,,the ,,tables ,,of ,,the ,,law2 ,,the ,,adoration ,,of ,,the ,,magi ,five hundred and ten copies printed2 type distributed4 ,no4 #caa ,,the ,,tables ,,of ,,the ,,law2 ,,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 me1 ,aherne1' ,i said1 'to ask you a question1 which ,i have wanted to ask you for years1 and have not asked because we have grown nearly strangers8 ,why did you refuse the berretta1 and almost at the last moment8 ,when you and ,i lived together1 you cared neither for wine1 women1 nor money1 and had thoughts for nothing but theology and mysticism4' ,i had watched through dinner for a moment to put my question1 and ventured now1 because he had thrown off a little of the reserve and indifference which1 ever since his last return from ,italy1 had taken the place of our once close friendship4 ,he had just questioned me1 too1 about certain private and almost sacred things1 and my frankness had earned1 ,i thought1 a like frankness from him4 ,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 little2 and while ,i spoke1 he set it slowly and meditatively upon the table and held it there1 its deep red light dyeing his long delicate fingers4 ,the impression of his face and form1 as they were then1 is still vivid with me1 and is inseparable from another and fanciful impression3 the impression of a man holding a flame in his naked hand4 ,he was to me1 at that moment1 the supreme type of our race1 which1 when it has risen above1 or is sunken below1 the formalisms of half-education and the rationalisms of conventional affirmation and denial1 turns away1 unless my hopes for the world and for the ,church have made me blind1 from practicable desires and intuitions towards desires so unbounded that no human vessel can contain them1 intuitions so immaterial that their sudden and far-off fire leaves heavy darkness about hand and foot4 ,he had the nature1 which is half monk1 half soldier of fortune1 and must needs turn action into dreaming1 and dreaming into action2 and for such there is no order1 no finality1 no contentment in this world4 ,when he and ,i had been students in ,paris1 we had belonged to a little group which devoted itself to speculations about alchemy and mysticism4 ,more orthodox in most of his beliefs than ,michael ,robartes1 he had surpassed him in a fanciful hatred of all life1 and this hatred had found expression in the curious paradox--half borrowed from some fanatical monk1 half invented by himself--that the beautiful arts were sent into the world to overthrow nations1 and finally life herself1 by sowing everywhere unlimited desires1 like torches thrown into a burning city4 ,this idea was not at the time1 ,i believe1 more than a paradox1 a plume of the pride of youth2 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 life4 ,presently he stood up1 saying3 ',come1 and ,i will show you1 for you at any rate will understand1' and taking candles from the table1 he lit the way into the long paved passage that led to his private chapel4 ,we passed between the portraits of the ,jesuits and priests--some of no little fame--his family had given to the ,church2 and engravings and photographs of pictures that had especially moved him2 and the few paintings his small fortune1 eked out by an almost penurious abstinence from the things most men desire1 had enabled him to buy in his travels4 ,the pictures that ,i knew best1 for they had hung there longest1 whether reproductions or originals1 were of the ,sienese ,school1 which he had studied for a long time1 claiming that it alone of the schools of the world pictured not the world but what is revealed to saints in their dreams and visions4 ,the ,sienese alone among ,italians1 he would say1 could not or would not represent the pride of life1 the pleasure in swift movement or sustaining strength1 or voluptuous flesh4 ,they were so little interested in these things that there often seemed to be no human body at all under the robe of the saint1 but they could represent by a bowed head1 or uplifted face1 man's reverence before ,eternity as no others could1 and they were at their happiest when mankind had dwindled to a little group silhouetted upon a golden abyss1 as if they saw the world habitually from far off4 ,when ,i had praised some school that had dipped deeper into life1 he would profess to discover a more intense emotion than life knew in those dark outlines4 ',put even ,francesca1 who felt the supernatural as deeply1' he would say1 'beside the work of ,siena1 and one finds a faint impurity in his awe1 a touch of ghostly terror1 where love and humbleness had best been all4' ,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 ecstasy1 and of his disappointment at never