The Project Gutenberg EBook of Imaginations and Reveries, 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]
Posting Date: July 29, 2009

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IMAGINATIONS AND REVERIES ***

Produced by Jake Jaqua

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 consid