their past griefs and their high
aspirations, the Irish people seem to be play-acting before the world.
The inquirer does not, perhaps, reflect that, if play-acting be
inconsistent with the deepest emotions, and with the pursuit of high
ideals, then he condemns a little over one half of the human race.[33]
He probably comes to the main conclusion adopted in these pages, and
realises that the Irish Question is a problem of character. And as Irish
character is the product of Irish history, which cannot be re-enacted,
he leaves the problem there. Harold Frederic left it there, and there it
has been taken up by those whose endeavour forms the story which I have
to tell.

I now come to the principles which, it appears to me, must underlie the
solution of this problem. The narrative contained in the second part of
this book is a record of the efforts made during the last decade of the
nineteenth and the first two years of the twentieth century by a small,
but now rapidly augmenting group of Irishmen, to pluck the brand of
Irish intellect from the burning of the Irish Question. The problem
before us was, my readers will now understand, how to make headway in
view of the weakness of character to which I have had to attribute the
paralysis of our activities in the past. We were quite aware that our
progress would at first be slow. But as we were satisfied that the
defects of character which stood in the way of economic advancement were
due to causes which need no longer be operative, and that the intellect
of the people was unimpaired, we faced the problem with confidence.

The practical form which our work took was the launching upon Irish life
of a movement of organised self-help, and the subsequent grafting upon
this movement of a system of State-aid to the agriculture and industries
of the country. I need not here further elaborate this programme, for
the steps by which it has been and is being adopted will be presently
described in detail. But there is one aspect of the new movement in
Ireland which must be understood by those who would grasp the true
significance and the human interest of an evolution in our national
life, the only recent parallel for which, as far as I am aware, is to be
found in Japan: though to my mind the conscious attempt of the Irish
people to develop a civilisation of their own is far more interesting
than the recent efforts of the Japanese to westernise their
institutions.

The problem of mind a