no longer to "bite" as it once did. Landor, on his part, has never been widely-popular. As for Shelley, though we all recognize his beautiful lyric genius, some of us may find him lacking in the human note. But there is no more striking instance than Keats of the blindness under which contemporary criticism is apt to labor, and of the time taken by poetry which has in it the seeds of life to separate itself from that which is doomed in the long run to forgetfulness or neglect. A hundred years ago, Keats was for the ruling critics of the day "a young man who had left a decent calling for the melancholy trade of Cockney-poetry, and had lately died of a consumption after having written two or three little books of verse much neglected by the public." And this contempt lasted for some time. So late as 1844, Jeffrey declared that the "melodies" of Keats and Shelley were passing out of public memory, and that the poets of the age destined to enduring fame were Campbell and Rogers; while in 1845 De Quincey wrote: "Upon this mother tongue, upon this English language, has Keats trampled as with the hoofs of a buffalo." Shelley's "Adonais" stood a lonely and unnoticed, as it still stands the noblest, tribute to his brother poet's greatness; until gradually the enthusiasm of the Cambridge group Tennyson, Monckton Milnes, and their friends and, later, that of the PreRaphaelite group-Rossetti, Holman Hunt, and the rest - forced the claims forced the claims of Keats upon the world's attention. From their day to our own those claims have been ever more widely acknowledged; and now, the coming anniversary of his death is looked forward to as a conspicuous event in the Englishspeaking world, and not in that world alone. Perhaps the most surprising legible and tangible testimony to his fame will be the forthcoming John

Keats Memorial Volume, which will contain tributes by almost every living English creative or critical writer of repute from the veteran Thomas Hardy down, as well as by a distinguished selection of Americans, and by representative writers of France, Spain, Sweden, Holland, Italy, and Russia, and not only by these, but by Oriental enthusiasts for his work writing in their native tongues, as Arabic, Sanskrit, Hindi, Bengali, Persian, and more yet.

'You remember that, with all his modesty, Keats had enough of the selfconfidence of genius to say: "I think I shall be among the English poets after my death." How amazed he would have been- amazed even more than consoled consoled if he could have foreseen the place among the world's poets which is awarded him by this universal love and reverence!'

I inquired as to the celebration of the anniversary, and was told that, besides the publication of the cosmopolitan memorial volume, and the giving of special lectures, and holding of special commemorative meetings and the like, it was thought the best of all methods would be the accomplishment of the scheme for buying Lawn Bank, his sometime home at Hampstead.

'A committee of Hampstead residents and others,' said Sir Sidney, 'have the scheme in hand. But we want more money. It is a double house, built by Charles Brown and Charles Wentworth Dilke, who lived in the two parts. Keats and Brown. If we succeed in acquiring the house for the public, we shall aim at putting it back as it was in their days.'

Sir Sidney Colvin thought over a suggestion I made that a parallel might be drawn between the characters and lives of the two men of letters in whom, so far as the public knows, he has taken the greatest interest and Robert Louis Stevenson.

Keats

BY JOSEPH FREEMAN

YOUR eyes are on me with the tortured light

Of a soul brooding-cold in her retreat, Who paces hollow corridors all night And dreads the isolation of her feet; But I recall a night, a night in June, When a warm fragrance held us long awake,

And our boat kept drifting down the lake

From arching bridge to bridge. We hummed a tune

Under the silence of an orange moon; We touched the water, remarked the ripples break,

And watched the sentimental starlight shake

With a blue tremor in the trees; and

wives of these gentlemen, two of whom were shot, later, by their prison guards, were in the same room. Gorky refused, roughly and bluntly. I remember he was quite offensive about it. I, finally, reproached him: "Your own conscience tells you that you should do this, nevertheless. You know Lenin and the others. Why won't you say a word for them?" Gorky bellowed back at me: "Because . . . . I . . . can't talk

with those scoundrels!" That was the situation on November 4, 1917. To-day, Gorky converses intimately with Lenin, not only in Moscow but also, when they are apart, by long distance telephone from Petrograd; and calls him familiarly by his intimate name, Ilyitsch.'

RUSSIA'S MILITARY MACHINE

A CORRESPONDENT of the London Daily Telegraph, who, apparently, possesses some detailed information regarding the Russian army, says that though the nominal strength is larger, the real strength is about 600,000 infantry and 50,000 cavalry. It disposes of perhaps 10,000 machine guns of various systems - Maxim, Colt, Maxim, Colt, and Lewis. The artillery has a nominal establishment of 4,800 guns both light and heavy. However, the real number, including field artillery, probably does not exceed 3,000. Each of the 60 infantry and 18 cavalry divisions has special signaling, aviation, motor transport, and army service units.