getting more than dreams of a curious and broken beauty4 ,but of late he had added pictures of a different kind1 ,french symbolistic pictures which he had bought for a few pounds from little-known painters1 ,english and ,french pictures of the ,school of the ,english ,pre-,raphaelites2 and now he stood for a moment and said1 ',i have changed my taste4 ,i am fascinated a little against my will by these faces1 where ,i find the pallor of souls trembling between the excitement of the flesh and the excitement of the spirit1 and by landscapes that are created by heightening the obscurity and disorder of nature4 ,these landscapes do not stir the imagination to the energies of sanctity but as to orgiac dancing and prophetic frenzy4' ,i saw with some resentment new images where the old ones had often made that long gray1 dim1 empty1 echoing passage become to my eyes a vestibule of ,eternity4 ,almost every detail of the chapel1 which we entered by a narrow ,gothic door1 whose threshold had been worn smooth by the secret worshippers of the penal times1 was vivid in my memory2 for it was in this chapel that ,i had first1 and when but a boy1 been moved by the medivalism which is now1 ,i think1 the governing influence in my life4 ,the only thing that seemed new was a square bronze box which stood upon the altar before the six unlighted candles and the ebony crucifix1 and was like those made in ancient times of more precious substances to hold the sacred books4 ,aherne made me sit down on an oak bench1 and having bowed very low before the crucifix1 took the bronze box from the altar1 and sat down beside me with the box upon his knees4 ',you will perhaps have forgotten1' he said1 'most of what you have read about ,joachim of ,flora1 for he is little more than a name to even the well read4 ,he was an abbot in ,cortale in the twelfth century1 and is best known for his prophecy1 in a book called ,expositio in ,apocalypsin1 that the ,kingdom of the ,father was passed1 the ,kingdom of the ,son passing1 the ,kingdom of the ,spirit yet to come4 ,the ,kingdom of the ,spirit was to be a complete triumph of the ,spirit1 the spiritualis intelligentia he called it1 over the dead letter4 ,he had many followers among the more extreme ,franciscans1 and these were accused of possessing a secret book of his called the ,liber ,inducens in ,evangelium ternum4 ,again and again groups of visionaries were accused of possessing this terrible book1 in which the freedom of the ,renaissance lay hidden1 until at last ,pope ,alexander ,,iv4 had it found and cast into the flames4 ,i have here the greatest treasure the world contains4 ,i have a copy of that book2 and see what great artists have made the robes in which it is wrapped4 ,the greater portion of the book itself is illuminated in the ,byzantine style1 which so few care for to-day1 but which moves me because these tall1 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 ,eternity4 ,even if you do not care for so formal an art1 you cannot help seeing that work where there is so much gold1 and of that purple colour which has gold dissolved in it1 was valued at a great price in its day4 ,but it was only at the ,renaissance the labour was spent upon it which has made it the priceless thing it is4 ,the wooden boards of the cover show by the astrological allegories painted upon them1 as by the style of painting itself1 some craftsman of the school of ,francesco ,cossi of ,ferrara1 but the gold clasps and hinges are known to be the work of ,benvenuto ,cellini1 who made likewise the bronze box and covered it with gods and demons1 whose eyes are closed1 to signify an absorption in the inner light4' ,i took the book in my hands and began turning over the gilded1 many-coloured pages1 holding it close to the candle to discover the texture of the paper4 ',where did you get this amazing book8' ,i said4 ',if genuine1 and ,i cannot judge by this light1 you have discovered one of the most precious things in the world4' ',it is certainly genuine1' he replied4 ',when the original was destroyed1 one copy alone remained1 and was in the hands of a lute-player of ,florence1 and from him it passed to his son1 and so from generation to generation until it came to the lute-player who was father to ,benvenuto ,cellini1 and from ,benvenuto ,cellini to that ,cardinal of ,ferrara who released him from prison1 and from him to a natural son1 so from generation to generation1 the story of its wandering passing on with it1 until it came into the possession of the family of ,aretino1 and to ,giulio ,aretino1 an artist and worker in metals1 and student of the kabalistic heresies of ,pico della ,mirandola4 ,he spent many nights with me at ,rome1 discussing