that there are only four fundamental mathematical operations, namely: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. It is only recently that the writer has succeeded in finding, for use as a text-book, an American calculus that gives a rigorous proof of Taylor's Theorem; and the number that now do so can perhaps be counted on the fingers of one hand. But the ice is broken, and we shall soon find other text-book writers wheeling into line. However, we cannot here enter into the vices and devices of text-books. It is certain that the critical movement is already doing much for them. SAMUEL M. BARTON. The University of the South. THE IRISH LITERARY REVIVAL AND ITS GAELIC WRITERS. It is not surprising that American writers who have given attention to the remarkable intellectual awakening of Ireland, should fail to distinguish between its two literary phases; the one purely Gaelic, the other, Anglo-Celtic, expressing Irish thought and feeling through the medium of the English language. The simple distinction, clearly drawn in Ireland, is yet unfamiliar to the majority of American and English readers. Those who fail to realize Ireland as a separate national entity, with a heritage of language, tradition, and mode of thought, absolutely alien to that of England, will scarcely comprehend the point of view of the modern Gael, who holds that no literature has claim to be considered "Irish" unless it be written in the Gaelic tongue of Ireland. Mr. W. B. Yeats, whose recent lectures gave literary America glimpses into the enchanted realm of Celtic tradition, has never claimed the title "Standard-bearer of the Gaelic Revival ". a title conferred upon him by enthusiastic but somewhat uncomprehending admirers, from New York to California. On the contrary, he has said plainly that he, and his confrères who write only in English, found themselves unable to create a national revival, until the coming of this newer movement, which has swept so phenomenally over the entire country-a movement for, and in, the native Gaelic language. If any one man may be called the "Standard-bearer" of this revival, to which so much of Ireland's best intellect has been devoted, modern Gaeldom would doubtless vote the title to Mr. Douglas Hyde, LL.D., the "Craoibhin Aoibhinn," President of of Gaelic League during the ten years of its existence. A man of scholarly attainments in many languages, and well known to English readers through his unique and interesting "Literary History of Ireland," he loves best to write in his native Gaelic, although it be for a small public, and to devote his talents to the upbuilding of his country's literature, and the inspiration of his own people. It was a gigantic task the leaders of the Gael set for themselves—a task which would have seemed impossible to any but Irish enthusiasts-the revival of a dying language, forgotten by three-fourths of their people; living only upon the lips of unlettered peasants who had been taught to despise their heritage; a language in which the business of the modern world was not conducted, in which the thought of the modern world was not expressed; a language in which no modern literature, except the exquisite folk-songs of the peasants, have been produced. The native tongue of Gaelic Ireland, with its treasures of ancient and mediæval literature, was ignominiously dying, as the result of an educational system framed for the extinction of national individuality; as the result of false shame engendered by teaching which ignored the native language and history; as the result of emigration, which still continues to depopulate Irishspeaking districts, and to scatter the peasant-custodians of Gaelic lore and culture—to the four winds of the earth. A few attempts to save the language had been made during the nineteenth century, and organizations formed for the purpose had published, from time to time, a little of the mass of poetry and historic romance in Old and Middle Irish, and a few text-books for the use of English-speaking students of modern Irish. These efforts, while reaching a limited class of philologists, antiquarians and students, failed to touch the mass of the Irish-speaking population in the West and South, who, finding education accessible only through the English language, made every effort to acquire the foreigner's tongue, and were rapidly discarding their native Gaelic. Through all the dreary period during which the language had been penalized, and through the later period of its decadence under the influence of foreign schools and foreign fashions, the race of Gaelic scholars and writers had never quite faded out. To a few of these, looking at the question from the standpoint of patriot as well as of scholar, it was apparent that in allowing the national language to perish, their country was severing the strongest tie that bound her to the past; that with the language would go the heroic traditions and ideals that had kept alive the spirit of patriotism through centuries of suffering; that an English-speaking Ireland would cease to realize herself as an individual among nations, and sink hopelessly to the condition of a characterless British province. From the little text that has become a familiar motto in Gaelic Ireland, "Tir gan teanga; tir gan anam" (A land without a language is a land without a soul), they began to preach to those who, absorbed in the struggle for political independence, were ignoring all that goes to make a nation's intellectual independence. It is less than a dozen years since these enthusiasts organized the Gaelic League, which, more than any other influence, is bringing Ireland to the self-knowledge and self-reliance necessary to nations as to individuals. Few, if any, of the League's founders had been Gaelic speakers from childhood. They were obliged to learn, as foreigners, the language of their own country, before clearing the ground for their work of "making Ireland Irish." Their efforts in the beginning were directed to one end; the preservation and extension of Irish as a spoken language. At that time a Gaelic reading public was practically non-existent. As the organization grew, and its possibilities broadened, "the study and publication of existing Gaelic literature, and the cultivation of a modern literature in Irish" became one of the objects of the League. So effective has been its work along this line, that at present a greater number of Gaelic than of English works is annually published in Dublin, and the demand for good Gaelic reading matter throughout the country is greater than the supply. Among Irish authors and scholars who are devoting themselves to laying the foundation of a modern Gaelic literature, none has been more prolific than the Reverend Patrick Dinneen, a versatile prose writer, from whose pen have come fiction and drama, essays and historical studies, in quick succession. his work as a creative writer he adds that of a lexicographer, Το having compiled the Irish-English dictionary recently published by the Irish Texts Society. He is the author of the first novel printed in modern Gaelic, his "Cermac Ua Conaill," a historical romance of the Geraldine rising of 1579, having appeared four years ago. He has written several plays which are frequently acted, and are especially popular in Gaelic-speaking Munster. An unique little book is his "Cill Airne," descriptive of the famous lake district known more familiarly by its anglicized name, Killarney. The thousands of English-speaking tourists who yearly visit the spot, drawn by the matchless beauty of its scenery, know little or nothing of the historic and literary traditions which make it a shrine for the Gael familiar with his country's language and literature. Near these lakes, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, flourished a group of poets whose names are household words among the Gael. Father Dinneen, in comparing these to England's "lake poets," claims a still higher place in Gaelic literature for the bards of Killarney than is held in English literature by those of Windermere. Not the least important of Father Dinneen's work has been his careful. editing and critical studies of some of these poets-Aodhagan O Rathaille, Eoghan Ruadh O Suilleabhain, and Pierce Ferriter, whose works have recently been published respectively by the Irish Texts Society and the Gaelic League. Many of these poems were preserved orally, having been sung and recited by Munster firesides from generation to generation; others were found in manuscripts owned by private families or university libraries; the majority of them are now printed for the first time more than a century after the death of their authors. Dr. Douglas Hyde has also given much time to the collection and editing of traditional poetry. His "Love Songs of Connacht," with notes and translations, give English readers some idea of the charm and delicacy of the originals, although the musical quality of Gaelic poetry, with its peculiar vowel combinations, is lost in translation. The story of his search through by-ways and remote corners of Connacht for the songs of the wandering folk-poet Raftery, is an interesting one. Dr. Hyde has taken this blind singer as the leading character of one of |