this word, twice, three times or even more frequently, according
to the need of the poem, will not only tend to intensify the
inner harmony but also bring to light unsuspected spiritual
properties of the word itself. Further than that, frequent
repetition of a word (again a favourite game of children, which
is forgotten in after life) deprives the word of its original
external meaning. Similarly, in drawing, the abstract message of
the object drawn tends to be forgotten and its meaning lost.
Sometimes perhaps we unconsciously hear this real harmony
sounding together with the material or later on with the non-
material sense of the object. But in the latter case the true
harmony exercises a direct impression on the soul. The soul
undergoes an emotion which has no relation to any definite
object, an emotion more complicated, I might say more super-
sensuous than the emotion caused by the sound of a bell or of a
stringed instrument. This line of development offers great
possibilities to the literature of the future. In an embryonic
form this word-power-has already been used in SERRES CHAUDES.
[Footnote: SERRES CHAUDES, SUIVIES DE QUINZE CHANSONS, par
Maurice Maeterlinck. Brussels. Lacomblez.] As Maeterlinck uses
them, words which seem at first to create only a neutral
impression have really a more subtle value. Even a familiar word
like "hair," if used in a certain way can intensify an atmosphere
of sorrow or despair. And this is Maeterlinck's method. He shows
that thunder, lightning and a moon behind driving clouds, in
themselves material means, can be used in the theatre to create a
greater sense of terror than they do in nature.

The true inner forces do not lose their strength and effect so
easily. [Footnote: A comparison between the work of Poe and