philosophy2 and at last ,i won his confidence so perfectly that he showed me this1 his greatest treasure2 and1 finding how much ,i valued it1 and feeling that he himself was growing old and beyond the help of its teaching1 he sold it to me for no great sum1 considering its great preciousness4' ',what is the doctrine8' ,i said4 ',some medival straw-splitting about the nature of the ,trinity1 which is only useful to-day to show how many things are unimportant to us1 which once shook the world8' ',i could never make you understand1' he said1 with a sigh1 'that nothing is unimportant in belief1 but even you will admit that this book goes to the heart4 ,do you see the tables on which the commandments were written in ,latin8' ,i looked to the end of the room1 opposite to the altar1 and saw that the two marble tablets were gone1 and that two large empty tablets of ivory1 like large copies of the little tablets we set over our desks1 had taken their place4 ',it has swept the commandments of the ,father away1' he went on1 'and displaced the commandments of the ,son by the commandments of the ,holy ,spirit4 ,the first book is called ,fractura ,tabularum4 ,in the first chapter it mentions the names of the great artists who made them graven things and the likeness of many things1 and adored them and served them2 and the second the names of the great wits who took the name of the ,lord their ,god in vain2 and that long third chapter1 set with the emblems of sanctified faces1 and having wings upon its borders1 is the praise of breakers of the seventh day and wasters of the six days1 who yet lived comely and pleasant days4 ,those two chapters tell of men and women who railed upon their parents1 remembering that their god was older than the god of their parents2 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 versicoloribus1 heavy with love and sleep and many-coloured raiment2 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 memories1 which have transformed many poorer hearts into sweet flames2 and that with the winged head is the history of the robbers who lived upon the sea or in the desert1 lives which it compares to the twittering of the string of a bow1 nervi stridentis instar2 and those two last1 that are fire and gold1 are devoted to the satirists who bore false witness against their neighbours and yet illustrated eternal wrath1 and to those that have coveted more than other men the house of ,god1 and all things that are ,his1 which no man has seen and handled1 except in madness and in dreams4 ',the second book is called ,lex ,secreta1 and describes the true inspiration of action1 the only ,eternal ,evangel2 and ends with a vision1 which he saw among the mountains of ,la ,sila1 of his disciples sitting throned in the blue deep of the air1 and laughing aloud1 with a laughter that was like the rustling of the wings of ,time3 ,coelis in cruleis ridentes sedebant discipuli mei super thronos3 talis erat risus1 qualis temporis pennati susurrus4' ',i know little of ,joachim of ,flora1' ,i said1 'except that ,dante set him in ,paradise among the great doctors4 ,if he held a heresy so singular1 ,i cannot understand how no rumours of it came to the ears of ,dante2 and ,dante made no peace with the enemies of the ,church4' ',joachim of ,flora acknowledged openly the authority of the ,church1 and even asked that all his published writings1 and those to be published by his desire after his death1 should be submitted to the censorship of the ,pope4 ,he considered that those whose work was to live and not to reveal were children and that the ,pope was their ,father2 but he taught in secret that certain others1 and in always increasing numbers1 were elected1 not to live1 but to reveal that hidden substance of ,god which is colour and music and softness and a sweet odour2 and that these have no father but the ,holy ,spirit4 ,just as poets and painters and musicians labour at their works1 building them with lawless and lawful things alike1 so long as they embody the beauty that is beyond the grave1 these children of the ,holy ,spirit labour at their moments with eyes upon the shining substance on which ,time has heaped the refuse of creation2 for the world only exists to be a tale in the ears of coming generations2 and terror and content1 birth and death1 love and hatred1 and the fruit of the ,tree1 are but instruments for that supreme art which is to win us from life and gather us into eternity like doves into their dove-cots4 ',i shall go away in a little while and travel into many lands1 that ,i may know all accidents and destinies1 and when ,i return will write my secret law upon those ivory tablets1 just as poets and romance writers have written the