of the body affects all. The pain
which the whole being feels if a part is wounded, if one cell in the
human body is hurt, should prove that to the least intelligent. The
nervous system binds all the tiny cells together, and they form in this
totality a being infinitely higher, more powerful, than the cells which
compose it. They are able to act together and achieve things impossible
to the separated cells. Now humanity today is, to some extent, like
the individual cells. It is trying to unite together to form a real
organism, which will manifest higher qualities of life than the
individual can manifest. But very few of the organisms created by
society enable the individual to do this. The joint-stock companies or
capitalist concerns which bring men together at this work or that do
not yet make them feel their unity. Existence under a common government
effects this still less. Our modern states have not yet succeeded in
building up that true national life where all feel the identity of
interest; where the true civic or social feeling is engendered and the
individual bends all his efforts to the success of the community on
which his own depends; where, in fact, the ancient Greek conception
of citizenship is realized, and individuals are created who are ever
conscious of the identity of interest between themselves and their race.
In the old Greek civilizations this was possible because their States
were small, indeed their ideal State contained no more citizens than
could be affected by the voice of a single orator. Such small States,
though they produced the highest quality of life within themselves,
are no longer possible as political entities. We have to see whether we
could not, within our widespread nationalities, create communities
by economic means, where something of the same sense of solidarity of
interest might be engendered and the same quality of life maintained.
I am greatly ambitious for the rural community. But it is no use having
mean ambitions. Unless people believe the result of their labors will
result in their equaling or surpassing the best that has been done
elsewhere, they will never get very far. We in Ireland are in quest of
a civilization. It is a great adventure, the building up of a
civilization--the noblest which could be undertaken by any persons. It
is at once the noblest and the most practical of all enterprises, and
I can conceive of no greater exaltation for the spirit of man than
the feel