【正文】 d not leave the country, but weregradually assimilated into the munity, a fact that we mustkeep in mind if we want to understand the curious character ofthe modern Irishman. During this period, the culture necessarily languished, butIreland had the honour of producing the three great heresiarchsJohn Duns Scotus, Macarius, and Vergilius Solivagus. Vergiliuswas appointed by the French king to the abbey at Salzburg andlater was made bishop of that diocese, where he built acathedral. He was a philosopher, mathematician, and translator ofthe writings of Ptolemy. In his tract on geography, he held thetheory, which was subversive at that time, that the earth wasround, and for such audacity was declared a sower of heresy byPopes Boniface and Zacharias. Macarius lived in France, and themonastery of St. Eligius still preserves his tract De Anima, inwhich he taught the doctrine later known as Averroism, of whichErnest Renan, himself a Breton Celt, has left us a masterfulexamination. Scotus Erigena, Rector of the University of Paris,was a mystical pantheist, who translated from the Greek the booksof mystical theology of Dionysius, the pseudoAreopagite, patronsaint of the French nation. This translation presented to Europefor the first time the transcendental philosophy of the Orient,which had as much influence on the course of European religiousthought as later the translations of Plato, made in the time ofPico della Mirandola, had on the development of the profaneItalian civilization. It goes without saying that such aninnovation (which seemed like a lifegiving breath resurrectingthe dead bones of orthodox theology piled up in an inviolablechurchyard, a field of Ardath) did not have the sanction of thePope, who invited Charles the Bald to send both the book and theauthor to Rome under escort, probably because he wanted to havethem taste the delights of papal courtesy. However, it seems thatScotus had kept a grain of good sense in his exalted brain,because he pretended not to hear this courteous invitation anddeparted in haste for his native land. From the time of the English invasion to our time, there is aninterval of almost eight centuries, and if I have dwelt rather atlength on the preceding period in order to make you understandthe roots of the Irish temperament, I do not intend to detain youby recounting the vicissitudes of Ireland under the foreignoccupation. I especially will not do so because at that timeIreland ceased to be an intellectual force in Europe. Thedecorative arts, at which the ancient Irish excelled, wereabandoned, and the sacred and profane culture fell into disuse. Two or three illustrious names shine here like the last fewstars of a radiant night that wanes as dawn arrives. According tolegend, John Duns Scotus, of whom I have spoken before, thefounder of the school of Scotists, listened to the arguments ofall the Doctors of the University of Paris for three whole days,then rose and, speaking from memory, refuted them one by one。God hasdisposed the limits of nations according to his angels39。s help, founded an institute ofscience at Paris and another which he directed for many years inancient Ticinum (now Pavia). Kilian, the apostle of Franconia,was consecrated bishop of Wurzburg, in Germany, but, trying toplay the part of John the Baptist between Duke Gozbert and hismistress, he was killed by cutthroats. Sedulius the younger waschosen by Gregory II for the mission of settling the quarrels ofthe clergy in Spain, but when he arrived there, the Spanishpriests refused to listen to him, on the grounds that he was aforeigner. To this Sedulius replied that since he was an Irishmanof the ancient race of Milesius, he was in fact a nativeSpaniard. This argument so thoroughly convinced his opponentsthat they allowed him to be installed in the bishop39。 and later, after having undergone the invasions of theSpanish and Gaelic tribes, it was converted to Christianity bySt. Patrick and his followers, and again earned the title of39。 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。 she was sent by heradvisers. At that time, the English debacle in South Africa inthe war against the Boers had made the English army an object ofscorn in the European press, and if it took the genius of the twomandersinchief, Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener (both ofthem Irishmen, born in Ireland) to redeem its threatened prestige(just as in 1815 it took the genius of another Irish soldier toovere the renewed might of Napoleon at Waterloo), it also tookIrish recruits and volunteers to demonstrate their renownedvalour on the field of battle. In recognition of this fact, whenthe war was over, the English government allowed the Irishregiments to wear the shamrock, the patriotic emblem, on St.Patrick39。. I do not propose to give a plete history of the