principles of their art in prefaces2 and when ,i know what principle of life1 discoverable at first by imagination and instinct1 ,i am to express1 ,i will gather my pupils that they may discover their law in the study of my law1 as poets and painters discover their own art of expression by the study of some ,master4 ,i know nothing certain as yet but this--,i am to become completely alive1 that is1 completely passionate1 for beauty is only another name for perfect passion4 ,i shall create a world where the whole lives of men shall be articulated and simplified as if seventy years were but one moment1 or as they were the leaping of a fish or the opening of a flower4' ,he was pacing up and down1 and ,i listened to the fervour of his words and watched the excitement of his gestures with not a little concern4 ,i had been accustomed to welcome the most singular speculations1 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 fire4 ,but now ,i would battle in the interests of orthodoxy1 even of the commonplace3 and yet could find nothing better to say than3 ',it is not necessary to judge everyone by the law1 for we have also ,christ's commandment of love4' ,he turned and said1 looking at me with shining eyes3 ',jonathan ,swift made a soul for the gentlemen of this city by hating his neighbour as himself4' ',at any rate1 you cannot deny that to teach so dangerous a doctrine is to accept a terrible responsibility4' ',leonardo da ,vinci1' he replied1 'has this noble sentence3 ,the hope and desire of returning home to one's former state is like the moth's desire for the light2 and the man who with constant longing awaits each new month and new year1 deeming that the things he longs for are ever too late in coming1 does not perceive that he is longing for his own destruction4 ,how1 then1 can the pathway which will lead us into the heart of ,god be other than dangerous8 why should you1 who are no materialist1 cherish the continuity and order of the world as those do who have only the world8 ,you do not value the writers who will express nothing unless their reason understands how it will make what is called the right more easy2 why1 then1 will you deny a like freedom to the supreme art1 the art which is the foundation of all arts8 ,yes1 ,i shall send out of this chapel saints1 lovers1 rebels and prophets3 souls who will surround themselves with peace1 as with a nest made with grass2 and others over whom ,i shall weep4 ,the dust shall fall for many years over this little box2 and then ,i shall open it2 and the tumults1 which are1 perhaps1 the flames of the last day1 shall come from under the lid4' ,i did not reason with him that night1 because his excitement was great and ,i feared to make him angry2 and when ,i called at his house a few days later1 he was gone and his house was locked up and empty4 ,i have deeply regretted my failure both to combat his heresy and to test the genuineness of his strange book4 ,since my conversion ,i have indeed done penance for an error which ,i was only able to measure after some years4 ,,ii ,i was walking along one of the ,dublin quays1 on the side nearest the river1 about ten years after our conversation1 stopping from time to time to turn over the books upon an old bookstall1 and thinking1 curiously enough1 of the terrible destiny of ,michael ,robartes1 and his brotherhood2 when ,i saw a tall and bent man walking slowly along the other side of the quay4 ,i recognized1 with a start1 in a lifeless mask with dim eyes1 the once resolute and delicate face of ,owen ,aherne4 ,i crossed the quay quickly1 but had not gone many yards before he turned away1 as though he had seen me1 and hurried down a side street2 ,i followed1 but only to lose him among the intricate streets on the north side of the river4 ,during the next few weeks ,i inquired of everybody who had once known him1 but he had made himself known to nobody2 and ,i knocked1 without result1 at the door of his old house2 and had nearly persuaded myself that ,i was mistaken1 when ,i saw him again in a narrow street behind the ,four ,courts1 and followed him to the door of his house4 ,i laid my hand on his arm2 he turned quite without surprise2 and indeed it is possible that to him1 whose inner life had soaked up the outer life1 a parting of years was a parting from forenoon to afternoon4 ,he stood holding the door half open1 as though he would keep me from entering2 and would perhaps have parted from me without further words had ,i not said3 ',owen ,aherne1 you trusted me once1 will you not trust me again1 and tell me what has come of the ideas we discussed in this house ten years ago8--but perhaps you have already forgotten them4' ',you have a right to hear1' he