_This sensation of recognising oneself in all things by enthusiasm_, of living with everything that has existence and a visible form, is pantheism, is a Teutonic conception of the universe. But in Verhaeren pantheism finds its very last intensification. Identity is to him not only cerebral knowledge, but experience; identity is not the sensation of being similar to things in body and soul, but an indissoluble unity. Whosoever admires a thing so wholly that he goes down to the roots of his feeling, that he dissolves and denies himself in order to be wholly this other thing, is at this moment of ecstasy identical with it. Ecstasy is no longer what it means in the Greek derivation, the fact of stepping out of oneself, of losing oneself; it signifies, in addition to that, the finding of oneself in the other thing. And with this Verhaeren's cosmic conception goes beyond pantheism. He not only senses things as though he were their brother; not only does he sense himself in them, he himself lives them. Not only does he feel his blood pouring into other beings, he no longer feels any blood of his own at all; he only feels this strange, glowing sap of the world in his veins. I know of no more fiery eruption than those moments of Verhaeren when he is no longer able to distinguish the world from his ego, this unique cosmic intoxication: Je ne distingue plus le monde de moi-même, Je suis l'ample feuillage et les rameaux flottants, Je suis le sol dont je foule les cailloux pâles Et l'herbe des fossés où soudain je m'affale Ivre et fervent, hagard, heureux et sanglotant.[12] All the forms of the elements are a personal experience to him: 'J'existe en tout ce qui m'entoure et me pénètre.'[13] All that has happened becomes to him a manifestation of his own body; he feels all cosmic happenings as personal experiences: Oh! les rythmes fougueux de la nature entière Et les sentir et les darder à travers soi! Vivre les mouvements répandus dans les bois, Le sol, les vents, la mer et les tonnerres; Vouloir qu'en son cerveau tressaille l'univers.[14] Here the billows of enthusiasm dash higher and higher, this call to union by enthusiasm grows to an ever more passionate command: Exaltez-vous encore et comprenez-vous mieux, Reconnaissez-vous donc et magnifiez-vous Dans l'ample et myriadaire splendeur des choses![15] For if men hitherto have arrived at no clear and harmonious relationship with one another, that was because, so Verhaeren thinks, they had not admiration sufficient, because they were too suspicious of one another, because they had too little faith. 'Magnifiez-vous donc et comprenez-vous mieux!'[16] he calls out to them, 'admirez-vous les uns les autres!' and here, in the last phase of his knowledge, he is again in agreement with the great American, who, in his poem _Starting from Paumanok_, preaches: