XLII ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
world has seen ; and, if we sit humbly, as we and all men ought to sit, 
at the feet of the mighty ones of past ages, it is as learners, desirous of 
catching their spirit, rather than as mere imitators or copyists. 
Nor has our success been altogether insignificant. In fiction and 
in poetry we have produced writers who are appreciated and admired 
wherever our language is spoken. ‘Those who, years ago, discerned the 
promise of the “ Chien d’Or,” have wondered that Mr. Kirby has not 
further enriched our library of fiction ; and we are certainly not with- 
out contemporaneous novelists of merit. Mr. Gilbert Parker, who 
began his literary career with the publication of poems which attracted 
attention and admiration, has, as a novelist, taken his place in the first 
rank of living writers ; and most of his themes are drawn from Cana- 
dian sources. Mr. Robert Barr, again, who, although born in Scotland, 
was brought to Canada as a child and received his education in this 
country, is becoming widely known on both sides of the Atlantic as a 
novelist of mark. In this department there are lady writers not a few 
of high merit, probably many more than are known to the present 
speaker. Among these may be named Mrs. Harrison, Mrs. Jean Blewett, 
Miss Wetherald, and others. But still more remarkable are the poetical 
gifts of a very considerable number of our countrymen and country- 
women, including some of those already named. We live in a poetic 
age. We have writers of poetry, in the old world and in the new, who 
will be forgotten almost as soon as they become known, whose effusions 
will compare favourably with those of some who attained the rank of 
standard poets in the 18th century. This is said deliberately and advis- 
edly, however it may be explained. It may be that the spread of educa- 
tion and the consequent wider acquaintance with the great writers of 
early times has something to do with it. It may be that the great 
revival of religion in the Methodist movement of the last century and 
the Oxford movement of a later time has aroused men to the perception 
of new and higher ideals. Indeed, it is plain that every department of 
art has received a stimulus and an impulse, music, and painting, and 
poetry alike. But however this may be, the fact can hardly be denied, 
and our share in the harvest is not small. It is possible that our poets 
exercise hardly enough of self-restraint, are too ready to put forth their 
thoughts and emotions as though every utterance of theirs must be 
worthy of being perpetuated. In this respect they are not unlike some 
of their great predecessors. How much greater Wordsworth would 
appear if we could forget half of what he has written! Byron, Burns, 
and many another have left us contributions of which we heartily wish _ 
that they could have been consigned to the waste-paper basket, and 
