Crouched over the war-path steals he, Lynx on-moving steals he, Wind words steals he from me. Heart-tree, I have but one love- Long the days and weary! Restless hours and weary, Messenger of the heart-beat- Flute-tree, I have but one call- Long the days and dreary! Lone tree, I have but one love- STARTLED WATERS In the rice-field he nears thee, Stealing to thee. Hear the startled loon's brood Hide, little Four-stars! Soft-paddling comes he singing, Lone and singing— This one of the moon's low glow, This one of the flute's low singing. Leaping waters call afar there, Weeping rapids moan to sea-waves. These, but waves rushing unabated Down they go Go In the place, the place where I sit, I am called to enter Spirit waters. Spirit waters call afar there, Spirit rapids moan to sea-waves. Rush they on, headlong, unabated— The rage, the roar of lions, Music unto me, and sweet On the eve at eventide. A chord I thought it was I heard; His words are notes unspent, A harmony that moves upon A song unending, unbegun, Bewitching-borne. And I forgot that it was hunger-time— The fawn and the timid doe, They passed near me Grazing, unafraid. And they spoke of no more slaying, Neither war nor servitude, Since He who stills the lions Had passed by. Frank S. Gordon COMMENT THE NEW INTERNATIONALISM A FTER-THE-WAR predictions are a temptation to the facile thinker. In the ferment of this chaotic moment the world seems in process of being made over; the imagination lightly foresees the design which the new minting will bear, and as lightly underestimates the power of forces which tend to run the molten metal back into old molds. Prophecy is never cautious; indeed, caution is an unheroic virtue, quite incapable, no doubt, of designing the new stamp. Yet a certain amount of caution may be recommended as we listen to the seers and visionaries who cry out their hopes and theories in as many tongues as once before, according to the Book of Genesis, halted a monumental effort of the race toward unity. However, certain tendencies would seem to be inevitably accelerated by the war. The presence of many nations in the western battle-line, the union of the powerful youth of these nations in the same death-grapple with a formidable enemy, can not fail to enforce and increase international sympathies throughout that group. When peace comes our boys will come home, and poilu and Tommie and all the others will go back to their civilian jobs; but in the hearts of all, till the last aged survivor dies, these fiery years will be a memory of horror and splendor-a memory growing more romantic from year to year, until the horror fades away and only the splendor remains. Thus the men of these nations will remain united at heart by the fierce ordeal through which they have passed together, and to a certain degree they will pass on their sense of comradeship in the stories they tell to their children and grandchildren. The tie between this country and France must become, one would think, especially strong. Lafayette and Franklin began it long ago; and now our soldiers are dying on French soil, and their heroic blood will fertilize the new spiritual growth of a nation whose spirit has fertilized the world. And lesser agencies will contribute inevitably to this sympathy-the adopting of French war-orphans, the rehabilitation of French towns, all the numerous contributions of American money and energy to the restoration of France and its French-speaking neighbor Belgium. Thus after the war our splendid isolation is like to disappear. Some league of nations, in all probability, will express this fact politically, and a closer interaction in the arts and literature will express it intellectually. It would seem that our educational systems should prepare for the inevitable by urging more attention to modern languages, especially French and Spanish, the languages of our nearest intellectual and political neighbors. In the arts and literature it may be said, with a certain justice, that Americans have been too much aware, rather than too little, of influences from over-seas. We have been too colonial, too respectful of the foreign verdict; even when most arrogantly boastful, we have had too little selfconfidence, too little competent and informed appreciation of |