Produced by Jake JaquaIMAGINATIONS AND REVERIESBy AE George William RussellPREFACEThe publishers of this book thought that a volume of articles and taleswritten by me during the past twentyfive years would have interestenough to justify publication and asked me to make a selection I havenot been able to make up a book with only one theme My temperamentwould only allow me to be happy when I was working at art My consciencewould not let me have peace unless I worked with other Irishmen at thereconstruction of Irish life Birth in Ireland gave me a bias towardsIrish nationalism while the spirit which inhabits my body told me thepolitics of eternity ought to be my only concern and that all otherraces equally with my own were children of the Great King To aid inmovements one must be orthodox My desire to help prompted agreementwhile my intellect was always heretical I had written out of everymood and could not retain any mood for long If I advocated anational ideal I felt immediately I could make an equal plea for morecosmopolitan and universal ideas I have observed my intuitions whereverthey drew me for I felt that the Light within us knows better than anyother the need and the way So I have no book on one theme and the onlyunity which connects what is here written is a common origin The readermust try a balance between the contraries which exist here as theyexist in us all as they exist and are harmonized in that multitudinousmeditation which is the universeAEPREFACE TO SECOND EDITIONTo this edition four essays have been added Two of these Thoughtsfor a Convention and The New Nation made some little stir when theyfirst appeared Ireland since then has passed away from the mood whichmade it possible to consider the reconciliations suggested and hasset its heart on more fundamental changes and these essays have onlyinterest as marking a moment of transition in national life before ittook a new road leading to another destinyCONTENTS     NATIONALITY OR COSMOPOLITANISM     STANDISH OGRADY     THE DRAMATIC TREATMENT OF LEGEND     THE CHARACTER OF HEROIC LITERATURE     A POET OF SHADOWS     THE BOYHOOD OF A POET     THE POETRY OF JAMES STEPHENS     A NOTE ON SEUMAS OSULLIVAN     ART AND LITERATURE     AN ARTIST OF GARLIC IRELAND     TWO IRISH ARTISTS     ULSTER     IDEALS OF THE NEW RURAL SOCIETY     THOUGHTS FOR A CONVENTION     THE NEW NATION     THE SPIRITUAL CONFLICT     ON AN IRISH HILL     RELIGION AND LOVE     THE RENEWAL OF YOUTH     THE HERO IN MAN     THE MEDITATION OF ANANDA     THE MIDNIGHT BLOSSOM     THE CHILDHOOD OF APOLLO     THE MASK OF APOLLO     The CAVE OF LILITH     THE STORY OF A STAR     THE DREAM OF ANGUS OGE     DEIRDRENATIONALITY OR COSMOPOLITANISMAs one of those who believe that the literature of a country is forever creating a new soul among its people I do not like to think thatliterature with us must follow an inexorable law of sequence and gain aspiritual character only after the bodily passions have grown weary andexhausted themselves In the essay called The Autumn of the Body MrYeats seems to indicate such a sequence Yet whether the art of anyof the writers of the decadence does really express spiritual things isopen to doubt The mood in which their work is conceived a distemperedemotion through which no new joy quivers seems too often to tellrather of exhausted vitality than of the ecstasy of a new life Howevermuch too their art refines itself choosing ever rarer and moreexquisite forms of expression underneath it all an intuition seems todisclose only the old wolfish lust hiding itself beneath the goldenfleece of the spirit It is not the spirit breaking through corruptionbut the life of the senses longing to shine with the light which makessaintly things beautiful and it would put on the jeweled raiment ofseraphim retaining still a heart of clay smitten through and throughwith the unappeasable desire of the flesh so Rossettis women who havearound them all the circumstance of poetry and romantic beauty seemthrough their suckedin lips to express a thirst which could be allayedin no spiritual paradise Art in the decadence in our time might besymbolized as a crimson figure undergoing a dark crucifixion the hostsof light are overcoming it and it is dying filled with anguish anddespair at a beauty it cannot attain All these strange emotions have aprofound psychological interest I do not think because a spiritualflaw can be urged against a certain phase of life that it should remainunexpressed The psychic maladies which attack all races when theircivilization grows old must needs be understood to be dealt with andthey cannot be understood without being revealed in literature or artBut in Ireland we are not yet sick with this sickness As psychologyit concerns only the curious Our intellectual life is in suspense Thenational spirit seems to be making a last effort to assert itselfin literature and to overcome cosmopolitan influences and the artof writers who express a purely personal feeling It is true thatnationality may express itself in many ways it may not be at allevident in the subject matter but it may be very evident in thesentiment But a literature loosely held together by some emotionalcharacteristics common to the writers however great it may be does notfulfill the purpose of a literature or art created by a number of menwho have a common aim in building up an overwhelming idealwho createin a sense a soul for