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diff --git a/43611-8.txt b/43611-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 5e4c3e0..0000000 --- a/43611-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1108 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Tables of the Law; & The Adoration of the -Magi, by William Butler Yeats - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Tables of the Law; & The Adoration of the Magi - -Author: William Butler Yeats - -Release Date: August 31, 2013 [EBook #43611] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TABLES OF THE LAW *** - - - - -Produced by Carlos Colon, Emmanuel Ackerman, University -of California Libraries and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - - -THE TABLES OF THE LAW; & -THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI - - - - -_Five hundred and ten copies printed; -type distributed._ _No._ 311 - - - - -THE TABLES OF THE LAW; & -THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI -BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS - - - - -THE SHAKESPEARE HEAD PRESS -STRATFORD-UPON-AVON MCMXIV - - - - -THE TABLES OF THE LAW - - - - -THE TABLES OF THE LAW - - -I - -'Will you permit me, Aherne,' I said, 'to ask you a question, which I -have wanted to ask you for years, and have not asked because we have -grown nearly strangers? Why did you refuse the berretta, and almost -at the last moment? When you and I lived together, you cared neither -for wine, women, nor money, and had thoughts for nothing but theology -and mysticism.' I had watched through dinner for a moment to put my -question, and ventured now, because he had thrown off a little of -the reserve and indifference which, ever since his last return from -Italy, had taken the place of our once close friendship. He had just -questioned me, too, about certain private and almost sacred things, and -my frankness had earned, I thought, a like frankness from him. - -When I began to speak he was lifting to his lips a glass of that old -wine which he could choose so well and valued so little; and while -I spoke, he set it slowly and meditatively upon the table and held -it there, its deep red light dyeing his long delicate fingers. The -impression of his face and form, as they were then, is still vivid -with me, and is inseparable from another and fanciful impression: -the impression of a man holding a flame in his naked hand. He was to -me, at that moment, the supreme type of our race, which, when it has -risen above, or is sunken below, the formalisms of half-education and -the rationalisms of conventional affirmation and denial, turns away, -unless my hopes for the world and for the Church have made me blind, -from practicable desires and intuitions towards desires so unbounded -that no human vessel can contain them, intuitions so immaterial that -their sudden and far-off fire leaves heavy darkness about hand and -foot. He had the nature, which is half monk, half soldier of fortune, -and must needs turn action into dreaming, and dreaming into action; -and for such there is no order, no finality, no contentment in this -world. When he and I had been students in Paris, we had belonged to a -little group which devoted itself to speculations about alchemy and -mysticism. More orthodox in most of his beliefs than Michael Robartes, -he had surpassed him in a fanciful hatred of all life, and this hatred -had found expression in the curious paradox--half borrowed from some -fanatical monk, half invented by himself--that the beautiful arts were -sent into the world to overthrow nations, and finally life herself, by -sowing everywhere unlimited desires, like torches thrown into a burning -city. This idea was not at the time, I believe, more than a paradox, -a plume of the pride of youth; and it was only after his return to -Ireland that he endured the fermentation of belief which is coming upon -our people with the reawakening of their imaginative life. - -Presently he stood up, saying: 'Come, and I will show you, for you at -any rate will understand,' and taking candles from the table, he lit -the way into the long paved passage that led to his private chapel. We -passed between the portraits of the Jesuits and priests--some of no -little fame--his family had given to the Church; and engravings and -photographs of pictures that had especially moved him; and the few -paintings his small fortune, eked out by an almost penurious abstinence -from the things most men desire, had enabled him to buy in his travels. -The pictures that I knew best, for they had hung there longest, -whether reproductions or originals, were of the Sienese School, which -he had studied for a long time, claiming that it alone of the schools -of the world pictured not the world but what is revealed to saints in -their dreams and visions. The Sienese alone among Italians, he would -say, could not or would not represent the pride of life, the pleasure -in swift movement or sustaining strength, or voluptuous flesh. They -were so little