But all this is only a beginning. Works like his, which are not paradoxical enough, not dazzling enough, to produce sudden ecstasies and literary fashions; which, by the mere fact that they have themselves grown organically into existence, can only grow organically, but for that reason irresistibly, in their influence; only lay hold of the masses slowly. Only later generations will enjoy the fruit which we, with renewed admiration, have seen ripening from the most modest of blossoms. But already a ring of men of all nations are joining hands, a ring of men who perceive a new centre of spirituality in Verhaeren. And we, the few who have wholly surrendered ourselves to his work, must appreciate it with that feeling only which he himself has taught us as the highest feeling of life--with enthusiasm, with gratitude ever renewed, and with joyful admiration. For to whom in our days should one offer more abundantly and stormily this new vital doctrine of enthusiasm as the happiest feeling than to Verhaeren, to him who was the first to wrest it in the bitterest struggles from the depths of our time, who was the first to shape it in the material of art, the first to raise it to the eternal law of life? FOOTNOTES: [1] 'Un Soir' (_Les Forces Tumultueuses_). BIBLIOGRAPHY I. LES FLAMANDES, poèmes. Bruxelles, Hochsteyn, 1883. LES CONTES DE MINUIT, prose. Bruxelles (Collection de la 'Jeune Belgique'), Franck, 1885. JOSEPH HEYMANS, PEINTRE, critique. Bruxelles (_Société Nouvelle_), 1885. II. LES MOINES, poèmes. Paris, Lemerre, 1886. FERNAND KHNOPFF, critique. Bruxelles (_Société Nouvelle_), 1886. III. Au BORD DE LA ROUTE, poèmes. Liège (_La Wallonie_), 1891. IV. LES SOIRS, poèmes. Bruxelles, Deman, 1887. V. LES DÉBÂCLES, poèmes. Bruxelles, Deman, 1888. VI. LES FLAMBEAUX NOIRS, poèmes. Bruxelles, Deman, 1890. VII. LES VILLAGES ILLUSOIRES, poèmes, illustrés par Georges Minne. Bruxelles, Deman, 1895. VIII. LES APPARUS DANS MES CHEMINS, poèmes. Bruxelles, Lacomblez, 1891. LES CAMPAGNES HALLUCINÉES, poèmes, ornementés par T. van Rysselberghe. Bruxelles, Deman, 1893. ALMANACH, poèmes, illustrés par T. van Rysselberghe. Bruxelles, Dietrich, 1895. POÈMES (1e série, i., ii., iii.). Paris, Mercure de France, 1895. LES VILLES TENTACULAIRES, poèmes, couverture et ornementation par T. van Rysselberghe. Bruxelles, Deman, 1896. POÈMES (2e série, iv., v., vi.). Paris, Mercure de France, 1896. LES HEURES CLAIRES, poèmes, ornementés par T. van Rysselberghe. Bruxelles, Deman, 1896. ÉMILE VERHAEREN, 1883-1896, portrait par T. van Rysselberghe. [Bruxelles, Deman, 1896.] (An anthology, 'pour les amis du poète,') LES AUBES, drame lyrique en 4 actes, ornementé par T. van Rysselberghe. Bruxelles, Deman, 1898. ESPAÇA NEGRA, NOTAS DE VIAJE. Barcelona, Pedro Ortega, 1899. LES VISAGES DE LA VIE, poèmes, ornementés par T. van Rysselberghe. Bruxelles, Deman, 1899. POÈMES (3e série, vii., viii., _Les Vignes de ma Muraille_). Paris, Mercure de France, 1899.