Long years ago in America he had watched a small snake trying to
swallow a frog. The snake sucked down the frog, and the frog
seemed to acquiesce until the half of his body was down the
snake's gullet, and then the frog bestirred himself and succeeded
in escaping. The snake rested awhile and the next day he renewed
his attack. At last the day came when the weary frog delayed too
long and Ned watched him disappear down the snake's gullet.
A good deal of Ireland was down the clerical throat and all would
go down if Ireland did not bestir herself. Ireland was weakening
daily, and every part of her that disappeared made it more
difficult for her to extricate herself. Ned remembered that life
and death, sickness and health, success and failure, are merely
questions of balance. A nation is successful when its forces are
at balance, and nations rise and fall because the centre of
gravity shifts. A single Spaniard is as good as a single German,
but the centre of gravity is in Spain no longer.
Ned did not look upon religion as an evil; he knew religion to be
necessary; but it seemed to him that the balance had been tilted
in Ireland.
He threw himself more and more into the education of the people,
and politics became his chief interest. At last he had begun to
live for his idea, and long absence from home and long drives on
outside cars and evenings spent in inn parlours were accepted
without murmurings; these discomforts were no longer perceived,
whereas when he and Ellen used to sit over the fire composing
speeches together, the thought of them filled him with despair.
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