So because it is part of life and a living influence, literature has always consolidated the nation-forming power of language. Poetry, especially, is often an intensified reflection of national thought and life. In the words of Irving, “Poets always breathe the feeling of a nation.” The cultivation of literature serves national ends. In the very child, love of country is instilled through the medium of doggerel--sometimes through lines of exquisite simplicity. In thus strengthening the idea of nationality, literature may be compared to the statue hewn from the marble of language by patriotic and artistic thought. Belgian writers, in this respect, occupy a place of their own in European literature. Verhaeren and Maeterlinck voice the depth of their sincerity in the language of their Walloon colleague Lemonnier. Love of country in Spaak, a Fleming, is sung in French verse: Oui, sois de ton pays. Connais l’idolâtrie De la terre natale! Et porte en toi l’orgueil Et le tourment de ses jours de gloire et de deuil. Antoine Clesse, the poet of Mons, likewise expresses popular feeling in French: Flamands, Wallons, Ne sont que des prénoms Belge est notre nom de famille. No matter how the works of these poets are analyzed, in the inmost souls of these writers it is the land that speaks. Belgium is fathomed in their hearts. Their eyes lingered lovingly on the scenery in the midst of which they lived. Flat roads winding interminably over flat lands, chimes whose tones mellow with age ring from the crumbling tops of old towers, rustic feasts enlivened by the roaring mirth and joviality celebrated by Flemish painters, these are the visions which are evoked by the French words assembled by Belgian writers in their compositions. One would seek in vain, however, for these Belgian scenes in French literature. Like the Belgicisms which abound delightfully in every Belgian writer’s works, they portray the soul of Belgian poetry as sincerely as they afford genuine glimpses of Belgian lands. The same subtle sensation of the living earth has been felt on the troubled surface of mountainous Switzerland. For of Swiss lands and life few descriptions will ever combine the charm and faithfulness which characterize the works of Gottfried Keller, foremost among the country’s writers who drew on the joint inspiration of flaming patriotism and the incomparable beauty of Swiss landscape.