Tannhäuser

I have written this preface in lighter vein, but I hope that no one will be led to suppose that my purpose is anything but deadly serious. This poem has been written in the blood of slain faith and hope ; each foolish utterance of Tannhauser stings me with shame and memory of old agony ; each Ignis Fatuus that he so readily pursues, reminds me of my own delusions. But, these follies and delusions being the common property of mankind, I have thought them of sufficient interest, dramatic and philosophical, to form the basis of a poem. Let no man dare to reproach me with posing as the hero of my tale. I fall back on the last utterance of Tannhauser himself " I say, then, ' I ' : and yet it is not ' I ' Distinct, but ' I ' incorporate in All." Above all, pray understand that I do not pose as a teacher. I am but an asker of questions, such as may be found confronting those who have indeed freed their minds from the conventional commonplaces of the platitudinous, but have not yet dared to uproot the mass of their convictions, and to examine the whole question of religion from its most funda- mental source in the consciousness of mankind. Such persons may find the reasoning of Tannhauser useful, if only to brace them to a more courageous attempt to understand the " Great Arcanum," and to attain at last, no matter at what cost, to "true Wisdom and perfect Happiness." So may all happen! Kandy, Ceylon, Sept. 1901. 16