Of these forces, about 120,000 men are on the Black Sea coast in the Caucasus, or in Persia; 100,000 are in Central Asia and Siberia; at least 400,000 are on the Western front, of whom about 10 per cent are cavalry. These forces do not include the army of the interior, about 80,000 strong, which is really a police force, and consists mostly of communists and of Lett, Hungarian, and Chinese mercenaries.

GERMAN LOCOMOTIVES FOR
SPAIN

GERMAN manufacturers recently won a competition contract for supplying locomotives to the Spanish railways, which are about to renew their rolling stock on the strength of loans promised by their government. Belgian makers offered locomotives at a lower price, but could not supply the number required at the date specified, or furnish the financial security demanded. The German makers ask 325,000 pesetas per engine (about $43,000), and undertake to deliver about 210 within ten months. They agree to deposit a 10 per cent guarantee fund, to be forfeited in case of nonfulfilment of the contract, to take payment only when the order is completed, and to accept payment either in pesetas or marks at the option of the purchasers.

German motor-car manufacturers are increasing their capital, and smaller German works show a tendency to amalgamate. The purpose, according to European observers, is 'the concentration of all means for meeting United States competition.'

NAVAL POLICIES IN THE PACIFIC A CORRESPONDENT addresses three questions to the London Times upon the situation in the Pacific. Can Great Britain keep a fleet in the Far East strong enough to protect Australasia from Japan's growing navy? Would a British Labor government employ the navy to protect Australasia in case of Japanese aggression? Would America, always slow to interfere in foreign wars, come to Australia's assistance? This is apropos of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, and the conclusion of the correspondent is: 'Unless Japan can be influenced to suspend her programme, or the Alliance be dropped or modified to include Amer

ica, this competition in new ships between America and Japan will intensify. And if we cannot insure against sudden attack by one of the competitors, or count on equally sudden help from the other, the building of both only adds to our insecurity.' PSYCHIC RESEARCH IN GERMANY

RECENTLY, we printed an article describing the revival of interest in occultism in Berlin. Berliner Tageblatt devotes an article to this subject, in which a dozen or more new theosophical and psychic research organizations are mentioned as having been founded since the war. The smallest of these societies already has more than one thousand members. Some of these organizations publish periodical reports; one series bears the title, Archives of Revelations from the Other Side. Among the more serious of these societies is the Anthroposophische Gesellschaft which has over eight thousand members. It possesses an 'occult temple' upon which 4,000,000 marks have already been expended. This building is used for dramatic representations, occult dances, and university courses. Another of these societies is known as The Coming Day. It is a 'corporation for promoting scientific and spiritual wisdom' and was founded in Stuttgart. Over 15,000,000 marks have already been subscribed to it; 25,000,000 marks of shares have been issued. Other societies have laboratories for studying materialization phenomena, with elaborate photographic apparatus and arrangements by which the medium sits in a balance during her trances, in order that variations in weight may be automatically recorded.

ENGLISH VILLAGE CENTERS A CONTRIBUTOR to the London Daily Chronicle observes that village

halls are revolutionizing country life in England. 'A little while ago, we had three distinct and very rigidly defined classes. They were the country people; the new comers, whose men folk go to London every day to make money; and the villagers, including a few trades people.' Now, the boundaries between these classes are being broken down and, to quote the same informant, five and twenty years hence, I shall not be surprised to find the grocer's wife taking tea with the lady of the Elizabethan mansion one day, and with the wife of a London business man the next.' Prior to the coming of the village hall, life in these small country places was extraordinarily dull. Young people had to go to the nearest county town or city to find entertainment. Now, 'the best variety of amusements are found at home.' There are a choral society, a dramatic society, a dancing club, and other organizations of the kind, employing and supported by local talent.

POLAND'S FINANCIAL DISTRESS

POLAND seems to be running a neck and neck race with Austria toward the goal of national insolvency. Its total indebtedness, including the note circulation of 50,000,000,000 marks, amounts to no less than 165,000,000,000, requiring an annual interest expenditure of 12,000,000,000 marks. Five per cent of the country's foreign trade consists of exports, and 95 per cent of imports. Under these hopeless conditions, the country is trying to realize upon the state property, available as security for foreign loans. According to the Weltwirtschafts-Zeitung, a group of American capitalists has offered the government a credit of one half billion dollars in return for a 30-year lease of the railways. A Dutch concern is taking over the oil wells.