Page 71 - The snake's pass

THE SECRETS OF THE BOG. — 59 ; ;
with the aid of the knowledge and experience of
life received since then, I think that I must have
been in love. I do not know if philosophers have
ever undertaken to say whether it is possible for a
human being to be in love in the abstract—whether
the something which the heart has a tendency to send
forth needs a concrete objective point ! It may be so
the swarm of bees goes from the parent hive with
only the impulse of going—its settling is a matter
of chance. At any rate I may say that no philo-
sopher, logician, metaphysician, psychologist, or other
thinker, of whatsoever shade of opinion, ever held that
a man could be in love with a voice.
True that the unknown has a charm omne ignotum
pro magnifico. If my heart did not love, at least it
had a tendency to worship. Here I am on solid
ground ; for which of us but can understand the feelings
of those men of old in Athens, who devoted their altars
" To The Unknown God ? " I leave the philosophers to
say how far apart, or how near, are love and worship
which is first in historical sequence, which is greatest
or most sacred! Being human, I cannot see any grace
or beauty in worship without love.
However, be the cause what it might, I made up my
mind to return home via Carnaclif. To go from Clare
to Dublin by way of Galway and Mayo is to challenge
opinion as to one's motive. I did not challenge opinion,
I distinctly avoided doing so, and I am inclined to
think that there was more of Norah than of Shlee-