THE NEW WINE
281
The metaphysics of these
verses
Is perfectly absurd.
My curse
No sooner in an iron word
I formulate my thought than I
Perceive the same
to be absurd . '
...
"
And
this fleeting changeful
“ experience,” Huxley
says ,
is
necessarily
“ based
on
incomplete
know
ledge," and
is
“ to be held only as grounds
of
more
or
less
justified
expectation
" ...
“ On
the
other
hand , no conceivable
event however extraordinary
is
impossible ." 2
Thus
all
changeability
is
uncertainty
,
from the Gods
and
the
Suns which
we
worship
,
to
the
kisses
we
shower
on
our loved ones
'
lips
;
as
Crowley
sings
:
Why must despair
to
madness
drive
The myriad fools that fear
to
die
?
God's
but
a
fervid phantom
drawn
Out
of
the hasty
-
ordered hive
Of thoughts that battle agony
In
the melancholy hours
of
dawn
.
When vital force at lowest ebbs
Anæmic nerves weave frailest webs.3
And the five
senses
stand naked and shivering
in
the
freezing
night
of
doubt
,
the fire
is
dead
,
and
on the
hearth crouch
the spectral
ashes
no
longer
to
flame
in
the starlight
.
Foolish prostitute
!
You slacked your kiss upon
the sodden
youth
In
some
excess
of
confidence
,
decay
Of care
to
hold him
-
can
I
tell you which
?
Down goes the moon
-
one sees the howling
bitch
!"
4
1
The Sword
of
Song
,
Pentecost
,
vol
.
ii,
p
.
170
.
Huxley's Hume
,
p
.
157
.
Gargoyles
,
vol
.
iii,
p
.
85
.
4
Ibid
.
vol
.
iii,
p
.
91
.
3