MEMOIR OF J. C. K. LAFLAMME O 



inspired and devoted teacher. His serenity of demeanor, his vivacity 

 of expression accompanying precision of thought, his very wide familiar- 

 ity with many branches of natural science in his mastership of one, his 

 sympathy with the enthusiasms and ambitions of youth, made his courses 

 of instruction much sought in seminary and university and evoked the 

 loyalty and admiration of two generations of students. 



Beginning his teaching of science as a professor in the university when 

 he was only twenty-two, he never would permit himself, as the advancing 

 years brought to him duties of administration, to be cut off from his 

 instructional contact with the students, and it was with utmost reluc- 

 tance on his part that he consented to abbreviate these functions in order 

 to assume the rectorship of the university. And for a like reason, feel- 

 ing convinced that he might serve his church more effectively through his 

 chosen channels of instruction, he declined the bishopric of Chicoutimi. 

 Professor Lafiamme believed that a teacher in a dignified and influential 

 university should strengthen by breadth of his general culture his special 

 vigor along the line of any chosen pursuit. He was thus a profound 

 student armed with a great library and so absorbed in the pursuit of the 

 wider bearings of his science that to pass the doors of his office and study 

 required something more than the usual conventional knock. His eager 

 application of his knowledge to all that was human made him not alone 

 a man of broad and refined culture, but a dignified and learned savant. 

 Whoever had the good fortune to know him, to pass those doors of his 

 study which swung so heavily on their hinges, found him to those he 

 intrusted with his confidence alert, sparkling, responsive, and inviting in 

 his conversation, which always took an elevated plane and was facilitated 

 by his hospitable deference to our Lady Nicotine. But he was not always 

 easy to reach and seldom at first receptive. One of his colleagues^ has 

 spoken thus of him: 



"The first contact with him was rather deceiving. He was not a man to 

 unbosom himself to the first comer. A sagacious observer, very reserved, 

 letting his man show himself, this cool scrutator of hearts excelled in piercing 

 human masques. It was not easy to impose upon him. The vain man who 

 ventured to parade himself before him did it only once. At the first boast, a 

 single word spoken in that simple tone which Mgr. Lafiamme affected, piti- 

 lessly punctured the balloon launched by imprudent hands. And what re- 

 mained in the chair, after this enlightening word, of the visitor who had 

 called only to dazzle, was of little account in the rest of the interview." 



The honors of his career have been mentioned in part, and some of 



1 Rev. Antonio Huot In Revue Franco-Amerlcalne, August, 1910. 



