you cannot admit their author to be more than a clever entertainer. The
Rev. Dr. Sheehan, although you will find him writing about the effect of
the Irish Renaissance in remote parishes in the South, has not
subscribed to its ideals, but continues the fashion of story-writing of
an earlier generation. "Luke Delmege" (1900) is, however, an interesting
character study, and "My New Curate" (1899) very illuminative of the
conservatism of the peasantry.

Mr. Shan Bullock, writing of the farmers and farm laborers of the North,
has not unwisely gone to Mr. Hardy to learn his art. "Irish Pastorals"
(1901) is racy of Fermanagh as "Tess" is of Wessex. "The Squireen"
(1903) is a strong and gloomy story. From "By Thrasna River" (1895) to
"Dan the Dollar" (1905), Mr. Bullock did no story without power in it.
Ireland still looks to him as it looked to Mr. William Buckley, ten
years ago, for better work. "Croppies Lie Down" brought Mr. Buckley
before the public in 1903, but his writing since then has fallen far
short of this his best book. Now, however, the young man with a future,
in the estimation of many is Mr. James Stephens. There is more hope in
him, in his twenties, than there is now in "George A. Birmingham" (Rev.
J.O. Hannay), another man who ten years ago was like Mr. Buckley, a
young man of promise. "The Seething Pot" (1904) was a serious study of
conditions in Ireland but since its author conceived of the character of
the Rev. Joseph John Meldon, he has found it more discreet to continue
the adventures of that clergyman than to write seriously out of his own
varied experience of West-Country Irish life.

[Illustration]

It is perhaps because the energy that in many countries goes into the
writing of the essay is absorbed in controversy in Ireland that in the
past Ireland has produced few essayists. In the battles of the dramatic
movement with the patriotic societies and with the official class, Mr.
Yeats and Mr. Moore have dealt good blows, and Mr. Russell and "John
Eglinton" (Mr. W.K. Magee) have led the disputants out of their
confusion. Among these men, "John Eglinton" is the one who has thrown
his greatest energy into the essay, almost all his energy, and in it, in
the chapters of "Two Essays on the Remnant" (1896), "Pebbles from a
Brook" (1901), and "Bards and Saints" (1906), he has written with
subtlety and illumination.

In the collection and clarification and retelling of folk-literature
William Larminie and