IRELAND, THEN AND NOW 201 



The Irishman is an ideahst, a worshipper of idols, of 

 things higher than himself. Beyond all men he can 

 adore a cause, a religion, a party ; yes, and if he be 

 of the order of " The Common People," the family 

 under whose sway he has first known life. Miss 

 Edgeworth and Barrington alike testify to the devo- 

 tion that has so often in the past flamed into self- 

 sacrifice for the beloved master, and that, even in the 

 present, has still some seed of fire in it. But jt was a 

 flame that the " Half- mounted " had no power to 

 light. The peasants of the eighteenth century were 

 of the true order of idealists, and asked only that their 

 God should be consistent and act as a God ; he must 

 stamp upon them rather than stoop to them. 



The writer has memories of an old lady who, seeing 

 her grandchild holding converse with a workman, a 

 mower of grass, called imperiously from her window, 

 bidding the mower to continue his mowing and the 

 child to cease from talking. But the mower, who 

 had grown grey in the service of the old lady, did but 

 respect her the more. 



But Sir Jonah's chapters on the Irish Gentry of his 

 own and earlier times, and of their retainers, crush 

 the spirit out of later recitals. The taking of Castle 

 Reuben, with " Jug Ogie's " successful espionage, and 

 Keeran Karry's battles on behalf of his mistress and 

 her castle. The presentation of the ears of a dis- 

 approved-of acquaintance in response to an idle wish. 

 " Sure, my lady," says old Ned Regan, the butler, 

 " you wished that Dennis Bodkin's ears were cut off, 

 and here they are; and I hope you are plazed, my 

 lady ! " It must reluctantly be conceded that these 

 are patches of a Tyrian purple that cannot now find 

 their equals. 



There are few things stranger, or more difficult to 

 understand, than "the two ways" — ^according to an 



