AFTER HOME RULE The advocates of Home Rule are invited to many ordeals by way of verifying their good faith; perhaps the heaviest ordeal is that of prophecy.

Very well, people say, what are you going to do with Home Rule when you get it?
What will Irish politics be like in, say, 1920?
If we show embarrassment or offer conflicting answers, the querist is persuaded that we are, as indeed he thought, vapouring sentimentalists, not at all accustomed to live in a world of clear ideas and unyielding facts.

The demand, like many others made upon us, is unreal and unreasonable.

What are the English going to do with Home Rule when they get it?
What will German or Japanese or American politics be like in 1920?
These are all what Matthew Arnold calls "undiscovered things." The future resolutely declines to speak out of her turn.

She has a trick of keeping her secrets well, better than she keeps her promises.