said1 'for since ,i have told you the ideas1 ,i should tell you the extreme danger they contain1 or rather the boundless wickedness they contain2 but when you have heard this we must part1 and part for ever1 because ,i am lost1 and must be hidden6' ,i followed him through the paved passage1 and saw that its corners were choked1 and the pictures gray1 with dust and cobwebs2 and that the dust and cobwebs which covered the ruby and sapphire of the saints on the window had made it very dim4 ,he pointed to where the ivory tablets glimmered faintly in the dimness1 and ,i saw that they were covered with small writing1 and went up to them and began to read the writing4 ,it was in ,latin1 and was an elaborate casuistry1 illustrated with many examples1 but whether from his own life or from the lives of others ,i do not know4 ,i had read but a few sentences when ,i imagined that a faint perfume had begun to fill the room1 and turning round asked ,owen ,aherne if he were lighting the incense4 ',no1' he replied1 and pointed where the thurible lay rusty and empty on one of the benches2 as he spoke the faint perfume seemed to vanish1 and ,i was persuaded ,i had imagined it4 ',has the philosophy of the ,liber ,inducens in ,evangelium ternum made you very unhappy8' ,i said4 ',at first ,i was full of happiness1' he replied1 'for ,i felt a divine ecstasy1 an immortal fire in every passion1 in every hope1 in every desire1 in every dream2 and ,i saw1 in the shadows under leaves1 in the hollow waters1 in the eyes of men and women1 its image1 as in a mirror2 and it was as though ,i was about to touch the ,heart of ,god4 ,then all changed and ,i was full of misery1 and ,i said to myself that ,i was caught in the glittering folds of an enormous serpent1 and was falling with him through a fathomless abyss1 and that henceforth the glittering folds were my world2 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 sin1 and ,i understood that ,i could not sin1 because ,i had discovered the law of my being1 and could only express or fail to express my being1 and ,i understood that ,god has made a simple and an arbitrary law that we may sin and repent6' ,he had sat down on one of the wooden benches and now became silent1 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 art4 ,i went and stood leaning against the altar1 and watched him1 not knowing what ,i should say2 and ,i noticed his black closely-buttoned coat1 his short hair1 and shaven head1 which preserved a memory of his priestly ambition1 and understood how ,catholicism had seized him in the midst of the vertigo he called philosophy2 and ,i noticed his lightless eyes and his earth-coloured complexion1 and understood how she had failed to do more than hold him on the margin3 and ,i was full of an anguish of pity4 ',it may be1' he went on1 'that the angels whose hearts are shadows of the ,divine ,heart1 and whose bodies are made of the ,divine ,intellect1 may come to where their longing is always by a thirst for the divine ecstasy1 the immortal fire1 that is in passion1 in hope1 in desire1 in dreams2 but we whose hearts perish every moment1 and whose bodies melt away like a sigh1 must bow and obey6' ,i went nearer to him and said3 ',prayer and repentance will make you like other men4' ',no1 no1' he said1 ',i am not among those for whom ,christ died1 and this is why ,i must be hidden4 ,i have a leprosy that even eternity cannot cure4 ,i have seen the whole1 and how can ,i come again to believe that a part is the whole8 ,i have lost my soul because ,i have looked out of the eyes of the angels4' ,suddenly ,i saw1 or imagined that ,i saw1 the room darken1 and faint figures robed in purple1 and lifting faint torches with arms that gleamed like silver1 bending1 above ,owen ,aherne2 and ,i saw1 or imagined that ,i saw1 drops1 as of burning gum1 fall from the torches1 and a heavy purple smoke1 as of incense1 come pouring from the flames and sweeping about us4 ,owen ,aherne1 more happy than ,i who have been half initiated into the ,order of the ,alchemical ,rose1 and protected perhaps by his great piety1 had sunk again into dejection and listlessness1 and saw none of these things2 but my knees shook under me1 for the purple-robed figures were less faint every moment1 and now ,i could hear the hissing of the gum in the torches4 ,they did not appear to see me1 for their eyes were upon ,owen ,aherne2 and now and again ,i could hear them sigh as though with sorrow for his sorrow1 and presently ,i heard words which ,i could not understand except that they were words of sorrow1 and sweet as though immortal was talking to immortal4 ,then one of them waved her torch1 and all the torches waved1 and for a moment it was as though