Imaginations and Reveries

Imaginations and Reveries

by (A.E.) George William Russell #3 in our series by (A.E.) George
William Russell
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Title: Imaginations and Reveries
Author: (A.E.) George William Russell
Release Date: May, 2005 [EBook #8105] [Yes, we are more than one
year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on June 15, 2003]
Edition: 10

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IMAGINATIONS AND REVERIES ***

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IMAGINATIONS AND REVERIES --by AE [George William
Russell]

PREFACE
The publishers of this book thought that a volume of articles and tales
written by me during the past twenty-five years would have interest
enough to justify publication, and asked me to make a selection. I have
not been able to make up a book with only one theme. My temperament
would only allow me to be happy when I was working at art. My
conscience would not let me have peace unless I worked with other
Irishmen at the reconstruction of Irish life. Birth in Ireland gave me a
bias towards Irish nationalism, while the spirit which inhabits my body
told me the politics of eternity ought to be my only concern, and that all
other races equally with my own were children of the Great King. To
aid in movements one must be orthodox. My desire to help prompted
agreement, while my intellect was always heretical. I had written out of
every mood, and could not retain any mood for long. If I advocated a
national ideal I felt immediately I could make an equal plea for more
cosmopolitan and universal ideas. I have observed my intuitions
wherever they drew me, for I felt that the Light within us knows better
than any other the need and the way. So I have no book on one theme,
and the only unity which connects what is here written is a common
origin. The reader must try a balance between the contraries which
exist here as they exist in us all, as they exist and are harmonized in
that multitudinous meditation which is the universe.--A.E.

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION

To this edition four essays have been added. Two of these, "Thoughts
for a Convention" and "The New Nation," made some little stir when
they first appeared. Ireland since then has passed away from the mood
which made it possible to consider the reconciliations suggested, and
has set its heart on more fundamental changes, and these essays have
only interest as marking a moment of transition in national life before it
took a new road leading to another destiny.

CONTENTS
NATIONALITY OR COSMOPOLITANISM STANDISH O'GRADY
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 O'SULLIVAN 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 DEIRDRE

NATIONALITY OR COSMOPOLITANISM
As one of those who believe that the literature of a country is for ever
creating a new soul among its people, I do not like to think that
literature with us must follow an inexorable law of sequence, and gain a
spiritual character only after the bodily passions have grown weary and
exhausted themselves. In the essay called The Autumn of the Body, Mr.
Yeats seems to indicate such a sequence. Yet, whether the art of any of
the writers of the decadence does really express spiritual things is open
to doubt. The mood in which their work is conceived, a distempered
emotion, through which no new joy quivers,