The names I have crossed out are the names of three eminent authorities on education.1 They no longer matter to us Irish, for we have for good and all taken over the intellectual government of our country, and if the degeneration of England goes on as quickly as it has these last years, we shall take over for certain generations the intellectual government of that country also whether we will or no; and because we believe, when others have ceased to believe, we have, I think, taken up the wheel of life in our hands that we may set it to whirl upon a new axle tree.
As Dr. Douglas Hyde does not reserve the Irish acting rights of his play, any friends of the language who like may play it after October 26th.2
I have called this little collection of writings Samhain, the old name for the beginning of winter, because our plays this year are in October, and because our Theatre is coming to an end in its present shape. The profits on the sale of Samhain will be given to the Gaelic League. The three numbers of Beltaine may still be had from the Unicorn Press, bound together into one volume. They contain a record of our first two years, and a good deal of dramatic criticism.3