interested in these things that there often seemed to -be no human body at all under the robe of the saint, but they could -represent by a bowed head, or uplifted face, man's reverence before -Eternity as no others could, and they were at their happiest when -mankind had dwindled to a little group silhouetted upon a golden abyss, -as if they saw the world habitually from far off. When I had praised -some school that had dipped deeper into life, he would profess to -discover a more intense emotion than life knew in those dark outlines. -'Put even Francesca, who felt the supernatural as deeply,' he would -say, 'beside the work of Siena, and one finds a faint impurity in his -awe, a touch of ghostly terror, where love and humbleness had best -been all.' He had often told me of his hope that by filling his mind -with those holy pictures he would help himself to attain at last to -vision and ecstasy, and of his disappointment at never getting more -than dreams of a curious and broken beauty. But of late he had added -pictures of a different kind, French symbolistic pictures which he had -bought for a few pounds from little-known painters, English and French -pictures of the School of the English Pre-Raphaelites; and now he stood -for a moment and said, 'I have changed my taste. I am fascinated a -little against my will by these faces, where I find the pallor of souls -trembling between the excitement of the flesh and the excitement of the -spirit, and by landscapes that are created by heightening the obscurity -and disorder of nature. These landscapes do not stir the imagination -to the energies of sanctity but as to orgiac dancing and prophetic -frenzy.' I saw with some resentment new images where the old ones had -often made that long gray, dim, empty, echoing passage become to my -eyes a vestibule of Eternity. - -Almost every detail of the chapel, which we entered by a narrow Gothic -door, whose threshold had been worn smooth by the secret worshippers -of the penal times, was vivid in my memory; for it was in this chapel -that I had first, and when but a boy, been moved by the mediævalism -which is now, I think, the governing influence in my life. The only -thing that seemed new was a square bronze box which stood upon the -altar before the six unlighted candles and the ebony crucifix, and was -like those made in ancient times of more precious substances to hold -the sacred books. Aherne made me sit down on an oak bench, and having -bowed very low before the crucifix, took the bronze box from the altar, -and sat down beside me with the box upon his knees. - -'You will perhaps have forgotten,' he said, 'most of what you have -read about Joachim of Flora, for he is little more than a name to even -the well read. He was an abbot in Cortale in the twelfth century, -and is best known for his prophecy, in a book called _Expositio in -Apocalypsin_, that the Kingdom of the Father was passed, the Kingdom -of the Son passing, the Kingdom of the Spirit yet to come. The -Kingdom of the Spirit was to be a complete triumph of the Spirit, the -_spiritualis intelligentia_ he called it, over the dead letter. He had -many followers among the more extreme Franciscans, and these were -accused of possessing a secret book of his called the _Liber Inducens -in Evangelium Æternum_. Again and again groups of visionaries were -accused of possessing this terrible book, in which the freedom of the -Renaissance lay hidden, until at last Pope Alexander IV. had it found -and cast into the flames. I have here the greatest treasure the world -contains. I have a copy of that book; and see what great artists have -made the robes in which it is wrapped. The greater portion of the book -itself is illuminated in the Byzantine style, which so few care for -to-day, but which moves me because these tall, emaciated angels and -saints seem to have less relation to the world about us than to an -abstract pattern of flowing lines that suggest an imagination absorbed -in the contemplation of Eternity. Even if you do not care for so formal -an art, you cannot help seeing that work where there is so much gold, -and of that purple colour which has gold dissolved in it, was valued at -a great price in its day. But it was only at the Renaissance the labour -was spent upon it which has made it the priceless thing it is. The -wooden boards of the cover show by the astrological allegories painted -upon them, as by the style of painting itself, some craftsman of the -school of Francesco Cossi of Ferrara, but the gold clasps and hinges -are known to be the work of Benvenuto Cellini, who made likewise the -bronze box and covered it with gods and demons, whose eyes are closed, -to signify an absorption in the inner light.' - -I took the book in my hands and began turning over the gilded, -many-coloured pages, holding it close to the candle to discover the -texture of the paper. - -'Where did you get this amazing book?' I said. 'If genuine, and I -cannot judge by this light, you have discovered one of the most -precious things in the world.' - -'It is certainly genuine,' he replied. 