【正文】 pose to your view thetraces that the numerous Celtic apostles in almost every countryhave left behind them. It is necessary to recount briefly eventsthat today seem trivial to the lay mind, because in the centuriesin which they occurred and in all the succeeding Middle Ages, notonly history itself, but the sciences and the various arts wereall pletely religious in character, under the guardianship ofa more than maternal church. And, in fact, what were the Italianscientists and artists before the Renaissance if not obedienthandmaids of God, erudite mentators of sacred writings, orillustrators in verse or painting of the Christian fable ? It will seem strange that an island as remote as Ireland fromthe centre of culture could excel as a school for apostles, buteven a superficial consideration will show us that the Irishnation39。s palace atOreto. In sum, the period that ended in Ireland with the invasion ofthe Scandinavian tribes in the eighth century is nothing but anunbroken record of apostleships, and missions, and martyrdoms.King Alfred, who visited the country and left us his impressionsof it in the verses called 39。Joannes de Sacrobosco, who was the last great supporter of thegeographical and astronomical theories of Ptolemy, and PetrusHibernus, the theologian who had the supreme task of educatingthe mind of the author of the scholastic apology Summa contraGentiles, St. Thomas Aquinas, perhaps the keenest and most lucidmind known to human history. But while these last stars still reminded the European nationsof Ireland39。 sung in public without a storm of hisses, shouts, andshushes that made the solemn and majestic music absolutelyinaudible. But to be convinced of this separation, one shouldhave been in the streets when Queen Victoria entered the Irishcapital the year before her death. Above all, it is necessary tonotice that when an English monarch wants to go to Ireland, forpolitical reasons, there is always a lively flurry to persuadethe mayor to receive him at the gates of the city. But, in fact,the last monarch who entered had to be content with an informalreception by the sheriff, since the mayor had refused the honour.(I note here merely as a curiosity that the present mayor ofDublin is an Italian, Mr. Nannetti.) Queen Victoria had been in Ireland only once, fifty yearsbefore,l [nine years] after her marriage. At that time, the Irish(who had not pletely forgotten their fidelity to theunfortunate Stuarts, nor the name of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots,nor the legendary fugitive, Bonnie Prince Charlie) had the wickedidea of mocking the Queen39。 Fenian revolt, thegovernment had never sent Irish regiments to Ireland), and behindthis barrier stood the crowd of citizens. In the decoratedbalconies were the officials and their wives, the unionistemployees and their wives, the tourists and their wives. When theprocession appeared, the people in the balconies began to shoutgreetings and wave their handkerchiefs. The Queen39。, and thisprobably is not a purely mystical concept. Do we not see that inIreland the Danes, the Firbolgs, the Milesians from Spain, theNorman invaders, and the AngloSaxon settlers have united to forma new entity, one might say under the influence of a local deity?And, although the present race in Ireland is backward andinferior, it is worth taking into account the fact that it is theonly race of the entire Celtic family that has not been willingto sell its birthright for a mess of pottage. I find it rather naive to heap insults on England for hermisdeeds in Ireland. A conqueror cannot be casual, and for somany centuries the Englishman has done in Ireland only what theBelgian is doing today in the Congo Free State, and what theNipponese dwarf will do tomorrow in other lands. She enkindledits factions and took over its treasury. By the introduction of anew system of agriculture, she reduced the power of the nativeleaders and gave great estates to her soldiers. She persecutedthe Roman church when it was rebellious and stopped when itbecame an effective instrument of subjugation. Her principalpreoccupation was to keep the country divided, and if a LiberalEnglish government that enjoyed the full confidence of theEnglish voters were to grant a measure of autonomy to Irelandtomorrow, the conservative press of England would immediatelybegin to incite the province of Ulster against the authority inDublin. She was as cruel as she was cunning. Her weapons were, andstill are, the batteringram, the club, and the rope。 and whenthe carriage passed, they followed it with ambiguous glances.This time there were no bombs or cabbage stalks, but the oldQueen of England entered the Irish capital in the midst of asilent people. The reasons for this difference in temperament, which has nowbee a monplace of the phrasemakers of Fleet Street, are inpart racial and in part historical. Our civilization is a vastfabric, in which the most diverse elements are mingled, in whichnordic aggressiveness and Roman law, the new bourgeoisconventions and the remnant of a Syriac religion are reconciled.In such a fabric, it is useless to look for a thread that mayhave remained pure and virgin without having undergone theinfluence of a neighbouring thread. What race, or what language(if we except the few whom a playful will seems to have preservedin ice, like the people of Iceland) can boast of being puretoday? And no race has less right to utter such a boast than therace now living in Ireland. Nationality (if it really is not aconvenient fiction like so many others to which the scalpels ofpresentday scientists have given the coup de grace) must findits reason for being rooted in something that surpasses andtranscends and informs changing things like blood and the humanword. The mystic theologian who assumed the p