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3.

[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