'When the original was -destroyed, one copy alone remained, and was in the hands of a -lute-player of Florence, and from him it passed to his son, and so -from generation to generation until it came to the lute-player who -was father to Benvenuto Cellini, and from Benvenuto Cellini to that -Cardinal of Ferrara who released him from prison, and from him to -a natural son, so from generation to generation, the story of its -wandering passing on with it, until it came into the possession of -the family of Aretino, and to Giulio Aretino, an artist and worker in -metals, and student of the kabalistic heresies of Pico della Mirandola. -He spent many nights with me at Rome, discussing philosophy; and at -last I won his confidence so perfectly that he showed me this, his -greatest treasure; and, finding how much I valued it, and feeling that -he himself was growing old and beyond the help of its teaching, he sold -it to me for no great sum, considering its great preciousness.' - -'What is the doctrine?' I said. 'Some mediæval straw-splitting about -the nature of the Trinity, which is only useful to-day to show how many -things are unimportant to us, which once shook the world?' - -'I could never make you understand,' he said, with a sigh, 'that -nothing is unimportant in belief, but even you will admit that this -book goes to the heart. Do you see the tables on which the commandments -were written in Latin?' I looked to the end of the room, opposite to -the altar, and saw that the two marble tablets were gone, and that -two large empty tablets of ivory, like large copies of the little -tablets we set over our desks, had taken their place. 'It has swept -the commandments of the Father away,' he went on, 'and displaced the -commandments of the Son by the commandments of the Holy Spirit. The -first book is called _Fractura Tabularum_. In the first chapter it -mentions the names of the great artists who made them graven things -and the likeness of many things, and adored them and served them; and -the second the names of the great wits who took the name of the Lord -their God in vain; and that long third chapter, set with the emblems -of sanctified faces, and having wings upon its borders, is the praise -of breakers of the seventh day and wasters of the six days, who yet -lived comely and pleasant days. Those two chapters tell of men and -women who railed upon their parents, remembering that their god was -older than the god of their parents; and that which has the sword of -Michael for an emblem commends the kings that wrought secret murder and -so won for their people a peace that was _amore somnoque gravata et -vestibus versicoloribus_, heavy with love and sleep and many-coloured -raiment; and that with the pale star at the closing has the lives of -the noble youths who loved the wives of others and were transformed -into memories, which have transformed many poorer hearts into sweet -flames; and that with the winged head is the history of the robbers who -lived upon the sea or in the desert, lives which it compares to the -twittering of the string of a bow, _nervi stridentis instar_; and those -two last, that are fire and gold, are devoted to the satirists who bore -false witness against their neighbours and yet illustrated eternal -wrath, and to those that have coveted more than other men the house of -God, and all things that are His, which no man has seen and handled, -except in madness and in dreams. - -'The second book is called _Lex Secreta_, and describes the true -inspiration of action, the only Eternal Evangel; and ends with a -vision, which he saw among the mountains of La Sila, of his disciples -sitting throned in the blue deep of the air, and laughing aloud, with -a laughter that was like the rustling of the wings of Time: _C[oe]lis -in cæruleis ridentes sedebant discipuli mei super thronos: talis erat -risus, qualis temporis pennati susurrus_.' - -'I know little of Joachim of Flora,' I said, 'except that Dante set him -in Paradise among the great doctors. If he held a heresy so singular, I -cannot understand how no rumours of it came to the ears of Dante; and -Dante made no peace with the enemies of the Church.' - -'Joachim of Flora acknowledged openly the authority of the Church, and -even asked that all his published writings, and those to be published -by his desire after his death, should be submitted to the censorship of -the Pope. He considered that those whose work was to live and not to -reveal were children and that the Pope was their Father; but he taught -in secret that certain others, and in always increasing numbers, were -elected, not to live, but to reveal that hidden substance of God which -is colour and music and softness and a sweet odour; and that these -have no father but the Holy Spirit. Just as poets and painters and -musicians labour at their works, building them with lawless and lawful -things alike, so long as they embody the beauty that is beyond the -grave, these children