es, their cities, and their
fields,--if we acquire an accurate and vivid conception of the
insecurity of life, of property, and of peace among them,--and if we
measure the happiness of life by the comforts of every day existence,
then, indeed, the superiority belongs to ourselves; and we may be led to
ask, whether the advantages of both conditions of political and social
existence may not be united; and to that end seek to learn what it was
that brought out into such vigorous relief the wonderful mental activity
of the two periods, which form such peculiar and hitherto unequalled
epocha in the history of mankind. We shall find, if we pursue this
inquiry into other times and among other people, that there was one
circumstance, among many others indeed, of peculiar weight and
importance, which then exercised and has never failed to exercise,
wheresoever it has existed, a vast influence upon the mental and moral
character of the people--we mean a feeling of intense _nationality_.
This feeling is not all that is required; without it no great
originality or vigor in a people is probable, and where it has been
strongly manifest, it has generally led to great deeds, and much mental
activity. The character of this manifestation will, indeed, greatly
depend upon the natural character of the people--upon the peculiar state
of their civilization, and upon their political condition. If these be
all favorable, the spirit of nationality is divine, and manifest in
great and ennobling deeds and thoughts; but, if adverse, then the spirit
will be destructive, and vice will be quickened into fatal activity.

In Ireland, at the end of the eighteenth century, a remarkable series of
events cherished, if it did not indeed produce, this sentiment of a
separate nationality and independence. Conquerors and conquered, in
spite of social and religious distinctions, had long since coalesced
into one people; and the successful revolt of our American colonies,
induced the people of Ireland to demand for themselves freedom and
independence also. With arms in their hands the Volunteers wrung from
England an independent Parliament in 1782; and in the eighteen years
which followed, all that is really great in the history of Ireland, is
comprised. The Volunteers, indeed, obtained independence, but that was
all. The constitution of the Irish was, as before, narrow and
mischievous, oppressive and corrupt; but it was Irish, and independent
of the Parliament