Dickens, for example, may grow
to have a great tolerance for the grotesque characters which are the
outcome of the social order in England, but he will not be assisted
in the conception of a higher humanity: and this is true of very many
English writers who lack a fundamental philosophy, and are content to
take man as he seems to be for the moment, rather than as the pilgrim of
eternity--as one who is flesh today but who may hereafter grow divine,
and who may shine at last like the stars of the morning, triumphant
among the sons of God.

Mr. Standish O'Grady, in his notable epic of Cuculain, was in our time
the first to treat the Celtic tradition worthily. He has contributed one
hero who awaits equal comrades, if indeed the tales of the Red Branch do
not absorb the thoughts of many imaginative writers, and Cuculain remain
the typical hero of the Gael, becoming to every boy who reads the story
a revelation of what his own spirit is.

I know John Eglinton, one of