And it must be clear to all that
till Ireland can again summon her banded armies there will be abundant
need for men who will stand the single test. 'Tis the bravest test, the
noblest test, and 'tis the test that offers the surest and greatest
victory. For one armed man cannot resist a multitude, nor one army
conquer countless legions; but not all the armies of all the Empires of
earth can crush the spirit of one true man. And that one man will
prevail.
III
But so much have we felt the need of resisting every slavish tendency
that found refuge under the name of Moral Force, that those of us who
would vindicate our manhood cried wildly out again for the physical
test; and we cried it long and repeatedly the more we smarted under the
meanness of retrograde times. But the time is again inspiring, and the
air must now be cleared. We have set up for the final test of the man of
unconquerable spirit that test which is the first and last argument of
tyranny--recourse to brute strength. We have surrounded with fictitious
glory the carnage of the battlefields; we have shouted of wading through
our enemies' blood, as if bloody fields were beautiful; we have been
contemptuous of peace, as if every war were exhilarating; but, "War is
hell," said a famous general in the field. This, of course, is
exaggeration, but there is a grim element of truth in the warning that
must be kept in mind at all times.
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