their infancy, their maturity, and their decline. But, unlike old Rome, Spain has not become effete; she has not lost the power of rejuvenescence. On the contrary, she shows unquestionable signs of revival. Mr. J. S. Mann writes*:-" M. Victor Bèrard has shown us a new Spain-vigorous, practical, adaptable; and the latest reports of our consuls confirm his conclusions, as has been shown above. Spanish industry and commerce, misjudged or ignored by tourists who visit Madrid, and the memorials of the medieval glories of the peninsula, are reviving and multiplying. Barcelona, formerly the great colonial port, is now making extraordinary strides. But the conspicuous instance of economic progress is in mining, which ought to be the primary industry of Spain. Bilbao in 1901 exported upwards of 4,000,000 tons of iron ore. and the success of Bilbao, which has been progressing for forty years, is stimulating mining industries in other parts of Spain. Corunna and Santander were centres of trade with the colonies; they are becoming ports for mining regions. Similar progress is noted at Huelva, and in the numerous mining regions of Southern Spain; and the Altos Hornos works make bars, girders, plates, and frames of every description, employ 5,000 men in all, and are quite able to bear comparison with first-class works in the United Kingdom."

M. Berge, in a very interesting article in the Correspondant shown that the loss of Cuba and the Philippines has awakened the national conscience, and has marked the beginning of a new departure and of a new life in Spain. Government provision and private industry have already so increased and improved agriculture that the Spaniards are no longer so dependent on

*The Fortnightly Review, February, 1903.

+ Le relèvement économique de l'Espagne, September 10th, 1904.

foreign produce as they used to be. He also shows that commerce and industry, especially mining industry, have progressed beyond all expectation. The Government has been encouraging and helping private enterprise by the creation of technical schools, by industrial commissions, by the reduction of tariffs and taxes, and by patronising the formation of new companies. A nation in which society has not become intrinsically corrupt may have its day of decline, but it never loses the power to revive, however historic or economic causes may have paralysed it for a time. It is one thing to catch a

cold and to lie prostrate with a fever; it is another thing to lie prostrate with one's energies wasted from an evil life. One feels the fever more whilst the illness lasts, but it soon passes; one never recovers from the decrepitude begotten of vice. Old Rome was rotten, and it could never rise again. When the day of England's or America's decline will have come, will they show the same power of recuperation which Spain is showing now? The question closely concerns the subject I am discussing.

Now, I suppose that some, who have been reading what I have written on the prosperity of Belgium, have been saying "Ah; but what about Ireland?" They will know presently more about Ireland than perhaps will be welcome news to them.

CHAPTER VI.

CHARACTER IN IRISH CATHOLICS.

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HAVING fairly traced to their historic causes present shortcomings of Irish Catholics in lation to their civic and industrial functions, Sir Horace Plunkett writes*: "But, after all, these criticisms are, for the purpose of my argument, of minor relevance and importance. The real matter in which the direct and personal responsibility of the Roman Catholic clergy seems to me to be involved, is the character and morale of the people of this country. No reader of this book will accuse me of attaching too little weight to the influence of historical causes on the present state, social, economical, and political, of Ireland, but even when I have given full consideration to all such influences I still think that, with their unquestioned authority in religion, and their almost equally undisputed influence in education, the Roman Catholic clergy cannot be exonerated from some responsibility in regard to Irish character as we find it to-day. Are they, I would ask, satisfied with that character? I cannot think so. The impartial observer will, I fear, find amongst a majority of our people a striking absence of self-reliance and moral courage; an entire lack of serious thought on public questions; a listlessness and apathy in regard to economic improvement which amount to a form of fatalism; and, in backward districts, a survival of superstition, which saps all strength of will and purpose-and all this, *Page 110

too, amongst a people singularly gifted by nature with good qualities of mind and heart."

I have already dealt with the influence of Catholicism on human progress and civilisation. I have shown that even in the sphere of mere material progress, towards which the Catholic Church disavows any direct duty, Catholic countries have led the way where countries which have adopted "the simpler Christianity," naturalism, have not followed. But, Sir Horace will say, why have not the Catholics of Ireland done so? I do not fix the blame on the Catholic Church, but on the persons who represent it, or belong to it; and I appeal to the condition of Catholic Ireland in proof of my case.

or

That wise old pagan philosopher, Epictetus, used to say-"Initium doctrina est definitio nominis." I followed his wise counsel when I was discussing the question of progress. I considered what the idea of progress as applied to man should be, and I hope I have left my readers convinced that the view of progress which is set forth in Sir Horace Plunkett's book is a low and a narrow one. What I said did not imply that he admits no wider or higher view. I prescinded from what his personal notion of it may comprehend, and dealt with what was set forth in his book; which I have taken to be that of mere naturalism. I showed that if we boldly follow out that notion to its consequences we must in consistency place men and kangaroos on the same specific level. Naturalistic economists do not like to be reminded of that; they are frightened by the ghost which their own philosophy raises; they try to put it away and hide it from their sight, but logic will not let them. They like the reality, but they dislike the name; just as certain persons will be "fast men and women, but they affect offence and show resentment if they are taken for such. The philosophy of naturalism is perfected before the looking-glass; it penetrates one's personality no

deeper than one's achievements in the dining-room.

I proceed now to analyse the idea of character after the same manner. I will rather trace a description than give a definition of it. Character is the moral texture or disposition which is formed in a person as the result of repeated action and of habitual thought. We say

that one is a man of character if we find him showing
persistent activity in striving after some purpose which
he has set before himself, or in suffering trial and loss
for a principle. For character is proved in passivity as
well as and even more than in activity.
The early
Christian martyrs proved themselves men and women of
character by sacrificing their lives for their principles.
I do not now consider whether those principles were true
or false. Our fathers who gave up their lives as well as
their lands in Ireland for their principles proved them-
selves thereby to be men of character; otherwise they
would have kept their lands and saved their lives, as
they might easily have done by turning their backs on
their principles and by lying to themselves. Our
national poet thus set forth the inspiration of their
lives: -

"There is a world, where souls are free,
Where tyrants taint not nature's bliss;
If death that world's bright opening be,
Oh! who would live a slave in this?

It is by suffering and loss rather than by activity and gain that character is chiefly tested. Again, the Jews have proved themselves to be a people of character in that they have preserved their racial identity through the vicissitudes of two thousand years. The Boers have shown themselves men of character in their struggle for their homes and their independence. The miser is a man of character; even the rouê shows his character in the plans he lays and persists in carrying out in spite of