of the Holy Spirit labour at their moments with -eyes upon the shining substance on which Time has heaped the refuse of -creation; for the world only exists to be a tale in the ears of coming -generations; and terror and content, birth and death, love and hatred, -and the fruit of the Tree, are but instruments for that supreme art -which is to win us from life and gather us into eternity like doves -into their dove-cots. - -'I shall go away in a little while and travel into many lands, that -I may know all accidents and destinies, and when I return will write -my secret law upon those ivory tablets, just as poets and romance -writers have written the principles of their art in prefaces; and when -I know what principle of life, discoverable at first by imagination -and instinct, I am to express, I will gather my pupils that they may -discover their law in the study of my law, as poets and painters -discover their own art of expression by the study of some Master. I -know nothing certain as yet but this--I am to become completely alive, -that is, completely passionate, for beauty is only another name for -perfect passion. I shall create a world where the whole lives of men -shall be articulated and simplified as if seventy years were but one -moment, or as they were the leaping of a fish or the opening of a -flower.' - -He was pacing up and down, and I listened to the fervour of his words -and watched the excitement of his gestures with not a little concern. -I had been accustomed to welcome the most singular speculations, and -had always found them as harmless as the Persian cat who half closes -her meditative eyes and stretches out her long claws before my fire. -But now I would battle in the interests of orthodoxy, even of the -commonplace: and yet could find nothing better to say than: 'It is -not necessary to judge everyone by the law, for we have also Christ's -commandment of love.' - -He turned and said, looking at me with shining eyes: 'Jonathan Swift -made a soul for the gentlemen of this city by hating his neighbour as -himself.' - -'At any rate, you cannot deny that to teach so dangerous a doctrine is -to accept a terrible responsibility.' - -'Leonardo da Vinci,' he replied, 'has this noble sentence: "The hope -and desire of returning home to one's former state is like the moth's -desire for the light; and the man who with constant longing awaits -each new month and new year, deeming that the things he longs for are -ever too late in coming, does not perceive that he is longing for his -own destruction." How, then, can the pathway which will lead us into -the heart of God be other than dangerous? why should you, who are no -materialist, cherish the continuity and order of the world as those do -who have only the world? You do not value the writers who will express -nothing unless their reason understands how it will make what is called -the right more easy; why, then, will you deny a like freedom to the -supreme art, the art which is the foundation of all arts? Yes, I shall -send out of this chapel saints, lovers, rebels and prophets: souls who -will surround themselves with peace, as with a nest made with grass; -and others over whom I shall weep. The dust shall fall for many years -over this little box; and then I shall open it; and the tumults, which -are, perhaps, the flames of the last day, shall come from under the -lid.' - -I did not reason with him that night, because his excitement was great -and I feared to make him angry; and when I called at his house a few -days later, he was gone and his house was locked up and empty. I have -deeply regretted my failure both to combat his heresy and to test the -genuineness of his strange book. Since my conversion I have indeed done -penance for an error which I was only able to measure after some years. - - -II - -I was walking along one of the Dublin quays, on the side nearest the -river, about ten years after our conversation, stopping from time -to time to turn over the books upon an old bookstall, and thinking, -curiously enough, of the terrible destiny of Michael Robartes, and his -brotherhood; when I saw a tall and bent man walking slowly along the -other side of the quay. I recognized, with a start, in a lifeless mask -with dim eyes, the once resolute and delicate face of Owen Aherne. I -crossed the quay quickly, but had not gone many yards before he turned -away, as though he had seen me, and hurried down a side street; I -followed, but only to lose him among the intricate streets on the north -side of the river. During the next few weeks I inquired of everybody -who had once known him, but he had made himself known to nobody; and I -knocked, without result, at the door of his old house; and had nearly -persuaded myself that I was mistaken, when I saw him again in a narrow -street behind the Four Courts, and followed him to the door of his -house. - -I laid my hand on his arm; he turned quite without surprise; and -indeed it is possible that to him, whose inner life had soaked up -the outer life, a parting of years was a parting from forenoon to -afternoon. He stood holding the door half open, as though he would keep -me from entering; and would perhaps have parted from me without further -words had I not said: 'Owen Aherne, you trusted me once, will you not -trust me again, and tell me what has come of the ideas we discussed in -this house ten years ago?