BL. W. B. Yeats

49. Note, 23 December 1938. In Moore (85), 1954.

In discussion of Yeats’s ‘final’ spiritual and philosophical ‘doctrine’, Moore quotes a note Yeats dictated to his wife on this date, a month before his death, which demonstrates that his interest in Suzuki’s Zen (see D28) remained with him until the end: ‘Recent movement in philosophy . . . must apply everywhere to religious life the implication . . . in this sentence: We can express truth but cannot know it. . . . Compare Vico. Compare Zen’.