It was at the opening of our Literary Society that I first met Duffy in the flesh, but I had known and admired him in spirit from my earliest boyhood.  I was greatly pleased when he told me he had been much interested in my publications, not only those issued more recently, but those of many years before.  I afterwards had a letter from him in reference to my “Irish in Britain,” in which he said:  “I saw long ago some of the little Irish books you published in Liverpool, and know you for an old and zealous worker in the national seed field.”

His son, George Gavan Duffy, is a solicitor, practising in London, and an active worker in the national cause.  His wife is a daughter of the late A.M.  Sullivan, and is as zealous a Nationalist as was her father, and as patriotic as her husband.

The first book of National poetry I ever read was one compiled by Charles Gavan Duffy—­“The Ballad Poetry of Ireland.”  I should say that this has been one of the most popular books ever issued.  There are none of his own songs in this volume.  The few he did write are in the “Spirit of the Nation” and other collections.  These make us regret he did not write more, for, in the whole range of our poetry, I think there is nothing finer or more soul-stirring than his “Inishowen,” “The Irish Rapparees,” and “The Men of the North.”

It is unfortunate that we have nothing from the pen of Thomas Davis on the subject of the Irish drama and dramatists, for among the most delightful and valuable contributions to the Anglo-Irish literature of the nineteenth century were his “Literary and Historical Essays.”

For students, historians, journalists, lecturers, and public speakers, they have been an inexhaustible mine, since they first appeared week by week in the “Nation” during the Repeal and Young Ireland movements.  As sources of inspiration they have been of still more practical value to the Irish poet, painter, musician and sculptor.

Though he was apparently in good health up to a few days of his death, which was quite unexpected, Davis, in giving to his country these unsurpassed essays, might have had some idea that his life would not be a long one, and that, if he could not himself accomplish all he had projected, he would at least sketch out a programme for his brother workers in the national field, and for those coming after them.

A glance at the contents of Davis’s Essays will show how fully he has covered almost every field in which Irishmen are or ought to be interested.  We have Irish History, Antiquities, Monuments, Architecture, Ethnology, Oratory, Resources, Topography, Commerce, Art, Language, Our People of all classes, Music and Poetry dealt with in an attractive as well as in a practical manner.  Anyone who has ever gone to these Essays, as I have over and over again, for information, has always found Davis completely master of every subject that he touched.  His “Hints to Irish Painters” are illustrations of the value of the advice he gives in connection with his varied themes.  Those of the generations since his time who have profited by his teaching know best how valuable would have been his views in connection with the Irish Drama.