Page:Artabanzanus (Ferrar, 1896).djvu/146

138 The world was always full of scourges and tyrannies, ever since the days of Cain. Shall it be always so? There is no sign of any change. One of our greatest scourges is a too vivid imagination, and I am strongly inclined to think it is yours. Beware of it, it is the parent of a thousand crimes. I can see through you, and read your heart like printed paper. If you could die before God called you, without committing a deadly sin, your friends above-ground would long for you in vain. You are too sensitive. You are thrown into agonies by the contempt of men. But be wise and strong; avoid the errors of self-conceit; amuse yourself with your work and your books, and learn to wait until your time of deliverance shall come. Love not the foolish world; thirst not for its wealth or fame; its praises are questionable, its pleasures are contemptible. No man need envy Wolsey, or Buckingham; no woman need wish to change places with Catherine de Medici, or our Bellagranda. Now tell me something about your Irish people, and the Home Rule which you told me they are going mad about.'

'It is a most painful and delicate subject, sir, and in every well-balanced mind creates nothing but sadness and bitterness. No native of the Emerald Isle, whether Catholic or Protestant, loves his country more than I do. She is a small island on the earth, a little larger than Tasmania, yet she makes more noise, and causes more confusion, than two or three mighty empires. She has suffered from time immemorial from the diseases of worldliness and inflation of mind. I feel compelled to tell the truth, exaggerating and extenuating nothing. A large majority of her inhabitants think that she is, or ought to be, a nation within herself, entirely distinct and separate from the English nation, with which they have no desire to be amalgamated. There are about three millions of them, all burning for the power and