The Washington times., 1919-12-25
MAETER[|NCK TO
TELL ABOUT SOUL
Belgian Poet, In New York With
19-Year-0h Bride, Will Lee
ture on Immortality.

.teamship France, will carry to Ameri-
cans the message that the soul is inn
mortal and belongs to them always.
There are other purposes in, his
visit For one, he is anxious to learn
whether THE Blue Bird is affected
by operatic music or whether the
opera Is affected by his book He will
know by midnight Saturday, when it
%ill have been presented at the
Metropolitan Opera House.
Then. too. he wants to take a few
peeps at America and Americans, and
give Mrs. Llzette Maeterlinck. his
wife, the sightseeing tour he prom
ised. She is blonde young woman
about half his stalwart size, about .
-hlrd Of his age.
To those reporters who had failed
to prepare themselves with a study
of Maurice Maeterlinck's pictures
there appeared visions, as the ship
felt a cautious passage up the river
N the fog, of a thin. dyspeptic type,
perhaps with flowing tie and careless
hair. 1t was. therefore. a surprise to
them when they found him a tall.
hroad-shouldered, stern-faced man
He looks more like a business man
than poet.
A Dtstinxuished Figure.
ndelcEllnEh fnlknL nave fndoe
handsome cleric had he entered the
priesthood his parents had destined
him for. He is little short of six feet
in height. His broad shoulders are
those of an athlete. He Is round
faced, of ruddy. outdoor hue, and his
eyes are gray-blue.
His hair is gray and struggles from
under his brown fedora 20 his fore
head, broad and high. He is fifty
seven years old. The long lashes
frame eyes that never take a half
glance, but measure out a full, slow
stare at the interviewer. Sometimes
they are difident, almost scared.
Sometimes they twinkle in unison
with the full lips that curve cordially
upward.
His jaw would have been termed
square had not a slight layer of fat
rounded IT. Occasionally, when the
poet becomes grave, the lines at
tho mouth deepen almost into fur
rows The features, artists have
said, were "left rather in the rough"
But there Is nothing rough in their
expression
He gestures only slightly. His
tone Is soft and slow, at times al
most languid. His poor English
gives hesitancy to his voice. This
may offend the poet, for, with a
touch of vanity, when reporters had
recourse to an interpreter, Maeter-
linck interrupted a bit impatiently,
''Ah. but I speak English"
That is Maurice Polydore Marie
Bernard Maeterlinck.
As for the young woman that clung
to his arm, Lisette, she is a petite
person. blond-curled, thin-faced. pink
checked. She is childlike in the in
'terested expression OF her eyes. Her
husband is slow moving. She is swift
OF movement, and is the one that
does business with the customs in
spectors and the baggage smashers.
Maeterlinck himself for that matter,
is bored with those details.
She is only nineteen and she looks
the many years his junior that she
is. And she Is the girl for whom
Georgette Leblanc famed actress
who, for more than a decade greatly
influenced Maeterlinck, her husband
released the poet. Georgette Leblanc
had seen that another woman had
come to mean more to him
At first the perfunctory queries
were put to Maeterlinck. For in
stance, the visitors impressions of
fhe skyline that he saw for the first
time. "The clouds, the-the-the fog
(he struggled to find the word)-the
fog. i could see very little" But he
knew that he was expected to say the
skyline was magnificent, and was
tactful enough to say il.
His visit, he added. would be for
three months. He is 10 lecture
throughout the country on what Bel
Sium did in the war and on his
theories Of the immortality of the
soul.
TN brief. what are those theories q"
ne was asked
His shoulders shrugged at the
question:
"Ah. but It is a question-it cannot
be answered quickly. 1t will be in
my lectures. II will take time to
Explain"
His Theory the Soul
But . moment later he said: II be-
Eeve In the immortality of the soul
There is continuity of soul. 1t has
perhaps you would say. il has ego.
i is your always, forever. 1t has
Identity. II has your identity
Then you probably believe in the
spiritism of Sir oliver Lodge il
vas suggested TO the poet
Quickly he protested. NO. I would
not say that. Do not say that be-
li-ye in spiritism. Do not say that i
am not a spiritist. have not vet de-
cided In my mind. / am still of an
open mind on that subject. 1 will
study II some more and will some
time decide. But now I have not yet
decided"
OF the war ne said: "Ir we could
see into the spiritual world and see
What is happening there. perhaps we
might see that it is the same with
the moral force that seems lost or
the feld OF battle. Those who died
for US left their lives for US not in
metaphorical sense. but in a real
direct way. The virtue that wa.
heirs was passed on to us And SC
their virtue was not lost to tn,
,yorld.
Psweries~ Against Iife.
Death is powerless against life
What IL takes from those who di,
enters into those who are left tn,
amps grow less, but the flames grow
more intense and higher"