THE WORLD'S DEBT TO THE IRISH 
decorative art to the light of civilization. Then 
came the Italians with their wonderful work in the 
earlier and later Renaissance in all departments of 
human endeavor. 
The story of the influence of these five people in 
the history of civilization covers the last 3500 years 
—the all important epoch for modern development 
—so effectively as to make the contributions of other 
peoples of but minor importance. These are the 
beacon lights of the race. Other nations may rise 
in their turn to claim a place in the progress of the 
race but down to the present these five people occupy 
the field of the history of civilization in its course 
down the ages so completely that they must be con- 
sidered the protagonists of the movement so far 
above others in import that there are scarcely 
seconds to them. 
The story of the Irish contribution to civilization 
which is by far the least known of all needs to be 
told in condensed form to our generation for it is 
only in very recent years that the materials for the 
tale have been available. What a supremely un- 
believable thing it is to most people to have it said 
seriously, that for several centuries of the earlier 
Middle Ages whenever a man anywhere in western 
Europe north of central Italy could talk or write 
Greek, he owed it to an Irishman or to someone who 
had been taught by an Irishman. From the sixth to 
the tenth centuries of the Christian era, the Irish 
were the teachers of the West. * Immediately after 
the conversion to Christianity of the Irish people, 
7)