upon her breast and
say:--"That wound makes me distrust, and this makes me guard, and they
all will make me steadier to resist, or, if all else fails, fiercer to
avenge."

Thus will Ireland do naturally and honourably.

Our spirit has increased--our liberty is not far off.

But to make our spirit lasting and wise as it is bold--to make our
liberty an inheritance for our children, and a charter for our
prosperity--we must study as well as strive, and learn as well as feel.

If we attempt to govern ourselves without statesmanship--to be a nation
without a knowledge of the country's history, and of the propensities
to good and ill of the people--or to fight without generalship, we will
fail in policy, society, and war. These--all these things--we, people
of Ireland, must know if we would be a free, strong nation. A mockery
of Irish independence is not what we want. The bauble of a powerless
parliament does not lure us. We are not children. The office of
supplying England with recruits, artizans, and corn, under the benign
interpositions of an Irish Grand Jury, _shall_ not be our destiny. By
our deep conviction--by the power of mind over the people, we say, No!

We are true to our colour, "the green," and true to our watchword,
"Ireland for the Irish." We want to win Ireland and keep it. If we win
it, we will not lose it nor give it away to a bribing, a bullying, or a
flattering minister. But, to be able to keep it, and use it, and govern
it, the men of Ireland must know what it is, what it was, and what it
can be made. They must study her history, perfectly know her present
state, physical and moral--and train themselves up by science, poetry,
music, industry, skill, and by all the studies and accomplishments of
peace and war.

If Ireland were in national health, her history would be familiar by
books, pictures, statuary, and music to every cabin and shop in the
land--her resources as an agricultural, manufacturing, and trading
people would be equally known--and every young man would be trained,
and every grown man able to defend her coast, her plains, her towns,
and her hills--not with his right arm merely, but by his disciplined
habits and military accomplishments. These are the pillars of
independence.

Academies of art, institutes of science, colleges of literature,
schools and camps of war, are a nation's means for teaching itself
strength, and winning safety and honour; and when we are a nation,
please God,