EDITORIAL 345 



smile" to know that this imaginary line between two nations has 

 never had a fortification along its length for more than a century 

 since it was established. 



Why not Adopt a Star 



It is really a great satisfaction to have a star of one's own. 

 The astrologers from earliest times have been accustomed to 

 give us planets of our own, — the ones which they declare pre- 

 sided over us at our birth ; however, this is a compulsory act and 

 it is much more attractive and interesting to make it a voluntary 

 one on our own part. As a matter of fact many people have con- 

 fessed that among the myriad stars of the skies there was one that 

 seemed more interesting and intimate in a personal way. We 

 confess to two favorites, Vega in the summer and Sirius in the 

 winter. Both of these give us a special sense of joy and compan- 

 ionship and yet the two are very different. Vega has a lofty 

 personality ; if she were a woman she would be a madonna carrying 

 lilies; while Sirius is like a knight of olden time in glittering armour 

 going forth on a white charger to help straighten the crooked 

 places in the world and raise the lowly and reward the virtuous. 

 That greatest of poets, Robert Browning had a star of his own and 

 we have always thought that it was Sirius; this poem expresses 

 more fully than anything else that we know this personal relation 

 between a mortal and a star. 



All that I know 



Of a certain star, 

 Is, it can throw 



(Like the angled spar) 

 Now a dart of red. 



Now a dart of blue, 

 Till my friends have said 



They would fain see, too, 

 My star that dartles the red and the blue. 



Then it stops like a bird; like a flower, hangs furled: 

 They must solace themselves with the Saturn above it. 

 What matter to me if their star is a world? 

 Mine has opened its soul to me: therefore I love it. 



