The Collected Works in Verse and Prose of William Butler Yeats. Volume 3 of 8. The Countess Cathleen. The Land of Heart's Desire. The Unicorn from the Stars

The same workshop. MARTIN seen arranging mugs and bread, etc., on a table. FATHER JOHN comes in, knocking at open door as he comes; his mind intensely absorbed.

MARTIN

Come in, come in, I have got the house ready. Here is bread and meat – everybody is welcome.

    [Hearing no answer, turns round.

FATHER JOHN

Martin, I have come back. There is something I want to say to you.

MARTIN

You are welcome, there are others coming. They are not of your sort, but all are welcome.

FATHER JOHN

I have remembered suddenly something that I read when I was in the seminary.

MARTIN

You seem very tired.

FATHER JOHN [sitting down]

I had almost got back to my own place when I thought of it. I have run part of the way. It is very important; it is about the trance that you have been in. When one is inspired from above, either in trance or in contemplation, one remembers afterwards all that one has seen and read. I think there must be something about it in St. Thomas. I know that I have read a long passage about it years ago. But, Martin, there is another kind of inspiration, or rather an obsession or possession. A diabolical power comes into one’s body, or overshadows it. Those whose bodies are taken hold of in this way, jugglers, and witches, and the like, can often tell what is happening in distant places, or what is going to happen, but when they come out of that state they remember nothing. I think you said —

MARTIN

That I could not remember.

FATHER JOHN

You remembered something, but not all. Nature is a great sleep; there are dangerous and evil spirits in her dreams, but God is above Nature. She is a darkness, but He makes everything clear; He is light.

MARTIN

All is clear now. I remember all, or all that matters to me. A poor man brought me a word, and I know what I have to do.

FATHER JOHN

Ah, I understand, words were put into his mouth. I have read of such things. God sometimes uses some common man as his messenger.

MARTIN

You may have passed the man who brought it on the road. He left me but now.

FATHER JOHN

Very likely, very likely, that is the way it happened. Some plain, unnoticed man has sometimes been sent with a command.

MARTIN

I saw the unicorns trampling in my dream. They were breaking the world. I am to destroy, destruction was the word the messenger spoke.

FATHER JOHN

To destroy?

MARTIN

To bring again the old disturbed exalted life, the old splendour.

FATHER JOHN

You are not the first that dream has come to. [Gets up, and walks up and down.] It has been wandering here and there, calling now to this man, now to that other. It is a terrible dream.

MARTIN

Father John, you have had the same thought.

FATHER JOHN

Men were holy then, there were saints everywhere. There was reverence; but now it is all work, business, how to live a long time. Ah, if one could change it all in a minute, even by war and violence! There is a cell where Saint Ciaran used to pray; if one could bring that time again!

MARTIN

Do not deceive me. You have had the command.

FATHER JOHN

Why are you questioning me? You are asking me things that I have told to no one but my confessor.

MARTIN

We must gather the crowds together, you and I.

FATHER JOHN

I have dreamed your dream, it was long ago. I had your vision.

MARTIN

And what happened?

FATHER JOHN [harshly]

It was stopped; that was an end. I was sent to the lonely parish where I am, where there was no one I could lead astray. They have left me there. We must have patience; the world was destroyed by water, it has yet to be consumed by fire.