In my soul is a fragrant dusk of coming thunder... Heat-lightnings coil there like blue-birds... Lighted windows burn... And fibres, long, Slow-singing, Grow in the gloom... O the odor of flowers that reaches a scream! Lo! lightning in a white zig-zag... And at once all became bright and great... How radiant is the night! Words dance, then flash in couples In an enamored harmony. Out of the womb of consciousness, from the bottom of the labyrinth— Visions crowd in a quailing host... And the verse blossoms into a hyacinth-flower, Cold, fragrant, white. Editorials _Why Socialists Went to War_ We have listened with much interest to the excuses for the German Socialists who went to war, as well as to the attacks on them for doing so. Now, though hesitating to obtrude our ignorance into the muddle of a complicated discussion, we can’t refrain from offering a suggestion. The bottom reason for sudden activity under the stress of unusual circumstances is to be found, not in a conscious mental decision, but in the previously-formed habits of the individual mind. We are referring partly to the mob-emotion which has swept away so many even of the greatest souls of Europe. We are thinking more of the essence of Socialism, and the sort of emotional method which has been produced among its adherents—the material upon which mob-psychology had to work. There is no essential difference between the method of German Imperialism and the method of German Socialism; the only difference lies in the objectives. Both insist on the supreme importance of the state, both work through cohesive organization and the almost unquestioning following of leaders. The habit of obedience, the instinct for organization, the gregarious mode of action—these are the very qualities of the individual German which have made it possible for the German Social Democratic Party to grow to such size and strength. What more inevitable, when the mobilization order went up, when flags flew and drums beat, than that the individual German Socialist should in his excitement shoulder his gun and march to war? Of course, we don’t really know anything about it, and we haven’t the resources to make anything like a scientific investigation. But we strongly suspect that the morals of organized humanity will remain inferior to the morals of the individual until the individual habit of mind becomes one which denies to organized humanity supreme authority over the will. G. H. S. _Even Galsworthy!_ In _Scribner’s Magazine_ for November, Mr. Galsworthy has a stunning article on the War. And then at its close:—“Your Prussian supermen of Nietzsche’s cult...!” _Another New Poet_