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+------------------------------------------------------------+ | Transcriber's Note: | | | | Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document has | | been preserved. | | | | The cross symbol meaning 'died' is represented with a + | | in this etext. For example: Cormac, king and bishop (+905) | | | | Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. For a | | complete list, please see the end of this document. | | | +------------------------------------------------------------+
HOME UNIVERSITY LIBRARY OF MODERN KNOWLEDGE
HERBERT FISHER, M.A., F.B.A. PROF. GILBERT MURRAY, LITT.D., LL.D., F.B.A. PROF. J. ARTHUR THOMSON, M.A. PROF. WILLIAM T. BREWSTER, M.A.
THE HOME UNIVERSITY LIBRARY OF MODERN KNOWLEDGE
POLAR EXPLORATION DR. W.S. BRUCE, LL.D., F.R.S.E.
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION HILAIRE BELLOC, M.P.
THE STOCK EXCHANGE: A SHORT STUDY OF INVESTMENT AND SPECULATION F.W. HIRST
THE SOCIAL MOVEMENT J. RAMSAY MACDONALD, M.P.
PARLIAMENT: ITS HISTORY, CONSTITUTION, AND PRACTICE SIR COURTNAY ILBERT, K.C.B., K.C.S.I.
MODERN GEOGRAPHY MARION I. NEWBIGIN, D.S.C. (Lond.)
THE EVOLUTION OF PLANTS D.H. SCOTT, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S.
THE OPENING-UP OF AFRICA SIR H.H. JOHNSTON, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., D.SC., F.Z.S.
MOHAMMEDANISM D.S. MARGOLIOUTH, M.A., D.LITT.
HEALTH AND DISEASE W. LESLIE MACKENZIE, M.D.
INTRODUCTION TO MATHEMATICS A.N. WHITEHEAD, SC.D., F.R.S.
THE ANIMAL WORLD F.W. GAMBLE, D.SC., F.R.S.
EVOLUTION J. ARTHUR THOMSON, M.A., and PATRICK GEDDES, M.A.
CRIME AND INSANITY DR. C.A. MERCIER, F.R.C.P., F.R.C.S.
AUTHOR OF "TOWN LIFE IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY" "HENRY II," "THE MAKING OF IRELAND," ETC.
COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
Ireland lies the last outpost of Europe against the vast flood of the Atlantic Ocean; unlike all other islands it is circled round with mountains, whose precipitous cliffs rising sheer above the water stand as bulwarks thrown up against the immeasurable sea.
It is commonly supposed that the fortunes of the island and its civilisation must by nature hang on those of England. Neither history nor geography allows this theory. The life of the two countries was widely separated. Great Britain lay turned to the east; her harbours opened to the sunrising, and her first traffic was across the narrow waters of the Channel and the German Sea. But Ireland had another aspect; her natural harbours swelled with the waves of the Atlantic, her outlook was over the ocean, and long before history begins her sailors braved the perils of the Gaulish sea. The peoples of Britain, Celts and English, came to her from the opposite lowland coasts; the people of Ireland crossed a wider ocean-track, from northern France to the shores of the Bay of Biscay. The two islands had a different history; their trade-routes were not the same; they lived apart, and developed apart their civilisations.