--but perhaps you have already forgotten them.' - -'You have a right to hear,' he said, 'for since I have told you the -ideas, I should tell you the extreme danger they contain, or rather the -boundless wickedness they contain; but when you have heard this we must -part, and part for ever, because I am lost, and must be hidden!' - -I followed him through the paved passage, and saw that its corners were -choked, and the pictures gray, with dust and cobwebs; and that the -dust and cobwebs which covered the ruby and sapphire of the saints on -the window had made it very dim. He pointed to where the ivory tablets -glimmered faintly in the dimness, and I saw that they were covered with -small writing, and went up to them and began to read the writing. It -was in Latin, and was an elaborate casuistry, illustrated with many -examples, but whether from his own life or from the lives of others -I do not know. I had read but a few sentences when I imagined that a -faint perfume had begun to fill the room, and turning round asked Owen -Aherne if he were lighting the incense. - -'No,' he replied, and pointed where the thurible lay rusty and empty on -one of the benches; as he spoke the faint perfume seemed to vanish, and -I was persuaded I had imagined it. - -'Has the philosophy of the _Liber Inducens in Evangelium Æternum_ made -you very unhappy?' I said. - -'At first I was full of happiness,' he replied, 'for I felt a divine -ecstasy, an immortal fire in every passion, in every hope, in every -desire, in every dream; and I saw, in the shadows under leaves, in -the hollow waters, in the eyes of men and women, its image, as in a -mirror; and it was as though I was about to touch the Heart of God. -Then all changed and I was full of misery, and I said to myself that -I was caught in the glittering folds of an enormous serpent, and was -falling with him through a fathomless abyss, and that henceforth the -glittering folds were my world; and in my misery it was revealed to me -that man can only come to that Heart through the sense of separation -from it which we call sin, and I understood that I could not sin, -because I had discovered the law of my being, and could only express or -fail to express my being, and I understood that God has made a simple -and an arbitrary law that we may sin and repent!' - -He had sat down on one of the wooden benches and now became silent, his -bowed head and hanging arms and listless body having more of dejection -than any image I have met with in life or in any art. I went and stood -leaning against the altar, and watched him, not knowing what I should -say; and I noticed his black closely-buttoned coat, his short hair, -and shaven head, which preserved a memory of his priestly ambition, -and understood how Catholicism had seized him in the midst of the -vertigo he called philosophy; and I noticed his lightless eyes and his -earth-coloured complexion, and understood how she had failed to do more -than hold him on the margin: and I was full of an anguish of pity. - -'It may be,' he went on, 'that the angels whose hearts are shadows of -the Divine Heart, and whose bodies are made of the Divine Intellect, -may come to where their longing is always by a thirst for the divine -ecstasy, the immortal fire, that is in passion, in hope, in desire, in -dreams; but we whose hearts perish every moment, and whose bodies melt -away like a sigh, must bow and obey!' - -I went nearer to him and said: 'Prayer and repentance will make you -like other men.' - -'No, no,' he said, 'I am not among those for whom Christ died, and this -is why I must be hidden. I have a leprosy that even eternity cannot -cure. I have seen the whole, and how can I come again to believe that a -part is the whole? I have lost my soul because I have looked out of the -eyes of the angels.' - -Suddenly I saw, or imagined that I saw, the room darken, and faint -figures robed in purple, and lifting faint torches with arms that -gleamed like silver, bending, above Owen Aherne; and I saw, or imagined -that I saw, drops, as of burning gum, fall from the torches, and a -heavy purple smoke, as of incense, come pouring from the flames and -sweeping about us. Owen Aherne, more happy than I who have been half -initiated into the Order of the Alchemical Rose, and protected perhaps -by his great piety, had sunk again into dejection and listlessness, -and saw none of these things; but my knees shook under me, for the -purple-robed figures were less faint every moment, and now I could -hear the hissing of the gum in the torches. They did not appear to see -me, for their eyes were upon Owen Aherne; and now and again I could -hear them sigh as though