LIV ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



poem. Neither Shelley, nor Keats, nor Tennyson, nor Browning, were 

 drawn into literary pursuits by any outward force. Horace, in his 

 well-known ode, sets forth the inducement — the spur of fame. He 

 writes : 



" I shall not wholly die, and a large portion of my being will 

 escape Death. I have built a monument more enduring than bronze 



which the innumerable series of years and the tiiglit of time 



cannot destroy." 



It is so also with great works in prose. The idea of Gibbon's 

 great history was suddenly revealed to him as he sat on the steps of 

 the church of Ara Coeli, on the site of the Capitol, and listened to the 

 friars singing vespers. Then his life's work was set for him, and the 

 mystic power of the genius of Eome seized his soul. The pursuit of 

 letters, as well as that of the higher science, is its own reward. The 

 literary sections have useful work to do in other directions than the 

 criticism of current literature. The great mass of mankind will judge 

 aright when local and ephemeral opinion clears away, and work will 

 endure in so far as it touches the universal heart of humanity or rests 

 upon the universal law of beauty. 



Our Society has not specifically laid upon it the high mission laid 

 upon the French Academy by its original charter " to work with all 

 diligence to keep the language pure, eloquent, and capable of treating 

 the arts and sciences." That was a good aim, worthy of the Cardinal 

 Minister who made France so great. For a language is a living organ- 

 ism always in transition, like a pine tree putting forth new leaves and 

 shedding old ones in accordance with its own laws. " Oratio next to 

 ratio — speech next to reason," said Sir Phillip Sidney, " is the greatest 

 gift bestowed upon mortality," and each language is at once the product 

 and the manifestation of the genius of the race or nation speaking it. 

 With characteristic insight the Greeks used one word logos for reason 

 and speech. The ideas are inseparable. Shelley puts speech fiirst. 

 Prometheus, 



Gave man speech and speech created thought. 



The root words of a language are few, and, for the most part, 

 are the same for many languages; the full vocabulary of a language 

 being an extension into secondary, tertiary, or many more derived and 

 metaphorical meanings, modified by suffixes and prefixes. This is not 

 a chance process, but the genius of each people guides it, and the man- 

 ner of making these changes reveals tihe intelligence of each people 

 and its characteristic way of looking at the universe around it. Therein 

 lies thfi spirit of the language, and the so-called silent and superfluous 



