notes - springer978-1-349-04859-5/1.pdfnotes as cva, to distinguish it ... aleister crowley, ......

Notes

CHAPTER I

I George Mills Harper and Walter Kelly Hood, ed. A Critical Edition of Yeats's' A Vision' (1925), p. xii: 'I have moments of exaltation, like that in which I wrote "All Souls' Night," but I have other moments when remembering my ignorance of philosophy I doubt if! can make another share my excitement.' Hereafter CIted in the notes as CVA, to distinguish it from VB, published in 1937.

2 I am indebted to Senator Michael B. Yeats for the opportunity to examine the great mass of revised and rejected materials related to both versions of A Vision, and for permission to cite from these materials in this study. Vestigia Nulla Retrorsum (i.e., 'No Traces Behind') was the Golden Dawn motto of Mrs MacGregor (Moina) Mathers, the sister of Henri Bergson.

3 From a rejected manuscript. In its earliest form A Vision (hereafter cited as VA) was written as a dialogue between Michael Robartes and John Aherne, who became the brother of Owen in VB (p. 55). For a fuller discussion of the genesis and development of V A, see the Editorial Introduction to CV A.

4 Yeats preserved a series ofletters from Mrs Mathers in which she expressed her great unhappiness with him, citing particular passages and inferences she disapproved of. (Several of them are now published in Letters to W. B. Yeats, ed. Richard J. Finneran, George Mills Harper, and William M. Murphy [London: Macmillan, 1977], hereafter cited as LWBY.)

5 The Dedication 'To Vestigia' was in effect Yeats's peace offering to Moina Mathers, whom he had known as early as 1887, when he joined The Hermetic Students (see Autobiographies [London: Macmillan, 1955], p. 183 and note pp. 575-6). Yeats had asked for and received Moina's permission to add this note in the first collected Autobiographies (1926). See also Editorial Introduction to CVA, pp. xlivxlvi.

6 See the Editorial Introduction to CV A for my discussion of the order of composition and the significance of Yeats's rejections and revisions.

7 Cf. eVA, p. x. What little information I have been able to discover about Miss Locke is contained in the 'Biographical Notice' by F. S. C. published in Miss Locke's book on The Hanbury Family (1916) after her death (see Appendix A herein). Since she was a research scholar, primarily of genealogical history, she may have met Horton in the British Museum, where he did most of his work during his years in London. But the exact time, place, and circumstance of their meeting must, I suppose, remain a tantalizing mystery.

8 In Mathers' thinking sexual abstinence was an important part of his religious beliefs and necessary to the success of the magical experiments he conducted. Several years after his death, Aleister Crowley, himself a practising magician, wrote a bitter

75

76 Yeats and Horton: The Record oj an Occult Friendship

satire entitled Moonehild (1929) about his former colleagues in the Golden Dawn, including Yeats, Arthur Edward Waite, William Wynn Westcott, and the Matherses. Notorious for his sexual licence, Crowley directed the crudest of his attacks at the marital relationship of Moina and MacGregor Mathers (see especially Chapter XIX).

9 I have quoted from an early manuscript. In the published version (CV A, p. x) Yeats omitted '& he believed, & held communion with her'. It is typical of Yeats's insistence upon validation that he should have written 'he believed': Yeats too may have believed in Horton's visions, but he wanted proof.

Yeats was not the only person to be impressed by Horton's accounts of visions of Miss Locke after her death. Upon reading' All Souls' Night' in The Col/eeted Poems (1933), where Horton is first identified, Ernest Rhys 'recalled him & his noble melancholy'. 'Your Horton lines ... set me thinking', Rhys wrote on I June 1934:

When I went to his rooms he showed me on the wall a charcoal-or pencil outline of the shadow of his dead friend,-Audrey Locke. He said one day he found the pale shadow cast clearly & perfectly on the plaster wall, & drew the line round,true portrait of her graceful form & features'.

Rhys had met Miss Locke at the British Museum Reading Room (LWBY, p. 563). 10 See my Editorial Introduction to C VA. I will explain the significance of this

'scrap of paper' in greater detail later in this study. I I See Walter K. Hood, 'Michael Robartes: Two Occult Manuscripts', in Yeats and

the Occult, ed. George Mills Harper (Toronto: Macmillan, 1975), p. 210. Hereafter cited as YO.

12 Ii Yeats's memory is correct he may have moved from 2 Fountain Court to 18 Woburn Buildings as early asJanuary 1896. (But see Denis Donoghue, ed. W. B. Yeats Memoirs [London: Macmillan, 1972], p. 88n.)

13 Several of Horton's letters to Yeats are now published in LWBY, pp. 16, 18, 19, 21, 58, 264, 268, 295, 327, 330, 340, 342, and 359. These, along with all the other letters from Horton to Yeats, are printed herein, and I have usually avoided citing page numbers in either book. The originals are housed in the library of Senator Michael B. Yeats, without whose unfailing kindness and hospitality this study would not have been possible. I am also indebted to Senator Yeats, to A. P. Watt and Son, and to John Kelly, editor of the forthcoming edition of Yeats's letters by Oxford University Press, for permission to quote from his letters to Horton. Transcripts of these letters prepared by 'John Gawsworth' (Terence I. H. F. Armstrong) and housed in the library of the University of Reading were made available to me by Professor Ian Fletcher and the Archivist, J. A. Edwards, to whom I am most grateful. I have been unable to consult the originals.

14 'To the Rose upon the Rood of Time', line I.

15 Yeats's gift copy to Horton is now in my possession. 16 This study of Egyptology ultimately was at least partially responsible for a

serious rupture in the Golden Dawn. See George Mills Harper, Yeats's Golden Dawn (London: Macmillan, 1974), pp. 33 - 4. Hereafter cited as YGD.

17' A Book of Images, drawn by W. T. Horton and introduced by W. B. Yeats (London: Unicorn Press, 1898), p. 57.

18 'Rosa Alchemica' appeared the following month in The Savoy, No.2 (April 1896), which also contained 'Three Visions' by Horton.

Notes 77

19 In the note of 3 March Yeats said that he would be able to see Horton through the initiation on the 21st, which fell on Saturday, the regular day for such ceremonies.

20 In a rejected Epilogue for VA addressed 'To Vestigia', Yeats refers to the statue in her drawing room.

2 I According to Ellie Howe, it was consecrated on 6 January 1894 (The Magicians of the Golden Dawn [London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1972], p. II3).

22 Horton retained his interest in Egyptology. His letters to Henry Rider Haggard, in the collection at the University of Reading, suggest that he assisted Haggard with the research for Moon of Israel: A Tale of the Exodus (1918). Horton and Haggard became acquainted by correspondence in February 1899, when Haggard wrote to praise 'the grim imaginative quality' of a drawing entitled 'Hatred, Malice, and All Uncharitableness', which appeared in Pick-Me-Up, Vol. 21, No. 540 (4 February 1899),300. They continued to correspond sporadically until as late as 30 May 1918, the date of the last letter from Haggard. Unfortunately, only fourteen letters and a fragment from Horton to Haggard have survived. These letters are now in the Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery, to which I am indebted for permission to quote herein.

23 Howe, p. 119· 24 Ibid., p. 120. 25 I have been able to discover little about Horton's wife or child. Although he

refers to her occasionally in the letters to Yeats, Horton says nothing of their life together, and he never mentions their son.

26 eVA, p. x. 27 The Letters of W. B. Yeats, ed. Allan Wade (New York: Macmillan, 1955),

p. 261. Hereafter cited as Letters. An important symbol in the rituals of the Golden Dawn, the pentagram represents 'the operation of the Eternal Spirit and the Four Elements under the divine Presidency of the letters of the Name Yeheshuah .... These two Pentagrams are in general use for invokation or banishing, and their use is given to the Neophyte of the first Order of the Golden Dawn under the title of the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram' (Israel Regardie, The Golden Dawn [Saint Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1971], Bk IV, 9- II). In one of Yeats's 'Private' Golden Dawn workbooks which contains the entire 'Ritual of the Pentagram' with illustrations, he noted that 'The Lesser Ritual is only to be used in general & for unimportant operations'.

28 Howe, p. 102n. Wade incorrectly identifies A. P. S. as Alfred Percy Sinnett, who was President of the Theosophical Society for a time but never, to my knowledge, a member of the Golden Dawn.

29 Letters, p. 26 I. 30 Thomas Lake Harris (1823- 1906) had an astonishing religious career: as a

Universalist minister, as a follower of Andrew Jackson Davis the spiritualist, as a practising medium, as a Swedenborgian minister, as the organizer of numerous socialistic societies, and as the founder of The Brotherhood of the New Life. The 'incredible history' of Harris and his associate Laurence Oliphant has been recorded in detail by Herbert W. Schneider and George Lawton in A Prophet and A Pilgrim (New York: Columbia University Press, 1942). Both Harris and Oliphant were prolific writers. The Bibliography in Schneider and Lawton (pp. 561- 2) lists more than fifty published and numerous unpublished titles by Harris, and twenty by Oliphant. Unfortunately, Horton did not identify which 'pamphlets' he was bringing to Yeats. Among the titles both probably found exciting were The Arcana of

78 Yeats and Horton: The Record of an Occult Friendship

Christianity (J vols), Bridal Hours: Lyrical Utterances of the Two-in-One, The Brotherhood of the New Life, The Golden Child (5 vols) , The Luminous Life, The Marriage of Heaven and Earth, God's Breath in Man and in Humane Society, and The Wisdom of the Adepts (from which Yeats quoted in VA, pp. 87- 8). Several of Harris's books were published or republished by a group in Glasgow which included Dr C. M. Berridge.

31 Horton did not get the books through the Golden Dawn. In fact, the William Wynn Westcott Library (founded 1891) of the Order contained no Harris titles (see YGD, pp. 290- 305). In the letter of 3 March Yeats mentions God's Breath and The Arcana.

J2 'An ardent spiritualist' as a young man, Harris was disillusioned and shocked when he discovered that Andrew Jackson Davis, the famous American prophet known as 'the Poughkeepsie seer', was a fraud.

33 Published under the pseudonym (i.e. Order motto) 'Respiro', only twelve of the projected volumes were completed. According to Schneider and Lawton, 'Dr. C. M. Berridge was first a minister of the Church of England, then became a Theosophist, and finally a devoted adherent of the Harris doctrines, which he tried to reconcile with certain aspects of Theosophy' (p. 11 5n; see p. 566 for list of titles). Howe thinks the Berridges were relatives and suggests that C. M. as well as E. W. may have belonged to the Golden Dawn. According to Howe, Respiro's article about Harris, which appeared in A. E. Waite's The Unknown World (October 1894), 'suggests that the writer was familiar with the G.D.'s "Rosicrucian" teachings' (p. 120n). Since neither the Theosophists nor Harris's followers regularly assumed mottoes, I am relatively sure that C. M. Berridge also belonged to the Golden Dawn, though he like Horton may have chosen to leave it for The Brotherhood of the New Life.

34 Letters, p. 261. See 'Magic', Essays and Introductions (London: Macmillan, 1961), p. 29. For further details consult YGD, pp. 99- 104·

35 Letters, p. 261. 36 This passage is directly indebted to Harris. Sometime during 1854, after the

death of his first wife, he was united in 'counterpartal marriage to Queen Lily of the Conjugial [sic] Angels'. This spiritual union was not disturbed by his marriage the following year to Emily Isabella Waters, a spiritualist with whom he lived in celibacy for thirty years. Several of his early poems are devoted to this doctrine of counterpartal love. Harris's Platonic union may have inspired Horton's Platonic liaison with Miss Locke. (See Schneider and Lawton, Chapter I, passim, for further details.)

Horton's meaning is clear in an unpublished letter to Haggard dated 24 April 19°4:

What little work I have done has all been done under the inspiration of the Beloved, & very real, Ideal I follow, or rather who is ever by my side comforting, strengthening & upholding me to the end, through Death & through the endless ages of Eternity. The Beloved is the dear Christ within & yet the Beloved of all my hopes & longings & aspirations as a man. Such love of man to woman, in the utter forgetfulness of self, is the nearest realization on Earth of what the Love of the Great God of Love is. Knowing [all] it is possible in some faint degree to apprehend what the Love of God to us is.

Notes 79

One of Dr Berridge's republications was entitled Counterparts: Or the Marriage of Heaven on Earth for Eternity. For this and other information about the fine Harris collection in the library of Wagner College, I am indebted to Professor Jack Cogdill, State University College, Fredonia, New York.

37 The reference is to Edward Maitland's New Gospel of Interpretation. Horton probably knew several of Maitland's books including the monumental two-volume biography of Anna Kingsford: Her Life, Letters, Diary and Work (1896). His Platonic union with Mrs Kingsford from 1874 until her death in 1888 was well known in London religious circles; and their book on Esoteric Christianity (The Perfect Way, 1882) was widely read. Horton was no doubt aware that she had been President, he Vice President of the Theosophical Society for a brief time in 1883-4, withdrawing to form the Hermetic Society in April 1884 (see Maitland, Anna Kingsford, Chapters xXV-XXVIII). Yeats knew Maitland and perhaps Mrs Kingsford. On 21 December 1888, in a letter to Katharine Tynan, he recounted a strange 'spiritualistic story' he had heard Maitland tell about spirit writing by the dead Mrs Kingsford (Letters, p. 97). The story is told in considerable detail in Maitland's biography (Chapter XXXVIII,

appropriately titled 'Post Mortem'). I have used the third edition (London, 1913). 38 He first wrote 'Intuition' rather than 'Feeling'. 39 Quoted by Maitland (II, 169), who was proud of his friendship with the great

Rosicrucian. 40 Leters, pp. 262- 3. 41 See Howe, p. 110, for an account of her support of Mathers. James W. Flannery,

in Miss Annie F. Horniman and the Abbey Theatre (Dublin: The Dolmen Press, 1970), suggests that Yeats is referring to her support of a season of uncommercial plays for Florence Farr in 1894. Although the first bill included Year's Land oj Heart's Desire, Miss Horniman insisted that Yeats did not know of her support until 1905 (p. 7).

42 Letters, p. 26. 43 The 'Arch Natural beings' were supernatural but also human beings who had

achieved a kind of divine status. Harris believed that he had achieved such a state, and he suggested at times that all members of his Brotherhood had reached or were approaching the 'Arch-natural' (in opposition to the earthly natural) condition. Horton may have been referring to Harris's recently formed English group: 'The Department of Great Britain of the Brotherhood of the New Life, Arthur A. Cuthbert, Departmental Secretary, Moseley, Worcestershire' (see Schneider and Lawton, pp. 436, 459).

44 Recently published in The Savoy, NO.2 (April 1896), 56-70. 45 Ibid., p. 66. See Mythologies (London: Macmillan, 1959), p. 285. 46 Mythologies, p. 285. 47 Almost thirty years later, in 1925, as Yeats was completing VA and 'busy with

that thought' of 'two people with one soul', he recalled Horton's Vision of 6 May 1896. Reading 'The Rose' poems 'for the first time for several years', Yeats noticed

... that the quality symbolised as The Rose differs from the Intellectual Beauty of Shelley and of Spencer [sic] in that I imagined it as suffering with [rum and not as something pursued and seen from afar. It must have been a thought of my generation, for I remember the mystical painter Horton, whose work had little of his personal charm and real strangeness, writing me these words, "I met your beloved in Russell Square, and she was weeping", by which he meant that he had seen a vision of my neglected soul (Early Poems and Stories [London: Macmillan,


1925], p. 527). See The Variorum Edition ojthe Poems oj W. B. Yeats (New York: Macmillan, 1957), p. 842.

48 I have been unable to find Grant's book. 49 The Voice, the encounters with serpents, etc., are reminiscent of the spiritual

battles recorded in Harris's writings. 50 Harris also warned those who opposed him, notably Laurence Oliphant, that he

possessed such powers. 51 Yeats's three-part article on 'William Blake and His Illustrations to the Divine

Comedy' was published in The Savoy for July, August, and September 1896. See Essays and Introductions (London: Macmillan, 1961), pp. 116-45.

52 See YGD, pp. 14-20. 53 'Anathema Maranatha' is a phrase from I Corinthians XVl: 22. It was once

thought to be a double curse or a curse intensified by a prayer. 54 According to Howe, who quotes from an unidentified source, Dr Berridge had

'issued a pamphlet' (probably advocating Harris's 'sexual-pneumatic philosophy') and 'urged doctrines which we [i.e. certain Second Order members] all thought impure and mischievous for the younger students to whom he offered them' (p. 119). Unfortunately, Howe was qnable to find the pamphlet.

55 The Apocalypse (New York and London, 1867) appeared as Volume III of The Arcana ojChristianity (3 vols), Songs ojFairyland (Fountain Grove, California, 1878), as Volume I of The Golden Child: A Daily Chronicle (5 vols). The 'fays' or fairy souls were 'celestial-human' forms, sometimes called 'seeds', who passed their existence 'in the atmosphere of the Heavens, in a perpetual delight'. 'They indulge in the most tender caresses, one with the other, and are closely allied in their genius with the fecundating principle in plants ... ' (Schneider and Lawton, p. 34).

56 It was Bois, according to Howe, who persuaded Moina and MacGregor Mathers to give a public performance of the rite of Isis at the Bodiniere Theatre (Paris) in March 1899 (pp. 200- I).

The passage Horton copied (from Chapter v, 'Les Incubes et les Succubes', pp. 275-7) records an experience of Girard de Caudenberg as he prayed to the Holy Virgin. When he kissed the cross, he felt that his kiss was physically returned by some 'celestial friend'. He continued to ex"perience similar sensations for several days. Although 'the intensity of enjoyment increased' and he could actually feel the 'lovely being' against him, his physical organs remained perfectly still. Horton was no doubt excited over the similarity between this experience and Harris's 'counterpartal marriage to Queen Lily of the Conjugial Angels'. Since Yeats did not comment, we may be sure that he was unimpressed. (The translation is mine.)

57 He refers to Yeats's good friend George W. Russell (AE), already widely known in occult circles as a mystic and visionary.

58 Mathers was in London briefly in late January trying to calm the unrest over his expulsion of Annie Horniman in December (Howe, p. 140).

59 See Howe, p. 145. 60 See Yeats's letters of 1 and 22 January 1898 about these experiments (Letters, pp.

293- 5). The significance of these visions in the context of Yeats's effort to revive the Celtic Mysteries has received extended treatment by Lucy Shepard Kalogera in 'Yeats's Celtic Mysteries' (unpublished dissertation, Florida State University, 1977).

61 The publication date of March 1898 recorded in Allan Wade's A Bibliography oj the Writings oj W. B. Yeats, 3rd ed. (London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1968), p. 263, is too early. The date stamp on the copy in the British Library is 8 August 1898.

Notes 81

62 See Letters, p. 296. Yeats was 'horribly busy' with plans for the Wolfe Tone Centennial Celebration which he and Maud Gonne were making.

63 The pen drawing intended for the title page and printed proofs of six illustrations for A Book of Images (London: Unicorn Press, 1898) are now in the Houghton Library, Harvard University. Also, 23 original drawings, 18 proofs, and a proof of the suppressed title page are in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

64 A Book of Images, p. 14. 65 Quoted from the note in my copy. See Wade, p. 263. 66 Smithers was editor of The Savoy, which had published both Rosa Alchemica in

NO.2 (April 1896) and The Tables of the Law (November 1896). 67 'The First Annual Volume of Beltaine ... The Organ of the Irish Literary

Theatre' edited by W. B. Yeats was published by Old meadow in May 1899. Of Yeats's work, it contained 'Plans and Methods' for the Theatre, two lyrics from The Countess Cathleen, and an article on The Theatre' reprinted from The Dome (April 1899). Beltaine, Number Two, did not appear until February 1900. 68 Yeats may be referring to four pastoral sketches entitled 'August Noons' in The

Dome, New Series, Vol. 5, No. 10 (August 1899),65,67, and 69. 69 The Raven / The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe. With seven

illustrations and a cover design by William Thomas Horton and some account of the author by Vincent O'Sullivan (London: Leonard Smithers, 1899). The copy in Yeats's library is inscribed and dated 'Saty 22.7.99', followed by the last five lines of Blake's poem The Golden Net'. In the light of Yeats's observation that 'he could only keep down his passion with the most bitter struggle' (CV A, p. x), it is suggestive that Horton should cite this poem about 'ungratified desires'.

Horton also sent a copy of his Poe to Haggard, who thought 'the illustrations wonderfully good especially that of the Raven on the Bust' (unpublished letter dated II October 1899). 70 The Academy 59, No. 1418 (8 July 1899) contains Horton's 'fanciful portrait of

the Irish poet and mystic, Mr. William Butler Yeats' reproduced in this article. The editorial note accompanying the picture observes that

Mr. Horton, as joint author with Mr. Yeats of A Book of Images, should know his subject well. He has made his picture both a portrait and criticism. Mr. Yeats's experiments in necromancy are suggested by the retort and the volume on which he stands, his poetry and mysticism by other books; and there is, in fact, nothing in the drawing that has not special significance. One thing, however, the artist has not quite realized-Mr. Yeats's height. The poet is long and willowy (p. 28).

