New-York tribune., 1894-05-23
FANCIE!S OF WESTERN IRE-
LAND.
WHERE THE BELIEF IN FAIRIES STILL
TINGFRS.

LlNGERS.
THE CELTIC TWILIGHT. Men and M9men N,,s
Dhouls and Fairies. BY w. r. 1eats o,o ~ "
FrontispIece by j. b. Yeats. Pp' XII IL MAJ
milan CO.
Mr. Yeats who is a poet. leaves IN 'nis oooN va
,nopression that ne shares the supersuuohs "n''"
he describes He likes not oVermuch 'he '"'''''''s
=, science with the lore Of the Irish peasantry' ana
vet ne has only got far as the sun-ny'h' "h'."
"a itself as good folklore as anybody couiu "'a"
when he gets 10 the drier notions OF tripsi orBS
a,d an.inat thies and habits and traditions 'heh ne
may we'll be hopeless, looking at the the'le i.''
tho noetcal side OF H. But he Is rlght as "s"''',
the scientists when he asserts the perennial '
:, fo,Llo-e The grave student porng over '"e
curious legends Of some distant race ia''S ~ w
sor,o the insensibe growth OF tradition uhaer h'S
very nose and on the most familiar ma''''S- "u'
tho growth continues The imagination can -
give I'D It's tricks until il ceases TO exist u va"
go ,,s rreternatural domain and will people H.
&C ,one as the world lasts. with creatures "h''n
under every new name will stlll nave the s'oN
, bod qualities OF those whom II has always
claimed as It's subjects. THE faery ana b"o,.
Kingdom is more stubborn than men ore"'" o.
savs Mr. Yeats: III will perhaps always DE- gums
,, ,oyer gone Then he amuses himself over the
exanonle OF Swedenborg. and, In parucuiar' ""'"'
something very like folklore in the swedish seer
remark that ''the angels DO not Ike butter me
nbrase is a happy Not even the most mas
native Irish peasant saturated win Heu'a''a' "
well as Gaelic heather stories or heaven cou'n '"'
rroe q The suppostion OF scientists Is that uni
versal education will do away with these iahtaN'es
,rhov forget that education only serves 10 make
some neople more imaginative than they were py
nature The statements that nine pcopie OUT "i ""
Give OF a scientific fact or theory win "hlch HeS
suppose themselves be familiar are as egendaTy
as the death Of Balder or the apotheosis OF Hia-
watha Aside from this general view OF the ihAitei'
there is the specific fact that superstition Is the last
thing which a certain order OF mind VIII give up
81 have had my own glimpse OF unaccouh'aDe
things" saws Mr.. Yeats. Others speak IN the same
way and each IL convinced by his own quasi-eSpe-
rence The author OF this book Is not content with
mere spiritual visions; he must see the Dinny Math'
! the fairy folk. coming out OF their own Nils IL
reads strangely in book OF to-day but there 1t Is
| in black and white how ne walked with two com
panions over the sands between the mis- ana the
ocean in Western ireland. and had his talk with
the Queen OF the Fairies. one Of his friends was
| a middle-aged who had spent his life thus
| far in this remote region. The other was young
girl who had the repute OF seer. The imagination
| of the three was excited by tale-telling and the
girl allowed herself TO fall into reverie while MT
Yeats summoned the great fairies by name First the
| girl heard music far away within the rocks. then
laughter Then she bright light In a little cave
and little people mostly dressed In red. dancing
and frolicking When she invoked the Queen OF
the Fairies the author himself fell into kind OF
! a trance, 'In which what we call the unreal had
begun to take upon Itself masterful realty. a
tall beautiful woman came out Of the cave. and the
wonder-struck author OF these sketches caught the
faint CLEAN OF gold ornaments he tried to fix
| the figure. He goes on:
bade the girl tell this tall Queen to marshal
| her followers according to their natural divisions
| that we might them. found as before that
| | had TO repeat the command myself. The crea-
| lures then came out OF the cave ana drew them-
selves up II remember rightly In four bands one
of these bands carried quicken boughs In their
hands, and another had necklaces MADE apparently
OF serpents scales. but their dress cannot remem
Der. for | was quite absorbed In the cleaning
woman. asked her to tell the seer whether these
| borhood. Her lips moved. but the answer was m
breast OF the Queen. and after that she heard
| every word quite distinctly
The Queen proceeded to confirm all that Mr.
Yeats had heard on the subject Of changengs. but
was dumfounded by his question whether she was
! not simply decentralization OF his mood" The
| idea was evidently far too modern for her. But in
the light OF a bit OF experience like this. set down
| with no theories TO blur the record" he must be
indeed perverse who fears the sudden demise OF
| folklore. The calamity will not come In our time
| nor in Mr. Yeats's. we may be sure. Moreover,
the old stories perpetuay adapted 70 new coDd-
tions is said that the country people In parts Of
Germany have transferred some of the most sig
nincant features of the Wild Hunt TO the swift
| rushing railway train. So Mr.. Yeats found a man
| who like many Celtic predecessor, had gone to
| sleep In an enchanted house only 10 find himself
ON the green grass under the open sky in the
ing Then he tells. anent the topic OF sun-myths.
the story OF an old Irish peasant who had vision
| OF a great tree among the branches Of which a
black creature and a white chased each other with
| out ceasing Wherever the white animal went the
boughs burst into leaf and flower. and these with
cred instantly at the approach of the black beast.
The endless drama OF Summer and Winter Is seen
= here. But Mr.. Yeats insists that the peasants