In exchange for the swords of the Wild Geese, France sent us back
priests, or at least the learning that turned Irish boys into priests.
She sent too, in later and not less disastrous years, Hoche and Humbert
and both nations have good memories, and until a very little while ago
they shared a common hatred. The Irish mind, is, moreover, like the
French, lucid, vigorous and positive, though less methodical, since it
nevcr had the happiness to undergo the Latin discipline. France and
Ireland have been made to understand each other. Paul-Dubois, then, has
the advantage of temperamental sympathy, wise forerunners, and a long
tradition. He had, further, the advantage of language, for it is perhaps
only in French that Sociology can become scientific without ceasing to
be human. His-personal equipment is of the first order Son of the late
Prsident ofithe Acadkmic des Beaux-Arts, son-in-law of the great Taine,
and himself one of the chief oficials of the Cour des Comptes, he is a
member of the group which Bruneticres erudite enthusiasm gathered round
the Rewaie des DEW Mondcs. Was it not Taine who originated the phrase
well-documented, and made it the touchstone of all books dealing with
social or historical science At all events it is in that spirit of
thoroughness.........
