A book of images

In Short

Published in 1898 by the Unicorn Press, A Book of Images pairs twenty-four striking black-and-white illustrations by mystical artist W. T. Horton with an illuminating introductory essay by the Irish poet W. B. Yeats. The work traces Horton’s inner life through imaginary, spectral landscapes—crooked medieval streets, perilous abysses, and brooding waters—and explicit religious visions featuring angels, knights, and the Divine Motherhood. Lasting as a quintessential artifact of late nineteenth-century Symbolism, the volume captures a unique historical moment where esotericism, personal trance, and fine book illustration merged to challenge prevailing artistic realism.

The Story

The arc of A Book of Images unfolds as a intellectual and spiritual journey, beginning with W. B. Yeats's theoretical groundwork on Symbolism and moving into W. T. Horton’s visual record of the soul's pilgrimage. Yeats opens the volume by establishing a crucial distinction between allegory and symbolism. Where allegory relies on memory, traditional knowledge, and fixed intellectual codes to translate one idea into another, true symbolism springs directly from vision and imagination to evoke infinite, divine emotion. Drawing upon figures like William Blake, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and Richard Wagner, Yeats argues that symbolic art gives voice to unutterable spiritual realities, serving as a talisman that frees the mind from mundane cause and effect.

Following this defense of visionary art, Yeats introduces W. T. Horton as a practical mystic and member of "The Brotherhood of the New Life." Horton’s drawings are not calculated compositions of common life, but literal transcriptions of detailed "waking dreams" experienced in trance. Yeats charts Horton’s artistic evolution from early, awkward attempts at literal rendering in color toward a refined, formal black-and-white style. In this mature phase, conventionalized emblems become necessary mirrors for a fleeting, unstable inner world where colors possess odors and odors possess musical notes.

The visual sequence of the book itself carries the reader through two distinct yet overlapping realms: spectral physical environments and high mystical allegorical visions. The journey commences with brooding, atmospheric landscapes such as By the Canal, Chateau Ultime, Notre Dame de Paris, and Trees Walking. These pieces transform everyday architecture, bridges, and trees into haunting, dreamlike forms. Entangled chimneys, cloudy medieval castles, and dark valleys punctuated by distant points of light serve a deliberate spiritual purpose: they make the material world feel thin and spectral, reminding the viewer that all earthly shapes are but a passing trance.

As the collection progresses, the narrative shifts inward toward explicit spiritual warfare and divine aspiration. Images like The Gap and The Wave depict the terrifying abysses of existence and the overshadowing presence of divine love. Figures of moral and spiritual struggle emerge in Temptation, St. George, and Be Strong, representing the ultimate triumph of the Divine Manhood. Concurrently, sacred maternal and celestial imagery—such as Sancta Dei Genitrix, Rosa Mystica, and Ascending into Heaven—celebrates the uplifting power of the Divine Womanhood. The visual narrative reaches its culmination in the Magi adoring the Christ child, where worldly wisdom bows before the perfect union of the divine male and female principles. Ultimately, the book resolves not with worldly answers, but by inviting the viewer to step into the fiery chariot of imaginative thought and leave mortal things behind.

How It Unfolds

The defense of vision Yeats outlines the fundamental conflict between allegory and symbolism, arguing that true art frees the mind from narrative logic to connect with the infinite Divine Essence. He draws upon William Blake's philosophy to show how symbols speak directly to the human imagination.

The mystic's mirror Yeats introduces W. T. Horton as a disciple of "The Brotherhood of the New Life" who transcribes his vivid waking dreams into black-and-white line art. He explains how Horton abandoned realistic coloring in favor of stylized, formal emblems that capture the shifting realities of trance.

Spectral lands and crooked streets The illustration sequence opens with haunting architectural and natural scenes, including Notre Dame de Paris, La Rue des Petits-Toits, and The Viaduct. These fragile, shadowy environments establish a mood of profound isolation and render the physical world visibly temporary.

The abyss and the wave The imagery plunges into existential and cosmic themes with pieces like The Gap and The Wave. Horton uses recurring motifs of deep chasms and looming waters to represent the constant underlying perils of life balanced by God's overshadowing love.