One book open on a table contains astrological symbols, and the book on which he stands has GD symbols on the spine. Four other books on the floor are Yeats's: Poems, Rosa Alchemica, The Secret Rose, and William Blake. Since Horton was drawing attention to Yeats's occult works (with his approval surely), it is surprising not to find The Tables of the Law /The Adoration of the Magi (1897) among the titles. Horton's original drawing is in my possession.

71 On 9 April Haggard invited Horton to come to London for lunch on the 14th. On 12 April he wrote again to Horton asking him to bring a few of his dra wings and the Book of Images and informing him that Andrew Lang would be present. Yeats's name 'cropped up' at the luncheon, probably in connection with his Introduction to A Book of Images. The following year Horton dedicated The Grig's Book (London:


Moffatt & Paige, 1900) to Lang. Yeats also received an inscribed copy of this book, now in the possession of Anne Yeats.

72 CVA, p. xix. 73 'The Philosophy of Shelley's Poetry', Part I ('His Ruling Ideas') appeared in The

Dome, New Series, 7, No. 21 Ouly 1900), 75-83. Yeats wrote to his sister Lily on 12 July 1899 that he was making notes for his essay (Letters, p. 323).

74 Published by T. Fisher Unwin in May 1898, Evelyn Innes was dedicated 'To Arthur Symons and W. B. Yeats Two Contemporary Writers with Whom I Am in Sympathy'. Yeats appears in the novel as Ulick Dean. Horton designed the cover for Unwin's Popular Edition of 1901.

75 Although George Moore probably was aware of The Brotherhood of the New Life, he certainly would not have had any interest in Harris's theory of eternal counterparts.

76 Letters, pp. 32 5 - 6.

CHAPTER 2

1 Allan Bennett (Iehi Aour) joined the Golden Dawn in 1894, having, like Yeats, previously been a member of the Esoteric Section of the Theosophical Society. An analytical chemist, Bennett was respected by his colleagues in the Golden Dawn as a master of ceremonial magic. He was a friend and teacher of Aleister Crowley. Early in 1900, partially on account of health, Bennett emigrated first to Ceylon, then to Burma, and became a Buddhist monk (Bhikku Ananda Metteya). Yeats mentions but does not name him in the Dedication to V A, suggesting that he had not heard anything about Bennett for some ten years (p. x). For further details see Howe, passim, and The Confessions of Aleister Crowley (London: Jonathan Cape, 1969), passim.

2 See YGD, p. 25. For details of the quarrel, including the resolutions passed at the meeting, see also my article' "Meditations upon Unknown Thought": Yeats's Break with MacGregor Mathers', Yeats Studies, I, (1971), pp. 175-202.

3 Letters, p. 346. 4 Yeats's letter of Monday, 2 July, was in answer to a note which had been

forwarded to Coole Park. Yeats wrote that he had 'stayed in expecting you' before leaving for Ireland the next day. Ifhe stayed in on Friday, Horton's usual day for coming to London, Yeats is probably referring to Friday 22June rather than 29 June, but I cannot be certain.

5 For details, see YGD, pp. 27ff. 6 Yeats refers to The Grig's Book. 7 See Schneider and Lawton, p. 566, for the proposed list of 16 pamphlets, of

which 12 were published. 8 See Ingpen, pp. 75 ff., for sketchy details of Horton's life and movement during

these 'lost' years. 9 Horton wrote to Haggard on 24 April 1904 telling him of the proposedjourney

to South Africa and asking for an introduction to 'anyone out there' who could help him find 'work in the open' but remain 'free so that in my leisure I can pursue my Art if need be'. 'Alas!' Haggard wrote in reply, 'after nearly a quarter ofa century of absence I know no one there now to whom I can introduce you. There is a new

Notes

generation in the place' (unpublished letter dated 29 May 1904). Since Horton apparently sailed from Liverpool on 12 May, he received this letter in South Africa. On 16 August Haggard replied to a now-lost letter expressing regret 'that the African scheme proved fruitless' and enclosing 'an introduction to an old friend of mine, who might be able to help you'. It is clear that Horton was in rather dIre straits, perhaps psychological as well as financial.

10 See Morton Cohen, Rider Haggard: His Life and Work (London: Macmillan, 1968), pp. 239-40. Haggard greatly enjoyed this inspection tour: he visited several camps, interviewed President Roosevelt, and got a 'commitment from the Canadian Government for 240,000 acres of land to be used in settling British immigrants' (p. 241). Returning in April, he published a report which became in popular form The Poor and the Land (1905). II I am indebted to Dr Thomas E. Conroy, Quinn's executor, for permission to '

quote from his unpublished letters, and to the New York Public Library for providing the typescripts from which I quote. For further information about Yeats's relationship to Quinn, see Alan B. Himber's unpublished dissertation: The Letters of John Quinn to William Butler Yeats, 1902- 192]' (Florida State University, 1977).

12 Horton was apparently preoccupied with this image of the unruly dark horse, which is ultimately traceable to Plato's Phaedrus myth (sections 253-4). Years later he expanded the image in a warning to Yeats which, as I will explain, was to change the course of his life and thought (see pp. 59- 63 above).

13 Although there is evidence in much of Miss Horniman's unpublished and some published correspondence that she disagreed with Yeats almost from the beginning of her subsidy of the Abbey Theatre, she did not finally withdraw until she found an excuse in the failure of the Theatre to close on Saturday, 7 May, the day after the death of King Edward VII (see LWBY, pp. 226-7 and 228-9).

14 He refers to The Way oj the Soul: A Legend in Line and Verse (London: William Rider & Son, 1910). An autographed copy is in Yeats's library. Haggard, who bought a copy when it came out, expressed the 'hope that it will be successful though the public that likes mystical things is necessarily limited' (12 December 1910). Horton must have responded at once to this comment. On 14 December Haggard wrote to him asking if his 'spiritual wanderings' had brought him 'in contact with the court of Meneptah (son of Ramases II)'. Haggard wanted details for 'a story of the Exodus of the Israelites' which he was planning. 'I suppose', he said, 'there isn't any receipt for getting oneself back to old Egypt. How do you do it? I should like to go.' Horton had sought for information about the ancient Egyptians in the British Museum. Yeats preserved an undated sheet of paper containing brief biographical details about several obscure historical figures, including three Egyptians and their dynasties. On 24 December Haggard wrote to thank Horton for a letter and an enclosure with 'facts about the Israelites'. Numerous of Haggard's letters of the next few months suggest that Horton must have bombarded Haggard with the information he had requested. Finally, Horton visited Haggard's country home in Norfolk to talk about his theories and experiences.

15 During these and the following months Yeats was especially interested in the work of the Society for Psychical Research. He attended many seances, including that at which the spirit of Leo Africanusfirst appeared (9 May 1912); and he observed for many days the automatic writing of Elizabeth Radcliffe, about which he wrote 'Preliminary Examination of the Script ofER', finished in October 1913 (see YO, pp. 130-71). Becoming an Associate Member of the Society for Psychical Research in


February 1913, he observed many of its experiments and no doubt became well acquainted with numerous important members who were to affect his life and thought, as I will suggest later in this study.

16 eVA, p. xix. Yeats appears to have combined Horton's title with that of Cecil French's Between Sun and Moon, which he received as a gift in June .1922 (LWBY, p. 424).

17 The Occult Review, 16, NO.5 (November 1912), 266-9· 18 Ibid., p. 268. 19 Christopher Hassall, Rupert Brooke (New York: Harcourt Brace & World,

1964), p. 373· 20 Ibid., p. 374. Brooke's shirt had been made for him by his friend Ka Cox, who

said that Yeats had asked her 'where he could get such stuff-he needs a dark flannel semi-pyjama garb to wear in the mornings about his house'.

21 Christopher Hassall, Edward Marsh: Patron of the Arts (London: Longman, 1959), p. 21 I. See also Rupert Brooke, p. 380.

22 Letters, p. 577-8. In a letter to Lady Gregory (postmarked 5 March 1913) Yeats wrote that 'Craig came here on Sunday and at once discovered Robert's designs'.

23 Yeats was leaving that day but planned to stop over on the way at Birmingham, 'where a play of mine is being played'.

24 The date of8 October 1913 at the end of Yeats's manuscript establishes that as the date of its completion. He revised it the following June but did not publish it. For details see note 15.

25 Joseph Hone, W. B. Yeats, 2nd ed. (London: Macmillan, 1962), suggests 1912 as the date (p. 259), but Virginia Moore, The Unicorn (New York: Macmillan, 1954), reports that George Yeats told her the year was 1910 (p. 229).

26 The typescript of the 'Preliminary Examination' mentions a script dated 30 October 1910.

27 For further details see YO, pp. 133 and 138, and Moore, The Unicorn, p. 229. 28 I am indebted to Senator Yeats for permission to quote from this unpublished

notebook. 29 According to the OED, a planchette is 'an instrument, invented about 1855,

used in the investigation of automatism and other psychical phenomena, consisting of a small board, generally heart-shaped, supported by two castors and a vertical pencil, which, when one or more persons rest their fingers lightly on the board, is said to trace lines or letters, and even to write sentences, without conscious direction or effort.'

30 See Hone, p. 272. 31 Although the transcript at Reading is dated 8 June, the circumstances and the

subject of the telegram make clear that the date was 8July. Horton was asked to wire his answer to the Court Theatre, London, where Yeats was spending much time supervising a production of Shaw's Blanco Posnet, which opened on 14 July.

32 Donald B. Torchiana and Glen O'Malley, 'Some New Letters from W. B. Yeats to Lady Gregory', A Review of English Literature, 4, NO.3 (July 1963),33. The medium was Elizabeth Radcliffe. Many of her experiments with automatic writing were carried on at Daisy Meadows, Mrs Fowler's country home.

33 Letters, p. 582. 34 Ibid., pp. 582- 3· Yeats continued to talk about the Radcliffe experiments in

letters to Lady Gregory dated 28 July, 9 August, and 17 August (Torchiana and O'Malley, pp. 35- 8). The letter of 17 August was written at The Prelude, the home

Notes

near Ashdown Forest of the Tuckers (mother and step-father of Georgie Hyde-Lees). 35 I have been unable to find the Appendix, which Yeats mentioned several times. 36 Ibid., p. 584. Yeats was speaking of Mrs Etta Wreidt, an American medium then

staying in Hampstead, where Horton and Miss Locke were living. See Richard Ellmann, Yeats: The Man and the MiJsks (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1948), p. 195.

37 Ibid., p. 583. 38 The Beloved above with the dazzling crown is reminiscent of Harris's

counterpart, the heavenly Lily Queen. 39 'Ribh Denounces Patrick', line 4. Yeats's thoughts about the deleterious effect

of abstract ideas may reflect the influence of John Butler Yeats: 'What you say is true about abstract ideas. They are one's curse and one has sometimes to work for months before they are eliminated, or till the map has become a country. Yet, in some curious way, they are connected with poetry or rather with passion, one half its life and yet its enemy' (12 September 1914, Letters, p. 588).

40 Yeats had been assisting Lady Gregory accumulate the 'evidence' which was published in Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland, 2 vols (New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1920), to which he contributed two essays based upon this spiritualistic evidence: 'Witches and Wizards and Irish Folk-Lore' and 'Swedenborg, Mediums, and the Desolate Places' (dated 14 October 1914).

41 Visions and Beliefs . .. (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe, 1970), p. 312. Yeats thought that 'An impulse towards what is definite and sensuous, and an indifference towards the abstract and the general' come 'out of the "folk'" (p. 319). He is perhaps thinking of Blake's aesthetic and epistemological theories.

42 Ibid., p. ]20. 43 Ibid., p. ]24· 'I do not write out of a little knowledge', Yeats said

parenthetically, and added in a note at the end of a long list of psychic investigators he had been reading: 'I have myself been a somewhat active investigator.'

44 See Letters, p. 589. 45 'The Mountain Tomb', line 12. Yeats wrote this poem in August 1912. 46 Yeats's At the Hawk's Well was performed at the Social Institute Union on 4

April 1916. It is not clear whether Horton was referring to a notice in The Observer for Sunday, 2 April, before the performance, or one on 9 April, after the performance. Both of them are primarily about the people who organized and were present at the event rather than the play itself, though the notice on 2 April does point out that Henry Ainley and Ito would take the principal roles and that Edmund Dulac had designed the masks and costumes. The reviewer of 9 April comments only that 'many strange effects were achieved' in Yeats's 'much-talked-of poetical play'. The remainder of the notice is devoted almost entirely to the socialites present, including Queen Alexandra, Princess Victoria, the Grand Duchess George of Russia, the Princess of Monaco, the Ranee ofSarawak, the Spanish Ambassadress, Mrs Asquith, the Duchess of Marlborough (,too late to find a seat'), Lady Randolph Churchill ('full of the burglary of her artistic treasures, which had taken place that morning'), and many others.

47 Jan Van Ruysbroeck (1293- 1381) was a famous Dutch mystic and visionary. Many of his unorthodox writings, which became morc traditional after he joined the Augustinians, would have appealed to. both Horton and Yeats-in particular, perhaps, The Sparkling Stone, which summarizes the ideas of Spiritual Nuptials.

48 eVA, p. x. 49 The account in eVA (p. x) is somewhat different. Cf. the recollection of Ernest


Rhys in Chapter I, note 9 above. Horton also wrote to Haggard about Miss Locke's death. On 7 August 1916, having returned 'to England after journeying round the world', he found Horton's letter. 'I am so sorry to hear of Miss Locke's death,' he wrote. 'She was both a gifted and a charming lady. It seems sad that she should have been taken away while still so young. What killed her?'

50 Yeats made one major and several minor changes in the Introduction when he revised it and reprinted it in Ideas of Good and Evil (1903). The Introduction is divided into three numbered parts. With minor changes in spelling and punctuation and the omission of Herrmann and Horton from a list of black-and-white artists, the first two sections were published as 'Symbolism in Painting'. The third part, a critical discussion of Horton's art, was dropped, and has only recently been reprinted. For further details see Richard). Finneran and George Mills Harper, '''He Loved Strange Thought": W. B. Yeats and William Thomas Horton', in YO, pp. 200- 3.

51 Horton's arithmetic was bad: A Book of Images was published in March 1898. 52 The reference to Karma reflects Horton's reading in theosophical literature.

According to Madame Blavatsky, Karma is 'the Ultimate Law of the Universe ... which adjusts effect to cause, on the physical, mental and spiritual planes of being .... The particular conditions of life in which each person finds himself, are nothing more than the retributive Karma which the individual generated in a previous life' (The Key to Theosophy [London: Theosophical Publishing House, n.d.] pp. 202- 3).

53 See Letters, p. 588, and 'Swedenborg, Mediums, and the Desolate Places', passim (Visions and Beliefs, pp. 3 I 1- 36).

54 Henry More was the most significant of the Cambridge Platonists and Plotinus the best of the Neoplatonists or Alexandrian Platonists. Both were favourite of Yeats. Rudolph Steiner was the German head of the Anthroposophical Society, who was closely connected to the Stella Matutina, the name taken by the Second Order of the Golden Dawn in 1903, which Yeats was a member of till its demise in 1922. H. P. B. is Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, founder of the Theosophical Society (see YGD, pp. 121- 52).

55 Harris may have instructed Oliphant, whom Horton refers to as 'Brother Lawrence', to live in celibacy. Yeats's suggestion that Horton 'could only keep down his passion with the most bitter struggle' (CV A, p. x) is similar to Oliphant's account of his own struggle: 'We lived as a sister and brother. I am a passionate lover, and so it was difficult, very difficult .... But it did not prove to be impossible. I was able to keep my vow, and I shall never regret having made it' (quoted in Schneider and Lawton, p. 265). The analogy between Oliphant and Horton may be carried one step further: both suffered breakdowns which may have been brought on by their struggle to maintain continence under difficult conditions.

Despite Horton's denial of any further interest in occultism, it is clear in a letter from Haggard that Horton had continued to experiment. On 24 December 1916, Haggard responded to a letter which unfortunately is not preserved:

I am very interested in what you say about "communications" with Miss A. I do not understand how these came about. A medium is generally supposed to be necessary, unless automatic writing is used-but you seem to have none and yet to get in touch with others besides Miss A.

I have been reading Raymond, Oliver Lodge's new book, describing his intercourse with his dead son. I must say it disappoints me in some ways. It may be

Notes

foolish but I cannot imagine that anyone on the "other side" would make use of outrageous slang etc. Surely there is some dignity there.

Yeats also read Raymond, and was amused at some of the language (see eVA, p. 240, and the note on p. 77).

Horton must have replied to Haggard immediately. On 29 December he wrote to invite Horton to dinner on Sunday the 31st, which is the date of four written questions about life after death which Haggard suggested might be asked of Miss Locke:

ask (I) Is there any truth in the tale of reincarnations told when Miss A was present at a certain house in Wallington Place? (2) also of the movement of certain persons present to another planet on the completion of life? ask (3) What name did the owner of the House and another give to Miss A & thereafter call her by? ask (4) Can Miss A give to the questioner any message from departed ones who were attached to that questioner, be they male or female, which will convince the said questioner that the personal identity of the disembodied entity sending the message still survives in some other state, and, surviving remember?

56 See the letter of 30 July 1896, in which Horton discusses at some length the struggle of the forces of Venus and Mars in his nature.

57 The typed copy of this letter in Yeats's Horton file has a note at the top of the first page explaining the circumstances leading to the letter. The note was probably written by Wade, who then decided not to include the letter in his edition.

58 Yeats was in France, at the home of Maud Gonne, by Tuesday, 7 August (Letters, p. 628).

59 Letters, p. 263. Not knowing the context of the argument, Wade has misdated this letter, placing it between two letters of May 1896.

60 This note, dated only 'Sunday night', was obviously left after Yeats had called in person at Horton's flat.

61 Letters, p. 630. According to Jeffares, who relied upon a conversation with Maud, Yeats 'delivered an ultimatum to Iseult' on the boat from France to England: 'she must make up her mind one way or the other' (W. B. Yeats: Man and Poet, 2nd ed. [London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1962], p. 190). Cf. Moore, The Unicorn, p. 25 2.

62 Ibid., p. 632. 63 Ibid. 64 Ibid. 'I wrote to Mrs. Tucker from France thinking that Iseult was going to

Dublin and that I would not see her for months.' My guess is that Yeats had tried to arrange, while he was in London in the first week of September, for Maud and Iseult to return to Ireland, and had thought his efforts were successful. At this time he certainly had decided to propose marriage to Georgie Hyde-Lees.

65 Most likely, he had gQne to the Arts Club so that Maud and Iseult could have his flat.


66 Letters, p. 630. See note 64. 67 Ibid., p. 631. 68 Ibid., p. 632. Probably to The Prelude, their country house in Sussex. George

went to London on 1 October for the publishing of the banns (Moore, The Unicorn, pp. 252- 3)·

69 Passages from the Letters of John Butler Yeats: Selected by Ezra Pound (Dublin: Cuala Press, 1917).

70 Yeats had apparently become interested in Peguy in 1916 while he was visiting Maud. Writing from Colville, France, in August, Yeats informed Sturge Moore that he was 'starting Iseult on what I hope will grow to be a book about the new French Catholic poets .... Peguy I find impressive but monotonous.' Some days later Yeats added that Peguy's 'Christianity is of course for us impossible' (W. B. Yeats and T. Sturge Moore: Their Correspondence, ed. Ursula Bridge [London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1953], pp. 25-6). Back in London the following month, Yeats wrote to Macmillan suggesting publication of ' the first volume ofPeguy'sJoan of Arc trilogY'.in the 'entirely admirable' translation which 'a young friend of mine has begun'. 'My friend', he added without identifying Iseult, 'is half English and half French and has, I believe, a remarkable sense of style, a ramarkable feel for the music and colour of words.' Yeats offered to provide a preface or introduction if Macmillan desired it. Nothing came of the proposal (see Letters to Macmillan, ed. Simon NowellSmith [London: Macmillan, 1967], pp. 292- 3).

71 See letter to Lady Gregory dated 4 January 1918: 'A very profound, very exciting mystical philosophy-which seems the fulfillment of many· dreams and prophecies-is coming in strange ways to George and myself. It began of a sudden when things were at their worst with me, and just when it started came this curious message from Bessie Radcliffe, "They departed with the rewards of divination in their hands".' On I2January Yeats wrote to Lady Gregory that they were planning to have Bessie Radcliffe visit over a weekend (Letters, pp. 643-4).

72 VB, p. 8. 73 For a detailed account of the extent of the automatic writing and its

development into V A, see my Editorial Introduction, CV 4, passim. 74 Ibid., p. xii. In the following analysis of the significance of this note, I have

summarized and frequently repeated not only details but often the phraseology of my Editorial Introduction in CV A.

75 I am quoting from Lady Lyttelton's unpublished 'Reminiscences of Yeats' (part ofMS 5919, National Library ofIreiand) which was written in 1940 at the request of Joseph Hone, Yeats's biographer. I am indebted to Pro(essors Mary F. and Richard). Finneran for bringing the 'Reminiscences' to my attention.

