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French Speech. Quebec, June 20th, 1937.

[ST: rubber stamped - Bureau for Translastions, Apr 14 1937, 12568, Office of the Superintendent]

I am greatly honoured to be invited. to meet you on this occasion. I propose to attempt to speak to you in that language, the preservation of which, in its purity, is your main purpose. And I know that of your kindness you will be indulgent to my many crudities. Every wise man, and especially every Scotsman, must believe that a mingling of races gives strength to a nation. Here in Canada we are fortunate enough to possess two great European traditions, the French and the British. You have your language, your law, your Church, and your historic culture. All these are of importance and value to Canada as a whole, and not least the first, for the French language and its great literature is as much an asset of British Canada as of French Canada.

English is a great speech, and English literature is a great literature. The English tongue needs careful protection, for, being a language spoken over the whole world, it is especially at the mercy of impure influences. You remember an amusing passage in Beaumarchais' Mariage de Figaro, which is not very respectful

"C'est une belle langue que l'anglais; il en faut peu pour aller loin. Avec god dam, en Angleterre, on ne manque de rien nulle part ••• Les Anglais, à la verité ajoutent par ci par là quelques autres mots en conversant; mais il est bien aisé de voir god dam est le fond de la langue."

Well, that is not the whole truth. In recent years France has shown herself extraordinarily appreciative of English literature,

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and some of the best work on English writers has been done by French scholars.

But I want to speak to you today especially about your own tongue. I have long been interested in the language and literature of French Canada. As spoken, especially in the country parts, your French speech is a beautiful and vivid thing, full of interesting historical reminiscences, and full of phrases drawn from the sea voyages of the first French pioneers. I only wish I understood it better. French-Canadian literature is in the great classical tradition of France. One can see the French writers who have influenced it in different generations. Last century in men like Cremazie and Nelligan one can detect the influence of the great French romantics. In the poetry of this century, in men like Paul Morin and Robert Choquette, one can trace more recent models. What interests me especially is that the influence of contemporary France always seems to take a little time to make itself felt in Canada. It is never the latest French fashion which affects our French-Canadian writers. For example, Victor Hugo, who is not very popular in France today, seems to me still a living force in this country. I think that time-lag is all to the good, for it prevents our writers here being slavish copyists, and enables them to give their work their own special Canadian idiom.

Since I came to Canada I have given myself the pleasure of reading a good deal of French-Canadian literature, guided by the works of my friend, M. Camille Roy, the grand seigneur of Canadian literature. I have been struck especially by your work in two de

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[de]partments, in history and in poetry. You have the true historical sense, and the right instinct in securing a full record of the past. Especially in local history you have done admirable work in preserving that continuity between past and present which is the foundation of a nation's strength. I have been deeply interested, too, in your poetry, which is the expression of the soul of a people. But French-Canada is only at the beginning of its literary achievements. You have here all the materials to produce great literature - a people whose story is one of the most romantic in the world, and a peasantry which, happily, is still close to the soil and preserves its ancient traditions. I look forward to French-Canada in the future making a distinguished contribution to those things of the mind which must always be the basis of true civilisation. For they have at their service two great traditions, the French and the English. In the words of Octave Cremazie; Albion notre foi. la France notre coeur. May I say, too, that I hope some day soon we shall have a singer drawn from the people like my Scottish Robert Burns, who will put the soul of your people into imperishable verse? Your habitants in the past have produced many delightful country songs, but they have still to produce their great poet.

But literature can take care of itself. The wind of inspiration blows where it listeth, and no man can control it. But we can do something to preserve the purity of the language. It is its purity, its precision, its exquisite lucidity, which is the special glory of the French tongue. As an eighteenth century critic

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wrote -

"Elle est de toutes les langues la seule qui ait une probité attachée à son génie."

Now in our busy world of today, where a language has no frontier guards, it is exposed to many malign influences. As I have said, I do not think French is in such danger as English, but it is in danger. I do not object to new words, for there is need for these in a fast moving world. What I fear is rather the breakdown of structure, that logical ordonnance for which the French have always been famous. I do not even mind a certain amount of argot, for the language of good literature is always being enriched by words drawn from popular usage. What I want kept sacrosanct is the structure, for on the structure depends lucidity. In the words of a famous French critic, "Ce qui n'est pas clair n'est pas francais. ''

The real enemy is not the people but the pedants. There are many sciences which seem to be adopting an obscure jargon of their own, full of difficult neologisms and most cumbrous constructions. They lack that clarity which should be the first aim in scientific writing, perhaps because the writers are not very clear themselves as to what they mean. This is a very great danger for the English speech. It seems to me that with many writers, especially in the United States, and particularly in the social sciences, the style is becoming so congested and ugly that it is impossible to read their works with any pleasure or real understanding. This must never be allowed to happen to the French tongue. France has

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always set an example to the world of how the most subtle and difficult thoughts can be expressed with crystal clearness. I would take in science Henri Poincare and in philosophy Henri Bergson, as examples of writers who can give to the most intricate speculations the grace and lucidity of a work of art.

Your Association has a great part to play. You have to encourage good literature, here in Canada, in the French language, and you have to make certain that the beauties of that language are kept inviolate. In a word, your task is very much that of the Academie Française. As an Englishman, as a Canadian by adoption, and as an old lover of France and its historic culture, I wish you god-speed.