some great bird made of flames had fluttered its plumage1 and a voice cried as from far up in the air3 ',he has charged even his angels with folly1 and they also bow and obey2 but let your heart mingle with our hearts1 which are wrought of divine ecstasy1 and your body with our bodies1 which are wrought of divine intellect4' ,and at that cry ,i understood that the ,order of the ,alchemical ,rose was not of this earth1 and that it was still seeking over this earth for whatever souls it could gather within its glittering net2 and when all the faces turned towards me1 and ,i saw the mild eyes and the unshaken eyelids1 ,i was full of terror1 and thought they were about to fling their torches upon me1 so that all ,i held dear1 all that bound me to spiritual and social order1 would be burnt up1 and my soul left naked and shivering among the winds that blow from beyond this world and from beyond the stars2 and then a faint voice cried1 ',why do you fly from our torches that were made out of the trees under which ,christ wept in the ,garden of ,gethsemane8 ,why do you fly from our torches that were made out of sweet wood1 after it had perished from the world and come to us who made it of old times with our breath8' ,it was not until the door of the house had closed behind my flight1 and the noise of the street was breaking on my ears1 that ,i came back to myself and to a little of my courage2 and ,i have never dared to pass the house of ,owen ,aherne from that day1 even though ,i believe him to have been driven into some distant country by the spirits whose name is legion1 and whose throne is in the indefinite abyss1 and whom he obeys and cannot see4 ,,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 ,aherne1 when ,i heard a light knocking on my front door4 ,i found upon the doorstep three very old men with stout sticks in their hands1 who said they had been told ,i should be up and about1 and that they were to tell me important things4 ,i brought them into my study1 and when the peacock curtains had closed behind us1 ,i set their chairs for them close to the fire1 for ,i saw that the frost was on their great-coats of frieze and upon the long beards that flowed almost to their waists4 ,they took off their great-coats1 and leaned over the fire warming their hands1 and ,i saw that their clothes had much of the country of our time1 but a little also1 as it seemed to me1 of the town life of a more courtly time4 ,when they had warmed themselves--and they warmed themselves1 ,i thought1 less because of the cold of the night than because of a pleasure in warmth for the sake of warmth--they turned towards me1 so that the light of the lamp fell full upon their weather-beaten faces1 and told the story ,i am about to tell4 ,now one talked and now another1 and they often interrupted one another1 with a desire like that of countrymen1 when they tell a story1 to leave no detail untold4 ,when they had finished they made me take notes of whatever conversation they had quoted1 so that ,i might have the exact words1 and got up to go4 ,when ,i asked them where they were going1 and what they were doing1 and by what names ,i should call them1 they would tell me nothing1 except that they had been commanded to travel over ,ireland continually1 and upon foot and at night1 that they might live close to the stones and the trees and at the hours when the immortals are awake4 ,i have let some years go by before writing out this story1 for ,i am always in dread of the illusions which come of that inquietude of the veil of the ,temple1 which ,m4 ,mallarm considers a characteristic of our times2 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 ,english4 ,the three old men were three brothers1 who had lived in one of the western islands from their early manhood1 and had cared all their lives for nothing except for those classical writers and old ,gaelic writers who expounded an heroic and simple life2 night after night in winter1 ,gaelic story-tellers would chant old poems to them over the poteen2 and night after night in summer1 when the ,gaelic story-tellers were at work in the fields or away at the fishing1 they would read to one another ,virgil and ,homer1 for they would not enjoy in solitude1 but as the ancients enjoyed4 ,at last a man1 who told them he was ,michael ,robartes1 came to them in a fishing boat1 like ,st4 ,brandan drawn by some vision and called by some voice2 and spoke of the coming again of the gods and the ancient things2 and their hearts1 which had never endured the body and pressure of our time1 but only of distant times1 found nothing unlikely in anything he told them1 but accepted all simply and were happy4 ,years passed1 and one day1 when the