76 I am indebted to Senator Yeats for permission to quote from the unpublished notebooks containing the Automatic Script and records of the Sleeps which are now available in microfilm in the Yeats Archives at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

77 CV A, p. 78. 78 The language of Horton's prophetic advice to Yeats is greatly indebted to

Harris, who taught that 'the word for all who truly breathe in God ... is only Silence' (Schneider and Lawton, p. xviii). Horton's belief that the 'two lives become one' when 'the Light breaks through' and that 'Heaven & Earth are married' is also clearly indebted to Harris's doctrines: one of his books is entitled The Lord: the Twoin-One . .. , another The Marriage of Heaven and Earth . ... Horton may also have

Notes

been recalling Madame Blavatsky's The Voice of Silence. A letter from Haggard dated 30 May 1918 suggests that Horton had not in fact

'given up all spirit is tic things'. 'I gather', Haggard wrote, 'that you are convinced of the reality of these messages.' He concluded with a word of advice which the of tensceptical Yeats probably would have approved: The danger always is that the wish should prove the father to the thought with the result of self deception.'

79 Letters from the Teacher (of the Order of 15) transmitted by Rahmea, priestess of the flame (1909) was edited by F. Homer Curtiss; The Voice of Isis, by the Teacher of the Order of 15 (19 I 2) was transcribed by Harriette A. and F. Homer Curtiss. I have been unable to find these books.

80 The note was delivered on Monday at 6.45. Since it mentions 'my wife' and was written before the Yeatses returned to Ashdown Forest for the Christmas holidays and, I think, before a letter from Horton dated 17 December, Horton must have received it on 18 or 26 November or 3 or 10 December.

8 I In an unpublished letter (written at Ashdown Cottage on 20 December) to Sir William Barrett (President of the Society for Psychical Research in 1904). Yeats apologized for missing a dinner party and explained that he and George had finished the work that had brought them to London. This work had consisted of seances about the Hugh Lane pictures, consultations with friends about the System of A Vision, and additional automatic writing. From 20 November to 7 December, after a week of no Script, they conducted 21 sessions, during which Yeats asked 723 questions and George recorded 284 pages. After another barren interval they returned to Ashdown Forest, probably on 19 or 20 December. 'We are panicstricken refugees', Yeats added in excuse of their hurried departure; the 'racket' of air-raids had interfered with their work, much of which was 'done in the evenings'.

82 Letters, p. 644. 83 On I2January Yeats wrote to Lady Gregory: 'We are asking people for week

ends-Iseult next week, then Bessie Radcliffe, and Mrs. Aldington, a scholar and poet' (Letters, p. 644). Horton is not mentioned, possibly because Lady Gregory disapproved of what he represented to Yeats.

84 Ingpen, p. 19: •... for a time he appears to have regained his normal health, but the symptoms recurred. It was really the beginning of his fatal illness.'

85 While in London (possibly Wednesday through Sunday), the Yeatses stayed at 38 Montpelier Street, near the Knightsbridge tube station, in a flat loaned by a friend. They were in Dublin on II March, recording a brief session of automatic writing that evening. Three days later they were in Glendalough, where they remained,until 28 March, then moved nearby to Glenmalure. During almost every day of this very significant period, they were especially excited over the Automatic Script, perhaps because they were in Ireland for the first time since their amazing discovery. On or before 7 April they moved to Coole Park, where they remained for the summer to supervise the renovation of Ballylee, the old Norman tower Yeats had purchased in 19 16.

86 The breakdown occurred on 10 October according to Ingpen (pp. 20-1). 87 Yeats had apparently told Horton something about a very trying experience he

had undergone at 73 Stephen's Green, where he and George were living in Maud Gonne's flat. Early one morning while George was recovering from the influenza, Maud, who had escaped from a prison hospital, knocked at the door expecting refuge. Fearing for George's health, Yeats turned Maud away, and a stormy scene

90 Yeats and Horton: The Record of an Oault Friendship

followed. When 'the town got wind of the incident', Yeats was accused of a lack of patriotism and even a conspiracy to retain possession of her house (see Hone, p. 314).

88 Horton also informed Ingpen of his intention: 'In his last note he wrote to me on December 12th, he said "Tu ne seras pas supris d'entendre que je vais devinir un R. c., il n'y'a pas d'autre moyen pour moi'" (p. 21).

89 In fact, Horton probably knew that Yeats had experimented with drugs. In section xx of 'The Tragic Generation', he recorded an early experience in Paris: 'I take hashish with some followers of the eighteenth-century mystic Saint-Martin.' Yeats recalled their vague dreams, wild talk, and dancing at 'one in the morning' (Autobiographies, p. 347).

90 By this time Yeats had already written the early drafts of A Vision, which were cast in the form of a dialogue between Michael Robartes and Owen Aherne. These drafts suggest that A Vision was planned as an extention of Per Amica.

91 Per Amica Silentia Lunae (London: Macmillan, 1918), pp. 92, 94. It was published on 18 January.

92 I am indebted to Mr Frank R. Horton, a distant relative, for copies of the wills of Horton and his sister.

CONCLUSION

I See Estelle W. Stead, My Father (London: Thomas Nelson & Sons, n.d.), pp. 320-45. In his well-known journal entitled Borderland Stead published the correspondence of the dead Julia A. Ames in a series of LettersfromJulia (1893), later enlarged and published as a book entitled After Death (1897, new ed. 1914). Stead insisted that he was merely the 'Amanuensis'. Julia's Bureau was formally opened on 24 April 1909 with Mowbray House as its London office and Cambridge House, Stead's home in Wimbledon, as its 'Inner Sanctuary'. I have found no record that Yeats attended meetings at Mowbray House, but he was often at Cambridge House.

2 The Control was perhaps recalling the girl in Blake's poem 'Mary', which E.). Ellis and Yeats published in The Works of William Blake (London: Bernard Quaritch, 1893), III, 81-2; it is also included in Yeats's collection of The Poems of William Blake (London: Lawrence & Bullen, 1893), pp. 133-5.

3 I am indebted to John Sparrow, Warden of All Souls College, for this information.

4 The London Mercury (March 1921), New Republic (9 March 1921), and Seven Poems and a Fragment (1922).

5 I am indebted to Professor William M. Murphy for bringing this unpublished letter to my attention. Further on in the letter John Butler made an ironic observation which might not have pleased either Yeats or Horton: 'Your mystical theories give me exactly the same pleasure which I get from Catholic doctrines. Both are the expression of desire.'

6 Again, I am indebted to Professor Murphy. Yeats, who was as certain as Blake that vision is precise, would have disagreed strongly with another of John Butler's ironic observations: 'In mysticism one can be as ingenious as one wants to be and indulge in any kind of theory.'

Notes 91

7 'All Souls' Night', lines 21- 3. 8 Compare eVA, p. x. Yeats changed 'dear friend' to 'close friend' and 'he ceased

to care for anything' to 'he cared for little'. 9 Hone, p. 153.

10 Yeats recalled one of Horton's visions in 1925, the year he completed A Vision. See Early Poems and Stories (London: Macmillan, 1925), p. 527. II Blake, p. 157.

Correspondence

The following catalogue contains all the letters from Horton preserved in Yeats's papers, which are now in the possession of Senator Michael B. Yeats. Though I have sought diligently and long for Horton's executors and members of his immediate family, I have been unable to locate them. Through the courtesy of Senator Yeats and Professor John Kelly, editor of the forthcoming comprehensive collection of Yeats's letters by Oxford University Press, I am also permitted to include herein brief summaries of Yeats's letters, arranged chronologically to cast some light on the vacillation and development of this strange friendship. I have been unable to examine the originals, which are now at the Humanities Research Center, University of Texas. For the dates (sometimes conjectural) and headings I am indebted to the late Terence I. H. F. Armstrong ('John Gawsworth'), whose transcriptions I have quoted. The texts of five letters from Yeats to Horton (one misdated in Wade) are reprinted here by permission of Macmillan of London and N ew York.

For convenience Yeats's letters are identified by Arabic numerals, Horton's by Roman.

1. London, 3 March 1896.

Yeats informs Horton that he can see him initiated into the Golden Dawn on Saturday, the 21st.

I Brighton 28 March 1896

My dear Yeats I must write & thank you most warmly for laying my drawings

before Symons who has very kindly chosen 3 for the forthcoming "Savoy."

92

Correspondence 93

The reading of your Poetry has been a great delight to me, many things I have felt come into your Poems. "The Rose" series especially appeals to me, in fact I have tried to render my feelings by a face, it is just an idea, a sketch for

"Red Rose, proud Rose, sad Rose of all my days!" (Symons has seen it & likes it, I am happy to say) I feel this right thro' & thro' every part of my being. I for one am gratefui for such a poem.

"Red R,ose, proud Rose, sad Rose of all my days." It keeps on returning-it'll never leave me-I am glad of it.

I had been reading your Poems last Tuesday when there came over me a feeling of majestic, mighty power, strength, justice, wisdom & calmness which I tried to depict by a face. I seemed to get into an Egyptian sphere & as I worked in my inward ear came the word MenKa-ra, several times. After finishing the drawing I looked thro' a list of Egyptian kings & found Men-Kau-Ra 4th dynasty (B.C. 363 3~ 3600) renowned for his virtues & justice. Most likely I had read this name before, but at the time I was decidedly not thinking about him (Ramses II (Tetostis [?]) would have been the most likely name, seeing he was supposed to be one of my Spirits in the old days of Spiritism) Ysty. I find that he is sometimes called "Men-Kau-ra" at others & more often "Men-Ka-ra." This is most singular, especially the Ka. Happening to write to D.B. I mentioned it to him & he tells me the influence he thinks good but I must remain positive. On Wedy I did Isis & felt a pleasurable inclination to burn incense while & after drawing her. I then looked up the signs of the Zodiac. On Thursday I did Ptah the "Supreme Artist."

Quite Egyptian you see-the feeling & the time is very pleasant & gentle yet mighty in Power, certainly no constraint. I can do it or leave it.

I remember what you told me about the "Priestess ofIsis." This Egyptian phase coming immediately after the meeting I thought you might care to hear of it. Is it possible to be thus occultly, as it were, initiated into the Mysteries little by little-I have not received any papers from the G.D.

I can't help thinking you right about my star being Venus & not Virgo as suggested by Miss H. I have always been in love with some girl ever since I was a child. Always some girl that I idealized, put on a pinnacle & tried to keep myself pure for her sake. If it was not one girl it was another. I can't help thinking that if! had not married young & also had a very strong spiritual bent, I might have given full sway to the Venus proclivities. But more of this when we meet. I shall be


looking forward to my horoscope at your leisure. Now, my dear Yeats, for Heaven's sake don't feel that it is

necessary to write me in answer to this-altho' I need hardly say how delighted I should be for your opinion. I have only written thinking it may interest you & above all to offer you my deepest & heartiest thanks. With warmest wishes

Believe me Your's very sincerely & fraternally

WILLlAM T. HORTON P.S. I shall not be in Town till Friday week (Ap. loth) when I hope to see Mr Symons at Fountain Court at 2 p.m.

2. London, 13 April 1896 (reprinted from Letters, pp. 260- I).

My dear Horton, I received the enclosed from 'A.P.S.' to-day. You should apply to

him for MSS which is I believe the rule. I would have told you this but it is so long since I was a neophyte that I have forgotten the details; and supposed as you do that the instruction came from the Order.

Egyptian faces may very well come to you after your initiation, as the Order is greatly under Egyptian influence; but one can never say whether a specified vision is or is not authentic without submitting it to an actual occult examination. The great matter is to remain positive to all apparitions and to work on in the G[olden] D[awn] as far as the 5 - 6 grade before attempting much or any practical occult work such as invocation. You should get A.P.S. to send you with your material for examination 'The Banishing Lesser Ritual of the Pentegram' as you are entitled to it and may find it of importance. It is a great help against all obsession.

I am greatly pleased that you are pleased with my verses, particularly that you like 'Red Rose.'

II Brighton

My dear Yeats

Your's sincerely W B YEATS

18 April 1896

May I have the pleasure of seeing you at Woburn Buildings next Friday at 2 p.m.? I have several things I'd like to speak about.

Correspondence 95

I had intended calling yesty. But Symons tells me that 7 is your best time & alas! this was too late for me. Besides the rest of the day you are busy & I feel sure would not care to be disturbed in the middle of work.

So you see I have had to write you after all. If! do not hear from you I shall take it that I can come at 2 p.m. as

suggested. I'll bring with me the rest of the H. pamphlets which I do not think you have read & also return your poems with sincerest thanks.

With warmest wishes

[at top of page]

Your's very sincerely WILLIAM T. HORTON

Have received Banishing etc. from A. P. S.

3. London, 23 April 1896.

Yeats invites Horton to come by 18 Woburn Buildings and asks him ifhe gave misplaced information about his horoscope 'to me or to Miss Horniman'.

III Brighton 29 April 1896

My dear Yeats It is with extreme regret that I have to tell you that I cannot proceed

any further with the G. D. Personally I find it extremely antagonistic in 3 ways-(I) As a

follower of Jesus Christ, (2) as a Brother of the New Life (3) as an artist. Harris' message to me was "If he-she can hold themselves up to the Divine One-Twain alone, and not become involved in the nature-play through spiritism, and other detractors, he-she will some day become a great artist."

The G. D. has been undoubtedly a detractor for several days now I have not done any good work.

Believe me my dear Yeats that it is not without much cogitation that I have come to this conclusion, but I am fully convinced that for me the only safe path is Jesus Christ & He alone.

From what I have seen of you I feel sure that this decision will in no way affect the warmth of your feelings towards me. The only thing I


am worrying about is that you should have had the trouble of initiating me, but how could I know of this antagonism until I had joined & experienced it.

Am looking forward to seeing you at 2 p.m. on Friday week (May 8th) when perhaps you will be able to let me take away some of the Harris books as I shall be seeing somebody about the 16th & want them for reference.

With warmest wishes

P.S. Have written to Respiro.

Your's very sincerely, WILLIAM T. HORTON

4. London, 30 April 1896 (reprinted from Letters, pp. 261-2).

My dear Horton, I am very sorry to hear your decision about G.D. If I thought it

were any use I would urge you to get permission from the G.D. to delay for a time and so be sure of not acting upon a sudden impulse. Even a month, which you could quite well take without any explanation to the Order, would make your decision safer. People with your ascendant are almost always dangerously impulsive and should guard themselves against their own defects. Our Order is not, as you seem to think, 'spiritist' in any sense but wholly opposed to spiritism. (I should have thought the Harris sentences referred rather to the Red Hill and the like experiences.) Nor is our Order antiChristian. That very pentagram which I suggested your using is itself, as you would presently have learned, a symbol of Christ. I am convinced however that for you progress lies not in dependence upon a Christ outside yourself but upon the Christ in your own breast, in the power of your own divine will and divine imagination, and not in some external will or imagination however divine. We certainly do teach this dependence only on the inner divinity, but this is Christianity. The uttermost danger lies for you in emotional religion, which will sap your will and wreck your self control. I do not mean that you cannot progress outside the G.D. but that you should read or study in some unemotional and difficult school. Jacob Boehme is certainly the greatest of the Christian mystics since the middle ages and none but an athletic student can get to the heart of his mystery. You would I thin~ find him consonant with your temperament. But no matter what school you study in you must expect to find progress

Correspondence 97 beset by false intuition and the persecution of phantoms. Our past and its elementals, masked often as angels of light, rise up always against our future. Of course my friendship has nothing to do with your going on or not going on in the G.D.

Yours ever W B YEATS

I shall look out for you on Friday.

IV Brighton 1 May 1896

My dear Yeats Your letter has made me very ha ppy especiall y that where you say

my present action in no way affects our friendship. As it happens you do not know my views on Christ.

Altho' I believe in Him as having lived & suffered on earth & risen & is God, I believe that He dwells within each one of us in some more fully than in others. It is this Inner Christ that I am following. This to my mind is the counterpartal truth & as the highest love of men & women is for the opposite sex, it is but right that the holiest & highest Love (God is Love) should take the form of one of the opposite sex.

Christ immanent as woman in man, and man in woman. It is in faithfulness to the Christ within me that I have given up the

G.D. which imparts knowledge from the outer. I believe that by following Christ & Christ alone it is possible to reach unto all knowledge. Thus Harris thro' doing so has passed thro' all the secret knowledge of the G.D. Theosophy etc. & has attained a higher plane than either of these. Also the Christ will lead to what books to read, people to know or shun etc. Every minute I feel that I have obeyed Christ in doing as I have done but that for some reason it was necessary for me to glance at the G.D. just as I had to glance at Spiritualism, Atheism, Orthodox religion (I was brought up as Church of England), Maitland etc. At the present I find Harris contains the highest teaching and blends sympathetically with the Christ within. So far I feel that I have entered the right sphere & influences. Day by day I feel greater spiritual strength & less of the emotional. Do you know I am surprised at your remaining in the G.D., you a student of Blake.

The G.D. to my mind, lays itself out to only cultivate what Blake deprecates & that is the Intellect alone while it crushes that that Blake upheld the Feminine or Feeling. Now Harris like Blake upholds the


Union of both in Equality. However I feel convinced that in the present day the Intellect only has been cultivated & that, at the expense of the Intuitional. I believe that this accounts greatly for the stationary state of Art. Now you see Art has but little, if anything, to do with the Intellect-I mean the dry, matter of fact, collecting of divers knowledge Intellect. The more a man knows the worse ArtistI refer to Poets as well as Painters & Musicians-he becomes. Forgive my saying so, my dear Yeats, but I verily believe it would be better for you to have nothing to do with the G.D., but to rely on the Inner Christ alone.

In Spiritual matters all knowledge from the outside is tainted by magnetisms etc. The Christ within will teach all that is necessary and what is especially to be noted The right thing at the right time. Having Christ within-what on earth! is the use of the G.D. or any other socy. unless for selfish ends such as the man you told me of who by the G.D. increases his vitality or merely for the sake of knowing or out of necessity as a hobby or a pastime. But more of this I hope when we meet at 2, next Friday (today I have not come up to Town.) I only wanted you to know that as to the Inner Christ lout-Herod, Herod.

Of course I don't expect you to write an answer to this, it was very kind of you to write so long a letter as you did.

With warmest wishes Yrs very sincerely WILLIAM T. HORTON

Strange you should mention Boehme. I have often wanted to read more of him. The little I have seen of him has much interested me. Now you mention him I shall make it a point oflooking him up, also the Kabalah Unveiled.

5· London, 5 May 1896 (reprinted from Letters, pp. 262- 3).

My dear Horton, A friend who is only in London for a da y has summoned me to him

for Friday afternoon. I shall therefore be out from 2 o'clock. Could you come at 11.30 instead and breakfast with me (you will have breakfasted so long before that it will nearly serve for lunch). I do not agree with your letter but we can talk of other things. I hold as Blake would have held also, that the intellect must do its utmost 'before inspiration is possible.' It clears the rubbish from the mouth of the

Correspondence 99

sybil's ca ve but it is not the sybil. Even Miss Horniman is not so purely intellective as you think. She has (for months) given away thousands to help certain artistic purposes which she loves most passionately. She is merely one end of the beam, you and I are the other.


v Brighton 6 May 1896

My dear Yeats I shall be delighted to be with you at 11.30 this Friday & partake of

a cup of tea as I generally do when I come up to Town. This morning I had a vision of you, as I was lying in bed & just

before your letter came. I give it as it came & I know you'll take it in the right spirit & as it came to me.

I think you'll find that my visions are not very different to yours. You see I am a sure one for individuality. I have a perfect passion

for it & also that every man must work out his own individuality in his own way. I am quite as strong as Blake on this. I quite agree with you about the Intellect clearing away the rubbish from the mouth of the sybil's cave & that it is not the sybil.

But I most emphatically and strenuously deny the right of any man or Society telling me that the sybil's cave is still uncleared or on the other hand that it is cleared. The only judgment I bow to and acknow ledge is the Voice of Christ speaking within me. If I err or if I do not, at all events I am true to myself-my higher self.

I rejoice to hear what you tell me of Miss H. Far be it from me to harbour any ill feeling towards her, I make it a rule of nursing no ill feelings against anyone--how easy to misunderstand one another while still we see most things reversed thro' our earthly eyes-but at the same time there is such a thing as antipathy & sympathy, the which do not blend. To the best of my ability I try to Love everybody & it is not always easy.

Am looking forward to the exchange of views. With warmest wishes


I have much enjoyed Rosa Alchemica. There are many lovely things in it & the whole thing appeals very strongly to me.


"but the divine powers would only appear in beautiful shapes, which are but, as it were, shapes trembling out of existence, folding up into a timeless ecstasy, drifting with half shut eyes into a sleepy stillness. "

I remember you telling me this-it is exquisite & true. Often have I seen these lovely beings & vainly attempted to picture themhowever some day I hope to succeed. They are so indistinct that on paper they appear to a great extent formless. I shall have to try chalks some day.