with sorrow for his sorrow, and presently I -heard words which I could not understand except that they were words of -sorrow, and sweet as though immortal was talking to immortal. Then one -of them waved her torch, and all the torches waved, and for a moment it -was as though some great bird made of flames had fluttered its plumage, -and a voice cried as from far up in the air: 'He has charged even his -angels with folly, and they also bow and obey; but let your heart -mingle with our hearts, which are wrought of divine ecstasy, and your -body with our bodies, which are wrought of divine intellect.' And at -that cry I understood that the Order of the Alchemical Rose was not of -this earth, and that it was still seeking over this earth for whatever -souls it could gather within its glittering net; and when all the faces -turned towards me, and I saw the mild eyes and the unshaken eyelids, I -was full of terror, and thought they were about to fling their torches -upon me, so that all I held dear, all that bound me to spiritual and -social order, would be burnt up, and my soul left naked and shivering -among the winds that blow from beyond this world and from beyond the -stars; and then a faint voice cried, 'Why do you fly from our torches -that were made out of the trees under which Christ wept in the Garden -of Gethsemane? Why do you fly from our torches that were made out of -sweet wood, after it had perished from the world and come to us who -made it of old times with our breath?' - -It was not until the door of the house had closed behind my flight, and -the noise of the street was breaking on my ears, that I came back to -myself and to a little of my courage; and I have never dared to pass -the house of Owen Aherne from that day, even though I believe him to -have been driven into some distant country by the spirits whose name is -legion, and whose throne is in the indefinite abyss, and whom he obeys -and cannot see. - - - - -THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI - - - - -THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI - - -I was sitting reading late into the night a little after my last -meeting with Aherne, when I heard a light knocking on my front door. I -found upon the doorstep three very old men with stout sticks in their -hands, who said they had been told I should be up and about, and that -they were to tell me important things. I brought them into my study, -and when the peacock curtains had closed behind us, I set their chairs -for them close to the fire, for I saw that the frost was on their -great-coats of frieze and upon the long beards that flowed almost to -their waists. They took off their great-coats, and leaned over the -fire warming their hands, and I saw that their clothes had much of the -country of our time, but a little also, as it seemed to me, of the -town life of a more courtly time. When they had warmed themselves--and -they warmed themselves, I thought, less because of the cold of the -night than because of a pleasure in warmth for the sake of warmth--they -turned towards me, so that the light of the lamp fell full upon their -weather-beaten faces, and told the story I am about to tell. Now one -talked and now another, and they often interrupted one another, with -a desire like that of countrymen, when they tell a story, to leave -no detail untold. When they had finished they made me take notes of -whatever conversation they had quoted, so that I might have the exact -words, and got up to go. When I asked them where they were going, and -what they were doing, and by what names I should call them, they would -tell me nothing, except that they had been commanded to travel over -Ireland continually, and upon foot and at night, that they might live -close to the stones and the trees and at the hours when the immortals -are awake. - -I have let some years go by before writing out this story, for I am -always in dread of the illusions which come of that inquietude of the -veil of the Temple, which M. Mallarmé considers a characteristic of our -times; and only write it now because I have grown to believe that there -is no dangerous idea which does not become less dangerous when written -out in sincere and careful English. - -The three old men were three brothers, who had lived in one of the -western islands from their early manhood, and had cared all their -lives for nothing except for those classical writers and old Gaelic -writers who expounded an heroic and simple life; night after night in -winter, Gaelic story-tellers would chant old poems to them over the -poteen; and night after night in summer, when the Gaelic story-tellers -were at work in the fields or away at the fishing, they would read to -one another Virgil and Homer, for they would not enjoy in solitude, but -as the ancients enjoyed. At last a man, who told them he was Michael -Robartes, came to them in a fishing boat, like St. Brandan drawn by -some vision and called by some voice; and spoke of the coming again -of the gods and the ancient things; and