you dance, my son?' and he
replied, 'I make merry with the wife of my affection,' and truly she was
shaped as a woman is shaped, but it was an Idea he danced with and not
a woman. And presently he went away to his labours, and then his Idea
arose and her humanity came upon her so that she was clothed with beauty
and terror, and she went apart and danced with the servant of my son,
and there was great joy of that dancing--for a person in the wrong place
is an Idea and not a person. Man is Thought and woman is Intuition, and
they have never mated. There is a gulf between them and it is called
Fear, and what they fear is, that their strengths shall be taken from
them and they may no longer be tyrants. The Eternal has made love blind,
for it is not by science, but by intuition alone, that he may come to
his beloved; but desire, which is science, has many eyes and sees so
vastly that he passes his love in the press, saying there is no love,
and he propagates miserably on his own delusions. The finger-tips are
guided by God, but the devil looks through the eyes of all creatures so
that they may wander in the errors of reason and justify themselves
of their wanderings. The desire of a man shall be Beauty, but he has
fashioned a slave in his mind and called it Virtue. The desire of a
woman shall be Wisdom, but she has formed a beast in her blood and
called it Courage: but the real virtue is courage, and the real courage
is liberty, and the real liberty is wisdom, and Wisdom is the son of
Thought and Intuition; and his names also are Innocence and Adoration
and Happiness."

When Angus Og had said these words he ceased, and for a time there was
silence in the little cave. Caitilin had covered her face with her hands
and would not look at him, but Pan drew the girl closer to his side and
peered sideways, laughing at Angus.

"Has the time yet come for the girl to judge between us?" said he.

"Daughter of Murrachu," said Angus Og, "will you come away with me from
this place?"

Caitilin then looked at the god in great distress. "I do not know what
to do," said she. "Why do you both want me? I have given myself to Pan,
and his arms are about me."

"I want you," said Angus Og, "because the world has forgotten me. In all
my nation there is no remembrance of me. I, wandering on the hills of my
country, am lonely indeed. I am the desolate god forbidden to utter
my happy laughter. I hide the silver of my speech and the gold of my
mer