Loyalty involves all this. And it shows that the man who revolts to win
freedom is the same as he who dies to defend it. He does not change his
face and nature with the changing times. He is loyal always and most
wonderfully lovable, because in the darkest times, when banned as wild,
wicked and rebelly, he is loyal still as from the beginning, and will be
to the end. Yes, Tone is the true Irish Loyalist, and every aider and
abettor of the enemy a rebel to Ireland and the Irish race.
II
When you insist on examining the question in the light of first
principles your opportunist opponent at once feels the weakness of his
position and always turns the point on your consistency. It is well,
then, in advance to understand the relative value and importance of
argument as argument in the statement of any case. A body of principles
is primarily of value, not as affording a case that can be argued with
ingenuity, but as enshrining one great principle that shines through and
informs the rest, that illumines the mind of the individual, that warms,
clarifies and invigorates--that, so to speak, puts the mind in focus,
gets the facts of existence into perspective, and gives the individual
everything in its right place and true proportion. It brings a man to
the point where he does not dispute but believes. He has been wandering
about cold and irresolute, tasting all philosophies, or none, and
drinking deep despair.
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