192 PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS—SECTION I. 
painted such scenes from ancient history as those given in his 
plays is proved to be utterly untenable, as it is shown that by 
available translations and other means a sufficient knowledge of 
any character in whom he was interested could easily have been 
acquired by Shakespeare. The wonderful alchemy of his own 
unrivalled creative genius did all the rest in transmuting those 
pale phantoms of Greek, Roman, or Egyptian story into living, 
speaking realities of like feelings and passions as ourselves. On 
the whole, the clear and satisfactory conviction left by the article 
is that the name of Shakespeare is rightly associated with his 
plays, and that it will therefore continue to burn as brightly in 
the future as it has done in the past, unaffected by fanciful and 
mysterious theories of Baconian or any other authorship. I may 
add, one special responsibility must always rest with our future 
writers, namely, that of preserving inviolate the priceless heritage 
of their mother-tongue. History has shown that “a corrupt and 
decaying language is an infallible sign of a corrupt and decaying 
civilisation,” but fortunately as yet there is no indication of such 
decay in either our language or nation. As to the latter, we 
shall, no doubt, agree with the patriotic declaration of Lord 
Beaconsfield when he says: “I refuse to accept the theory of 
British decadence ; England is capable of forming, not losing, 
empires.” Neither in the former are symptoms of decay 
perceptible. In fact, when fairly used, the language has never 
hitherto exhibited a higher state of development, and has there- 
fore never been more worthy of a jealous care. But as a boon 
when common property runs the risk of not being sufficiently 
appreciated and guarded, it may not be out of place to cite the 
opinion, not of an English and possibly prejudiced, but of a great 
foreign authority on the grandeur of our language. In a treatise 
read before the Berlin Academy by the late renowned German 
scholar and philologist, Jacob Ludwig Grimm, the following 
passage (translated) occurs:—‘“It (the English language) 
possesses through its abundance of free medial tones, which may 
be learnt indeed, but which no rules can teach, a power of expres- 
sion such as perhaps has never been attained by any other human 
tongue. Its altogether intellectual and singularly happy founda- 
tions and developments have arisen from a surprising alliance 
between the two noblest languages of antiquity, the German and 
the Romanesaue, the relations of which to each other is well 
known to be such that the former supplies the material founda- 
tion, the latter the abstract notions. Yes, truly may the English 
language with good reason call itself a universal language, and it 
seems chosen, like its people, to rule in future times to a still 
greater degree in all corners of the earth. In richness, sound 
reason and flexibility, no modern tongue can be compared to it, 
not even the German, which must strengthen many a weakness 
and shake off many encumbrances before it can take rank with 