The Unknown The Crown, Crest, or Apex Pure thought (Christ or Paul)

(Nous) Father Pure intellect

Thought. Intelligence

(Intuition) Mother (Sophia) Wisdom, Feeling, Will

Idea (Son of God)

I Materialized

I made above as an easy way of remembering something I read in a book called "Healing by Faith" by W. F. Grant.

By the bye I have never found my intuition lead me wrong. Take the G.D.; my intuition (Christ within) told me not tojoin but

earthly sense & logic saidjoin. The Voice was not very strong about it & doubtless, as I have said, Ijoined for some reason or other & having done the required work the Voice spoke with strength & command to withdraw myself.

I mean to follow the Voice more closely in future as I have had several encounters with terrible serpents etc. I call on Christ in spirit & behold immediately there flashes from over my right side a mighty figure in glittering armour, with drawn sword, that kills the serpent etc. or puts it to flight.

In fact I feel that, in the Spiritual, on guard by me, ever stands this armed figure to keep all hurt from me as I go on my way.

I feel sometimes that it is one of the arch-natural beings. The counterpart to guide, the guardian to defend & both Christ in

different aspects & forming part of the Christ within, the Christ as

Correspondence 101

incarnate in Jesus, and Christ by whom all things are & in whom all things rest, move & have their being.

As to emotional religion I now belong to no sect or church & never go to church or rarely as I find it affects me. This is again following the intuitions.

While I think of it, do you know that it is spiritually extremely dangerous to actively oppose Harris. He is extremely forgiving & of himself thinks nothing, but of course he is in touch with extraordinary forces & these are the Arch-Natural beings.

This is all strictly between you & me. Another cause of my leaving is Miss H. to whom I feel strangely & most virulently opposed & antagonistic. She is my bete noire. I hope you have not shewn her any of Harris' books.

Somehow I feel that she is not content to passively ignore Harris & the B.N.L. but she is actively engaged in opposing both him & all Powers that to her mind are not in harmony with NOUS & NOUS alone. She had better take care & beware. The Arch Natural beings are not to be trifled with.

Of course you must take this for what it is worth but this is how I feel inclined to write you.

Vision. It is night.

Yeats-naked and gaunt, with long black dishevelled hair falling partly over the face of a deathly whiteness, with eyes that flame yet have within them depths of unutterable sadness.

He is wearily going on his way following many lights that dance in front and at side of him.

Behind follows with outstretched arms a lovely girl in long trailing white garments, weeping.

Within Yeats, a knocking is heard & a Voice "My son, my son, open thou unto me & I will give th~e Light."

WILLIAM T. HORTON

6. London, 15 May 1896.

Yeats apologizes for missing an appointment with Horton at 3 o'clock on this date and invites him to breakfast when he is next in town.


7. London, 23 May 1896.

Yeats apologizes for not having replied to an invitation to visit the Hortons in Brighton, informs Horton that he has sent his horoscope to George Pollexfen, and asks the Hortons to lunch in London.

8. London, 28 May 1896.

Yeats accepts an invitation to dinner with the Hortons on the following day.

9. London, 29 May 1896.

Yeats informs Horton that he cannot come to Brighton because he has been told by Arthur Symons that a promised article on 'Blake and his Designs to Dante' (The Savoy, July 1896) is due on Monday. Not having 'written a word', Yeats asks Horton to convey his apologies to Mrs Horton.

10. London, 5 June 1896.

Again, Yeats apologizes for being unable to come to Brighton. Although he has finished the Blake article, he is involved in other matters which will keep him busy till Sunday, the 7th.

1 I. London, 12 June 1896.

Yeats accepts an invitation to come to Brighton on Saturday, the 13 th.

VI Brighton 25 June 1896

My dear Yeats Just a line to say that I shall not be coming up to London for my

holiday as proposed. We are going into the country, so from July

Correspondence

15th to 29th my address will be at Mrs. Watts

Brett's Farm Newrick

W. Lewes Sussex.

103

I am very, very sorry I should have spoken to you as I did about D.B. I am heartily ashamed of myself. Try & Forget all I said & instead remember that I would think only of him with love & as a dear brother, so would I prefer to think of all men.-

I may as well say that now I feel more myself. I utterly abhor all investigations by occult methods they are to me Anathema Maranatha.

When you have read Apocalypse, will you kindly return it me at your leisure, with the Fairy songs & my extract from the French book on Satanisme.

I have given my address when away, in case my horoscope should turn up. I was glad to see Garnett's letter in Dy [Daily] Chronicle & am looking every day for your's. I hope the letter will set matters right.


Dent is going to see me. I wrote him, as you so kindly suggested, but did not mention your name.

12. London, 21 July 1896.

Yeats returns books by Thomas Lake Harris, founder of The Brotherhood of the New Life. Apologizing for an enclosed horoscope drawn up by George Pollexfen, Yeats asks Horton to return it and volunteers to 'do the horoscope' himselflater on. Yeats explains that the Moon in conjunction with Mars should make Horton very hot-tempered.

VII Brighton 30 July 1896

My dear Yeats. We returned yesty, & have just received Harris' "Apocalypse" &

"Songs of Innocence."


I received my horoscope from D. B. yesty. He says "The enclosed is the approximate figure; but from the symbols I think it should be 1° later." He has 1864 June 27-12.5 a.m. Your Uncle has Midnight 27th. If this is not a slip of the pen it should of course read Midnight 26th. As I suggested the probability of birth being a few minutes after midnight, D. B. is correct so far in calling itJune 27-12.5 a.m. D. B. has only drawn the horoscope & the declinations, he will read it me when I go & see him on his return to Town about August loth. Shall you be away Friday week Aug. 7th. If not.I should like to call at whatever time most convenient to you & shew you D. B.'s horoscope. There are many things about your Uncle's & his that I should like to talk over with you. If you'll be a wa y of course I'll try & do it on paper, as I have kept a copy of your Uncle's horoscope.

I need hardly say how I shall be looking forward to knowing the outcome of my criticism. I should not have said so much but you told me your Uncle wanted a true criticism. Of course what I said in no way affects my appreciation of your Uncle's extreme kindness. D. B. has &,21.49 (your Uncle &'22.30) in T, but the other planets are differently situated.

Perhaps Midnight June 26th would be more correct. Your Uncle I may never ha ve the pleasure of seeing, but no doubt

when I see D. B. we may get at my birth more accurately. Miss H. and Virgo & the Moon seem out of it. The Mars seems correct if it represents a martial frame of mind in

things spiritual, indignation at wrongs & slights offered to others as well as myself etc. etc.

If I had been born in a different station, most likely I might have been a soldier. I have a great liking for the panoply of war, its action, bustle. When younger nothing pleased me better than to be taken for a soldier. By the by my father was one for a day or so but his shocked & frightened aunt bought him out.

Latterly in my dreams I have been engaged in military exploits. The night after receiving your Uncle's horoscope I found myself one of six clad in flashing steel blue armour, we seemed to be leaders. There was an army of steel blue armoured men as well.

The Chief was in the same armour but had a scarf formed of white dazzling hexagons (about 2 in square) on a black ground. I can see his long white moustache now, drooping down from his vizorless helmet. We were all without vizors & all on foot.

Last night clad in mail of the most exquisite suppleness, I was in your company looking at some black & white work. With us were

Correspondence 105

the Emperor of Germany & Bismark. I only remember your face but I don't think you had armour on. I seemed to be the only one in armour save perhaps the Emperor.

There was also a large Castle with its passages ankle deep in water & thro' which I waded.

The last I saw of myself was that in going to join an army of steel clad warriors I saw two immense boar hounds fighting. I turned aside to separate them. As I advanced towards them they disappeared.

Strange to say I was not aware of being sheathed in mail, the people I met told me of it.

There is some great fight coming on for which, in the Spiritual World, preparations are being made. When or how it will take place I know not, but, in all humility let me say it, I feel strongly that in this fight I am to take a leading part.

Yesterday in walking the Breath-at least I think so-came to me very strongly (I felt like bursting) my whole inner man was strung up to a great & extreme pitch of energy & daring. I felt as tho' I could do the most tremendous things in the way of overturning strongholds, beating down giants, even to the routing of armies.

I felt a Michael. This martial spirit is still active within me, but of course in not so

great a degree. My Art is & will continue to be as it were my receptive, peaceful,

strengthening work-my Tonic. But my Active Work-I mean work that will affect people, principalities & powers-is not yet. For this my Art is preparing me. What the Work will be I cannot say now but that the Work will come by & bye I feel sure & think it will be work connected with Leadership in Spiritual Warfare.

Michael, Michael always Michael. An interesting coincidence, Brussels is under the guardianship of

St. Michael, or rather its patron saint is St. Michael. When I was connected with Inspirational Writing People at

Redhill, Michael was coming to me, I was told, & on the cross I wear I was to have a sword engraved. It was also said that Luther would also come to me later on. Whether this will be, or is now of course I cannot say, but it is at all events strange that latterly Michael should have been so constantly my great influence.

May be the Active Work I have to do later on is one which belongs to the sphere where Luther dwells.

God knows & He will reveal it when all is prepared. All I have to do is to keep as humble as possible & not strive


after any personal glory. I received Savoy last night & was glad to find 2 of my things in it. I don't like the Blake drawings so much as in the first article. They

certainly must lose a great deal without the colour. With all his love of line it seems to me very strange that he should not have done more woodcuts, I mean work similar to that of Durer without the latter's waste of time in trying to depict the minutiae.

I agree with Durer that it is impossible to depict exactly the unearthly beauties & colours that form part of Visions. Blake attempted to depict the colour & to my mind failed.

Even the form in black & white gives only an idea but then the colour can be filled in by imagination. But in form and colour the imagination from the outset is defiled, adulterated.

Never yet have I seen a coloured picture that comes up to the colouring of some of my Visions. Often the loveliness of colouring in Visions is brought about by the flashing, quivering, intermingling play of myriads of different tints, tints often never seen in Nature. And then there is the entrancing music in which Visions of beauty as it were bathe & revel.

To give the nearest idea of Visions, would require the Greatest Artist & the Greatest Musician working as One.

Even in Nature around it is utterly impossible to depict its Beauty. One can only suggest.

A row of a dozen or so pines on the brow of a hill the other day were to me the entrance to Heaven & yesterday the head of a dried teazle beckoned & lead me into a world of the most absolute Decorative Beauty where among multitudes of plants stood, more especially, Sun Flowers, many of which, & quite as beautiful as the rest, were dried up.

I could tell you more but really your patience will have been severely tried so I will forbear. While I think of it re horoscope I had thought that your uncle might have found out that when born my head was so separated at the sutures that it had to be put in a shape.

Again how about my Vision seen when a boy & again in 1889 of the two men in armour offering me a crown. D. B. found it to be a spiritual crown & also warfare. How does this fit in with Spiritual Martial influences. This won't do. I am off again.

Kind regards from wife & self. Your's very sincerely

WILLIAM T. HORTON

P.S. Don't forget you promised me a photo of yourself.

Correspondence

13. Tillyra Castle, 3 August 1896.

107

Yeats forwards a letter from George Pollexfen about the mistake in Horton's horoscope.

VIII Brighton 4 August 1896

My dear Yeats. Many thanks for your Uncle's letter which I return herewith. I shall be looking forward to the amended horoscope. Certainly

even the few remarks he makes are, to my mind & maybe to yours, strikingly accurate.

Michael is still more in possession of me or rather I am permeated by Him. I am now clothed in the Spirit in mail of the most sparkling & glittering nature. It is chain mail or something composed of a multiplicity of dazzling links or fiery circles, each a little flashing sun.

On my head a flaming fiery helmet, On my breast a flaming fiery cross On my left arm a flaming fiery circular shield In my right hand a flaming fiery three tongued sword. Standing on the Rock I fight or defend

At night when obsessions come a wave of the sword sends them away. Altho' my outward form may thus be on the defensive & offensive & my attitude one of defiance the Spirit within kneels in humblest humility to the Great God Jesus Christ the innefable HeShe, without whom I am nothing.

You may possibly have a visit from me thus equipped and named Michael.

If you think what I have written on enclosed of any assistance to your Uncle perhaps you'd kindly send it to him. When you have a few minutes to waste perhaps you could manage to drop me a mystical note. I greet you & Russell in the Spirit-God's Peace be with you both.

Very sincerely WILLIAM T. HORTON

P.S. When I was a boy I had hexagram engraved on a stone set in a ring. Ysty. I felt impelled to look it out & wear it instead of my signet nng.


By the by I wrote you addressed to I 8 Woburn Buildings last Thursday (July 30th) a long letter of about 12 pages full of strange matter. I hope you received it. Seeing that it contained certain matter about a coming War, if anyone else opened it, it might create a bit of a sensation perhaps.

WTH

14. Tillyra Castle, 18 August 1896.

Yeats forwards a revised horoscope with a note of explanation by George Pollexfen.

15. London, 18 January 1897·

Having 'just returned' from Paris, Yeats invites Horton to come by 18 Woburn Buildings on Friday, the 22nd.

16. London, undated note [1897?].

Yeats, 'in great haste', invites Horton for tea on Friday at 4.

17. London, 8 December 1897·

Looking 'forward greatly' to seeing Horton's work, Yeats asks him to come by on Friday at I.

18. London, 13 January 1898.

Responding to a note from Horton, Yeats invites him to come by on Friday, the 14th, at I I; but he warns Horton that he may have to be out during some part of the day about Golden Dawn politics.


In an apologetic telegram, Yeats cancels the meeting with Horton.

IX Brighton

My dear Yeats

Correspondence 109

23 January 1898

Name of Stove 1 told you about is Atmospheric Spirit Stove (for Methylated Spirits). Prices from IS /8P upwards according to size. Our's is a 25 / 3P one.

The Cocoa is Dr. TibbIe's Vi-Cocoa. The secret of making it specially good is to use only milk & to boil it well after adding the milk or water to the mixed up ingredients. Of course only milk is a luxury & not a necessity.

1 did not see Dome Editor after all as he was unfortunately kept away. 1 left my drawings & he writes me saying "I have examined the drawings with great pleasure & admiration". As 1 don't intend the question of cash to stand in my way, 1 am hoping to therefore get something accepted.

1 have written him to say 1 shall come up & see him this Friday (28th) unless 1 hear to contrary.

1 managed to draw rather a successful thing yesty, the title that has come with it is "The Annunciation" but there is of course an Esoteric meaning to it.

As 1 think you'd like to see it I'll take my chance offinding you in, if I come up this Friday (28th), if possible at I I but it depends on the Dome Editor.

If you can't see me don't open your front door. 1 shall understand & will not inconvenience me in the least.

20. London, 8 February 1898.

Yrs vy sincerely WILLIAM T. HORTON

Responding to a request from Horton for an introduction to A Book of Images, Yeats asks how long the essay should be, whether he can write about symbolism in black and white generally, and which drawings Oldmeadow has accepted for the book. Yeats warns that he will of course be critical and states that he cannot write the essay until he returns from Ireland on the 2 I st.


21. London, 20 March 1898.

Wanting to see Horton 'about something' (probably the Introduction to A Book of Images), Yeats asks him to come by on Friday, the 25th.


Yeats apologizes for missing a meeting, explaining that he had 'to go to sit to Rothenstein'. Yeats has urged 0 ldmeadow to get Horton to leave out the title page proposed for A Book of Images because the lettering is unclassical and the medallion a poor imitation of a drawing in the book itself.

x Brighton 24 June 1899

My dear Yeats. Did you pay me a visit this night? About 4.30 I woke up this morning having had a vivid dream

wherein you came to see us here & I shewed you many drawings in black & white.

They mostly were of a more, much more, elaborate & larger character than the black & white work I have actually done.

I was saying "Now I will shew you some drawings in black chalk I have done for Smithers" when I awoke.

Both of us were in every day costume you were smoking a cigarette & in a very happy, merry, fantastic mood full of quaint sayings & merry conceits.

It would be most interesting if you could find we had met in the astral.

It was all so extremely vivid & real. I called at Woburn Buildings Friday week (16th) but you had not

returned from Dublin. I suppose you have received my two letters-I feel sure you

understand the remarks upon occultism referred not to the occultism that develops spiritually in orderly ways, but to the occultism brought about by earthly means-nature play.

At the same time we each must follow our Voices & what is wrong to one is right to another. I wrote you what I felt I must. Still do I see

Correspondence I II

the Symbol of the Naked Youth following after Will 0' the wisps the Ideal in tears following him, while within his heart the True Light is ever knocking, knocking & a Voice is saying "Open, open & I will give thee Light."

I dont like saying these things but when the Voice speaks I obey, at least if my conscience & Will allow me to. I am Master in my own house.

I'll look in at Woburn Buildings when next in Town & take my chance.

In the meantime I do wish you'd drop me a line. With best wishes

Your's sincerely WILLIAM T. HORTON.

I have Beltaine No. I. It is most interesting. I understand when NO.2 is coming out is uncertain.

23. Coole Park, 19 July 1899.

Sorry that he could not have a talk about Horton's new work before going to Coole Park for the summer, Yeats informs Horton that he is finishing The Shadowy Waters and writing an essay on Shelley's philosophical ideas.

XI Brighton 22nd July 1899

My dear Yeats I am very glad to have received a note from you, and hope you will

let me know when you are back in Town again. I hope you'll accept the "Poe" I send herewith. I hate design on

cover, but Smithers would have one on cover & there it is. I have another set for Vol 2. of Poe if Vol I. pays & perhaps another

Book ofImages with drawings in Black Chalk-a bigger thing than the Unicorn B. of Images.

I amjust now busy on decorative landscapes (black & white) and hope to get them accepted as heads & tail pieces to some book or another.

Then "Pick-me-up" has some line work of mine coming out shortly.

One is to appear in the Bank Holiday number. I intended it for

I 12 Yeats and Horton: The Record of an Occult Friendship

"Orphee aux enfers" but suggested it might be called "The Poet Laureate", this I am afraid would be libelous. The Editor may add a few lines. I'll send you a copy when it appears.

The amusing thing about "P-me-up" is that thro a "Vision of Cresey, hatred etc" (you may remember it, a gigantic devil face appearing above a Town) Rider Haggard wrote & invited me to lunch to meet his wife & Andrew Lang. Of course I accepted & was much edified especially when your name cropped up-but of this, more when we meet.

My cover design to Knut Hamsun's "Hunger" seems to have created a little attention. It was in "The Academy" of June 17. You may have seen it as well as the portrait of yourself in "The Academy" of a fortnight ago (July 8th.)

Some, like Smithers, Robert Ross etc. speak highly of my chalks, others, like Oldmeadow, prefer my b. & white landscapes. You must remember the Poe chalks are merely an introduction to this style-I have done several since then which shew improvement. It is these and the decorative landscapes I hope to shew you later on when we meet.

I seem-no, not I seem, I am walking with two angels, one of Power, Strength, Sadness, Mystery the other Clearness, Warmth, Joy & Rest. One is the Moon, the other the Sun. I see them both as glorious Woman shapes. One in robes of blackness with a dazzling white face & deep, oh! so deep, large black eyes, gazing sorrowfully out beneath black horizontal brows above the hood on her head, glitters the crescent of the moon, dazzling white on a black ground. The other form is nude save for thin tramparent drapery that floats around her. Her hair of red gold enwraps her as a veil. She is ever dancing, singing & laughing. Her eyes are of a nearly blue black colour & around her glows the sun. She is all health, joy & happiness.

One thing they have in common, they bid me to leave earthly things.

These together form one glorious Being, sympathetic to alljoy & sorrow. Is this Being one of Blake's "Images of wonder, which always entreat him to leave mortal things"?

However, these things must not be written-you understand. I am looking forward to "The Shadowy Waters" & your essay on Shelley. I think I have told you Keats & Shelley & Coleridge are the poets who appeal to me, especially Keats & Shelley. So anything about either I eagerly devour.

Because of you I read Evelyn Innes. I know the exigencies of the story required, perhaps, your becoming the lover (No.2). I should

Correspondence 113 have preferred your remaining pure, serene, clear as crystal, hard as diamond, & make the Priest the lover. Perhaps he becomes lover NO·3·

I was especially struck at the mention of mystics who thro' chastity attain to knowledge of the bride of Eternity. You must have mentioned the B.N.L. to G.M. Of course I know this teaching is not exactly new & has always been groped after where spiritual love replaces the sickened & dead earthly ditto.

Please drop me a p.c. to say "Poe" reached you safely. Your's sincerely

W. T. HORTON

24. Coole Park, 3 September 1899 (reprinted from Letters, pp. 325- 6).

My dear Horton, I have been a long time without writing to thank you for your Poe.

I like the Raven on the head of Pallas about best. I like next the drawing on page 18-a really admirable grotesque. I do not know why you or indeed anybody should want to illustrate Poe however. His fame always puzzles me. I have to acknowledge that even after one allows for the difficulties of a critic who speaks a foreign language, a writer who has had so much influence on Baudelaire and Villiers de L'Isle Adam has some great merit. I admire a few lyrics of his extremely and a few pages of his prose, chiefly in his critical essays, which are sometimes profound. The rest of him seems to me vulgar and commonplace and the Pit and the Pendulum and the Raven do not seem to me to have permanent literary value of any kind. Analyse the Raven and you find that its subject is a commonplace and its execution a rhythmical trick. Its rhythm never lives for a moment, never once moves with an emotional life. The whole thing seems to me insincere and vulgar. Analyse the Pit and the Pendulum and you find an appeal to the nerves by tawdry physical affrightments, at least so it seems to me who am yet puzzled at the fame of such things. No, your book is the Pilgrim's Progress. You could do that in a fine ancient spirit, full of a sincere naivety.

