LX ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



the region of the imponderable forces where dwells the hidden reality 

 of the universe. 



This increasing approximation of scientific theory and speculative 

 philosophy is modifying also the long conflict between science and reli- 

 gion. Our eminent fellow-countryman, George John lîonianes, com- 

 mented upon it in his last thoughts. He drew the broad distinction 

 tliat. wliile science dealt with proximate causes, philosophy dealt with 

 ultimate causes; in which latter category he placed the human will, 

 and he argued that our fundamental ideas of causality and energy 

 arise from our consciousness of human will as a self-originating 

 force. Now, the chief value of literature is that it is the crystallized 

 product of the conflict of tlie will of man with its environment — in 

 history and archseology — in the forms of thought, as in language, 

 grammar, and logic — in sociology and in law, as in morals and politics. 

 As science interprets the interplay of invisible and imponderable forces, 

 so also literature displays the myriad forces of the will and mind of 

 man ; and there is no reason to suppose that one kind of force perishes 

 more than the other. So Browning writes in " Kabbi Ben Ezra " : 



All, that is at all. 

 Lasts ever, past recall, 

 Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure. 



The pursuit of literature must then be of the first importance as 

 an incentive to action, and as a means of enlarging the capacity and 

 liappiness of mankind; for it is in society that man finds his fruition. 



Unless this world is a training school for the formation of char- 

 acter, in other words, for the moulding of the will, it is difficult to 

 imagine its reason for existing. In history, and more especially in 

 biography, we can trace the development of character acting and reacting 

 in contact with other wills. History is a continuous moral judgment. 

 For better for worse, the happiness of large masses of men — the fate 

 of empires often — hangs on the will of one man; and again, Avhen, 

 from the fathomless depths of personality, a genius arises like Caesar 

 or Napoleon, the destinies of the world are changed. But even com- 

 paratively insignificant mien may start a complete series of sequences. 

 There are points on the water partings of our great rivers where a 

 chance pebble may divert a tiny rill into the Gulf of Mexico or the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence. So it is at the fountain heads of history. The 

 success of the American Kevolution was primarily due to the omission 

 of Lord George Germaine to notify Howe of Burgoyne's expedition 

 from Canada. Burgoyne unsupported, surrendered at Saratoga, and 