The spiritual battle Plunging into moral conflict, drawings like St. George, Temptation, and Be Strong depict armored men confronting unseen forces. These figures represent the realization of the Divine Manhood overcoming earthly trial through strength and conviction.

Ascension to the divine The final sequence of plates, including Sancta Dei Genitrix, Rosa Mystica, and Ascending into Heaven, focuses on sacred feminine iconography. The volume closes with the Magi presenting their thuribles, signifying the ultimate submission of earthly intellect to divine wisdom.

The People

• W. B. Yeats: The celebrated poet acts as the critical guide, interpreter, and defender of symbolic art. He seeks to rescue true symbolism from being confused with dry allegory, wanting readers to understand art as a doorway to the eternal world. Standing between the pragmatic reader and the elusive artist, he frames Horton’s imperfect technique as a profound, sincere spiritual record.
• W. T. Horton: The illustrator and visionary practitioner whose inner life provides the entire visual substance of the collection. As a disciple of "The Brotherhood of the New Life," he seeks to capture the precise details of his waking trances. He struggles against the limitations of draftsmanship and color, ultimately finding freedom in stark black-and-white symbolic forms.
• The Anonymous German Symbolist: A contemporary painter in Paris whom Yeats quotes to clarify the nature of symbolic art. He passionately insists that symbols express things that cannot be said in any other way, rejecting conventional emblems like lilies or poppies unless they arise from natural bodily truths.
• William Blake: The historic poet and artist who serves as the intellectual touchstone for the entire volume. His writings provide the essential definitions of vision versus allegory, inspiring both Yeats's critical framework and Horton's visionary artistic practice.

In Its Own Voice

"William Blake has written, 'Vision or imagination'--meaning symbolism by these words--'is a representation of what actually exists, really or unchangeably. Fable or Allegory is formed by the daughters of Memory.'" Yeats invokes Blake to ground his assertion that symbolic art deals with eternal, spiritual realities rather than mere intellectual exercises.

"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." In discussing Horton's recurring motifs, Yeats observes how a visionary artist's universe is naturally limited to the few recurring forms that hold deep personal meaning.

"The world of imagination is the world of Eternity. It is the Divine bosom into which we shall all go after the death of the vegetated body." Quoting Blake once more, Yeats highlights the underlying belief of the book: that the inner visual world holds greater reality than the physical sphere.

What It's Really About

At its core, A Book of Images explores the tension between material perception and spiritual reality. Through Yeats's essay and Horton's plates, the book asks whether the figures seen in trances and dreams are fleeting delusions or reflections of eternal truths. It serves as an argument for the necessity of symbolic art in an increasingly materialistic world, asserting that true beauty must break free from cause, effect, and literal storytelling. The collection also examines the solitude of the visionary experience; Horton's recurrent images of narrow paths, lonely piers, and isolated figureheads depict the soul's solitary journey toward divine integration. Ultimately, the work asserts that art achieves its highest sincerity not through technical perfection, but when artistic drive merges completely with spiritual purpose.

Why Read It Today

A Book of Images offers a captivating snapshot of the 1890s esoteric revival, making it an essential read for admirers of W. B. Yeats, William Blake, and fin-de-siècle illustration. Reading it feels like stepping into a quiet, shadowy chapel where modern anxieties dissolve into timeless, dreamlike reflection. Yeats’s prose is luminous, sharp, and deeply persuasive, providing one of the clearest short defenses of Symbolist aesthetics ever written.

Readers should be prepared for the book's stark, enigmatic visual style and its unapologetic immersion in nineteenth-century occult philosophy and Christian mysticism. Horton's artwork does not possess the polished perfection of contemporaries like Aubrey Beardsley; as Yeats candidly notes, the technique can be immature and repetitive. Yet this very raw, unstudied quality gives the drawings their haunting sincerity. It is a brief, evocative volume that lingers in the mind, inviting anyone interested in the boundaries of art, vision, and belief to look past the surface of things.