The night you saw me I was conscious of seeing you but I had been trying to get away on a different business for a week and one's spirit goes to many places one knows nothing of. Your inner life may however have merely projected before you some image of me, raked


up out of your memory, for some purpose of its own, some message but half remembered perhaps on waking, of which my image seemed a fitting signature.


I shall be in Ireland until late autumn.


Sorry that he had not seen Horton before leaving for Ireland, Yeats wishes that he could have shown him a 'charming letter' from a member of the Golden Dawn (Allan Bennett), who has become a Buddhist monk.


Having received some 'new drawings' from Horton, Yeats criticizes him sternly for the 'road' he has taken. Praising Horton's mastery of symbol, landscape, and certain grotesque human types, Yeats points out that his efforts at ornament pure and simple are arid-probably because Horton has not studied traditional art. Commenting on several of the drawings, Yeats observes that he has 'no real mastery over human form in general' and advises him to 'try and see under a solar influence'. 'I am sorry', Yeats concludes, 'not to be able to praise these sketches.'

27. Coole Park, 20 July 190 I.

Sternly critical of some verses Horton has sent, Yeats takes the opportunity to tell him bluntly that he is 'not a poet' and is not likely to become one, primarily because Horton cannot force himself'to get over the mechanical and technical difficulties'. Yeats advises him 'to turn from the visions for a while'. He concludes, as usual, by finding something to praise, this time Horton's 'book of child's pictures'that is, The Crig's Book.

Correspondence

28. Coole Park, II August 1901.

115

Thanking Horton for the gift of a drawing, Yeats observes that he ought to succeed because of the personal quality of his work, then adds that his difficulty is to force himself 'to study not the visionary truth but the forms and methods by which it has to be expressed in this world'. Yeats is quite certain that Horton should force himself to study from life and nature in every form, but he is equally certain that Horton will never do so.


Dictating to Miss Horniman because his 'eye-sight no better', Yeats reminds Horton 'that you promised me an introduction to a spiritualist'. Yeats wants 'to begin really serious investigation' 'this winter'.


This letter is also dictated to Miss Horniman. Yeats returns two of the 'Lights' lent to him by Horton and promises to return a pamphlet when he gets back from Ireland.

XII Chelsea, London 20 January 1907

Dear Yeats. You are going on a journey. Be careful how you listen to schemes

& plans of a fair person. Be careful. Mrs. Emery from the time she leaves England should be careful

how she listens to schemes & plans or suggestions, of a more personal character, emanating from a dark fellow.

John Masefield is on a very powerful & restive dark horse. Keep his hands down, elbows in, a firm rein & gripping knees-let him be master & not the horse or it may take the bit between it's teeth & take Masefield to what might be a disaster.

--(who is at British-sorry I can't quite fix his name) is riding for a fall.

II6 Yeats and Horton: The Record of an Occult Friendship

Man in evening dress, I let injust before I left, should be careful of feminine influence.

'Tis not rudeness, believe me, that I do not mention Mrs. Bligh before the men only she is a woman & her troubles are private & so sacred to her-you are a man, I am a man.

When you see them tell them what I say. As you know, in the Spirit Time & Space exist not. It is the Eternal Present. Write me when you can & care to.

3 I. London, 21 January 1907·

Your's, WILLIAM T. HORTON

Replying to Horton's prophetic warning to be careful of the 'schemes & plans of a fair person', Yeats asks if the person is man or woman.

XIII Chelsea, London 22 January 1907

Dear Yeats I could not tell you before--or I should have done so. On opening your letter & reading it I saw a fair man &, now I am

writing, I see there is a woman with dark brown, or darkish hair, connected with the matter in some way. Both seem tall & slim & he. the younger.

XIV Hampstead, London

My dear Yeats

Your's WILLIAM T. HORTON

28 February 1912

I hope you are well. You are either going, or will go, through a rough time.

Be careful how you hold the tiller of your boat. Take special care about the 15th of any month. Let me know if you'd like me to come & see you alone some day.

Yours sincerely, WILLIAM T. HORTON

xv Hampstead, London

My dear Yeats

Correspondence II7

23 April 1912

Here is my address. Thank you for the pleasant & interesting time you gave me yesterday evening.

I regret that, owing to the presence of others doubtless, you were not able to give me your opinion of my "Way of the Soul"-I'd like to know what you think of it.

Please do not refrain from speaking out. My drawing was merely a means to an end, an incident on the

Mystic Way which for me, thank God, is opening out brighter & brighter the further I advance upon it.

It has been my privilege to help others, this is to me a very great JOY·

I did not specify the 15th of any special month, may I suggest it would be well for you to be careful about that date at any time.

Singers such as you are rare & should be cherished & well cared for. All good to you, my dear Yeats, now & ever.

32. London, 3 May 1912.

Yours sincerely WILLIAM T. HORTON

Responding to Horton's request for 'your opinion of my "Way of the Soul" " Yeats apologizes for not thanking him earlier and excuses himself on the ground that he is too preoccupied with what he is 'writing at the moment' to give Horton's book the attention it deserves. But he points out to Horton that his art has not developed: ' ... you see the same things you saw when the "Book of Images" came out ... '.


Having been 'almost constantly out of London' since he last saw Horton, Yeats invites him and Miss Locke to dinner and speaks of 'some wonderful psychic experiences' he has had.

I I 8 Yeats and Horton: The Record oj an Occult Friendship

34. London, 24 February 1913.

In a typed note, Yeats apologizes for not having written about The Way of the Soul and promises to talk about it if Horton can come by 'next Monday evening'-that is, 3 March.

XVI Tunbridge Wells

I Enclosure My dear Yeats

3 March 1913

I am sorry to say the lady I mentioned, Miss A. Audrey Locke, is down with influenza here at Tunbridge Wells where she is on a visit & where I have run down for the day.

Under the circumstances I think it advisable to put off the meeting & dinner, you so kindly invited us to, until after Easter. Perhaps you will kindly name a day, if! do not hear from you I will write again.

We are very disappointed but hope our meeting is only put offfor a few weeks.

Allow me to thank you for the really delightful time you gave me yesterday evening, everything was so genial & warm & full of good fellowship--I most thoroughly enjoyed it all.

I will get Shirley to send you "The Occult Review," Xmas Number, containing a Legend of Life & drawings by me. It may interest you.

In meantime I shall arrange a few extracts from the material I mentioned last night to discuss when we three meet after Easter.

Y ours sin~erely, WILLIAM T. HORTON

To the man in big, low armchair & wearing spectacles.

"Go on, you will succeed."

To the dark thin man-a friend of the above-

"You wonder & at times are puzzled & under a cloud. Go on, persevere, rugged spirit, & you shall attain."

To the beautiful youth-Mr. Brook I think.

"In your reverence & worship of another forget not the reverence & worship you owe equally to your own highest Self & its manifestations, & its manifestations."

Correspondence 119

To Ezra Pound

"You'll do, only climb higher, ever higher & thus forget the burden."

XVII Hampstead, London

My dear Yeats

Good wishes to all from

your little brother WILLIAM T. HORTON

2 April 1913

Am glad to say Miss Audrey Locke is better & has returned to London.

She would be very pleased to come with me one day next week to see you as you suggested if you are in London & have an evening free.

I have got out more or less of a Report on the matter we spoke of which we can discuss at our meeting. I can afterwards lend you the Report if you like.


Sincerely yours WILLIAM T. HORTON

Promising to write from Dublin to 'suggest an evening' for a meeting with Horton and Miss Locke, Yeats asks him to thank herprobably for some research in the British Museum.

36. London, 4 June 19 1 3.

Yeats telegraphs an invitation to dine Wednesday.

XVIII Hampstead, London 19 June 1913

My dear Yeats I enclose promised copy. We appreciate deeply your relation to us of all those wonderful

experiences, they are most illuminating and encouraging.


I wonder whether you'd care to come & see me some afternoon convenient to all? We could have tea &, if you could manage it, stay to supper which would be of fruit as our friend & I are practically fruitarians.

I very foolishly left my knife on your table last night. I will call for it some da y soon when your housekeeper will perhaps kindly return it to me.

Allow me to thank you most heartily for yesterday's most delightful evening.

Yours W. T. HORTON

Am looking forward to blindfold experiment & to report progress in automatic writing.

I want to tell you that yesterday has left a feeling of great strength & calm & self effacement. We both felt very strongly this feeling of self effacement about you yesterday, as though when speaking at times you were lifted up into the Higher Self & there we all three understood one another more & realized more fully our union with all men in the U ni versal.

Thank God it was so, for it was good to be there. Just before adding this to my letter I saw Christ, surrounded by

flowers, looking down with steadfast gaze & with Him came the feeling of strength, calmness & utter selflessness & also a great satisfaction & elation.

Evidently our meeting has brought about more things than we realize at present.

We both send all good to you & your wonderful friend. WTH.

XIX Hampstead, London 30 June 1913

Dear Mr. Yeats. Early this morning I dreamt of a chart that was suspended before

me with several items on it that concerned you. All I could remember, however, was the second, namely:-"The fight is between 4 & 9; see that it is 9." This evening Mr. Horton & I tried the Planchette with a question as to the other items. We received the enclosed which I have copied out for you.

If there is anything in it you will be able to interpret it and only you, -so I send it in case it has any bearing on the difficulties you

Correspondence 121

spoke of last night. If not, then no matter. Don't trouble to answer this. Thank you so much for your hospitality oflast night. I only wish

that our experiment had been rewarded, even with one word of sense.

Yours sincerely AUDREY LOCKE

(W.T.H.) June 30, 1913. (A.A.L.) (I) The first is that in the contest with the psychic elements in the storm of spirit. there is brought into playa material force corresponding with the ethereal force. This is the force to be guarded against and if conquered on the material plane

[no other pages]

37. London, 8 [July] 1913·

Yeats telegraphs an invitation to Horton and Miss Locke for dinner on Sunday 'to continue experiment'. Sturge Moore will also be invited.

38. Stone Cottage. Coleman's Hatch, Sussex, 23 November 1913.

Referring to Horton's prophetic letter of 3 March, Yeats ·asks him to 'repeat ... the prophecy you made about Ezra Pound', to whom this letter was dictated.

39· London, 19 July 19 14.

Yeats invites Horton and Miss Locke to 'come tomorrow evening'-that is, Monday.

xx [Hampstead, London] 20 July 1914

The fight is still raging round you while you are busy trying to increase the speed & usefulness of your chariot by means of a dark horse you have paired with the winged white one which for so long has served you faithfully & well.

Unless you give the dark horse wings & subordinate it to the white


winged horse the latter will break away & leave you to the dark horse who will lead your chariot into the enemies camp where you will be made a prisoner.

Conquer & subordinate the dark horse to the white one or cut the dark horse away, from your chariot, & send it adrift.

W.T.H.

XXI Hampstead, London 25 July 1914

Private My dear Yeats

Ever since I saw you on Monday evening I have been troubled about you.

I pray God you will take to heart the warning I gave you. It makes me absolutely sick to see & hear you so devoted to

Spiritualism & its investigation. Dear old friend, forgive me but I have known you for nearly 20 years & because of my affection & respect for you as a man & my admiration for your beautiful work I feel I must be honest & frank with you & speak out to you face to face what others say behind your back.

You know I am only actuated by deep & sincere friendshipforgive me or scoff at me as you will-I must be true to the Light within come what may.

All this Spiritism & Spiritistic investigation leads to nothing. It is just turning round & round in a circle & is never a spiral.

Spiritists do not want to be convinced they are that already. Unbelievers scoff at the whole thing & Scientists will accept

nothing but strictly Scientific demonstration. Telepathy, the vast powers of the hidden self, suggestion, hy

pnotism & selfhypotism account for nearly everything in the way of automatism.

It wants a peculiarly hard, precise & unimaginative mind to sum up the for & against of all these matters.

You may say or write what you will in all sincerity but the very nature & quality of your own beautiful imagination & dear poetry, so well known to thousands, will stand in your way. They will say "this is one of Yeats' imaginations," they will read it for its beauty & poetry but as a thesis or scientific argument they will pass it by. There are no proofs that can stand against all argument. Words can prove anything but they cannot make an unreal thing real or an untruth a truth.

Correspondence 1 2 3

Of course it is easy to prove the reality of an assertion to a mind less capable than one's own-hence the sheep who follow any shepherd if he but call loud enough-but to get at as solid a basis as one can, in a matter incapable of demonstration by any of the five senses, one must appeal to Caesar & prove it to his satisfaction & therefore to the keenest minds of the day.

What is the use of it all, no new light or knowledge comes nothing that is not already known, in fact as a rule what does come is on a low level. What of your own wonderful poetry in the meantime. Are we not all of us waiting for more of the Singer's songs, the exquisite music of your verse, the whispering of unseen beauty that melts us to tears with emotion.

"Where are the songs of yesteryear." To see you on the floor among those papers searching for an

automatic script, where one man finds a misquotation among them, while round you sit your guests, shocked me for it stood out as a terrible symbol. I saw you as the man with the muck rake in "The Pilgrim's Progress" while above you your Beloved held the dazzling crown of your own Poetic Genius. But you would not look up & you went on with your grovelling.

Rouse yourself & turn from all these things. Look up, look up, the Beloved is calling you to fresh & higher & yet nobler flights of song. I have not come into your life for nothing. Hidden & unknown I walk among men but in the Spirit I am what I am & by the grace of God & the power He gives me I call upon you to arise & leave all these lower things, phantasmic & unreal, & ascend to the heights.

By the grace of God I am with you & through my mortal voice & pen I am allowed to do the work I have to do for you.

Yeats, our way is not down here, our way is the upward one, from height to height beyond the stars to the very foot of God's throne upon whose steps we mount eternally, eternally.

Forgive me, dear Yeats, if! have said anything to wound or hurt or anything presumptuous or ridiculous; if I have it is quite unintentional, God forbid.

I am actuated by love for you & your work, & also loyalty to you & my own Self, so I hope you will take it in this spirit & not as an impertinence on my part.

When the Spirit moves within me I must speak-I can no other. I wish you all good now & ever.

Yours fraternally W. T. HORTON



Thanking Horton for his bitterly critical letter , Yeats replies only that' one must follow ones own light'. Rather than attempt to explain his reasons to Horton, Yeats prefers to wait until the completion of his 'Fairy Belief book' (with an essay about Swedenborg's 'relation to folklore'), which 'will explain itself'.

4 I. London, I I October 1914.

'Just back' from Ireland, Yeats invites Horton and Miss Locke to the Monday Evening of 12 October.

42. Stone Cottage, Coleman's Hatch, Sussex, 9 January 1915.

In a note, probably typed by Ezra Pound, Yeats invites Horton and Miss Locke to 'come in' 'next Monday'-that is, the loth.

43. Stone Cottage, Coleman's Hatch, Sussex, 18 January 1915·

Yeats thanks Horton for a note from Miss Locke and encloses a letter to her containing a question.

44. Stone Cottage, Coleman's Hatch, Sussex, 3 February 1915·

In a typed note, Yeats invites Horton and Miss Locke to come by on Monday, the 8th, to meet some friends. He asks Horton to 'thank Miss Locke for her invaluable letter about Daimer ... [who] was just the sort of person to be still walking'.


Yeats invites Horton and Miss Locke to 'come round' on Monday, the 19th.

46. London, 3 May 1915.

Yeats apologizes for some mistake he has made about an invitation from Horton and Miss Locke which he could not accept because he was attending a performance of a play by Claudel.

Correspondence

47· London, 30 May 1915·

125

Yeats sends complimentary tickets to Horton and Miss Locke for a performance of Deirdre oj the Sorrows, 'which may not be played again for years'.

48. London, 14June 1915.

Yeats invites Horton and Miss Locke to 'come m tomorrow evening'.


Leaving for Ireland soon, Yeats invites Horton and Miss Locke to another Monday Evening.

50. London, 19 July 1915·

Havin"g quarrelled with Horton 'about a Dane' (Hamlet, presumably), Yeats asks Horton to come in and 'talk it over'.

51. London, 10 October 1915.

Just back from Ireland, Yeats asks Horton and Miss Locke to 'turn up' at his Monday Evening.

52 .• London, 15 October [19 15).

Wanting to talk about one of Horton's visions, Yeats asks him to 'come in this evening and bring Miss Locke', whose 'double, the real "Seraphita" " is expected.

XXII [London] I 8 October 19 I 5 10.15 a.m.

Wandering down the side of a mountain I saw the Singer sitting at a cross road, one going East & one going West from the main road which finished here.


I asked him what he was doing here & he answered "Strange things have I seen, strange dreams have I had but now come the strangest thing & the strangest dream-look!" & I looked where he pointed to. Slowly out of the West rose a Sun which sent it's rays piercing through great clouds until they reached the East where another Sun arose & together the Suns mounted, each on his own path, until they met in mid' heaven & blending into One, formed a Great Sun which shone on all the Earth so that no part of it was in shadow because of the light which permeated every portion of it.

Here & there one or two knew of the Great Sun but for the vast majority of mankind it was hidden, although they felt & experienced the coming of a New Light into the World.

So the Singer & I sat together & round us grew beautiful flowers & in their petals we read of the things of the past & understood present & knew of the future.

And as we read the roads going East & West began to move towards one another from the centre where we stood. We heard a great clamour, the thunder of guns, the voices of men & women shouting & the crying of little children, all hidden from us beneath thick clouds of saffron colour. Then there came a great silence & the two roads met & formed one with the road coming from the North & continued it to the South where we saw the Great Sun shining. And where there had been three cross roads there was One, and there was no more North or South or East or West for the Great Sun Road comes from all points of the compass.

W. T. HORTON

19 October 1915 6 p.m.

Yesterday's Vision is not intended only to be personal to both but applies to a World Condition now in process of change preparatory to a combination culminating in a great Spiritual Event of World Wide importance.

W.T.H. My dear Yeats

Please add above note to the account of the Vision I gave you yesty. Yours sincerely

W. T. HORTON

Correspondence

53· London, 5 December 19 J 5·

127

Yeats invites Horton and Miss Locke to another Monday Evening (the 6th) to meet 'a very interesting woman, Mrs Mann a mystic and mUSlCIan'.

54. Stone Cottage, Coleman's Hatch, Sussex, 25 February 1916.

Not having seen Horton 'for a long time', Yeats invites him and Miss Locke to his Monday Evening of the 28th.

XXIII [London] 22 April 1916

My dear Yeats. You will be sorry to hear that our mutual friend Miss Locke is in a

private Nursing Home where she has undergone a serious operation for ear & mastoid trouble.

She is making very satisfactory progress but of course it will be some time before she is able to get about again & then she will have to go into the country for a while. If you remember she told us she had dreamt of being struck on the side of the head & suffering pain.

I know your kind habit of visiting invalids & I am sure she would be very pleased to see or hear from you.

The address is

Visitors hours are

24 Devonshire Street, Marylebone,

10.30 to 1 3.30 " 6 7·30 " 9

W.

When are you going to look me up? If! knew the day before I'd make a point of being in at 8.30 p.m. unless you care to take your chance any time you're passing.

[added at top of page]

Yours sincerely, W. T. HORTON

What an absurd notice of your play appeared in "The Observer"!!!! Just picked up for 6d a copy of Ruysbroek's Spiritual Nuptials translated by Maeterlinck-they are very wonderful.


55. London, 29 May 1916.

In a note left at Horton's flat, Yeats invites him to come in, adding that Sturge Moore will be there.

56. Dublin, 6 June 1916.

In Dublin 'on theatre business', Yeats expresses regret at missing Horton and informs him that he will be back in London on Thursday, the 8th.

57. London, II June 1916.

Yeats asks Horton to 'come in tonight about 9.30'.

58. London, between 22 April and 19 June 1916.

Yeats invites Horton and Miss Locke to come in 'if she is back' (from the hospital, presumably).

59. London, after 19 June 1916.

Yeats expresses his 'deep sympathy' over the death of Miss Locke (on 19 June). He speaks of her charm and talent and attempts to console Horton with the thought that the 'dead are not far from us'.

XXIV [London] 6 September 1916

My dear Yeats You may laugh at this but it matters not I merely write for my own

satisfaction & for the sake of clarity. I was & am very sorry for Ezra because beneath all his many

wrappings I see the Real Man who sorrows deeply over the antics & perverse lucubrations of his distracted charge. Watching & listening to Ezra I could see, as it were, a something slimy crawling over everything that is beautiful & noble & of good report & leaving

Correspondence 129

behind him an unquestionably glittering but at the same time foul track of slime. I am sorry for him because of what he must go through, for Love-in-Death is approaching who will open his eyes & those of his Moon & other satellites.

