, vague symbols that
set the mind wandering from idea to idea, emotion to emotion. Indeed all
the great Masters have understood, that there cannot be great art without
the little limited life of the fable, which is always the better the
simpler it is, and the rich, far-wandering, many-imaged life of the
half-seen world beyond it. There are some who understand that the simple
unmysterious things living as in a clear noon-light are of the nature of
the sun, and that vague many-imaged things have in them the strength of
the moon. Did not the Egyptian carve it on emerald that all living things
have the sun for father and the moon for mother, and has it not been said
that a man of genius takes the most after his mother?

1903.

Footnotes:

[1] 'Marianne's Dream' was certainly copied from a real dream of
somebody's, but like images come to the mystic in his waking state.

[2] This essay was first published in the _United Irishman_.

Transcriber's Note:

Unmatched quotation marks and spelling variants are presented as in
the original text.

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