ternational law prevail. The allegiance would be
to common principles which mankind desire and would not permit the
domination of any one race. We have not only to be good Irishmen but
good citizens of the world, and one is as important as the other, for
earth is more and more forcing on its children a recognition of their
fundamental unity, and that all rise and fall and suffer together, and
that none can escape the infection from their common humanity. If these
ideas emerge from the world conflict and are accepted as world morality
it will be some compensation for the anguish of learning the lesson. We
in Ireland like the rest of the world must rise above ourselves and our
differences if we are to manifest the genius which is in us, and play a
noble part in world history.

THE NEW NATION

In that cycle of history which closed in 1914, but which seems now to
the imagination as far sunken behind time as Babylon or Samarcand, it
was customary at the festival of the Incarnation to forego our enmities
for a little and allow freer play to the spiritual in our being. Since
1914 all things in the world and with us, too, in Ireland have existed
in a welter of hate, but the rhythm of ancient habit cannot altogether
have passed away, and now if at any time, it should be possible to blow
the bugles of Heaven and recall men to that old allegiance. I do not
think it would help now if I, or another, put forward arguments drawn
from Irish history or economics to convince any party that they were
wrong and their opponents right. I think absolute truth might be stated
in respect of these things, and yet it would affect nothing in our
present mood. It would not be recognized any more than Heaven, when It
walked on earth in the guise of a Carpenter, was hailed by men whose
minds were filled by other imaginations of that coming.

I will not argue about the past, but would ask Irishmen to consider how
in future they may live together. Do they contemplate the continuance of
these bitter hatreds in our own household? The war must have a finale.
Many thousands of Irishmen will return to their country who have faced
death for other ideals than those which inspire many more thousands
now in Ireland and make them also fearless of death. How are these to
co-exist in the same island if there is no change of heart? Each will
receive passionate support from relatives, friends, and parties who
uphold their action. This will be a most unha