The Young Seigneur Part 21

"My son knows you, Monsieur," he said again humbly, after a pause.

As Chrysler could not recall his son, as such, he waited before replying.

"He saw you at Benoit's."

Still Chrysler paused.

"On Sunday."

"A--ha, now I remember. That fine young man is your son?"

"That fine young man, sir," he a.s.sented with perfect faith.

After adjusting a line for Chrysler, he continued.

"Do you not think, monsieur, that my son is fine enough for Josephte Benoit?"

"a.s.suredly. Does he like her?"

"They are devoted to each other."

"If she accepts him then, why not? You do not doubt your son?"

"Never, Monsieur! what is different is Jean. He thinks my Francois too poor for his Josephte, and he is for ever planning to discourage their love. Grand Dieu, he is proud! Yet his father and I were good friends when we were both boys. He wants Mlle. Josephte to take the American."

"Rea.s.sure yourself; that will never be. No, Bonhomme, trust to me; that shall never he," exclaimed Chamilly.

"How did you come to know these parties, sir," he put in English. But without awaiting an answer he continued: "Benoit is crazy to marry his daughter to that rowdy. Benoit was always rather off on the surface, but he has usually been shrewder at bottom. Cuiller infatuates him. He hasn't a single antecedent, but has been treating Benoit so much to liquor and boasting, that the foolish man follows him like a dog."

"My son has been to Montreal,--he has done business," said the Bonhomme with pride--"he is a good young man--and he had plenty of money before he lost it on the journey."

"How did he lose his money?"

"Some one stole it. He was coming down to marry Josephte. If he had had his money Jean would have let her take him.--But he can earn more."

"There was a mysterious robbery of Francois' money on the steam boat a couple of weeks ago," said Chamilly in English again, "I shall have to lend him some to set him up in business here, but mustn't do it till after my election."

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE IDEAL STATE.

The air, meanwhile, had been losing its dampness and the mist disappearing, when Haviland drew up his rod and threw it into the boat, and called upon his friend to turn and look at the sunrise.

American sunsets and sunrises, owing to the atmosphere, are famous for their gorgeousness; but some varieties are especially n.o.ble. Mountain ones charm by floods of lights and coloring over the heights and ravines, to whose character indeed the sky effects make but a clothing robe, and it is the mountains, or the combination, that speaks. But looking along this gla.s.sy avenue of water, flushed with the reflection, it was the great sunrise itself, in its own un.o.bstructed fullness, spreading higher and broader than ever less level country had permitted the Ontarian to behold it, that towered above them over the reedy landscape, in grand suffusions and surges of color.

"It is in Nature," said Chamilly, comprehending that Chrysler felt the scene, "that I can love Canada most, and become renewed into efforts for the good of her human sons. I feel in the presence of this,"--he waved his hand upward, "that I could speak of my ideas."

"You would please me. You said a nation must have a reason for existing and that Canada should have a clear ideal of hers. What is the raison d'etre of Canada?"

"_To do pre-eminently well a part of the highest work of all the world!

If by being a nation we can advance mankind; if by being a nation we can make a better community for ourselves; our aims are founded on the highest raison d'etre,--the ethical spirit._ We must deliberately mark out our work on this principle; and if we do not work upon it we had better not exist."

Then Haviland related to Chrysler freely and fully the comprehensive plan which he had worked out for the building of the nation.

"First of all," he said, "as to ourselves, there are certain things we must clearly take to mind before we begin:"

"That we cannot do good work without making ourselves a good people;"

"That we cannot do the best work without being also a strong and intellectual people;"

"And that we cannot attain to anything of value at haphazard; but must deliberately choose and train for it."

"Labors worthy of Hercules!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the old gentleman.

"Worthy of G.o.d," the young one replied. The difference of age between himself and the Ontarian seemed to disappear, and he proceeded confidently:

"The foundation must be the Ideal Physical Man. We must never stop short of working until,--now, do not doubt me, sir,--every Canadian is the strongest and most beautiful man that can be thought. No matter how utterly chimerical this seems to the parlor skeptic who insists on our seeing only the common-place, it cannot be so to the true thinker who knows the promises of science and reflects that a nation can turn its face to endeavours which are impossible for a person. Physical culture must be placed on a more reasonable basis, and made a requisite of all education. We need a Physical Inspector in every School. We need to regularly encourage the sports of the country. We require a military term of training, compulsory on all young men, for its effect in straightening the person and strengthening the will. We must have a nation of stern, strong men--a careless people can never rise; no deep impression, no fixed resolve, will ever originate from easy-going natures."

"Next, the most crying requirement is True Education. The source of all our political errors and sufferings is an ignorant electorate, who do not know how to measure either the men or the doctrines that come before them. There is necessity in the doctrine of the State's right over secular education. Democracy, gives you and me an inalienable interest, social and political, in the education of each voter, because its very principle is the right to choose our rulers. As to religious education, that of course is sacred, where it does not encroach on the State's right, and the arrangement I favor is that secular studies be enforced during certain hours, and the use of the school buildings granted to religious instructors at others."

"I notice you say true education."

"A man is being truly educated when his training is exactly levelled at what he ought to be:--first of all a high type of man in general, and next, a good performer of his calling. Let him have a scheme of facts that will give him an idea of the ALL: then show him his part in it."

"Let him be taught in a simple way the logic of facts."

"Let him be taught to seek the best sources only of information."

"Let him be taught in school the falsity of the chief political sophisms."

"Let him be branded with a few business principles of life in general: such as how much to save, and where to put it, and the wisdom of insurance."

"Let him learn these three maxims of experience:"

"Gain experience."

"Gain experience at the lowest possible price."

"Never risk gaining the same experience twice."

"Seek for him, in fine, not learning so much as wisdom, the essence of learning."

"But especially, let every Canadian be educated to see The National Work, and how to do it."