their hearts, which had never -endured the body and pressure of our time, but only of distant times, -found nothing unlikely in anything he told them, but accepted all -simply and were happy. Years passed, and one day, when the oldest of -the old men, who travelled in his youth and thought sometimes of other -lands, looked out on the grey waters, on which the people see the dim -outline of the Islands of the Young--the Happy Islands where the Gaelic -heroes live the lives of Homer's Phæacians--a voice came out of the air -over the waters and told him of the death of Michael Robartes. They -were still mourning when the next oldest of the old men fell asleep -while reading out the Fifth Eclogue of Virgil, and a strange voice -spoke through him, and bid them set out for Paris, where a woman lay -dying, who would reveal to them the secret names of the gods, which can -be perfectly spoken only when the mind is steeped in certain colours -and certain sounds and certain odours; but at whose perfect speaking -the immortals cease to be cries and shadows, and walk and talk with one -like men and women. - -They left their island, at first much troubled at all they saw in the -world, and came to Paris, and there the youngest met a person in a -dream, who told him they were to wander about at hazard until those who -had been guiding their footsteps had brought them to a street and a -house, whose likeness was shown him in the dream. They wandered hither -and thither for many days, but one morning they came into some narrow -and shabby streets, on the south of the Seine, where women with pale -faces and untidy hair looked at them out of the windows; and just as -they were about to turn back because Wisdom could not have alighted -in so foolish a neighbourhood, they came to the street and the house -of the dream. The oldest of the old men, who still remembered some of -the modern languages he had known in his youth, went up to the door and -knocked, but when he had knocked, the next in age to him said it was -not a good house, and could not be the house they were looking for, and -urged him to ask for some one they knew was not there and go away. The -door was opened by an old over-dressed woman, who said, 'O, you are her -three kinsmen from Ireland. She has been expecting you all day.' The -old men looked at one another and followed her upstairs, passing doors -from which pale and untidy women thrust out their heads, and into a -room where a beautiful woman lay asleep in a bed, with another woman -sitting by her. - -The old woman said: 'Yes they have come at last; now she will be able -to die in peace,' and went out. - -'We have been deceived by devils,' said one of the old men, 'for the -immortals would not speak through a woman like this.' - -'Yes,' said another, 'we have been deceived by devils, and we must go -away quickly.' - -'Yes,' said the third, 'we have been deceived by devils, but let us -kneel down for a little, for we are by the deathbed of one that has -been beautiful.' They knelt down, and the woman who sat by the bed, and -seemed to be overcome with fear and awe, lowered her head. They watched -for a little the face upon the pillow and wondered at its look, as of -unquenchable desire, and at the porcelain-like refinement of the vessel -in which so malevolent a flame had burned. - -Suddenly the second oldest of them crowed like a cock, and until the -room seemed to shake with the crowing. The woman in the bed still -slept on in her death-like sleep, but the woman who sat by her head -crossed herself and grew pale, and the youngest of the old men cried -out: 'A devil has gone into him, and we must begone or it will go into -us also.' Before they could rise from their knees a resonant chanting -voice came from the lips that had crowed and said: 'I am not a devil, -but I am Hermes the Shepherd of the Dead, and I run upon the errands -of the gods, and you have heard my sign, that has been my sign from -the old days. Bow down before her from whose lips the secret names -of the immortals, and of the things near their hearts, are about to -come, that the immortals may come again into the world. Bow down, and -understand that when they are about to overthrow the things that are -to-day and bring the things that were yesterday, they have no one to -help them, but one whom the things that are to-day have cast out. Bow -down and very low, for they have chosen for their priestess this woman -in whose heart all follies have gathered, and in whose body all desires -have awaked; this woman who has been driven out of Time, and has lain -upon the bosom of Eternity. After you have bowed down the old things -shall be again, and another Argo shall carry heroes over sea, and -another Achilles beleaguer another Troy.' - -The voice ended with a sigh, and immediately the old man awoke out of -sleep, and said: 'Has a voice spoken through me, as it did when I fell -asleep over my Virgil, or have I only been asleep?' - -The oldest of them said: 'A voice has spoken through you. Where