, they were not
prompted by any lewd passion for revenge, but were merely striving to
reconstruct a rhythm which was their very existence, and which must have
been of direct importance to the Earth. Revenge is the vilest passion
known to life. It has made Law possible, and by doing so it gave
to Intellect the first grip at that universal dominion which is its
ambition. A Leprecaun is of more value to the Earth than is a Prime
Minister or a stockbroker, because a Leprecaun dances and makes
merry, while a Prime Minister knows nothing of these natural
virtues--consequently, an injury done to a Leprecaun afflicts the
Earth with misery, and justice is, for these reasons, an imperative and
momentous necessity.

A community of Leprecauns without a crock of gold is a blighted and
merriless community, and they are certainly justified in seeking
sympathy and assistance for the recovery of so essential a treasure. But
the steps whereby the Leprecauns of Gort na Cloca Mora sought to regain
their property must for ever brand their memory with a certain odium.
It should be remembered in their favour that they were cunningly and
cruelly encompassed. Not only was their gold stolen, but it was buried
in such a position as placed it under the protection of their own
communal honour, and the household of their enemy was secured against
their active and righteous malice, because the Thin Woman of Inis
Magrath belonged to the most powerful Shee of Ireland. It is in
circumstances such as these that dangerous alliances are made, and,
for the first time in history, the elemental beings invoked bourgeois
assistance.

They were loath to do it, and justice must record the fact. They
were angry when they did it, and anger is both mental and intuitive
blindness. It is not the beneficent blindness which prevents one from
seeing without, but it is that desperate darkness which cloaks the
within, and hides the heart and the brain from each other's husbandry
and wifely recognition. But even those mitigating circumstances cannot
justify the course they adopted, and the wider idea must be sought for,
that out of evil good must ultimately come, or else evil is vitiated
beyond even the redemption of usage. When they were able to realize of
what they had been guilty, they were very sorry indeed, and endeavoured
to publish their repentance in many ways; but, lacking atonement,
repentance is only a post-mortem virtue which is good for nothing but
burial.