oldest of the old men1 who travelled in his youth and thought sometimes of other lands1 looked out on the grey waters1 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 ,phacians--a voice came out of the air over the waters and told him of the death of ,michael ,robartes4 ,they were still mourning when the next oldest of the old men fell asleep while reading out the ,fifth ,eclogue of ,virgil1 and a strange voice spoke through him1 and bid them set out for ,paris1 where a woman lay dying1 who would reveal to them the secret names of the gods1 which can be perfectly spoken only when the mind is steeped in certain colours and certain sounds and certain odours2 but at whose perfect speaking the immortals cease to be cries and shadows1 and walk and talk with one like men and women4 ,they left their island1 at first much troubled at all they saw in the world1 and came to ,paris1 and there the youngest met a person in a dream1 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 house1 whose likeness was shown him in the dream4 ,they wandered hither and thither for many days1 but one morning they came into some narrow and shabby streets1 on the south of the ,seine1 where women with pale faces and untidy hair looked at them out of the windows2 and just as they were about to turn back because ,wisdom could not have alighted in so foolish a neighbourhood1 they came to the street and the house of the dream4 ,the oldest of the old men1 who still remembered some of the modern languages he had known in his youth1 went up to the door and knocked1 but when he had knocked1 the next in age to him said it was not a good house1 and could not be the house they were looking for1 and urged him to ask for some one they knew was not there and go away4 ,the door was opened by an old over-dressed woman1 who said1 ',o1 you are her three kinsmen from ,ireland4 ,she has been expecting you all day4' ,the old men looked at one another and followed her upstairs1 passing doors from which pale and untidy women thrust out their heads1 and into a room where a beautiful woman lay asleep in a bed1 with another woman sitting by her4 ,the old woman said3 ',yes they have come at last2 now she will be able to die in peace1' and went out4 ',we have been deceived by devils1' said one of the old men1 'for the immortals would not speak through a woman like this4' ',yes1' said another1 'we have been deceived by devils1 and we must go away quickly4' ',yes1' said the third1 'we have been deceived by devils1 but let us kneel down for a little1 for we are by the deathbed of one that has been beautiful4' ,they knelt down1 and the woman who sat by the bed1 and seemed to be overcome with fear and awe1 lowered her head4 ,they watched for a little the face upon the pillow and wondered at its look1 as of unquenchable desire1 and at the porcelain-like refinement of the vessel in which so malevolent a flame had burned4 ,suddenly the second oldest of them crowed like a cock1 and until the room seemed to shake with the crowing4 ,the woman in the bed still slept on in her death-like sleep1 but the woman who sat by her head crossed herself and grew pale1 and the youngest of the old men cried out3 ',a devil has gone into him1 and we must begone or it will go into us also4' ,before they could rise from their knees a resonant chanting voice came from the lips that had crowed and said3 ',i am not a devil1 but ,i am ,hermes the ,shepherd of the ,dead1 and ,i run upon the errands of the gods1 and you have heard my sign1 that has been my sign from the old days4 ,bow down before her from whose lips the secret names of the immortals1 and of the things near their hearts1 are about to come1 that the immortals may come again into the world4 ,bow down1 and understand that when they are about to overthrow the things that are to-day and bring the things that were yesterday1 they have no one to help them1 but one whom the things that are to-day have cast out4 ,bow down and very low1 for they have chosen for their priestess this woman in whose heart all follies have gathered1 and in whose body all desires have awaked2 this woman who has been driven out of ,time1 and has lain upon the bosom of ,eternity4 ,after you have bowed down the old things shall be again1 and another ,argo shall carry heroes over sea1 and another ,achilles beleaguer another ,troy4' ,the voice ended with a sigh1 and immediately the old man awoke out of sleep1 and said3 ',has a voice spoken through me1 as it did when ,i fell asleep over my ,virgil1 or have ,i only been asleep8' ,the oldest of them said3 ',a voice has spoken through you4 ,where has your soul been while the voice was speaking through you8' ',i do not know where my soul has