has -your soul been while the voice was speaking through you?' - -'I do not know where my soul has been, but I dreamed I was under the -roof of a manger, and I looked down and I saw an ox and an ass; and I -saw a red cock perching on the hay-rack; and a woman hugging a child; -and three old men, in armour, studded with rubies, kneeling with their -heads bowed very low in front of the woman and the child. While I was -looking the cock crowed and a man with wings on his heels swept up -through the air, and as he passed me, cried out: "Foolish old men, you -had once all the wisdom of the stars." I do not understand my dream or -what it would have us do, but you who have heard the voice out of the -wisdom of my sleep know what we have to do.' - -Then the oldest of the old men told him they were to take the -parchments they had brought with them out of their pockets and spread -them on the ground. When they had spread them on the ground, they took -out of their pockets their pens, made of three feathers, which had -fallen from the wing of the old eagle that is believed to have talked -of wisdom with St. Patrick. - -'He meant, I think,' said the youngest, as he put their ink-bottles -by the side of the rolls of parchment, 'that when people are good the -world likes them and takes possession of them, and so eternity comes -through people who are not good or who have been forgotten. Perhaps -Christianity was good and the world liked it, so now it is going away -and the immortals are beginning to awake.' - -'What you say has no wisdom,' said the oldest, 'because if there are -many immortals, there cannot be only one immortal.' - -Then the woman in the bed sat up and looked about her with wild eyes; -and the oldest of the old men said: 'Lady, we have come to write down -the secret names,' and at his words a look of great joy came into her -face. Presently she began to speak slowly, and yet eagerly, as though -she knew she had but a little while to live, and in the Gaelic of their -own country; and she spoke to them many secret powerful names, and of -the colours, and odours, and weapons, and instruments of music and -instruments of handicraft belonging to the owners of those names; but -most about the Sidhe of Ireland and of their love for the Cauldron, and -the Whetstone, and the Sword, and the Spear. Then she tossed feebly -for a while and moaned, and when she spoke again it was in so faint a -murmur that the woman who sat by the bed leaned down to listen, and -while she was listening the spirit went out of the body. - -Then the oldest of the old men said in French to the woman who was -still bending over the bed: 'There must have been yet one name which -she had not given us, for she murmured a name while the spirit was -going out of the body,' and the woman said, 'She was but murmuring -over the name of a symbolist painter she was fond of. He used to go to -something he called the Black Mass, and it was he who taught her to see -visions and to hear voices. She met him for the first time a few months -ago, and we have had no peace from that day because of her talk about -visions and about voices. Why! it was only last night that I dreamed I -saw a man with a red beard and red hair, and dressed in red, standing -by my bedside. He held a rose in one hand, and tore it in pieces with -the other hand, and the petals drifted about the room, and became -beautiful people who began to dance slowly. When I woke up I was all in -a heat with terror.' - -This is all the old men told me, and when I think of their speech and -of their silence, of their coming and of their going, I am almost -persuaded that had I gone out of the house after they had gone out -of it, I should have found no footsteps on the snow. They may, for -all I or any man can say, have been themselves immortals: immortal -demons, come to put an untrue story into my mind for some purpose I do -not understand. Whatever they were I have turned into a pathway which -will lead me from them and from the Order of the Alchemical Rose. I -no longer live an elaborate and haughty life, but seek to lose myself -among the prayers and the sorrows of the multitude. I pray best in poor -chapels, where the frieze coats brush by me as I kneel, and when I pray -against the demons I repeat a prayer which was made I know not how many -centuries ago to help some poor Gaelic man or woman who had suffered -with a suffering like mine. - - _Seacht b-páidreacha fó seacht - Chuir Muire faoi n-a Mac, - Chuir Brigbid faoi n-a brat, - Chuir Dia faoi n-a neart, - Eidir sinn 'san Sluagh Sidhe, - Eidir sinn 'san Sluagh Gaoith._ - - Seven paters seven times, - Send Mary by her Son, - Send Bridget by her mantle, - Send God by His strength, - Between us and the faery host, - Between us and the demons of the air. - - - - -_Printed by_ A. H. BULLEN, _at the Shakespeare Head Press, -Stratford-upon-Avon_. - - - - -Transcriber's Note: - -One printer's error or misspelling was found and fixed: - - Page 5. 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