Note 212 — Chapter LI
Reading edition
Curran, in one of his celebrated speeches, thus beautifully described the native hospitality of his country:
“The hospitality of other countries is a matter of necessity, or convention; in savage nations, of the first; in polished, of the latter: but the hospitality of an Irishman is not the running account of posted and ledgered courtesies, as in other countries; it springs like all his other qualities, his faults, his virtues, directly from the heart. The heart of an Irishman is by nature bold, and he confides; it is tender, and he loves; it is generous, and he gives; it is social, and he is hospitable.”—Cramer.