144 RUEAL LIFE IN CANADA 



but what did the intuition of the artist see in the human 

 life there portrayed ? Was it not the deathlessness of 

 the home affections and the sensibilities of religion ? 

 True; jet poet and painter are alike right, and the 

 question for us in Canada is this: Though religion 

 and love be unquenchable, do we wish to retain these 

 sensibilities only? — to retain them on the terms of the 

 life Millet depicts and Markham censures ? Turn we 

 to another great French painting, Jules Breton's 

 "Song of the Lark," and ask: Why should we not 

 retain the rapture visible on this peasant girl's face as 

 she listens to the morning song of the lark while 

 trudging barefoot to her toil, without retaining the 

 narrowness of her peasant life ? We ask also : Though 

 there are many among our farmers who are far from 

 insensible to " the rift of dawn, the reddening of the 

 rose, and the long reaches of the peaks of song," aye, 

 and who " feel all the passion of eternity," yet why 

 should " time's tragedy " be in " their aching stoop " ? 

 Why should they so bear " upon their back the burden 

 of the world " that " through their bent shape humanity 

 cries protest " ? 



Is this the thing the Lord God made, and gave 



To have dominion over sea and land? 



To trace the stars and search the heavens for power, 



To feel the passion of eternity? 



Is this the dream He dreamed who shaped the suns 



And pillared the blue firmament with light? 



— Down all the stretch of hell to its last gulf 



There is no shape more terrible than this, 



More tongued with censure of the world's blind greed, 



More filled with signs and portents for the soul. 



More fraught with menace to the universe! 



Through this dread shape the suffering ages look; 



