LITERATURE OF FRENCH CANADA. 87 
be educated, and of the latter—according to another estimate—only a fourth, or 25,000, 
form what is called the reading public. In view of these figures, the literary vitality of 
our French writers is a very noticeable fact, and deserves all the attention that we have 
endeavored to give it. 
Velie 
WANTS. 
In this necessarily rapid review, and going over so many names, I have naturally 
chosen the best, and, as naturally, my opinion is cast in the mould of praise. It does not 
follow, however, that I am insensible to certain deficiencies of French-Canadian education. 
and literature. Ofcourse I have no time even to touch upon these, but I may say gene- 
rally that, if the present harvest is destined to be continued, a through cultivation of the 
soil will be necessary. A strong classical education will have to be insisted upon. A 
smattering of Latin and an utter ignorance of Greek, together with a mere elementary 
knowledge of the exact sciences, are not conducive to the evolution of solid intellectuality. 
Literature is a flower. There are single flowers and double flowers. The former are the 
offshoots of nature; the latter are the creation of science allied to esthetic tastes I 
naturally have no mission to touch on the vexed question of the Laval University, but 
Tam safe not to be gainsaid when I affirm that one real wniversitas, in the good old scho- 
lastic sense, is quite ample for the needs of a million people. The other colleges should be 
merely affiliations, not rivals, and they should ground their pupils throughly in the 
humanities. The intermediate or grammar schools should be much stronger than they 
are, supplying a need for that large class which circumstances debar from an university 
curriculum. Iam happy to know that these views are concurred in by the best educa- 
tors in the Province, and that a combined effort is being made by the Catholic Board of 
Public Instruction to bring about this consummation. Ifsuch should prove the case to 
the extent that I anticipate, the future of the literature of French Canada will be brighter 
than is its present, and what is now a promising child may grow into a benign and 
exuberant giant. 
VIII. 
SOURCES OF LITERARY INSPIRATION. 
The field, indeed, has been only partially cultivated. The primeval wood is just 
beginning to be cleared. The possibilities are immense and the sources of inspiration 
extraordinary. I have already alluded to the background of history —of daring, devotion 
and heroism such as few countries can boast of. Then there is our grand, our magnificent 
nature—the unpruned forests, the surging mountains, the roaring floods, the thunderous 
cataracts and the sublime sweep of billowy prairies rolling to the setting sun. The St. 
Lawrence has been and will be an unfailing source of inspiration to Canadians. There is 
no nobler river—girdling one-half of a continent. Rising in the great lakes, tumbling in 
foam at Niagara, murmuring around the cradles of the Thousand Islands, bearing the 
fleets of the world from the old Pointe a Calliéres at Montreal, throbbing with conscious 
pride at the base of Cape Diamond, it preserves its wonderful identity amid infinite variety, 
till it dashes into the sea at the breakwater of Anticosti. 
