Cows and Men 75 



waste in the means to progress, misappropriated 

 wholesale against the inner verities which alone can 

 make real men. You cannot pervert the means of 

 man's emancipation to his enslavement and expect 

 him to hold a progressive place in the economy of 

 human values ; and you cannot prevent the per- 

 version while his education remains an alien and 

 irresponsible monopoly. 



To people very ignorant of Ireland, including 

 most of the Irish themselves, all this elaborate 

 inversion of the normal must seem strange, if not 

 incredible ; but I am only trying to put in plain 

 words, dictated by the most intimate experience, 

 what is thought and felt by practically every 

 agricultural capitalist in at least three provinces 

 of our island, especially those on the larger and 

 better farms. They may fear to express it, and 

 for like reasons, they may even deny it ; but they 

 invariably act on it, everywhere doing their best 

 to be rid of their fellow-countrymen, and to prefer 

 the beast, even for company. One of the 

 chief causes is the cultivation of theft for a 

 virtue, openly supported and encouraged by 

 " religion." 



The removal of the man by the improvement 

 of his cow has not yet operated most on the 

 peasant plot. As yet the peasant can defend his 

 inefficiency by lawlessness ; but let property in the 

 soil get really settled,* with the prices of the 

 product rising even higher, and a day comes when 



* The politicians assume that they can "abolish landlordism " 

 by transferring fee simple from one class to another I 



