Excerpt from The Lighter Side of Irish Life Mr. W. B. Yeats, who IS A wit AS well as a poet, once found himself called upon to discuss the opinion which the English people have formed of the Irish. They insist, he said, in presenting us with all the good qualities which they do not want for themselves. For instance, they will have it that we are an island of saints. The saying is two-edged, cutting deep into the self-satisfaction of English and Irish alike. For the English, so Mr. Yeats seems to think, admire saintliness only in other peoples, while the Irish, so he went on to ex plain, have a glory thrust on them which they by no means deserve. I am not sure that Mr. Yeats' example is the best he could have chosen. I seldom meet English people who insist much on our saintliness. They are more inclined to credit us with a kind of non-moral Puckishness of nature, a mischievous irresponsibility for which they do not blame us, though they find it inconvenient. But Mr. Yeats' general prin ciple is quite unassailable. The English are al ways most generous in endowing us with ami. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.