I move—
"That the Seanad congratulates Senator Yeats on his winning the Nobel Prize for Literature; and thanks him for the recognition which the nation has gained, as a prominent contributor to the world's culture, through his success."
I hope that it will be as welcome and as grateful a task to the members of the House to pass this motion of congratulation as it is to me to propose it. To my mind, since the Treaty the award of the Nobel Prize to Senator Yeats is the most significant thing that has befallen this country, and I will try to explain the reason. There would be great room for misconception as regards the value of the Arts, and I suppose in no other subject has so much nonsense been spoken as on that very matter. There are two ways of regarding artistic work: one is the individual. A man may have a certain idiosyncrasy which is utterly worthless, or a man may have an output of work which is thoroughly valuable to the nation as regards its social angle, and it is, on that, I think, that the merit lies with Senator Yeats, because for over twentyfive years he set his face sternly against any false enthusiasm or idealism, or any attempt to make poetry into patriotism, and he has invited and sustained a great deal of unpopularity. But on no occasion has he ever written tawdry poetry in order to make his purse heavier. When a detached and impartial nation, and a nation with discrimination such as the highly educated Swedes have, selected Senator Yeats for such an award, above and in spite of the recommendation of the Literary Committee of Great Britain, and in view of the immense body of literature, both historical and epic, at present in existence in France and Germany, and selected him from a race that hitherto had not been accepted into the comity of nations, at any rate socially, is an honour we ought to show our awareness of by making our congratulation to him take the form of Senatorial recognition.
When we look back on the history of civilisation, when we survey rapidly the contributions to human culture which the different races of the world have made, one or two names, or perhaps three only, are outstanding. In Greece we all know there are names outstanding, such as Plato and Aristotle. In Italy, Virgil and Dante, and, coming down to modern times, men like Marconi and Mussolini. In the 18th century, we had Berkeley, Swift, and Molyneux. We can see the aridness of the nations which have no outstanding men. I am not making any geographical references to our country, but to such places as Persia, where there are no outstanding names. What is the meaning of these outstanding names? The meaning is that it is by men such as they our civilisation is assessed. Our civilisation will be assessed on the name of Senator Yeats. Coming at a time when there was a regular wave of destruction, hatred of beauty, a crushing out of perfection, and blindness to the national ideal in this country, it is a very happy and welcome thing. True, perhaps, it was only led by a few ferocious and homebreaking old harridans, but the very fact that it was put forward as a political programme makes one anxious as to the sanity of some. One danger to the country is the large body who have never been made in any way aware of the enormity of the vote. Until we have instructed our franchise-bearers there will always be the danger that there may be a stampeding of people who are sufficiently removed from insanity in enthusiasm for destruction.
