Gods will become men; exterior fate will return into their bosom; the saints will henceforth be only their brothers; and Paradise will be the earth itself. Most beautifully Verhaeren has expressed this idea in one of his latest books,[29] in the symbol of Adam and Eve. Eve, expelled from the Garden of Eden, one day finds its doors open again. But she does not re-enter it, for her highest joy, her Paradise, is now in activity and the pleasure of the earth. Zest in existence, in life, joy of the earth, has never been more strongly and burningly exalted than in this symbol; never has the hymn of humanity been sung with greater fervour than by this poet--perhaps because he had denied life more wildly and more obstinately than any other. Here all contrasts sing together in a harmony without a flaw; the last enmity between man and Nature here becomes the ecstatic feeling of man's godhead. And strange to say, here the circle of life returns to itself. The books of the poet's old age return to the days of his youth, to the school benches in Ghent where Maeterlinck also sat, the other great Fleming. Both, who lost themselves there, have found themselves again on the heights of life in their conception of the world, for Maeterlinck's highest teaching also (in his book _Wisdom and Destiny_) is, that all fate is locked up in man himself, that it is man's highest evolution, his highest duty, to conquer fate, all that lies outside him, God. This profound thought, which has thus twice in our days blossomed forth from Flemish soil, has been achieved on different paths. Maeterlinck has found it by listening to the mysticism of silence, Verhaeren by listening to the noise of life. He has found his new God not in the darkness of dreams but in the light of streets, in all places where men bestir themselves, and where from heavy hours the trembling flower of joy is born. FOOTNOTES: [1] 'La Conquête' (_La Multiple Splendeur_). [2] 'À la Gloire du Vent' (_La Multiple Splendeur_). [3] 'L'Eau' (_Les Visages de la Vie_). [4] 'Au Bord du Quai' (_Ibid._) [5] 'La Conquête' (_Les Forces Tumultueuses_) [6] 'Les Cultes' (_Ibid._) [7] 'Les Villes' (_Les Forces Tumultueuses_). [8] 'La Ferreur' (_La Multiple Splendeur_). [9] 'Vers le Futur' (_Les Villes Tentaculaires_). [10] 'La Conquête' (_Les Forces Tumultueuses_). [11] 'Vers le Futur' (_Les Villes Tentaculaires_). [12] 'La Recherche' (_Ibid._). [13] 'L'Erreur' (_Les Forces Tumultueuses_). [14] 'La Ferveur' (_La Multiple Splendeur_). [15] 'Méditation' (_Les Moines_). [16] 'Les Penseurs' (_La Multiple Splendeur_). [17] 'La Science' (_Les Forces Tumultueuses_). [18] 'L'Action' (_Les Visages de la Vie_). [19] 'La Science' (_Les Forces Tumultueuses_). [20] 'Les Penseurs' (_La Multiple Splendeur_). [21] 'La Science' (_Les Forces Tumultueuses_). [22] 'Les Penseurs' (_La Multiple Splendeur_). [23] 'La Mort' (_La Multiple Splendeur_). [24] 'La Recherche' (_Les Villes Tentaculaires_).