What is astonishing is that you do not see what Ezra is to you. But this is all your & his business & I can assure you you are both on the verge of certain things measured out to you in your different capacities. With you I see Eros standing with a flaming torch held flame downward. The flame is issuing from a long trumpet shaped torch of bronze.

Ezra was your guest last Monday as were others so I did not think it right & proper to say anything but at same time I cannot allow my attitude to be mistaken. I gather from you that one cannot be a Poet & a Hero; in other words to be a Hero you must be a Zero. Well I prefer the Heroic Zero to the Olympian Poet on his sham Olympus for it is a sham. The highest & noblest Poetry is lived not written & all that is not of Life-which is God & all that God means in Truth, Beauty, Love, Power etc-is of the Devil & unreal & so a Lie & of the Father of Lies.

Christ is a Living Power &Jesus the Way Shower, Revealed Christ to Man more fully than any other man & to me they are both living & actual Forces. I believe in Jesus-Christ & all that this NAME means on all planes.

What you or Ezra or anyone else believes or says matters not one tittle to me but I do know we are all in the hands of the Living God & sudden & quick & drastic will be the Event.

I have a word for Mrs Shakespear. Sundry of her accounts are being made up J the balance is being struck--she will soon know on which side it is to be.

Now you know where I stand & I hope that ifI can be of service, without prejudice to my stand point, you will always bear me in mind as your true friend & well wisher

60. Coole Park, 5 October 1916.

now & ever WILLIAM T. HORTON

Yeats is returning to London on Sunday, the 8th, and hopes Horton can come to his Monday Evening.

130 Yeats and Horton: The Record oj ml Occult Friendship


Having called twice and failed to find Horton, Yeats invites him to come to his Monday Evening of the 23rd.

xxv [London] 23 October 1916

My dear Yeats I cannot come this evening as I am dining with Algernon

Blackwood. Very sorry to hear you have called twice & found me not in. I am

extremely busy just now & usually work at the British Museum somewhere on the left at K, L or M.

Evidently we are not to meet for, unless otherwise engaged, I am usually in at 9 p.m.

You seem to have taken up a certain course which experience only will convince you of it's unwisdom. The time, which I have once or twice warned you of, is rapidly drawing near when you are to learn by bitter experience-for you refuse to learn by any other way-that there are certain things of enormous power that do not enter into your present Philosophy. Things that you scoff at, or try to explain, or dismiss when they do not happen to fit the Procrustean bed of your preconceptions.

There is a something of a very forbidding character in your neighbourhood that will have to"be dispersed before you can make any real advance of the Spirit although you may seemingly have advanced on the lower planes-but this is only seemingly for your House has to be put in order. This will be done in a way peculiarly fitted to your personal idyosincracies & individual state. Some day you will attain to the Grail; today you are pursuing it's shadow leading into black pools & quagmires. When I came to see you last, at 18, I heard the trumpet of alarm sounding loudly & furiously-my work is finished, the rest is your concern. We shall meet again,


Yours sincerely, H.

Having called twice on Sunday, the 29th, and again on Monday without success, Yeats invites Horton to come in this evening.

Correspondence

XXVI Royal Lancashire

My dear Yeats Your note has reached me in the country.

131

I November 1916

I am sorry you called with no success-it is precisely what I anticipated in my last letter to you which was written from the Central, or Impersonal, plane & therefore contained matter which Personally I might wish otherwise. You are in the Melting Pot. You are at the Cross Roads. The for & against in your Soul will rise but on you depends the issue & the Way you will take. All else I have to say I have said in my letter-meanwhile we meet elsewhere.

H.

63. Coole Park, [22] January 1917.

Yeats thanks Horton for symbols which appear 'to mean some regeneration in September'. Planning to return to London on Thursday, Yeats invites Horton to come in at 8.30 that evening.

64· London, 9 March 1917.

Yeats invites Horton to dine on Saturday, the loth.

XXVII [London] 12 March 1917

My dear Yeats I had the following dream yesterday, Sunday, morning. You, in black, are walking towards the end of a dark covered in

blind alley. The end is formed by a wall or screen of velvety black on which, traced in gold lines, are all your things of Beauty. As you approach the end there is a sudden flash of reddish yellow flame, or light, on the right about three feet from the ground as though from a cannon or gun. I see no more.

Your's sincerely W. T. HORTON

Knowing I knew you, Miss Theobald, the Sacred Dancer, asked me to give you enclosed in case you'd care to go.


XXVIII [London]

Private & Confidential I am writing this through my Persona

My dear Yeats

30 March 1917

I have called on you twice unsuccessfully as I heard you wanted to see me & had called on me. I have something to say to you.

The other evening I was at Sturge Moore's shewing some of my drawings & he asked me how it was I was not publishing my drawings. I answered that somehow I lost all initiative after

~ finishing a drawing-suddenly I realized what had originally v 5 caused this strange apathy & I told him-that it was ever since

:E you dealt me that blow with reference to the introduction, in my E "Book of Images," reprinted with no mention of me at all in ~ your "Ideas of Good & Evil." I have never really got over that for E it led many to think my work was of no further account in your ~ eyes, or that I'd done something that made me no longer fit to be ~ mentioned by you, or that I no longer drew, or was dead. The ~ irony is that Old meadow pressed me to proceed against you for ~ damages & I refused because of your & my friendship & also told 8.. him I could not believe you had any malicious intent. The irony

::;:: increased when Old meadow took to cutting me & you bought ... : his wine. I may say that I never obtained one single farthing from 1:l either the £ 10 you refunded him or anything else he may have § received. On the contrary when the Book was for sale for 6d a U copy in Charing T Road I myself bought a number of them & .S 0) paid for them. I have. also heard that Lawrence & Bullen have, or

has, been very bitter in remarks he has made about me to other bO .S people-why I do not know, for I lost all along the line & neither .~

10< you nor anyone else has, so far as I knew, ever uttered a word in E- defence of my work, on the contrary I have been laughed at, .S derided, made fun of in my work & it is of my work I think of, for ~ personally it affects me not in the least. I would to God, Blake .§ were alive in the flesh to fulminate against those who sneer against .~ the Spirit, of one's work, which he called the Holy Ghost. It isjust 8.. 20 years since the "Book of Images" came out & from 1904 Q.. o silently but ceaselessly a poison has been working & now it has E come to a head & burst suddenly & I want to clear it all a wa yonce :B & for all so that there is no obstacle from the past left in our .S fellowship & nothing in a past Karma to make the very trying & '"" dark time more terrible than it will be. Ifl have ever injured or

Correspondence 133 done you wrong I want you to tell me so that I may make amends. I have always tried to help you in my special way, as you know, & I want to do so always, when I am allowed to by the Spirit, in matters of real importance.

~ Again I tell you to re-read my long letter to you for you still .~ refuse to do anything but try to fit what I tell you to your ·c Procrustean bed & so with most of what you hear, read & see. "0 I find that Henry More is merely based on Plotinus & that, at .S Alexandria, Buddhist priests congregated-that we get back to =. the same centre as HP.B. Theosophy. I am sick of all these 8 Theosophies, Steinerisms etc. etc.; all purely intellectual & no real ~ warm brotherliness & fellowship. I know-for 9 months I have U been alone & have attended many meetings & met many people .S interested in Occultism & yet not one single one has troubled to o shew real fellowship or interest beyond their intellectual interest. ... I want to have nothing more to do with the whole galoot, away 1j with them-I just turn to the simplicity of Christ in Jesus & the ~ common humanity of man as found in the street. Now I U understand thoroughly why Jesus lived among the so-called .S outcasts, drunkards etc. I have found more in Brother Lawrence o than in all Theosophy & Steiner etc., more real love in Walt

Whitman then in any ism, more real brotherliness in a Pugilist I know than in any Intellectual. Words, words, words & all the while the heart is bleeding & crying out for love & kindness & fellowship.

I have read Joyce's book which Sturge Moore very kindly lent me & am astonished to find it very different to what you told me. The "ordure" is haroly noticeable & is not at-all offensive & any

.~ there may be is washed away utterly by the humanity of the 'c whole thing & also by the truly terrible pictures of hell. I can but t- think it is these latter that have prevented the printer.s &

publishers from issuing it in England. The Roman Catholic in England would look upon it either as a show-up or likely to give a wrong impression of his religion to Protestants etc. & Protestants would of course among other reasons object to it anyhow, for one thing because of its terrible effect on readers.

~ .S The book is to me extraordinarily pathetic & real & I am very '" ·c glad I have read so human an one. The way the hero breaks

E- through the hell threats, & those of the R. C. church itself, is .S very fme & bracing. I hope it is the first of a series a la "Jean "0 Christophe. "


o Because I refuse to have anything to do with your theories does oCS not mean that my sincere regard & all kindly feeling for you has E-- in any way changed or will do so-but I must disentangle myself

from all misconception if I am to help anyone be he beggar or King. I may be wrong in many things, I know I am, but at all events I want to be honest & straight for only thus can I be of service in any work I may be called upon to do for others. If

on people want from me only what is pleasant for them to hear, then .S they must go elsewhere for I speak, so far as I know, as the truth is ·c in me & if! cannot do this I prefer to keep silent, or talk of the E-- weather, or anything else under, or over, or behind, the Sun . . S Goodbye or au revoir let it be as you please, but always you 3<> have my best wishes & as for aught else that is of good for you-

sooner or later you will realize & know for yourself. 3<> Yours sincerely

W. T. HORTON

/:lSl .S '" 'C

Madame Vandervelde was another pawn in the game & was moved to another square. If one cannot see one can feel the passing of the Hand-& so it is every day & every moment.

65. London, 31 March 1917·

Upset over Horton's bitter letter of 30 March, Yeats has called at his flat three times without success. He expresses regret that Horton should be disturbed over the omission of Part 3 (concerned with Horton's art) of the Introduction to A Book of Images when it was republished in Ideas of Good and Evil (1903) as 'Symbolism in Painting', and he invites Horton to come round on Sunday and 'discuss the matter'.

Correspondence 135 66. London (but posted from Coleman's Hatch, Sussex), probably 3 April 19 17.

Fearing that Horton is still offended, Yeats insists that he has never had an unfriendly thought nor spoken an unfriendly word of him. Pained to think that Horton should consider the 'extract from "The Book ofImages" as a criticism of your work', Yeats explains that he omitted the footnote for the sake of uniformity and suggests that Old meadow had acted maliciously.

67· London, 3 June 1917·

Having called twice without success, Yeats leaves a visiting card inviting Horton to come in for his Monday Evening of the 4th.

68. London, 5 June [1917].

Yeats expects Horton this evening and asks him for the date of an 'impression about Iseult'.


Glad that Horton is back in town, Yeats invites him to come in early for a talk before other guests arrive for the Monday Evening.


In a typed letter, probably dictated to Lady Gregory, Yeats apologizes for the long delay in answering Horton's letter of 30 March. Yeats defends the omission of Horton from 'Symbolism in Painting' on the ground that he 'had not acknowledged the sources of any of the essays' and that he could not discuss Horton's work 'with mature and elaborate talents like Mr Whistler's and Mr Ricketts". Yeats is always hoping that Horton will 'chance' upon some book to illustrate which will be perfectly suited to his temperament. Inviting Horton to come to see him in London in the autumn, Yeats asks him to bring his horoscope, about which he is 'very curious'.


71. London, 27 July 1917·

Responding to a critical letter from Horton after a visit with him the night before, Yeats suggests that if Horton had taken a little time he would not have written it. Referring apparently to one of Horton's prophetic pronouncements, Yeats concluded that 'Ezekial, Jew though he was, was never ... Ezekial among his friends.'

72. London, about 29 July 1917 (reprinted from Letters, p. 263).

My dear Horton, Remember what Blake has said of the accuser of sin. In my own

belief the Divine Humanity cannot enter the heart till the heart ceases from indignation. The Christ who has moved the world was half Indian half Greek in temper. He saw the world as a fire oflove, but from this fire fell not Hebraic heat, the moral self-indulgence of a sensual race-but a pure Greek light.

73· London, 31 July 1917·


Yeats invites Horton to come by at 8.30 for cider and talk.

74. London, probably 5 August 1917·

Again, Yeats invites Horton in for cider.

75. London, n.d., probably Summer 1917·

In a brief note, Yeats invites Horton to come round tonight.

76. London, n.d., probably Summer 1917.

In another brief note, Yeats invites Horton to come round tonight.

Correspondence

77· London, 4 September [19 17].

137

Yeats writes that he has called twice at Horton's fiat and asks him to come round on 'Monday night if free'.

78. London, 5 September [19 I 7].

Assuring Horton that Iseult Gonne is not his daughter and that 'she knows our ages very well', Yeats informs him that he has just had a letter 'full of tenderness' from her.

79. London, 19 September 1917·

Yeats invites Horton to lunch to meet Maud and Iseult Gonne and assures him that his own relationship to Iseult is 'exactly as you wished'.

XXIX [London] I October 1917

My dear Yeats A line to tell you I shall not be at 63 for some time to come as I have

been invited to go elsewhere. Will you kindly tell Iseult I shall not be at British Museum therefore, nor see her & Madame Gonne at my place. I am sorry, but I may add that all my latest work is out of my hands so that in any case I could have shewn only some of my early work, such as you may have shewn her in my the Way of the Soul I gave you, and my oils.

I have handed your book of your father's letters & also Peguy's play "Jeanne" to Sturge Moore to pass on to you. I do not like leaving them at 63 nor can I take them about with me where I am going.

Best wishes Yours

W. T. HORTON The smoking mixture contains no drug & is to be bought at

Herbalist's in small stone building opposite Covent Garden Church, in Covent Garden Market, at 2d per oz.

IJ8 Yeats and Horton: The Record oj an Ouuit Friendship

80. London, probably 13 November 1917·

Yeats invites Horton to come round this evening to 'meet my wife'.

xxx [London] 14 November 1917

Dear both of you A happy day & many happy days be yours. I never know where I

may be from day to day & as I had no opportunity of speaking to you alone yesty. I write now.

I have given up all spiritistic things & all things automatic or unconscious for I have found them all unreliable, foolish or dangerous. Nothing new or great is obtained by unconscious means & at the best come nowhere near anything that has been done consciously by the great or good in the World. Automatism etc. lead to obsession, depletion, hallucination, utter lack of self reliance & self control, weakness & moral disintegration. It robs the Creative Artist of all & makes him of non-avail & instead of increasing in wisdom like Goethe he becomes vague & incomprehensible like Blake in his prophetic books, Coleridge too was crippled by it to a certain extent.

Go into the Silence & the Master will teach all that is needed & the rest of the initiation is in the daily life & the work at hand. The Vision comes, the Light breaks through, & the two lives become one; Heaven & Earth are married & one walks the Wonder Life night & day-it is all day & all so simple & pure & clean & honest, just following after Christ as an ordinary individual.

Your time is limited & so is mine or I could go on & on so now for what I venture to suggest with your permission-it is not for me to advise. A Jortnight ago I came across a teaching by a certain "Brotherhood of the 15" & find in it nearly all t.hat I in my own way have arrived at, & the conclusions I have come to after 27 years experience.

There are several of their books but the one I suggest is Letters Jrom the Teacher. You can get them at Fowler's Ludgate Arcade, Ludgate Circus E.C. at present for the supply may not be renewed because of the War. The Voice oj Isis, another book has a chap. on Narcotics,

Correspondence 139

Alcohol & Psych ism I commend to your notice & know to be true.

Best wishes ever from yours sincerely

WILLIAM T. HORTON

Please keep this, with the jar, in memory of me.

81. London, 15 November 1917.

Yeats thanks Horton for his wedding gift of a jug with 'sweet smelling herbs'.

82. London, probably 19 November 1917.

Informing Horton that 'my wife and I are alone this evening', Yeats invites him to 'come round if you are free'.

XXXI [London]

Please excuse this scrap at the B. M. My dear Yeats

17 December 1917

I did not get your charming note till this morning; it had been put into the doctor's letter box. I am engaged this evening & very uncertain the rest of the week as I am very busy & also work at night so get to bed when I can.

Leave off thinking fear thoughts about & round Iseult. Leave her free & other people too for you only upset things & do no good but harm. You've quite "frightened" me about her or I should much like to shew her some of my drawings at my place. If we are to be bound by this & that from the external I'd rather not meet her-I've nothing to do with those who are under the thumb of others & not under their own. I thought she was coming to the B.M.-I suppose it is not proper. I am there from 10 to 12 & 1.30 to about 4.30 & sit at K 4 or near.

How you'd laugh if you were me & you might curse but I laugh only for what does it all matter to me who walk in the freedom of Love.

Yours ever W.T.H.


83. Ashdown Cottage, Forest Row, Sussex; 23 December 1917·

Informing Horton that Iseult does not go to the British Museum now that she 'is working at the School of Oriental Languages', Yeats assures him that he is 'no longer very anxious' about her and tells him that she is coming to Ashdown Forest tomorrow for a few days' visit.

84 .. Oxford, 13 January 1918.

Yeats telegraphs Horton to come to Oxford 'Saturday week'.

85. Oxford, 30 January 1918.

In a dictated note, Yeats invites Horton to come for a weekend on either 2 or 9 February.

86. Oxford, 4 March 1918.

Yeats informs Horton that he is going to London at the end of the week and then to Ireland on the 12th. He invites Horton to dinner on Sunday, the loth, and expresses the hope that Iseult Gonne will be conung.

XXXII Hove, Sussex 3 December 1918

My dear Yeats I left London for good some time ago & have had a complete

breakdown. This time it was serious but I was taken to a Nursing Home where I am progressing. It is a question of time.

When I recover I shall settle down here near the Sea as I must have plenty of Sun & Air.

I know nothing of what is going on sa ve what I gather from an odd paper now & then.

I hope your wife & you are well. Best wishes to both,

Yours sincerely W. T. HORTON

Correspondence

XXXIII [Hove, Sussex]

141

22 December 1918

... your last which has much of Maurice especially the last part on R. Catholicism. My dear Yeats-

I am very sorry to hear your wife has been so ill & glad to hear she is recovering-it must have been a trying time under the circumstances. My congratulations & my heartiest hope that all will go well & easily. Remind your wife of my interpretation of the birds when I saw her last.

My permanent address is 25 York Rd Hove, Sussex

where I have taken rooms in my dear Sister's house, her tenants have basement & do all the cooking etc. My sister's husband is an artist & invalid. I shall be well looked after & no longer starving myself through ignorance or alone as in London. She is Roman Catholic & her son a Priest at Lewisham. This illness has given me much time to think & I intend joining the Roman Catholic church early in the New Year. It is the only way for me & the only logical & natural way. Here I shall find peace & rest & ample freedom & space for whatever God in His Grace would have me do. I have already found much that I have sought for & a natural linking up with so much I seem to have had in the far away Past; as well as my childhood days in Brussels. I also feel a great sense of increasing Protection & for the days that are coming some of us will need all the Spiritual protection & guidance we can receive. Father Grey seems to have found happiness in the only Catholic Church. I feel also that Audrey, my Mother & other dear departed agree with & rejoice over the step I am taking.

I am sorry I could not see Isolde when she called & give her my best wishes - I left London for good in October. I can but think the R. C. church would be her great protection in every way especially now the hideous drug fiend is loose. The Revelations are hideous & filthy, unreadable-Billy Burke, soldiers etc. etc. Better be a nun than sink to a drug maniac. However God knows those who follow & live in His light will by His Grace by shewn the way-only they must live the Life & follow after Christ all else is delusion & Dead Sea fruit.

All good & God be with you all-ever yrs.

w. T. HORTON


XXXIV Hove, Sussex

W. B. Yeats, Esq. Dear Sir,

23 February 1919

It has devolved upon me to acquaint the friends of my dear Uncle, Mr. William T. Horton, that he died very peacefully after his distressing illness, last Wednesday, the 19th inst. at his sister's house, fortified by the rites of Holy Church, into which he was received on the feast of the Epiphany of this year.

I am saying the Requiem Mass for his soul on the 25th next Tuesday at St Mary Magdalene's Church, Brighton, whence we shall proceed to Ashford, Kent, where the body will be interred with his parents at Isle.

I am Yours very truly, Thos. E. CLIFTON

Appendix A The following sketch appeared in Amy Audrey Locke's The Hanbury Family (London: Arthur 1. Humphrys, 1916 2 vols).

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF THE AUTHORESS OF THIS BOOK

The authoress of this book had completed her work, seen it through the press, and written the preface, when she became very dangerously ill and she died in London on June 19th, 19 I 6.

