made public his heresies, and I have never suffered in friendship
or found my heresies an obstacle in life. I set my knowledge, the
knowledge of a lifetime, against your ignorance, and I say you have
used your genius to do Ireland and its people a wrong. You have
intervened in a quarrel of which you do not know the merits like
any brawling bully, who passes, and only takes sides to use his
strength. If there was a high court of poetry, and those in power
jealous of the noble name of poet, and that none should use it
save those who were truly Knights of the Holy Ghost, they would
hack the golden spurs from your heels and turn you out of the Court.
You had the ear of the world and you poisoned it with prejudice and
ignorance. You had the power of song, and you have always used it
on behalf of the strong against the weak. You have smitten with
all your might at creatures who are frail on earth but mighty in
the heavens, at generosity, at truth, at justice, and heaven has
withheld vision and power and beauty from you, for this your verse
is but a shallow newspaper article made to rhyme. Truly ought the
golden spurs to be hacked from your heels and you be thrust out
of the Court.

1912




IDEALS OF THE NEW RURAL SOCIETY


For a country where political agitations follow each other as
rapidly as plagues in an Eastern city, it is curious how little