10 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
But the still more important characteristic of literature lies in 
its content. That content is not mere information. Information 
enters only the soul’s vestibule, it is the mere message boy, bearing 
with it that which may pass into the presence chamber, but in itself 
valued only for that which it carries. The contents of true literature 
on the other hand come forth from the hidden depths of our spiritual 
being, and, once passing the portal, find their way to the secret cham- 
bers, the inmost recesses of the soul. They make their appeal to our 
moral nature, our social nature, our religious nature; to that within 
us which laughs and weeps, rejoices or hates or scorns or is filled with 
contempt, to that which is moved by the beautiful, trembles before the 
awful, is lifted by the sublime. They make their appeal to the active 
energies of our nature till the whole mighty impulse of the soul to do 
is called forth, saying, “ead us against Philip! Let us conquer or 
die!” Titerature thus speaks from, and speaks to, the whole man in 
a wider range of his faculties and capacities than mere perception, 
memory, or even understanding. It involves the whole range of sensi- 
bility as well as the active and moral powers. 
And in these two fundamental characteristics of literature lies 
its value as a means of education. It calls into activity the inner 
man, and it forms the style by which that inner man is expressed in 
language. There are doubtless other implements of education which 
are equal to or surpass literature in their influence or memory, on the 
powers of reasoning or observation, on the exact co-ordination of the 
senses and movements of the body, or the development and the perfect- 
ing of ideas of form, colour or movement. But all these are elementary 
and external, the a-b-c of spiritual life. When we wish to call out 
the deeper and more spiritual man there are but two implements, natural 
life and literature; and literature is the picture of the full orbed life 
of nature and of man—and into living contact with that life your boy 
must be brought if you would make of him a man. Put him on the 
football field and he will laugh and shout, he will feel the glow and 
excitement of conflict, he will burn with indignation or exult in plea- 
surable pride, every aspect of his character will be brought, into play. 
The boy is being educated, but not always by means of noble models 
or after desirable ideals. The one advantage which literature pos- 
sesses is this, that it enables you to put before the boy the best ideals. 
It arouses his spiritual being into sympathy and it surrounds him with 
the environment of the best and noblest life. Even your most realistic 
literature may be less intense than the real conflict of young life on the 
playground, and certainly cannot approach the awful clash of moral 
and physical forces in a great battle. But it places before you the 