been1 but ,i dreamed ,i was under the roof of a manger1 and ,i looked down and ,i saw an ox and an ass2 and ,i saw a red cock perching on the hay-rack2 and a woman hugging a child2 and three old men1 in armour1 studded with rubies1 kneeling with their heads bowed very low in front of the woman and the child4 ,while ,i was looking the cock crowed and a man with wings on his heels swept up through the air1 and as he passed me1 cried out3 ,foolish old men1 you had once all the wisdom of the stars4 ,i do not understand my dream or what it would have us do1 but you who have heard the voice out of the wisdom of my sleep know what we have to do4' ,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 ground4 ,when they had spread them on the ground1 they took out of their pockets their pens1 made of three feathers1 which had fallen from the wing of the old eagle that is believed to have talked of wisdom with ,st4 ,patrick4 ',he meant1 ,i think1' said the youngest1 as he put their ink-bottles by the side of the rolls of parchment1 'that when people are good the world likes them and takes possession of them1 and so eternity comes through people who are not good or who have been forgotten4 ,perhaps ,christianity was good and the world liked it1 so now it is going away and the immortals are beginning to awake4' ',what you say has no wisdom1' said the oldest1 'because if there are many immortals1 there cannot be only one immortal4' ,then the woman in the bed sat up and looked about her with wild eyes2 and the oldest of the old men said3 ',lady1 we have come to write down the secret names1' and at his words a look of great joy came into her face4 ,presently she began to speak slowly1 and yet eagerly1 as though she knew she had but a little while to live1 and in the ,gaelic of their own country2 and she spoke to them many secret powerful names1 and of the colours1 and odours1 and weapons1 and instruments of music and instruments of handicraft belonging to the owners of those names2 but most about the ,sidhe of ,ireland and of their love for the ,cauldron1 and the ,whetstone1 and the ,sword1 and the ,spear4 ,then she tossed feebly for a while and moaned1 and when she spoke again it was in so faint a murmur that the woman who sat by the bed leaned down to listen1 and while she was listening the spirit went out of the body4 ,then the oldest of the old men said in ,french to the woman who was still bending over the bed3 ',there must have been yet one name which she had not given us1 for she murmured a name while the spirit was going out of the body1' and the woman said1 ',she was but murmuring over the name of a symbolist painter she was fond of4 ,he used to go to something he called the ,black ,mass1 and it was he who taught her to see visions and to hear voices4 ,she met him for the first time a few months ago1 and we have had no peace from that day because of her talk about visions and about voices4 ,why6 it was only last night that ,i dreamed ,i saw a man with a red beard and red hair1 and dressed in red1 standing by my bedside4 ,he held a rose in one hand1 and tore it in pieces with the other hand1 and the petals drifted about the room1 and became beautiful people who began to dance slowly4 ,when ,i woke up ,i was all in a heat with terror4' ,this is all the old men told me1 and when ,i think of their speech and of their silence1 of their coming and of their going1 ,i am almost persuaded that had ,i gone out of the house after they had gone out of it1 ,i should have found no footsteps on the snow4 ,they may1 for all ,i or any man can say1 have been themselves immortals3 immortal demons1 come to put an untrue story into my mind for some purpose ,i do not understand4 ,whatever they were ,i have turned into a pathway which will lead me from them and from the ,order of the ,alchemical ,rose4 ,i no longer live an elaborate and haughty life1 but seek to lose myself among the prayers and the sorrows of the multitude4 ,i pray best in poor chapels1 where the frieze coats brush by me as ,i kneel1 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 mine4 ,seacht b-pidreacha f seacht ,chuir ,muire faoi n-a ,mac1 ,chuir ,brigbid faoi n-a brat1 ,chuir ,dia faoi n-a neart1 ,eidir sinn 'san ,sluagh ,sidhe1 ,eidir sinn 'san ,sluagh ,gaoith4 ,seven paters seven times1 ,send ,mary by her ,son1 ,send ,bridget by her mantle1 ,send ,god by ,his strength1 ,between us and the faery host1 ,between us and the demons of the air4 ,printed by ,a4 ,h4 ,,bullen1 at the ,shakespeare ,head ,press1 ,stratford-upon-,avon4 ,transcriber's ,note3 ,one printer's error or misspelling was found and fixed3 ,page #e4 ,in the original book3 orgaic dancing changed in this ebook to3 orgiac dancing