esy and virtue."

As regards the best methods of propagating Sinn Fein, the writer lays
stress upon "example being better than precept," and then he remarks:
"If the average professing Nationalist had been a perceptibly finer
character than the average professing Unionist during the last
half-century, all the noble men and women in Ireland would by the law of
their natures have been attracted to the national banner."

The one blow which the Sinn Feiner strikes is at the unreality of the
usual political distinctions of Nationalists and Unionists; both have
their demonstrations, the writer points out, at which political speakers
make speeches consciously insincere, but justified by a sort of
traditional instinct; and both crowds go home equally convinced of the
intolerance of their opponents, relying for victory "on the strength of
their fists and lungs," but all the thinkers despise it all, and this to
such an extent that he is led on to remark: "If an impartial spectator
were to go to an ordinary Green demonstration in Ireland, he would
probably be inclined to be an Orangeman; while if he were to attend an
Orange demonstration he would probably come away feeling strangely
sympathetic towards Nationalism."

Which, after all, is only what every independent writer and thinker has
been bellowing forth for the past generation.

With regard to the employment of physical force there is this
significant passage:--

"Whatever is to be said in favour of the use of physical force against
England, there is nothing to be said in favour of Irishmen making use of
it against each other. It would be as wrong, for instance, for Sinn
Feiners to wreck a meeting of Parliamentarians as it would be for
Parliamentarians forcibly to break up a meeting of Sinn Feiners. You
might compel timid people to join you in this way, and you would win the
support of that great body of people that likes always to be on the
stronger side. But it is not in the hands of the timid and the selfish
that the destinies of Ireland are. _The destinies of Ireland are in the
hands of the free and noble men and women of Ireland whom you can
persuade, but could never compel, to join you_"; and he ends up: "If you
had all the force of all the Empires in the world at your back you could
not increase the number of genuine Nationalists in Ireland by
one"--which is perfectly true.

In policy it is both selfish and altruistic: as a national movement its
aim is "Ireland