ttoes of the two nations are as well rendered in the vernacular as by
any formal or stilted phrases. In Ireland the spoken or unspoken slogan
is, 'Take it aisy'; in America, 'Keep up with the procession'; and
between them lie all the thousand differences of race, climate,
temperament, religion, and government.

I don't suppose there is a nation on the earth better developed on what
might be called the train-catching side than we of the Big Country,
and it is well for us that there is born every now and again among us a
dreamer who is (blessedly) oblivious of time-tables and market reports;
who has been thinking of the rustling of the corn, not of its price. It
is he, if we do not hurry him out of his dream, who will sound the ideal
note in our hurly-burly and bustle of affairs. He may never discover a
town site, but he will create new worlds for us to live in, and in the
course of a century the coming Matthew Arnold will not be minded to call
us an unimaginative and uninteresting people.

Chapter XII. Life at Knockarney House.

'See where Mononia's heroes lie, proud Owen More's
descendants,--
'Tis they that won the glorious name and had the grand
attendants!'
James Clarence Mangan.

It was a charming thing for us when Dr. La Touche gave us introductions
to the Colquhouns of Ardnagreena; and when they, in turn, took us to tea
with Lord and Lady Killbally at Balkilly Castle. I don't know what there
is about us: we try to live a sequestered life, but there are certain
kind forces in the universe that are always bringing us in contact with
the good, the great, and the powerful. Francesca enjoys it, but secretly
fears to have her democracy undermined. Salemina wonders modestly at her
good fortune. I accept it as the graceful tribute of an old civilisation
to a younger one; the older men grow the better they like girls of
sixteen, and why shouldn't the same thing be true of countries?

As long ago as 1589, one of the English 'undertakers' who obtained some
of the confiscated Desmond lands in Munster wrote of the 'better sorte'
of Irish: 'Although they did never see you before, they will make you
the best cheare their country yieldeth for two or three days, and take
not anything therefor.... They have a common saying which I am persuaded
they speake unfeinedly, which is, 'Defend me and spend me.' Yet many doe
utterly mislike this or any good thing t