hand, from the heralds and
bards themselves. Ireland is, therefore, our one doorway to the history
of northern Europe through the long era of pagan times.

That history was everywhere a fierce tale of tribal warfare. Its heroes
are valiant fighters, keen leaders of forays, champion swordsmen and
defenders of forts. The air throbs to the battle-drum, rings to the call
of the war-trumpet. Every tribe, every clan, is in turn victor and
vanquished, raider and victim of raids. Everywhere are struggle and
unrest, tales of captivity and slaughter.

We fall into vain lamenting over this red rapine and wrath, until we
divine the genius and secret purpose of that wonderful epoch, so wholly
different in inspiration from our own. The life of races, like the life
of men, has its ordered stages, and none can ripen out of season. That
was the epoch of dawning individual consciousness, when men were coming
to a keen and vivid realization of themselves and their powers. Keen
consciousness and strong personal will could be developed only through
struggle--through long ages of individual and independent fighting,
where the best man led, and often fought for his right to lead with the
best of his followers. Innumerable centers of initiative and force were
needed, and these the old tribal life abundantly gave. The territory of
a chief hardly stretched farther than he could ride in a day, so that
every part of it had a real place in his heart. Nor was he the owner of
that territory. He was simply the chosen leader of the men who lived
there, perhaps the strongest among many brothers who shared it equally
between them. If another thought himself the better man, the matter was
forthwith decided by fighting.

The purpose of all this was not the "survival of the fittest" in the
material sense, but a harvest purely spiritual: the ripening of keen
personal consciousness and will in all the combatants, to the full
measure of their powers. The chiefs were the strongest men who set the
standard and served as models for the rest, but that standard held the
minds of all, the model of perfect valor was in the hearts of all. Thus
was personal consciousness gained and perfected.

If we keep this in mind as the keynote of the whole pagan epoch, we
shall be better able to comprehend the new forces which were added to
that epoch, and which gradually transformed it. The greatest was the
Message of the New Way. Deeds are stronger than words, and in the deed