II

() voiceful restlessness!
Vibrant soul of the world's coming and going,
Resonant want of it, restive vent of it, and of desire, - desire,
Desire to wander back to the peace of the known,
Or out and away to the anywhere of deliverance,
How many, a-dream, are caught in the net of your ringing!
How many turn in their sleep and are caught away to the sea's roaring-
Are caught away over corn tossing and woods waving and rivers,
Past the red-lit or the green-lit stations, clanging,
Away to the dark of the east or the dark of the west !
How many remember, far from mother or wife,
And wonder if there is waking, if there is waiting,
If there are tears falling, for them in the darkness !
How many, under your quaver, under your clamor and evocation,
See sudden again the far-aways of childhood,
Brought forth from the shadowy bourns of years and grief and blind forgetting,
To merge again in the mists of sleep's immuning!
How many, under your riot, under your plangence, under your passion,
Ride again over cattle wilds, again over buttes and mesas,
Unlassoed still by life, lords of its spaces, of its pastures!
How many, mated with sin, disease, and stagnance,
In dens, moonless and loveless, where the free, sweet winds would sicken,
Feel, as they hear, the nails of their souls' coffin,
Driven, driven, driven, driven, in!

It passes, as all passes; there is silence.
The huddled roofs dream again in the shadows,
With the blue electric lights lonesomely burning, the streets unbroken;
Night's immemorial opiate rules all.
And the stars come closer, beaten off no more by the sound's urgence,
Intimate now and ready with revelations, with reachings;
For the sky has become the confessional of God,
And, Priest of the Universe, He hears its need, and shrives it,
Till all the crying that was now is comfort,
All want that was is peace, all clanging rest.

DO not know whether the militia law serve his country, and the duty that

of the Swiss Republic could be advan- here imposed upon him is not only tl tageously utilized elsewhere, but it is cer- corollary, but the recognition of this righ tain that it is perfectly adapted to the He claims the duty on the ground that social, political, and geographical condi- is the manifestation of his quality as tion of this little country, compact in pop- free man in a republic that he desires ulation, united in patriotism, speaking keep free. The obligation to which ! three languages, and belonging to two dif- yields himself does not, in effect, nulli ferent religions. Its value lies in the com- this liberty. He has established it in h pact and regulated orderliness, where own eyes by making the law an act of h everything contributes to assure the maxi- own will. He has voted for it not on mum defensive force of the state not only indirectly through the intermediary of h in point of number, but above all in the representatives in the legislative chamber diverse aptitudes of the men and the ma- but personally, by depositing his ballot terial resources of the people.

the ballot-box. “Do you accept the la The fundamental principle of the law that makes you a soldier, which subjec is that every one under the jurisdiction of you to the rigors of discipline, and whic the state owes it military service. But punishes you if you do not submit?” O this principle is not exclusively political the ballot which puts these questions and judicial; it has not its sole reason in him he has written, “Yes." a law of the state that imposes a duty upon Thus military service is his right, th every man. It is as much a moral prin- expression of his sovereignty. From th: ciple and a recognition of individual sov- time only the physically incapable, an ereignty: every citizen has the right to those whom penal servitude or bankrupt

II

O voiceful restlessness !
Vibrant soul of the world's coming and going,
Resonant want of it, restive vent of it, and of desire, — desire,
Desire to wander back to the peace of the known,
Or out and away to the anywhere of deliverance, –
How many, a-dream, are caught in the net of your ringing!
How many turn in their sleep and are caught away to the sea's roaring-
Are caught away over corn tossing and woods waving and rivers,
Past the red-lit or the green-lit stations, clanging,
Away to the dark of the east or the dark of the west!
How many remember, far from mother or wife,
And wonder if there is waking, if there is waiting,
If there are tears falling, for them in the darkness!
How many, under your quaver, under your clamor and evocation,
See sudden again the far-aways of childhood,
Brought forth from the shadowy bourns of years and grief and blind forgetting,
To merge again in the mists of sleep's immuning!
How many, under your riot, under your plangence, under your passion,
Ride again over cattle wilds, again over buttes and mesas,
Unlassoed still by life, lords of its spaces, of its pastures!
How many, mated with sin, disease, and stagnance,
In dens, moonless and loveless, where the free, sweet winds would sicken,
Feel, as they hear, the nails of their souls' coffin,
Driven, driven, driven, driven, in!

It passes, as all passes; there is silence.
The huddled roofs dream again in the shadows,
With the blue electric lights lonesomely burning, the streets unbroken;
Night's immemorial opiate rules all.
And the stars come closer, beaten off no more by the sound's urgence,
Intimate now and ready with revelations, with reachings;
For the sky has become the confessional of God,
And, Priest of the Universe, He hears its need, and shrives it.
Till all the crying that was now is comfort,
All want that was is peace, all clanging rest.