Amy Audrey Locke was the only child of Mr. and Mrs. A.P. [1.] Locke, of 'St. Mary's,' Otterbourne. She was born, and passed her earlier years, at Winchester, being educated at the Winchester High School for Girls, and gaining there the first 'Charlotte Yonge' scholarship. In 1900 she proceeded to Somerville College, Oxford, where she took Honours in Modern History. In September, 1903, she joined the staff of the Victoria County History, remaining till April, 1908, but after she left the actual staffshe was always in touch with its work, and wrote several articles. For the History of Hampshire she wrote a general description, and the manorial descents, of all parishes in the Hundred ofSelborne, of some in Fawley, some in Buddlesgate, some in Christchurch Hundred, of the parish of Min stead in the New Forest Hundred, and the history of the Borough of Winchester with the descent of the adjoining manors. For W orcestershire she wrote the history of Evesham Abbey, Bordesley Abbey, Halesowen Abbey, the Hospital of St. W ulstan, Worcester, the Hospital of St. Oswald, Worcester, and the Hospital of St. Mary, Droitwich. For Nottinghamshire she wrote an article on the Political History of the County. Mr. Page, the General Editor of the Victoria County History, says:-'She was one of my most able assistants, and had she been spared she would, I think, have made a name in literature.'

Miss Locke published, in 191 I, a History of the Seymour Family from Lady Jane Grey to the Present Time'; in 1912 she contributed a volume

I43


of selections to Bell's English History Source Books entitled War and Misrule 1307 to 1399, taken from letters, biographies, ballads, poems, etc., illustrating the municipal and social history of the period. Her last volume was In Praise oj Winchester, an Anthology in Prose and Verse, published in 1913, being a collection of extracts illustrating the history and beauties of Winchester and its cathedral. /

It was in connection with her work on the History of the Hanbury Family that the present writer first met Miss Locke, and during three or four years was in very frequent communication with her, chiefly in respect to the earlier generations of the family and its local associations. One could not but be struck with the breadth of her research, and her peculiar ability of keeping in mind all the details and ramifications of a complicated pedigree, she seemed never to lose hold of any single thread, never to forget a single person of whom she had once had evidence. It will be seen in the study of these pages how thorough was her work, how conscientious and exacting, of an accuracy that is a continual refreshment to those who know how often undertakings of this nature are marred by inferences and suppositions for which no proof can be found. Speaking with an intimate knowledge of the methods Miss Locke applied to the book, one can say there is no step in it that was not thoroughly tested; she had the utmost pride in its accuracy, and would have felt any unwarranted statement to be unworthy of herself and of the book she wrote.

Miss Locke had the true artistic sense, and applied it to all her work, it was for ever testing and discriminating, it gave a touch of charm to all that left her pen. More than this, she had a remarkable beauty and sympathy of character that won for her love and friendship, that made her life essentially rich, and its end deeply mourned.

The funeral took place in Otterbourne Churchyard on June 24th, where she was buried at the foot of the grave of Miss Charlotte Yonge. The large concourse of friends and mourners from every rank oflife bore witness to the deep affection in which she was held, and their admiration for her work.

HANBUR Y RECTORY, W ORCESTERSHIRE,

September, 1916.

F. S. C.

Appendix B The following sketch appeared in Roger Ingpen's William Thomas Horton (1864-1919): A Selection oJHis work with a Biographical Sketch (London: Ingpen & Grant, n.d.).

WILLIAM THOMAS HORTON

With the death of William Thomas Horton at Hove on February 19th, 1919, there passed away a man of remarkable personality. He was not widely known to the general public, but his gifts were highly appreciated by a small circle who are faithful to the conviction that his work is destined to a wider recognition in the future. There is little doubt that along certain lines his drawings, limited both by his taste, or inclinations, and his powers, reveal in a variety of phases an extraordinarily interesting mind. Practically the whole of the large collection of his drawings, the results of over twenty-five years incessant labour, remain unpublished, and, except to his intimate friends, unrevealed. Horton, for some years before his death, laid down a plan oflife for himself and was fortunate in being in a position to pursue it without having to consider outside influences and distractions.

Horton was born on June 27th, 1864, at Brussels of English parents. His people originally belonged to Ashford, in Kent, but his father's occupation had caused him to travel extensively over Europe for many years before settling down in the Belgian capital, where Will, as he was called, received his early education, and learned for a time geometry and linear drawing. In a brief record, which he left of his earliest days, he tells us that, as a child, he made one or two attempts to put down his thoughts on paper. About this time he used to cut faces, letters, and names out of wood, and he remembered trying to use a stone-cutter's hammer and chisel, but he could not manage them. From childhood he was passionately fond of books and pictures. Among his early impressions he remembered the outbreak

145


of the Franco-Prussian War and the departure of the French residents in Brussels to join their regiments.

While still a boy, his family moved to Brighton, and I believe at that date he could speak English hardly at all, or at least imperfectly. He was sent to Brighton Grammar School, where, some years later, Aubrey Beardsley became a pupil. I understand that the school cherishes memories of these two artists, who had much in common.

On leaving school, Horton was articled to a Brighton architect, and studied building-construction at a local School of Art. In 1887 he went to the Royal Academy Architectural School and passed from the lower to the upper school, but he said that he never obtained a prize or did anything but very average work. His only exhibit at the Royal Academy was in 1890, when he showed a pen and ink design for a theatre fa~ade. At first he liked architecture, but as time went on he grew to detest it. He had strong leanings towards literature and decided to submit a story to, and seek the advice of, Mr. Thomas Hardy, who had also studied architecture before he became a writer. Mr. Hardy, who wrote him a kind letter, did not wish what he described as his "casual suggestions" to be taken as counsel: he returned the story, which he pronounced as "fairly good" and said, "my general opinion is that you should on no account desert the architectural profession with a view of making a better income by literature. Should you have a strong literary bias you might possibly combine practical architecture with contributions on architectural subjects to the art periodicals and magazines. A speciality gives more opportunities, I am informed, than none, and editors more readily accept such papers. Your knowledge of French might materially assist if you kept yourself acquainted with the doings of the architectural world abroad by means of French periodicals devoted to that profession. Modern movements on the Continental architecture are, I believe, little known in England or written about."

He seems to have taken Mr. Hardy's advice as he obtained work in an architect's office, but he confessed that he could not do his best in trying to carry out the ideas of his employers and so gave up the idea of working for others. In November 1893 he tried to start a practice of his own which he abandoned in disgust, after a couple of months' trial. This must have been, I think, just before I first met him. The only architectural design of his that I ever saw was the carefully executed elevation of the Theatre. Although. architecture ceased to interest him as a profession, he never entirely lost interest in it, and his training as a draughtsman served him well when he took up drawing.

Appendix B 147

In the early nineties he applied to me in regard to the bona fides of a person with whom he was about to engage in some literary enterprise. We found that we had many tastes and interests in common, and at once struck up a friendship which only ended with Horton's death. He had just married, and was living at Brixton, but he shortly afterwards moved to Redhill, where I visited him several times. He loved walking, and I remember many a long country ramble with him. He then went to Brighton and remained there for many years.

Having abandoned the plan of making architecture his profession shortly after he left London, he had to think of a way of making a livelihood. He possessed some means of his own, but he felt it was necessary to supplement them. He tried writing-he never ceased to have literary ambitions-and started a small magazine called Whispers-A Magazine Jor Surrey Folk. This little periodical which was published at Redhill and of which only four numbers were published, was partly edited and largely written by Horton himself. He was at that time an enthusiastic student of Balzac, and the early chapters of a serial story entitled "The Mystic Will," written under the influence of the great French writer and with a suggestion of Dickens, appeared as a serial in Whispers, and it was still running when the magazine ceased to appear. I am under the impression, though I am not certain, that Horton completed the novel, but it was never published in its entirety. The story, as far as it was printed, contained a realistic description of life in a cheap boarding house, in the dreary neighbourhood of King's Cross, and was drawn from actual experience and belonged to that period between leaving school and his marriage when he was beginning life in London. Horton always retained a sense of the humorous, and his story exhibited some characteristic touches of grim humour mingled with a background of rather drab realism.

While at Redhill, Hortonjoined the Artists' Corps as a private, and recorded his experiences of the Easter manreuvres at Walmer in the Volunteer Record for February 18th, 1893. Horton as a soldier was by no means incongruous. There was something distinctly military in his upright carriage and step. During the War, although considerably over age and in indifferent health, he went into training so as to be ready to serve if called upon. His adventure with Whispers was not the only occasion on which he attempted to obtain a footing on a periodical by purchasing an interest. At one time he acquired a share in a publishing business, but his connection with it was of short duration.


He first turned his attention to art while he was living at Redhill. He has left a record that he began to study oil-painting and chalkdrawing on October 3rd, 1893. I remember that he showed me some of his drawings when I visited him at Redhill, and he gave me one of his early attempts. Although very crude, it possesses a touch of originality such as is so often noticeable in the work of self-taught artists, and which was never entirely absent from his work. But as soon as he had decided to devote himself to drawing, he applied himself to it with his characteristic enthusiasm. He visited London frequently with his portfolio, and we invariably met either in town or at my house. Sometimes/he would make a night of it and we would put him up. His portfolio would be produced and his drawings discussed. Walter de la Mare would perhaps drop in, when long literary arguments would ensue. The Time Machine and The Island of Dr. Moreau by Mr. Wells, Lombroso's The Man of Genius and other books of the day gave rise to all kinds of speculations relating to the possibility of undeveloped mental faculties. These speculations seemed to have an irresistible attraction for Horton. Among the French books that he read at this time, the influence of which is very noticeable, were practically all the works of Theophile Gautier (and he specially admired the Emaux et Camees); the poetry of Franrrois Villon, which resulted in several drawings, one of which appeared in the Savoy; Baudelaire and Alexandre Dumas fils. We took in the Gil Bias Illustre, and Horton never ceased to express admiration for the work of Steinlen, whose drawings were appearing week by week with unfailing regularity, and were the chief justification of that daring periodical. But the technique of Aubrey Beardsley's work was undoubtedly a source of inspiration to Horton, and he would sometimes speak of the beauty of Beardsley's line almost in despair. He paid a visit to Beardsley whom he described as entirely unspoiled by his great success, and who gave him some words of encouragement at a time when he had hitherto obtained little encouragement elsewhere.

His association with Beardsley was continued when the Savoy was started in 1896, under the editorship of Mr. Arthur Symons. Horton was justly proud when the following of his drawings were accepted for this publication, to which Beardsley was the chief artistcontributor:-

In No. 2.-Three Visions. A vignette and cul-de-Iampe for a poem by Leila Macdonald.

Appendix B 149

No. 4.-A vignette and cul-de-Iampe for a poem by Ford Madox Hueffer.

No. 6.-A drawing for Villon's Ballade des Pendus. No. 7.-A drawing to illustrate the lines of Keats:

"Now more than ever seems it rich to die, To cease upon the midnight without pain."

The last-named of these drawings, which is reproduced in the present volume, is of course manifestly based on the well-known sketch of the dying poet, made by his devoted friend Severn.

Horton was now turning with increased interest towards symbolic art, and he developed a note which is peculiarly his own in the course of the next two years. In the meantime he had made some friendships among the artists and poets of the day, and his work was sympathetically received by them. The chief outcome of this new development was a collection of his drawings issued by the Unicorn Press in 1898, under the title of A Book oj Images with an introduction by his friend Mr. W. B. Yeats, who said in reference to the illustrations that Horton "has his waking dreams and copies them in his drawings as if they were models posed for him by some earthly master. A disciple of perhaps the most media:val movement in modern mysticism, he had delighted in picturing the streets of media:val German towns, and the castles of media:val romances; and, at moments, as in All Thy waves have gone over me, the images of a kind of humorous piety, like that of the media:val miracle-plays and moralities. Always interesting when he pictures the principal symbols of his faith, the woman of Rosa Mystica and Ascending into Heaven, who is the Divine womanhood, the man-at-arms of St. George, and Be Strong, who is the Divine manhood, he is at his best in picturing the Magi, who are the wisdom of the world, uplifting their thuribles before the Christ, who is the union of the Divine manhood and the Divine womanhood. The rays of the halo, the great beams of the manger, the rich ornament of the thuribles and of the cloaks, make up a pattern where the homeliness come of his pity mixes with an elaborateness come of his adoration. Even the phantastic landscapes, the entangled chimneys against a white sky, the dark valley with its little points of light, the cloudy and fragile towns and churches, are part of the history of a soul; for Mr. Horton tells me that he has made them spectral, to make himself feel all things but a waking dream; and whenever spiritual purpose mixes with artistic purpose, and not to its


injury, it gives it a new sincerity, a new simplicity. He tried at first to copy his models in colour, and with little mastery over colour when even great mastery would not have helped him, and very literally: but soon found that you could only represent a world where nothing is still for a moment, and where colours have odours and odours have musical notes, by formal and conventional images, midway between scenery and persons of common life, and the geometrical emblems on medi:rval talismans. His images are still few, though they are becoming more plentiful, and will probably be always but few; for he who is content to copy common life need never repeat an image, because his eyes show him always changing scenes, and none that can be copied; but there must always be a certain monotony in the work of the symbolist, who can only make symbols out of the things that he loves. "

The Book of Images was followed by a volume containing a series of drawings illustrating Edgar Allan Poe's Raven and The Pit and the Pendulum, which was published by Leonard Smithers with an introduction by Vincent O'Sullivan. These illustrations are not, however, among Horton's best work. There were, besides, two other books for which he was responsible, namely The Crig Book in 1900, a series of quaint coloured drawings illustrating a collection of old nursery rhymes, which has become very rare owing to the fact that a great part of the edition was destroyed by fire, and The Way of a Soul, "a legend in line and verse" which he both wrote and illustrated. The Hon. Ralph Shirley in his Foreword says that "the aim of the symbolical pictures of which this book consists is to portray the upward struggle of the soul of man through conflict and effort on the material plane to the realisation of the higher self." It is certain that Horton believed, at any rate for the greater part of his life, that he in his work was impelled by some occult influence. He was for many years much interested in Spiritualism and The Way of a Soul was produced at a time when it filled a considerable part of his life. I am not qualified to speak on this subject, but judged merely as drawings some of them are very beautiful, and nearly all of them show that his technique was improving. The influence of William Blake, for whose work Horton had the greatest admiration, is noticeable both in these drawings and in the simple verses which accompany them. He was always indignant 'whenever he heard Blake described as "mad," and when he came across the mention of a person named Blake as an inmate of Bedlam, he set himself the task of tracing the origin of the statement and at length found it in a French periodical. The account

Appendix B 151

purported to describe a visit to the poet in Bedlam and was plausible enough, but Horton was not satisfied and caused a search to be made among the records of Bethlehem Hospital, where no mention of a Blake between the years 18 I 5 and I 835 (the date of the article) could be found.*

For many years Horton belonged to the Brotherhood of the New Life. I do not know for how long, or when he relinquished his membership. He was singularly unworldly and deeply religious, and most of his writings which remain in manuscript are concerned with religion and art. Latterly he seems to have attended the services of Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral indiscriminately. He was also passionately devoted to music and attended concerts; but he possessed no technical knowledge of music.

It is noticeable that his drawings may be classed into distinct groups covering certain periods of time. When one or another of these phases was worked out he generally abandoned it for something new. Horton, who was keenly interested in studying the development of his mind, kept a written record of his work, in which he numbered and dated each of his drawings.

He also left some very brief records of his life, but the chief was his "work diary" from the year 1895 until his death. This diary, consisting for the most part of a line or two to a day, contains the record of his drawings, each of which was carefully numbered, of his literary work, his appointments, visits to London, and his excursions abroad. One gathers that he found it increasingly difficult to settle down anywhere for long. Brighton, perhaps chiefly on account of family ties, but also because the air suited him, held him longest, but he fretted a good deal even there, and ifhe had not been able to come up to London frequently, he probably would not have endured it as long as he did.

In September 1900, Horton resolved to leave Brighton and moved with his family to a house which he had taken on a lease of some years in Albion Road, St. John's Wood, where I remember dining with him soon after his arrival. All his belongings were arranged, and he spoke of having at last found a place that entirely satisfied him. He very soon, however, repented of having made the change, as he found it impossible to work in his new surroundings, and shortly afterwards he returned to the house in Brighton, which he had left only two

• See Horton's article "Was Blake ever in Bedlam" in The Occult Review, November, 1912.


months before. This experience, if it left him more reconciled to Brighton, did not cure that restlessness which possessed him almost to the end of his life. In the Spring of 1904 he made a voyage to South Africa, apparently with the object of remaining there, but he did little more than land, look round Cape Town, and return home by the next boat.

In the August of that year he decided to divide his time between London and Brighton, and he took lodgings in Smith Square, Westminster, but two months later he engaged a room in Cheyne Row, Chelsea, where he seems to have spent most of his time until 1907. In August 1908 he paid a flying visit to Moscow, and in 1911 he went to America for a couple of months, and visited the Yellowstone Park. He also went several times to France during these years, and sometimes attended classes for drawing from the nude, a branch of study which he had hitherto neglected. In 1910 he migrated to Hampstead, where he lived for some years, at one time in a house on the Heath, and afterwards in the town. He finally occupied quarters in an old house in Cartwright Square, Bloomsbury, where he spent some years of tranquillity and happiness, but latterly a period of sorrow.

Horton was always more or less a solitary. One can figure the little English boy in Belgium who could only speak French, and later the boy from Belgium at his school in Brighton who spoke English only with difficulty. He was like an exile belonging to another and a better country; an idealist who was for ever seeking for perfection in a world where perfection does not exist. He dwelt in a world that was his own .. When he lived in Chelsea memories of Whistler still hung about the place and he viewed it as the Latin Quarter of London without venturing to familiarise himself with the studio life of that district. Westminster, Hampstead, and Bloomsbury were each invested by him with the glamour of romance because he contented himself with externals and traditions, and never discovered that they are as commonplace as any other parts of London. Perhaps he was the happier for this detachment from the crude realities oflife. His world was mainly a world of dreams or waking visions, and the greater p~rt of his work consisted in portraying these fleeting images. They seem to have been something more than the result of that gift, which all artists possess in a greater or lesser degree, namely of visualisation. In the brief record which he left of his earliest childhood he said that he always felt that he was surrounded by unseen beings. This feeling was continued throuF;hout life, so that he could not bear darkness. He had

Appendix B 153 VISIons from the earliest time that he could remember, and one especially of two men in armour, who appeared at night offering him a crown on a cushion.

Horton had a very friendly and charming manner and made acquaintances readily, but he was rather over-sensitive to gain many friends. The few that he did possess were devoted to him and could testify to his warm and generous nature. If you chanced to meet him he was nearly always alone, he would be ready to talk and to go with you wherever you wanted to take him. I can never forget his fine upright figure, the frank, friendly look of greeting in his blue eyes and his hearty laugh.

In 19 I 6 he suffered a severe loss in the death of a cherished friend, from which shock he never entirely recovered. He seemed to be a changed man without much interest in life. But he went about his work and could generally be seen, day after day, in his accustomed place in the Reading Room of the British Museum writing industriously.

During the many years that I had known him, his health had been fairly good, but he paid rather too much attention in later years to his diet; indeed no one could know him for long without noticing how much it occupied his thoughts. He was for ever trying to find a diet which would enable him to produce his best work. He practised vegetarianism from time to time, and made frequent changes in his food, always tending to frugality; which undoubtedly affected his spirits and reduced his vitality. In the days of the war, like many others, he probably suffered from malnutrition.

Early in 1918 he was knocked down in a London street by a motorcar, but apparently he recovered from this accident. His diary, however, records that in the April of that year he consulted a doctor who assured him that there was nothing seriously amiss, and for a time he appears to have regained his normal health, but the symptoms recurred. It was really the beginning of his fatal illness. His eyesight was failing, and for the first time he had been obliged to take to glasses.

Although he was leading the lonely life of an ascetic in his rooms at Cartwright Gardens, he was not entirely a solitary, as he still went about seeing a_ few friends, such as Sir H. Rider Haggard, Lady Gregory or Mr. W. B. Yeats, and keeping up his life-long habit of visiting the Theatres. But a little story which he told me seems to emphasise the loneliness of his last days in Bloomsbury. His rooms were on the top storey of a large house, and were reached by a large


winding staircase. One Saturday night he returned home late, there was no one else in the house, and ascended the stairs in the dark. Carrying a heavy bag, he could not put out his hand for the baluster rail, as was his custom. When he got to the top of the stairs and turned on the light, he saw that the entire balusters and rails had been removed that day without his knowledge, and there was no one to warn him that they had gone. Nothing could have saved him from falling over into the well of the stairs had he leaned over to the right in ascending them.

The last time I saw him in London was on Sunday, September loth, 1918. He had written a few days earlier to say that he wanted me to see "some colour effects in oil," which, however, he was "not showing to brother artists as the idea is still evolving." So he came to my house and spent the afternoon and evening with me. We had not met for some months, and he seemed to be altered and perceptibly ageing, but he did not complain except of his weakening sight. This he regarded as a somewhat serious matter on account of his work. He brought with him a large parcel containing a series of oil-paintings; the result of his recent labours. They could not be described as compositions, but rather as consisting of harmonious blends of colour without any attempt at form or design, but suggesting landscapes or mountain scenery under gorgeous sunsets or weird sky effects. He intended to hold an exhibition later in the year of these productions, which were apparently the last of his works.

