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)