DO not know whether the militia law serve his country, and the duty that

of the Swiss Republic could be advan- here imposed upon him is not only ti tageously utilized elsewhere, but it is cer- corollary, but the recognition of this righ tain that it is perfectly adapted to the He claims the duty on the ground that social, political, and geographical condi- is the manifestation of his quality as tion of this little country, compact in pop- free man in a republic that he desires ulation, united in patriotism, speaking keep free. The obligation to which three languages, and belonging to two dif- yields himself does not, in effect, nulli ferent religions. Its value lies in the com- this liberty. He has established it in h pact and regulated orderliness, where own eyes by making the law an act of h everything contributes to assure the maxi- own will. He has voted for it not on mum defensive force of the state not only indirectly through the intermediary of h in point of number, but above all in the representatives in the legislative chamber diverse aptitudes of the men and the ma- but personally, by depositing his ballot terial resources of the people.

the ballot-box. “Do you accept the la The fundamental principle of the law that makes you a soldier, which subjec is that every one under the jurisdiction of you to the rigors of discipline, and whid the state owes it military service. But punishes you if you do not submit?” O this principle is not exclusively political the ballot which puts these questions and judicial; it has not its sole reason in him he has written, "Yes." a law of the state that imposes a duty upon Thus military service is his right, th every man. It is as much a moral prin- expression of his sovereignty. From tha ciple and a recognition of individual sov- time only the physically incapable, an ereignty: every citizen has the right to those whom penal servitude or bankrupto

a

have deprived of the right to be soldiers, duties that demand tenacity and resisting can be excluded from the army. Upon power rather than activity and dash, such such, moreover, except in the case of hope- as defensive operations, the occupation of less poverty, a special military tax is im- trenches, as seen in the present war, and posed.

the garrisoning of strongholds. In a genThus the law is founded on custom and eral way, the men of the landwehr are ruling convictions. That explains the rcserved for all duties that will permit rarity of cases of refusal to serve, and, the saving of the youngest soldiers for the above all, the fact that citizens volun- most active movements of the army. The tarily accept the military burden not on superior unit of the landwehr is the bria basis of legal right, but on that of the gade of infantry, with its company of possibility of their social position placing cyclists, a park of artillery, sappers, and upon them more or less important sacri

ambulance corps. fices from time to time. For if the obli- From the age of forty-one to fortygations of the common soldier are not very eight a man serves in the landsturm. The considerable, and certainly less than those landsturm makes up the territorial army, of standing armies, they increase rapidly and is charged with the task of guarding through the grades.

the lines of communication, policing the These explanations are necessary in or- interior of the country, and, if such should, der to understand a law that in effect be necessary, undertaking the many lesser transforms the country into a kind of vir- operations of local or partizan warfare. tual barracks, and makes no separation be- As a part of the landsturm, with the title tween the citizen and the soldier. One of volunteers, may be added all citizens may say that the history and tradition of over forty-eight, or those of any age who Switzerland have made of the militiaman have not been accepted as recruits, on cona soldier in citizen's dress in ordinary dition that they prove their skill in markstimes and a citizen in uniform during the manship. periods when he has been called to the col- Having organized the army in this man

In short, the Swiss people is an ner, it is kept intact with the least possible armed nation in every acceptance of the loss. Only those who have become useword.

less will be excused from serving. Those

whose usefulness has only been lessened, RECRUITING THE ARMY

but still permits a reduced use, are turned The law that actually regulates the re- over to a special body called the bataillons cruiting of the army became an act in des étages, whose duty it is to provide for 1907. It fixed the period of military ser- the revictualing of the stations at the vice from the age of twenty to forty

front. Thus the weakening of the strongeight, but to fifty-two for officers. During est factors in a fighting army is escaped. this period of twenty-eight years the mili- Into these battalions are also recruited the tiaman passes successively through three young men who do not possess the necesclasses. The élite retains the militia- sary physical strength for active service, men from the age of twenty to thirty- but sufficient for these lesser tasks. They two. This class is properly the army in receive the same instruction that other rethe field, and can be utilized for all the cruits of the infantry receive. duties that war might entail. Its enlist- On this basis, the recruiting calls to the ment forms six divisions.

flags from sixty-eight to seventy per cent. At the age of thirty-three a man passes of the young men of the nation, which into the landwehr, where he remains until brings out a drilling army of from 250,he is forty. Although composed of men 000 to 260,000 troops of the first line, who no longer have the entire activity of and from 80,000 to 90,000 territorials. youth, this class of soldiers, nevertheless, If one considers that the population of can be added to the army in the field for Switzerland is in the neighborhood of

ors.