On October 4th Horton left London to see his sister at York Road, Hove, and on the loth of that month he had a complete breakdown. He wrote to tell me that he was in loving hands and that all was being done for him that affection could do. He admitted that his illness, which was due to lack of proper food and care, had been coming on for a long time. In the last note he wrote to me, on December 12th, he said, "Tu ne seras pas supris d'entendre queje vais devenir un R. c., il n'y'a pas d'autre moyen pour moi." He was received into the Catholic Church on the feast of the Epiphany, 1919, and passed away fortified by the Last Sacraments, on February 19th. He rests in the family grave at Ashford, Kent. R.I.P.

Index Abbey Theatre, 29, 30, 34, 44, 83 Abiegnos, 47 The Academy, 23, 81, 112 Adam, Villiers de L'Isle, 23,113; Axel,

23 Ahasuerus, 2

Ahathoor Temple, 5 Aherne, John, I, 75 Ainley, Henry, 85 Aldington, Mrs., 89 Ames, Julia A., 90 'Anima Pura Sit', see Henry Pullen

Burry Anthroposophical Society, 86 Atheism, 9 Automatic Script, 58, 62, 65, 71- 3,88,

89 Automatism, 63, 138

Balzac, 147 'The Banishing Lesser Ritual of the

Pentagram', 6, 7, 94, 95 Barrett, William, 89 Baudelaire; Charles, 23, 113, 148 Beardsley, Aubrey, 26, 146, 148 Bennett, Allan, I, 2, 25, 82, 114 Bergson, Henri, 75 Berridge, C. M., 8,9, 11,28,78- 80,96;

The Brotherhood of the New Life; an Epitome of the Works and Teachings of Thomas Lake Harris, 8

Berridge, Edward W., 4-9, II, 15, 16, 18,78,93, 103, 104, 106

Bismark, 16, 105 Blackwood, Algernon, 50, 130 Blake, William, I, 4, 8-11, 14, 16, 18,

23,26,27,3 2,34,39,5 2,5 6,63,72-4,8 1,85,90,91,97-9, 102, 112, 138, 150; 'The Golden Net', 8 I; Songs of Innocence, 16, 103

Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna, 53, 86, 89, 133; The Key of Theosophy, 86; The Voice of Silence, 89

Bligh, Mrs., 29, 116 Boehme, Jacob, 8, 10, 96, 98 Bois, Jules, 15, 80; Le satanisme et la

Magie, 15, 103 Borderland, 90 Bridge, Ursala, ed., W. B. Yeats and

T. Sturge Moore:. Their Correspondence, 88

Briggs, Mary, 20 British Museum, 32, 39,40, 58,64,65,

75,76,83, 119, 130, 139, 140, 153 Brooke, Rupert, 33, 84, 118 Brotherhood of the, I 5, 64, 138 The Brotherhood of the New Life, 5-9,

I I, 15,21,23,53,77-9,82,95,103, 113,15 1

Buddhism, 2, 25, 53, 82, 114, 133 Bullen, Arthur Henry, 52, 132 BunyanJohn, The Pilgrim's Progress, 23,

43,113,123 Burke, Billy, 68, 141 Burry, Henry Pullen, 6, 7, 94, 95

Caesar, Julius, I2J Cambridge Platonists, 86 Card File, 3, 60 Catholicism, 54, 68, 133, 141, 154 Celtic Mysteries, 19, 20, 80 Christ, 7- 10,12,13,19,35,49,53,56,

64,69,95- 101, 107,120,129; 133, 136, 141, 149

Churchill, Winston, 33 Claudel, Paul Louis Charles, 45, 124 Clifton, Ann, 70 Clifton, Thomas E., 68-70, 142 Cohen, Morton, 83 Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 63, 112, 138

ISS

Index

Conroy, Thomas E., 83 Coole Park, I I I

Craig, Gordon, 34 Crowley, Aleister, The Confessions of

Aleister Crowley, 82; Moonchild, 76 Cuchulain, 17 Curtiss, F. Homer, 89; Letters from the

Teacher ... , 64, 89, 138; The Voice of Isis, by the Teacher of the Order of 15, 64,89, 138

Curtiss, Harriette A., 89

Daimer, 45, 124 Daimon, 71, 72 Dante, 14 Davies, W. H., 33 Davis, Andrew Jackson, 77, 78 Dead Sea, 69, 141 De La Mare, Walter, 33, 148 Dent, 103 Dickens, Charles, 147 The Dome, 20, 81, 82, 109 Donoghue, Denis, 76; W. B. Yeats

Memoirs, 76 Dulac, Edmund, 85 Dumas fils, Alexandre, 148 Diirer, Albrecht, 106

Edward VII, 83 Edwards, J. A., 76 Egyptology, 4-7, 32, 76, 77, 94 Ellis, E. j., 90 Ellmann, Richard, 85; Yeats: The Man

and the Masks, 85 Emery, Florence Farr, 1,2,4,20,29,79,

115 Emperor of Germany, 16, 105 Epiphany, 69, 142, 154 Ervine, St. John, 33 Esoteric Christianity, 79

Finneran, Mary F., 88 Finneran, Richard J., 75, 86, 88; (with

G. M. Harper) '''He Loved Strange Thought" '; W. B. Yeats and William Thomas Horton' 86; (with G. M. Harper and W. M. Murphy) Letters to W. B. Yeats, 75, 76, 90

Flannery, James W., 79; Miss Annie F.

Horniman and the Abbey Theatre, 79 Fletcher, lan, 76' Fowler, Eva, 34, 39, 84 French, Cecil, 84; Between Sun and

Moon, 84

Gamelin, Samuel Gottlieb, 35 Garnett, Edward, 103 Gautier, Theophile, 148; Emaux et

Camers, 148 'John Gawsworth' (Terence I. H. F.

Armstrong), 76, 92 George, St., 149 Gil Bias Illustni, 148 Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 35, 63,

13 8 Golden Dawn, 1,4- I 1,13- 15,19,20,

25-7, 36, 43, 46, 64, 75- 8, 82, 86, 92-8,108,114

Gonne, Iseult, 57, 58, 65-9, 87-9, 139- 41

Gonne, Maud, 10,27,36,37,48, 57,58, 65,81,87-9

Grant, W. F., 13, 100; Healing by Faith, 13, 100

The Green Sheaf, 27 Gregory, Lady Augusta, 29, 37- 9, 44,

57,84,88,89, 135, 153; Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland, 44, 85, 86, 124

Grey, Father, 141

Haggard, H. Rider, 23, 28, 29, 32, 77, 78,81-3,86,87,89,112,153; Moon of Israel: A Tale of the Exodus, 77; The Poor and the Land, 83

Des hal/ucinations, 32 Hamlet, 45, 125 Hamsun, Knut, 22, I 12; Hunger, 22, I 12 Hardy, Thomas, 146 Harper, G. M., 75, 76, 86; (with W. K.

Hood) A Critical Edition of Yeats's' A Vision' (1925),75,76,81,82,85-8, 91; (with R.J. Finneran) '''He Loved Strange Thought"; W. B. Yeats and William Thomas Horton', 86; (with R. J. Finneran and W. M. Murphy) Letters to W. B. Yeats, 75, 76, 90; , "Meditation~ upon Unknown

Index 157

Thought": Yeats's Break with MacGregor Mathers', 82; Yeats's Golden Dawn, 76, 77, 80, 82; Yeats and the Occult, 76, 86

Harris, Thomas Lake, 4~9, II, 15, 16, 19,23,28, 53, 77~80, 82, 85, 86, 88, 95~7, 101, 103; Apocalypse, 15, 16, 80, 103; The Arcana of Christianity, 4, 77, 78, 80; Bridal Hours: Lyrical Utterances of the Two-in-One, 78; The Brotherhood of th~ New Life, 78; Counterparts: Or the Marriage of Heaven on Earthfor Eternity, 79; God's Breath in Man and in Humane Society, 4, 78; The Golden Child: A Daily Chronicle, 78, 80; The Lord: the Twoin-One, 88; The Luminous Life, 78; The Marriage of Heaven and Earth, 78, 88; Songs of Fairyland, 15, 16, 80, 103; The Wisdom of the Adepts, 78

Hassall, Christopher, 33, 34, 84 The Herald of Light, 28 Hermes Trismegistus, 43 Hermetic Society, 79 The Hermetic Students, 75 Herod,98 Himber, Alan B., 83; The Letters of

John Quinn to William Butler Yeats 1902~ 1923', 83

Holy Ghost, 52, 132 Holy Grail, 50, 130 Hone, Joseph, 84, 88, 90, 91; W. B.

Yeats, 84 Hood, Walter Kelly, (with G. M.

Harper) A Critical Edition of Yeats's 'A Vision' (1925),75,76, 81, 85~8, 91

Horniman, A. ·E. F., 5~7, 10, I I, 14~

16, 30, 80,93, 95, 99, 101, 104, I I 5 Horton, Alan, 70 Horton, Frank R., 90 Horton, Mrs., 14, 16, 3 I, 69, 77 Horton, William Thomas, 'All Thy

waves have gone over me', 149; 'The Annunciation', 20, 109; 'Ascending into Heaven', 149; 'August Noons', 8 I; 'Be Strong', 149; A Book of Images, 5, 20~2, 31, 51,76,81,82, 86, 109~ II, II7, 132, 134,135,149,150; The Grig's Book, 27, 114, 150; 'Hatred,

Malice, and All Uncharitableness', 77; The Mystic Will', 147; The Raven The Pit and the Pendulum, 22,

23.81, III, 113; 'Rosa Mystica', 5, 149; Three Visions', 76, 148; 'Vision of Cresey ... " I 12; 'Was Blake Ever in Bedlam? A Strange Discovery', 32, 34, 151; The Way of the Soul: A Legend in Line and Verse, 30, 32,58,83, II7, II8, 150; (ed. Roger Ingpen) William Thomas Horton (1864~1919) A Selection of His work with a Biographical Sketch, 145; 'Work Diary', 151, 153

Howe, Ellie, 77~ 80; The Magicians of the Golden Dawn, 77

Hueffer, Ford Madox, 149 Hyde-Lees, Georgie, see Yeats, George

(Mrs. W. B. Yeats)

Ingpen, Roger, 67, 82, 89, 90, 145; William Thomas Horton (1864~ 1919) A Selection of His Work with a Biographical Sketch, 145

Internal Respiration, 8 Irish Literary Theatre, 20, 8 I Isis, 5, 80, 93 Isis-Urania Temple, 5, 7, 15, 20, 26 Ito, Michio, 85

Jeffares, A. Norman, 87; W. B. Yeats: Man and Poet, 87

Joyce, James, 53, 133; A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, 53, 133

Julia's Bureau, 72

Kalogera, Lucy Shepard, 80; 'Yeats's Celtic Mysteries', 80

Karma, 53, 86, 132 Karschin, Anna Louise, 35 Keats, John, I 12, 149; 'Ode to a

Nightingale', 149 Kelly, John, 76, 92 Kingsford, Mrs. Anna, 10, 79; (with E.

Maitland) The Perfect Way, 10, 79

Lane, Hugh, 89 Lang, Andrew, 23, 81, 112 Lawrence, H. W., 52, 132

Index

Lawton, George, 77- 80, 82, 86, 88; (with H. W. Schneider) A Prophet and A Pilgrim, 77

Leo Africanus, 83 Leo, Alan, 54- 5 Light, 28, I 15 Little Theatre, 45 Locke, Amy Audrey, 2, 6, 3 I, 32, 34,

36-40,44- 8,5 1,53,66,68,72,74-6,78,85-7,117-19,121,124,125, 127, 128, 141, 143, 144, 153; The Hanbury Family, 75, 143; History of the Seymour Family from Lady Jane Grey to the Present Time, 143; In Praise of Winchester, an Anthology in Prose and Verse, 144; Victoria County History, 143; War and Misrule 1307 to 1399, 144

Locke, Mr. & Mrs. A. P., 143 Lodge, Oliver, 86; Raymond, 86 Lombroso, Cesare, 148; The man of

Genius, 148 The London Mercury, 90 Luther, Martin, 17, 105 Lyttelton, Lady Edith, 59- 61, 88;

'Reminiscences of Yeats', 88

Macdonald, Leila, 148 Maeterlinck, Maurice, 47, 127 Maitland, Edward, 9, 10, 79; Anna

Kingsford: her Life, Letters, Diary and Work, 79; New Gospel of Interpretation, 79; (with A. Kingsford) The Perfect Way,· 10, 79

Mann, Mrs., 47, 127 Marsh, Edward, 33, 34, 84 Masefield, John, ~9, I 15 'Maurice', see Iseult Gonne Mathers, MacGregor, 1,2,4,5,7,8,10,

14, 15, 19, 20, 25, 75, 76, 79, 80, 82, 98

Mathers, Moina (Mrs. MacGregor), 1-

3, 5, 10, 75, 76, 80 Michael, St., 17, 19, 105, 107 Modern Astrology, 54 Monday Evenings, 30, 40, 45, 64 Moore, George, 23, 82, II 3; Evelyn

Innes, 23, 82, 112 Moore, T. Sturge, 37, 39, 52, 54, 58, 88,

121, 128, 132, 133; (ed. Ursala

Bridge) W. B. Yeats and T. Sturge Moore: Their Correspondence, 88

Moore, Virginia, 84, 87; The Unicorn, 84, 87, 88

More, Henry, 53, 86, 133 Murphy, William M., (with R. J.

Finneran and G. M. Harper) Letters to W. B. Yeats, 75, 76, 90

Neoplatonists, 86 New Republic, 73, 90 Nous, 100, 101 Nowell-Smith, Simon, ed. Letters to

Macmillan, 88

The Observer, 47, 85, 127 Occultism, 53, 86, 110, 133 The Occult Review, 32, 84, II 8, 151 Old meadow, E.]., 20, 21, 23, 52, 55,81,

109, 110, 112, 132, 135 Oliphant, Laurence, 53, 77, 80, 86,133 Olympus, 49, 129 O'Malley, Glenn, 84; (with D.

Torchiana) 'Some New Letters from W. B. Yeats to Lady Gregory', 84

O'Sullivan, Vincent, 8 I, 150

Paul, St., 100 Peguy, Charles, 58, 88; Mystere de la

Charite de Jeanne d'Arc, 58 The Pick-Me-Up, 22, 77, III, 112 Planchette, 37, 120 Plato, 2, 6,3 I, 41, 47,59,62,66,74,78,

79; 'Phaedrus', 59, 61, 83 Plotinus, 53, 86, 133 Poe, Edgar Allan, 22, 8 I, I 12, I 13, 150;

'The Pit and the Pendulum', 23, 113, 150; 'The Raven', 23,113,150

Pollexfen, George, 14, 16, 18, 19, 102, 103, 104, 107, 108

Pound, Ezra, 33,40,45,47,49, 119, 121, 124, 128, 129; Passages from the Letters of John Butler Yeats: Selected by Ezra Pound, 58, 88

Protestantism, 54, J 33

Quinn, John, 29, 73, 83

Radcliffe, Elizabeth, 34-6, 39,40,44, 58, 66, 83, 88, 89

Index 159

Radcliffe, Margaret, 34 Regardie, Israel, 77 'Respiro', see C. M. Berridge 'Resurgam', see E. W. Berridge A Review of English Literature, 84 Ricketts, Charles, 55, I 3 5 Rhys, Ernest, 76, 85, 86 Robartes, Michael, 75, 76 Rolland, Romain, 'Jean Christophe',

133 Roosevelt, President Theodore, 83 Rosicrucianism, 12, 23, 46, 78, 79 Ross, Denison, 65 Ross, Robert, 23, 112 Rothenstein, William, 21, 110 Royal Academy, 146 Russell, George W. (AE), 19, 80, 107 Ruysbroeck, Jan Van, 47, 85,127; The

Sparkling Stone, 85; Spiritual Nuptials, 47,85, 127

Salvation Army, 28 Satanism, 15, 103 The Savoy, 4,14,18,55,76,79- 81,91,

102, 106, 148 Schneider, Herbert W., 77- 80, 82, 86,

88; (with G. Lawton) A Prophet and A Pilgrim, 77

School of Oriental languages, 65, 140 'Seraphita', 125 Severn, Joseph, 149 Shakespear, Olivia, 35, 49, 129 Shaw, George B., 84; Blanco Posnet, 84 Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 2, 22,63,79,112;

Hellas, 2

Shirley, Ralph, 32, 118, 150 Sinnett, Alfred Percy, 77 Smaragdine Tablet, 43 Smith, Pamela Colman, 27 Smithers, Leonard, 22, 23, 81, 110- 12,

150 Society for Psychical Research, 83, 89 Sophia, 100 Sparrow., John, 90 Spenser, Edmund, 79 Spiritualism, 9, 41, 63, 97,122,138,150 Stead, Estelle W., 90; My Father, 90 Stead, William T., 72, 90; After Death,

90; Letters from Julia, 90

Steiner, Rudolph, 53,86, 133 Stella Matutina, 86 Swedenborg, Emanuel, 61, 77 Sybil, ro, II, 99 Symons, Arthur, 4, 82,92- 5, 102, 148 Synge, John Millington, Deidre of the

Sorrows, 45, 125; The Playboy of the Western World, 29

Theobold, Miss, the Sacred Dancer, 51, 13 1

Theosophical Society, 9, 77-9, 82, 86 Theosophy, 97, 133 Thomas of Dorlowicz, 62, 71, 72 Tone, Wolfe, 81 Torchiana, Donald B., 84; (which G.

O'Malley) 'Some New Letters from W. B. Yeats to Lady Gregory', 84

Tucker, Mrs. H. T., 57, 58, 85, 87 Tynan, Katharine, 79

Unicorn Press, 149

Vandervelde, Madame, 134 'Vestigia Nulla Retrorsum', see Moina

Mathers Villon, Fran~ois, 148, 149; Ballade des

Pendus, 149 Volunteer Record, 147

Wade, Allan, 77, 80, 81, 87; A Bibliography of the Writings of W. B. Yeats, 80; (editor) Letters ofW. B. Yeats, 77-82,84-9

Waite, Arthur Edward, 76, 78; The Unknown World, 78

Wandering Jew, 2 Waters, Emily Isabella, 78 Watt, A. P. and Son, 76 Wells, H. G., 148; The Island of Dr.

Moreau, 148; The Time Machine, 148 Westcott, William Wynn, 76, 78 Whispers-A Magazine for Surrey Folk,

147 Whistler, James, 55, 135,152 Whitman, Walt, 53, 133 Wreidt, Mrs. Etta, 85

Yeats, Anne, 69, 82

160 Index

Yeats, George (Mrs. W. B.), 35, 57, 58, 60,63,65-7,69,72,84,85,87-9, 139- 41

Yeats, John Butler, 39, 40, 73, 85, 90; Passages from the Letters of John Butler Yeats: Selected by Ezra Pound, 58, 88

Yeats, Lily, 82 Yeats, Michael B., 75, 76, 84, 88, 92 Yeats Studies, 82 Yeats, W. B., 'All Souls' Night', I, 73,

75, 76, 9 1; At the Hawk's Well, 85; Autobiographies, 3, 74, 75, 90; Beltaine, 22, 81, III; Card File, 59; 'Celtic Vision: Explorations', 20; Collected Poems, 73, 76; The Countess Cathleen, 8 I; Early Poems and Stories, 79, 9 I; Essays and Introductions, 78; Ideas cif Good and Evil, 21, 52, 55, 86, 132, 134; 'Introduction to A Book of Images' 2 I, 55, 86, 110, 134; The Land of Heart's Desire, 79; The Letters cif W. B. Yeats, 77-82, 84-9; 'Magic', 78; 'The Mountain Tomb', 47, 85; Mythologies, 79; Per Amica Silentia Lunae, 69, 90; 'The Philosophy of Shelley'S Poetry', 22, 23, 82, I I I,

I 12; 'Plans and Methods', 8 I; Poems (1895), 4, 81, 93; The Poems of William Blake, 90; 'Preliminary Examination of the Script of

E[lizabeth] R[adcliffeJ' 40, 83, 84; 'Ribh Denounces Patrick' 43, 85; 'Rosa Alchemica', 5, 12, 13,76, 81, 99; 'The Rose', 4, 79,93; The Secret Rose, 81; Seveu Poems and a Fragment, 90; The Shadowy Waters, 22, 23, II I, I 12; 'Swedenborg, Mediums, and the Desolate Places', 44,53,85,86,124; 'Symbolism in Painting', 66, 86, 134, 135; The Tables of the Law I The Adoration of the Magi, 8 I; 'The Theatre', 8 I; 'To the Rose upon the Rood of Time', 4, 7, 76, 93; 'To Vestigia', I, 48, 73, 74, 77; 'The Tragic Generation', 90; The Trembling of the Veil, 2; The Variorum Edition cifthe Poems of W. B. Yeats, 80;

A Vision (1925), 1- 3, 6, 40, 59, 61, 62,66,69,71,73- 5,77-9,82,88-91; A Vision (1937). 75; w. B. Yeats and T. Sturge Moore: Their Correspondence 88; W. B. Yeats Memoirs, 76; 'William Blake and His Illustrations to The Divine Comedy', 14, 80, 102; 'Witches and Wizards and Irish FolkLore' 44, 85; The Works of William Blake, 81,90

Yonge, Charlotte, 143, 144

Zodiac, 5 I, 93

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